sarahevie's single quest to mortgage freedom

sarahevie1

Ali-OK wrote: »

Hope you had a smile to yourself Sarah on the OP mutterings

A little, but its quite hard, I've always been where I am through circumstance more than any other reason. I've HAD to be frugal or I'd be in debt.

My family don't understand my need for financial security, because their jobs have always provided them with a good income and as a family we are pretty credit averse with the exception of mortgages. They now see me with a relatively small mortgage, owning 80% of my house and think this should give me the security I crave.

I don't think it will give me security until it is fully paid though, and once this is done I intend to attack the BTL as paying the mortgage on that gives me constant worry.

The ex and I lived on a joint income of £24,000 a year for around 5 years. Yes, we got tax credits as well, but our mortgage was £857 so it was massive.

Now I'm a single mum of three on a modest salary so again I have to be frugal.

Floxxie

I hear you completely although having moved to Northern Ireland, I find myself the only one with a mortgage. Seriously, the people I know had huge mortgages of £30000 10 years and have now paid them off
They would be shocked at the size of your mortgage. They faint when they hear how much I owe.

You are doing great :beer:

Clarey008

I know how you feel, I mentioned something to my colleagues about the crazy clothes challenge (all I said was I am thinking of setting myself a small yearly clothing budget, without mentioning this site) and they looked at me like I was crazy & asked why on earth would I want to do that. They also heard me doing an overpayment on my mortgage on the telephone & also seem to think I am stinking rich! Note to self, only discuss money saving on this forum.

debtfreeoneday

Clarey008 wrote: »

They also heard me doing an overpayment on my mortgage on the telephone & also seem to think I am stinking rich! Note to self, only discuss money saving on this forum.

That made me smile - stinking rich.. " yes if I could OP the £10 I've managed to squirrel away from the food bill this month..."

CathT

Great determination sarahevie, making OP's got you to where you are so why stop now? Hope you had a really lovely Christmas.

mortgage_girl

I think it's safe to say that we're in the minority with our op-ing efforts and debt free aspirations. I remember a teacher at school telling us to get used to debt as once we were adults we'd always be in debt. Oh the optimism! :rotfl:

MGx

sarahevie1

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

That made me smile - stinking rich.. " yes if I could OP the £10 I've managed to squirrel away from the food bill this month..."

I know - I do see glimmers at times though. I remember when interest rates started to go down a couple of years ago, a lot of mums at the tot groups I was attending decided to keep the higher payment. It certainly worked as they ended up moving to larger properties.

sarahevie1

mortgage_girl wrote: »

I remember a teacher at school telling us to get used to debt as once we were adults we'd always be in debt. Oh the optimism! :rotfl:

MGx

That is truly awful, just shows people's general acceptance of debt. I appreciate some debts are unavoidable, I'm thinking mortgages, student loans etc but to think you'd always be in debt. :eek::eek:

debtfreeoneday

That is a sad school of thought, I'm trying to educate our two about money, savings and that you have to save up to buy something - you don't just get it!

sarahevie1

So what I thought was a cheap week hasn't actually been as cheap as I thought.

£95 spent, includes a tank of petrol and groceries but even so. £25 on bowling/climbing wall could have been decreased. £8 KFC with DD2 again was unnecessary. £10 on some clarks shoes for DD3 was good, £10 on makeup for me, £5 next slippers - not bad.

Decided to really crack on with my fitness pal and spending diary. I keep attempting these and failing but now is the time to attack.

I haven't put on any weight, not have I lost any either.