Making Minijlu's house a home

minijlu

Hi All

So I have been lurking on various MSE boards for a while but decided to take the plunge of starting a diary to try and make sure I stay focused on the mortgage and all things MSE related.

About me - Myself and my OH moved into our new house about a month and a half ago now. I sold my previous house for the deposit and we've moved locations so that we can live together full time (he worked away during the week previously) Other than ourselves we have 2 cute/troublesome cats.

The house - the house is in the countryside/village edge which is a big change for me as I've been a town/city person prior to this however it is gorgeous and could well be the home we stay in until we retire if we want it to be. This means its probably a bit big for just the two of us and having moved from a terrace several rooms currently have no furniture! However it also has a gorgeous garden which is a real plus for me (although I will have to watch our spending on it!)
Luckily the house was all highly finished when we moved it so the only changes are making things more to our taste.

The Mortgage - 228000 over 24 years and 9 months GULP! Our first payment came out this week which prompted the diary. Its fixed for 5 years as I wanted something I knew would be consistent month in month out.

Tasks;
1. set up monthly OP of £100 to get us started as nagging OH about this means hes finally on board
2. Review joint account once a full month of bills has gone out
3. Continue to use diary!

Luckyinlife

Good luck sounds lush :]

Only bit of advise really is try to get a realistic date in mind say 10-15 years or what ever you can manage and find out how much you need to overpay or save each year to hit that target then do what ever you can to save or OP that much

keeping this updated youll get plenty of motivation from people

PrincessLou

Good luck in your journey!

We started off with just a monthly £100 op - we don't even notice it being taken out anymore - that's the great thing about setting up regular ops.

minijlu

Hi! Thanks Luckyinlife and PrincessLou , targets are definitely required.

At the moment our mortgage term is 24 years and 9 months this would see me mortgage free at 52, however of course I want it to go down quicker than that! At the moment I definitely want to be MF before 50 so going to knock the 24 and 9 down to a nice round 20. This should be doable, once underway I want to look at saving up to make a nice big payment at the end of our 5 year fix.

Task 1 done - bank rung up and OP set up to go out from 1st July! eek.

ajmoney

Good luck with your journey. Have you played about with the OP calculators to see how much the small OP will save you in interest? I promise once you have done it once it will become addictive while you play about with different ideas and scenarios. Looking forward to seeing how you go about achieving your goals

minijlu

Hi ajm - yes quite excited by what the calculator says even for £100.

Our limit of OPs during our 5 year fix is 20% of our monthly payment, by paying £100 at the moment we are just at 9.1% so there is room to increase. Ideally I'd like to increase to the max fairly quickly but want a couple of months of all regular bills under our belts to check this is doable.

Obviously everyone arranges joint finances separately - we've agreed at the moment the house has its own ac for all utilities etc related insurances mortgage and food for both of us, which we both pay £1000 into a month. Hopefully this should cover everything - if not I am happy to increase they amount per month I pay in however my OH would have to be on board with increasing his £1000 as well.

After the £1000 is taken out all my wages are my own - I'm trying to keep a better track of what I spend the rest on at the moment as I suspect a lot of it is junk! Having read some of the other diaries I'm conscious this could be used a lot better towards pensions etc. :money:

Today should be fairly MSE day - we're having a catflap fitted but that is planned for £. Other than that I have a sprained ankle atm so restricted from roaming around the shops!

minijlu

Payday today! We get paid mid month, which is slightly awkward for bills etc.

I've attempted to keep a spending tracker for my personal money this month - what it says is not good things! I have spent far too much on ebooks and food! I need to keep this is check this month. Hopefully making my own lunches for work will start to bring it down.
Can anyone recommend a good thermos that will keep soup warm until lunch? or have any good (vegetarian) soup recipes?

The house account on the other hand is looking healthy. I suspect we are spending more than budgeted on food (and far too much for 2 people really!) but our utilities seem to be under my budgeted amount which is good.

Cats seem much more settled and catflap is in constant use so I am counting that as £ well spent!

PrincessLou

Hi Minijlu :j

I've subscribed!

Have you thought of doing an SOA? That way we can maybe suggest ways to cut back on spending? It's always helpful to have another pair of eyes look over your budget to see if there's money to be saved anywhere.

minijlu

Ooo a subscriber :j

I have thought about an SOA - at the moment I have a budget and am tracking all my spending but to be honest I know where the money goes and it's my willpower that really needs an adjustment! I am hoping the spending diary helps with this.

Last week I started the 5:2 diet .... today is a 2 day and I feel hungry already! I love cooking but having to be quite creative on the "2" days around dinner particularly. Thinking grilled fish skewers and salad this evening.

In MSE news I'm enjoying exploring Lidl and Aldi at the moment, they seem well stocked for most of the things we eat apart from fish. But given sustainability issues I'm contemplating an online supplier for that in the future (I'm pescatarian so we eat a lot of fish)

getmore4less

re: SOA you may be surprised how many miss things when they do one.

perhaps just start with the joint expences to check the £1kpm each is enough to cover bills and ongoing things like maintenance and be clear about what it is to cover.
eg. does the food cover work meals, takeaways dinners out, entertaining people at home...?
for some alcohol needs to be a seperate item.

leave your own personal SOA for later.

It is not just about month to month but full year and making sure there is enough being put away for the longer term goals.

Food/garden/grow stuff.

Things that just grow themselves once are good, so if a long term house plan things like fruit.

There is stuff which can be expensive to buy but needs more time.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary