£195,000 mortgage for a single mum!

princesst84

pollyanna24 wrote: »

Well, I've bought a few things towards my house renovation task.

I haven't done any overpaying in May, save for £26.81. They lowered my monthly payment, so I put money on to make it up to what it was before they lowered it.

What I have bought housewise:-
Two bedroom sets - £298 (wardrobe, chest of drawers, bedside locker)
Two desks - £98.

Glittery paint for two walls of DD1's room - £17.73 (and it's a tiny pot)
Wallpaper paste - £3.24
Skirting board for DD2 room - £17.50.

Next step is to buy carpets for the three bedrooms and stairs and landing, but I have calculated this will cost me £724.81 including fitting which is a bargain. Knew I was better off buying it off the internet!

I'm a bit annoyed that I can't overpay at the moment as I would love to see the monthly payment go down, but it is what it is and hopefully I will have a lovely house in a couple of months (although Dad will be doing the kitchen living room in August when my girls are away).

I seem to have spent a whole heap on my grocery budget and only have £38 left out of £250 already (and I have a Morrisons order coming tomorrow), but I'm hoping that it's mainly cos I've been stocking up since my brother left and buying in bulk and next month won't be so much (who am I kidding?!).

Lurker popping up to say hello

Full steam ahead on the decorating. Must feel brilliant now its all in your name. I would concentrate on getting the house exactly how you and your girls want it and then you can start again on the overpayments. Youve done great so far :T

Your carpet deal sounds amazing! Just in the middle of a kitchen demolition/refit but once thats done I want to do all upstairs and hall/stairs/landing in new carpet. Where did you get yours from?

pollyanna24

princesst84 wrote: »

Lurker popping up to say hello

Full steam ahead on the decorating. Must feel brilliant now its all in your name. I would concentrate on getting the house exactly how you and your girls want it and then you can start again on the overpayments. Youve done great so far :T

Your carpet deal sounds amazing! Just in the middle of a kitchen demolition/refit but once thats done I want to do all upstairs and hall/stairs/landing in new carpet. Where did you get yours from?

Onlinecarpets.com. I'm kinda lucky that the style that me and the girls wanted weren't the most expensive ones anyways (I only looked to get them online as Carpet Right stopped selling that make/pattern).

And the stairs and hallway were cheaper than I would pay in a carpet shop on the high street.

And I'm getting a local man to fit the carpet. He is using the existing underlay and grippers to save on the cost.

pollyanna24

Oops, haven't updated this for a while. But it's mainly because I haven't done much overpaying as I'm still sorting out the house.

I've done the girls rooms and they look lovely! I have the carpets for the stairs and my room and they will done in about a month.

I hope to do some overpaying soon, but I updated my signature which made me happy.

Old Signature:
Pink Sproglettes born 2008 and 2010
House Worth (approx) - £350,000
Mortgages (3rd April 2016) - £192,852.65
Equity - £157,147.35

I know the house value is all guesswork and Zoopla isn't the best place to look, but going by some of the prices some of the houses in my road have been going for, I'd say it's fairly accurate (if not low), so going with it.

Not doing so well on the groceries front since my brother moved out. Seem to spend loads!!

princesst84

pollyanna24 wrote: »

Onlinecarpets.com. I'm kinda lucky that the style that me and the girls wanted weren't the most expensive ones anyways (I only looked to get them online as Carpet Right stopped selling that make/pattern).

And the stairs and hallway were cheaper than I would pay in a carpet shop on the high street.

And I'm getting a local man to fit the carpet. He is using the existing underlay and grippers to save on the cost.

Thanks for the info - Ill take a look
x

pollyanna24

Still not done any overpaying.

I do overpay a tiny bit to keep my payment at the same level as it was before I chucked a load at it when it was first in my name, so I overpay by £26.12 each month.

I will have roughly £120 left out of this month's wages, but as much as I'm tempted to overpay with it, I still haven't built up much of an emergency fund.

There's also the problem of a couple of months this year and next (yes I am that sad to have done all my spreadsheets that far ahead) I am actually spending more than is coming in. It is made up by the other months having a little bit left over, but makes it hard to just chuck whatever is left in the bank account at the end of a month at the mortgage.

I've probably said it before, but I have one of those mortgages from Nationwide where if you build up an overpayment reserve, you can "borrow" back the money you have overpaid with no questions asked.

I have been tempted to use this as my savings account / emergency fund, but am a bit scared in case I've got it all wrong.

Onwards and upwards. I will post again tomorrow once I have done all the 1st of the month spreadsheets. Have gone a bit over in June in all my budgets.

Me: £234.67 (out of £150 - oops, had a couple of meals out).
Girls: £66.02 (out of £100 - good going!).
Petrol: £39.60 (out of £50 - sounds good, but I had to put another £40 the other day which I am taking out of July's budget).
Groceries: £212.99 (out of £200 - not too bad).

chelseablue

I've not done any overpaying recently either.


But been a bit productive today and applied for 2 jobs, both paying more than I'm on now, so fingers crossed

pollyanna24

Pink Sproglettes born 2008 and 2010
House Worth (approx) - £362,000
Mortgages (2nd June 2016) - £191,992.71
Equity - £170,007.29

Pink Sproglettes born 2008 and 2010
House Worth (approx) - £362,000
Mortgages (3rd July 2016) - £191,113.05
Equity - £170,886.95

Just about to update my signature so have posted my old one and new one here as it makes me feel better.

I decided to just stick £500 on my first mortgage (the tracker one) this month. It leaves me with only £83 in the emergency fund, but I also have about £3K in savings (but this is all from stoozing with two cc that I have).

I will post in a few days how much my monthly payment has gone down. Probably about 50p, so will still be nowhere near my initial target of a monthly payment of £750. At the moment it stands at £774.38.

pollyanna24

My monthly payment now stands at £772.19, so a reduction of £2.19. Oh well, will get there eventually, haha!

pollyanna24

I was on target to meet the budget i set myself until the weekend came along. Went a bit mad buying stuff for my holiday.

I still have just over £100 to last me till we go away (27 Jul), so hoping I won't go too over.

This will give me savings of £273.66 for July which I will keep until I have £500 in total (hopefully by the end of August) to put as an overpayment.

pollyanna24

Well, I had a fantabulous holiday away and since I've got back, I have put another £500 on the mortgage.

My total payment is now £770.21, so getting closer to my first target of £750. One of my mortgages is a tracker, so assuming (hoping) that it will go down next month.

I'm proud of myself that I'm still overpaying, but again, it might have to stop for a while as I am still madly decorating, but pleased with how the house is looking.

Pretty much painted everywhere, cept the kitchen which my dad is doing next week. I decided (well finances decided) that there is nothing wrong with my kitchen except for a bit of sprucing - I didn't see the point in redoing it only to put everything back in the same place), so it is being painted and all the appliances will match (had to buy a new oven as the current one broke - it's been in the house since I bought it 10 years ago) and I'm getting new handles and kn0bs for the cupboards. And a new sink which is about £20 as the current one is white and everything else is grey/silver.

I've done everything on a shoestring. Dad painted everything and paint was basic paint, except for one tub of Farrow & Ball which a friend gave me. Was amazed that people pay £67 for a tub of paint, but Dad it was superior paint to any he used before.

Something that has to wait to next year are a new sofa (would be nice, mine is 10 years old).