OMG I owe 250k!!!

Fatwelshbird

Hi
Moved a few years ago to get into 'right' school area. My DH and i earn good money (joint 80k plus benefits and bonuses) but are always short at the end of the month and borrowing from our online savings we make for children for uni (they are 6 & 3) currently so not big deal at moment.
Our mortgage term is 35 years but would like to get it down as much as possible as don't want to work until I am 70 plus want it massively reduced before our two littlies need our help with uni. PLEASE can someone give me an idea of where to start making savings and how to overpay (we currently put an spare money into online saver but end up 'borrowing' it back at the end of the mouth

Luckyinlife

80k a year you could/should smash that mortgage if you don't have much debt bar the mortgage
do you pay out much debt each month other than the mortgage ?

sounds like you earn a lot but dont have a lot at the end of the month personally i would look every bit of money that goes out and cut anything back you dont need weather it be cars tv cloths what ever hard

firefox1956

Fatwelshbird wrote: »

Hi
Moved a few years ago to get into 'right' school area. My DH and i earn good money (joint 80k plus benefits and bonuses) but are always short at the end of the month and borrowing from our online savings we make for children for uni (they are 6 & 3) currently so not big deal at moment.
Our mortgage term is 35 years but would like to get it down as much as possible as don't want to work until I am 70 plus want it massively reduced before our two littlies need our help with uni. PLEASE can someone give me an idea of where to start making savings and how to overpay (we currently put an spare money into online saver but end up 'borrowing' it back at the end of the mouth

How on earth can anybody on here give you advice on saving money when you do not say what your outgoings are !!
Post up your mpnthy or weekly expenditure then people can offer advice as to where you could make some savings...............

TheBlueHorse

you need to post a full list (SOA) of what you spend. Only then can people help you cut expenditure. No point saying "slash your sky bill" if you don't have Sky.

diamondsonly

FWB you sound like us until I joined MFW. We have 2 small people and only mortgage debt but at the end of the month always end up borrowing from savings to pay off monthly expenditure (done on CC).

Tips:
1. do a SOA as others have said. will help pin point excesses you can cut back on.
2 download the budget sheet from MSE which i found brock all my costs down in detail to help me budget/plan
3. not sure if this will work but wne we have our next pay come in I have suggested we transfer the OP out and allocate cash to various savings accounts and then live off the rest for a month literally by using cash/debit cards only.
Never done this before but may try for a month to get used to living within a budget. Never really budgeted before as our salaries paid things of the following month and the we borrowed from ourselves again the next month so it is a cycle we need to break.

Good luck on the journey to MF

edinburgher

I think that would be my response to owing £250k as well!

Welcome aboard

MyBestJumper

Hi, welcome.

Yes, SOA definitely needed. I can't remember exact link bit it's something like 'make sense of cards'.

Once you've done that, how about a spending diary?

Good luck!

getmore4less

Most people when they look find they are throwing money away on very poor value choices.

You need to budget, for most that don't a SOA is the best start.

use this one as it is a format that most people are familiar with.
http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

You need to do a full years worth of income/costs to capture all the annual bills.

If you don't know something then look at the last years numbers and estimate.

Once you have this you can then start a spending diary to check/correct and adapt.

Most people take a while to get everything on the SOA give it a go and people can start pointing out areas you can cut back.

(if you can try to work out where the last 12months money has gone using that will give a fairly accurate start)

enjoyyourshoes

Hi good luck:-


Have SMART objective and write it down (Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic & timebound.


Discuss and agree above and strategy with partner and others involved (kids)


reconcile you bank evey day with running balance
Don't forget to account for ALL spends (inc internet & pay at pump (no receipts) ALL CC purchases (may as well account for it now knowing you have £ in bank to pay for it rather than blind panic on statement date)


Accrue for annual and 1/2 &1/4ly bills and put in savings account
Don't buy any insurances monthly as they get you on credit charges , always pay annually.


Use comparison site & compare comparison sites to get best deals on all your main outgoings


Don't pay monthly for insurances et al as they charge credit charges pay annually & save monthly in high interest account for next years bill


Overspending is £1 at a time, drip, drip , drip, on fags, booze, lotto, mags, coffee, snacks, lunches, little treats. Stop them ! & throw against Debt , mortgage etc or throw into regular savings


You need to be master of the compound interest not the slave.

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Hello,

My tuppence worth is that while your children are so young, you should go full pelt at paying off the mortgage before they are old enough to be wanting the same stuff as everybody else.. At this age they are as happy with a day in the park as they a re with anything else and your attention is worth more to them than any toys. If you are ruthless with your outgoings, you could pay £30k at least off in a year.

If you read Mr money mustache, the guru of many on here, you will find good sensible advice about the unnecessarily luxurious lifestyles we are working ourselves into the ground to fund - and it is funny too!
Very good luck with it all, whether you go fast or slow - but I really do think that you should seize the day and go all out now before rates go up and the children get older.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about university. Goodness only knows what successive governments will do, and the student loans are good deals. And it doesn't do them any harm to have to work for their beer money.

All the best,

Squirrel x

getmore4less

The first step is always find out where all your money goes.

Don't get distracted by looking at single categories too soon before you have the complete picture.