A distant dream of being morgage free

claireee2008

Hi guys, I have been reading all your posts and I am keen to start my own diary.

I'm married and we are both in our early 30s. We have an 18 month old daughter and would love to have another baby (not until little one is at least 3 and getting funding for childcare). We currently have only 23 years left on our mortgage of £95000 but in the next month or so we are moving to our "forever home", increasing our mortage to £153000 and the term to 30 years (fixed rate of 3.04% for 5 years). So as you can see mortgage free is a long way off! We don't like the idea of having a mortgage until our early 60s and even less the idea of retiring at 68! so I hope we can be mortage free earlier, knocking ten years off would be our ideal aim.

I don't think our fix rate allows us to overpay very much but that is something we plan to look in to once we have moved and done the initial jobs that we need to spend money on (bathrooms and windows mainly). As you can see this will not be a diary of lots of overpayments initially but I've seen a few other diaries like this here so I hope that is ok. We will be trying to live more frugally/save money though with the long term aim of being mortgage free in 20 years!

I think we are pretty good at switching to cheaper deals for energy and insurance, meal planning, saving on groceries etc but where I think we can improve is switching bank accounts (I've never switched!) and we've never used a cretid card (great that we have no debts other than student loans and mortgage but I think we are missing a trick not getting cash back or tesco points).

claireee2008

Just checked and for the new house our LTV ratio will be 63%. Scary seeing the size of our mortgage in black and white, if only we could stay here we could be mortgage free in a couple of years! but we live in a two up, two down terrace that we grew out of probably the day baby was born! Looking forward to a "proper" family home and garden, just not the mortgage!

Today I walked to our local budget supermarket and spent £14. As our move is hopefully this month or next I am trying to run our cupboards and freezer down so that should keep spend low this month.

claireee2008

So we've started pestering solicitors and estate agents and we have been told that hopefully we will be moved by the end of January! Need to start looking in to van rental and home insurance this weekend and more decluttering.

This is the first "normal" week in what feels like ages so I plan to make an impact in the to do list these next 4 days (I work Mon-wed). Just hope the toddler hasn't given up napping (it's when I get all my jobs done on my days off thurs-sun). The change in routine over the last few weeks seem to have impacted on her nice long afternoon nap.

Flower1976

Hello Claireee
It sounds like exciting times for you moving to a bigger house. Very sensible decluttering now because you don't want to be taking stuff to your lovely new house that you don't need or want.

It is worrying taking on a bigger mortgage and bills tend to be quite high when you first move in but then seem to settle down.

I remember doing the same as you using up most of the food. We only had one box of food to take to our new house but arranged a sainsburys delivery for the first night in our new house. That worked really well.

Hope everything goes well over the next few weeks and that you get to your new house by the end of the month.
Flower

M0ney

Good luck with everything, hope it goes well, look forward to seeing more updates.

claireee2008

Thank you Flower and M0ney for commenting.

We finally moved at the beginning of last week. The move date kept getting moved further and further back so it all got pretty stressful. We got here in the end though and it was definitely worth the stress. Hopefully we won’t have to move again for many years! We still have plenty of boxes to empty and are a long way from organised!


The house has been somewhat neglected by the previous owners (apart from a gorgeous new kitchen which I have been enjoying) so we have a lot that we need/want to do. On top of that we think we are going to have to replace the car soon! I think our plans of overpaying on the mortgage might be a distant dream! I hope no one minds me continuing this diary without overpaying on the mortgage as we will be living a money saving/mortgage free wannabe style life but chipping away at the mortgage might have to wait a few years! We have a 30 year mortgage fixed rate 3.04% (for 5 years) at which point we will be 64. We are still determined to try and knock 10 years off the mortgage but think that will most likely start to happen once our family is complete and after we stop paying for childcare!


So far since we moved I did a big food shop to restock the cupboards/fridge/freezer. To try and keep costs down I got as much as I could in @ldi and what I couldn’t get there I picked up in S@insburys. I spent £200 in total and since then has spent less than £20 on fresh items like milk/bread/fruit/veg.
We had to buy a new washing machine, new stair gates etc, furniture for the toddler’s room and we’ve bought a bit of decorating/DIY supplies to get us started. I think we have spent about £600 so far and I have got cash back on this shopping where I can. We spent £35 getting the electrics tested and the oven fixed (can you believe the socket for the oven stopped working the day we moved in? I have my doubts and whatever the estate agents say I suspect it was already broken). Just remembered I still need to get the gas/boiler checked soon too.



We shopped around for home insurance and got what we think is a good deal for our needs. I set us up with gas/electric on the cheapest tariff with npower who were currently supplying our new house but I plan to switch this to the cheapest tariff and hopefully get some cashback too. Anyone know how soon after moving in to a house I can change the supplier without causing any problems?


We did treat ourselves to a rare meal out last night but at £45 for food and drinks I think this was reasonable. We don’t get to go out all that often as we have no family local to babysit but my mum is over for a couple of days so we decided to make the most of it. We spent valentines day in Ikea after all!

SavingRaven

Hi Claire,

Hope you're enjoying the new house. Just to say we are also piling through a stack of debt and other stuff (see sig) before we start chipping away at the mortgage so you're not alone. I don't think people mind as it's all moving in the right direction and there are lots of great ideas/ support on this board for those who are working towards the goal of mortgage freedom via whatever path they have to.

Good luck with the decorating!

SR

claireee2008

It's been a while but I thought it was about time to restart this diary and get our plans of clearing our mortgage early back on track.

We've still not made any overpayments! We have however swapped the car from a 2 door seat ibiza to an ibiza estate (much more practical), replaced our windows and bathrooms and had a baby.

Now we have 2 daughter DD1 is 3 and a half and DD2 is 15 weeks. I'm 4 months in to 12 months maternity leave. Although it will be difficult I'm determined to take the full year as they are only little for such a short time and the first year is the hardest so I'd rather not juggle work and 2 children just yet.

I think it is unlikely we will make any over payments this year but I think restarting this diary will help focus my attention on living frugally so in the short term I can have this time off and in the long term help us pay off the mortgage early (I'd still like to shave 10 years off our mortgage which currently has 28.5 years left at which point we would be 64!).

I'll be back soon with figures but right now I have two girls to get to bed. Wish me luck!

ZoPig2016

Hi Claire

This resonates with me, sounds like our plans and situations are very similar.

Maybe consider posting and SOA. That's a good place to start so everyone can see your expenses and suggest savings and solutions?

X

claireee2008

Thanks Zopig2016. I will post a SOA when I get time to pull all the information together which might not be for a few days/weeks!

claireee2008

Not the best start today! Spent £30 in Aldi, not on food but on bits for the girls (in the baby event). It was all stuff they needed though and it was cheaper than else where. I have to say though in general spending they are my weakness. I'm always tempted by things for them. I can go ages without spending on myself but not so on books/toys/clothes etc for my daughters!

First thing I need to sort is switching our gas and electricity. We are on a fixed deal that finishes on the 1st October. We also need a boiler service.

October could be an expensive month. It's both mine and my husband's birthday plus our nephews and we are going to the lake district for a week. We want to enjoy this so I want to work on saving on the boring bits like utilities etc.

The food shop is another area we can save on this next month. We've been trying home delivery this month (going to the supermarket with 2 young children is not my idea of fun!). I think we are saving as I'm not getting tempted by none food bits for the girls! It's also so much easier and I feel very organised. We meal plan and I think we waste very little. However we bought a small chest freezer before the baby (so about 4 months ago) and it is already full as well as our cupboards being very well stocked! I think we can save some money on our food bills for the next month by using some of our stock piles up.