Eating the elephant

Seanymph

We don't no.

There are so many balls in the air all the time, we worked out this morning if we sold all the houses, paid off the mortgages we'd have about £300k left after we'd bought our campervan and eqiupped it as we wanted to.

With that we'd have to buy a flat or house (about £150k) and have £150k left in the bank to travel on, and a house to come home to - and obviously the resale value of the van.

Now that looks pretty doable - OH can work the harvest every year, we can come back to england for that - and we can travel the other 9 months.

That would buy us a fair few years, but we'd like to get rid of the mortgage before cashing everything in, and finish the house renovations we are working on.

So that's the plan.

But it's the first time I've really felt we can achieve it!

Seanymph

What a positive weekend.

I have three year ends to balance, and two are now banked. So I'm really pleased about that.

And I shared our plans with my sister yesterday - so it feels more real. She was very encouraging indeed, which is nice.

I also told the kids they have six more years and then need to be living elsewhere (two have just come home again)...... youngest is still a bit bemused because she's campaigning for a 4 x 4, trailer, and new horse so she can compete.

I'm not at all sure how that would fit in with my plans - I can't help feeling if I had the money to hand to fund all that I'd rather get the drive done.

Still, Monday has a good feel this week, looking forward to OH getting paid Thursday and hopefully I'll get a bit more off to the French account towards the roof, and a bit more into the ISA to fund the travels.

Seanymph

Oh this time of year is so busy.

Well, three of the 'kids' and I use the term loosely have come home in the last month. Is it terribly uncharitable to say I rather enjoyed them not being here? It's certainly more expensive feeding five adults than two! Especially when the two larger adults have recently joined Slimming World - I seem to be spending a fortune on food.

The roof quotation is in, at just over £10,000 euros. sheesh.

So I find myself doing my usual butterfly approach now - I have the Canada trip for youngest, we are on holiday the first week of June with four of our kids plus assorted partners - the roof needs doing - but I want to pay off the mortgage - and put money into the S and S ISA I have set up.......

I have no idea where to start at the moment.

So, no overpayments this month so far, but I content myself with the fact that the normal payments are bumbling along, so it must be going down even if I don't make the effort.

And the roof is vital, because the timbers currently aren't damaged, but will be if we don't get that sorted this year or next year.

Ho hum

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning, your post made me smile . There are definitely times when a magic wand would be a delight.

Not sure if this would help but I Tilly Tidy any change in acconts to a MOS pot. I OP once a month. On average it's about £45 a month by doing very little.

Best wishes Tilly

Seanymph

Thanks Tilly - I popped a little of the FIT money into the account for littlies canadian trip - and popped another little bit to the roof.

This week I get another two payments through - so I'm hoping a small amount to the future fund and a payment to the mortgage - that way I've done a bit of everything and nothing is nagging at me.

I was determined in January that a 'family holiday' was a brilliant idea - our kids that are kicking about range from 18 to 24, with assorted friends and partners........ Now I'm staring down the barrel of it I think I may have been overoptimistic about how pleasurable it is going to be! Certainly Mr Sea's face is getting glummer and glummer at the prospect.

Seanymph

Well another £196.61 off this morning and the balances were:

£51,947.93
£16,655.14

Total of £68,603.08 meaning we are £1383.49 LESS in debt to the mortgage after two and a half months.

I struggled this month, and we are on holiday next week - so I'm keeping money back if I'm honest, but even so, it's nice to see it going down. This doesn't include this over payment either, but as I've completely failed to make any sense of taking it off before I'm just going to keep a tally of what they say before the payment is applied.

Life in rural Norfolk doesn't change much - all three year ends done, signed, and two are posted.

This years fox cubs who we have been marvelling over in the watermeadow at the back of our house found their way into the chickens. Not so cute then I can tell you!

And with assorted friends and partners it appears there are now nine of us going on holiday together. Catering sounds expensive.

Seanymph

Can someone point me in the direction of the calculator please? So I can see when we can be paid off by?

Thank you.

ourcornercottage

Another norfolkian on here. We could start our own thread! There's quite a few of us! Good luck on your quest, sounds like a plan :-)

choccielover

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-overpayment-calculator

Seanymph

Holidays do not benefit saving money. Hard to believe I know, but true.

The good news is we may have a short cut to mortgage freedom in that eldest SS has discussed buying the house from us, obviously that would make us mortgage free in one fell swoop.

I'm not sure he'll be able to borrow enough money, but he's looking into it.

So very exciting news - and worth taking him on holiday for!