Premature MFW

Monie

50.00 Salary and 5.78 underspend to OP, Furniture fund complete in good time as we have brought a sofa as we move in next month

TwentySomethingGirl

Hi Monie


I've just come across your diary and am also a HTB buyer. We moved in December 14 and after 5 months started to OP. Not massive amounts but it all helps. Our initial 2 year fix is up this year and I've been wondering if it is worth re-mortgaging to pay off half the HTB loan. If house prices keep going up it will only be more we have to pay back. My aim is similar to yours, pay off enough of the mortgage to cover the 20% loan before they start charging interest.


Good luck with everything, you seem very savvy and I'm sure you'll get there in no time!


TSG

Monie

Hi TwentySomething, was so happy to see your post, I know we are all likeminded people but I feel we have that little extra in common, will have to pop by your diary, I have subscribed so will catch up when things get a little less hectic, all the joys of preparing to move!


Pay from my salary an extra £50 to op

TwentySomethingGirl

I was glad to find another HTB'er, was starting to think I was the only one...kinda makes you second guess the decision but there was no other way we could have bought somewhere. Do you mind if I ask where abouts you are? We're in Buckinghamshire and our 2 bed flat was just shy of £170K.


I'll never understand people who move all the time. We're a year in and there are still boxes of stuff in cupboards to be sorted out...

Monie

sorry for a delayed reply we are in East Anglia.


So we should get the keys on Friday eeeekk. But sofa and bed/ mattress were way over budget, think I was being a little optimistic with prices, anywho trying to recoup money somewhere. I could not find a dining set I like anywhere ended up finding a smallish table in Dunelm for under £200 but there is only two of us then will get chairs elsewhere as I'm so hard to please.


I wish I could chuck £500 a month at the mortgage when we move in but I'm telling myself not to let it run my life as I think that's a reason why we are trying to get rid in the first place. I want to save more emergency fund and a stash for when another member of the family may come along so I don't need to worry when on mat leave not that we are pregnant yet, just putting that out there but I guess if I'm frugal on mat leave that money will end up in the mortgage anyway so kind of two birds one stone. So looks like will be monthly OP's of about £120 for the time being unless we win the Lotto!.


Enough of a rant, very hectic even in the run up to moving so will update figures when I know where the pennies are and when I'm not running around like a headless chicken, we don't even have a chain and I'm going mad!


Ok stop typing.

TwentySomethingGirl

I hope you got the keys! We got ours on a Friday and just sat on the floor of the living room squealing that it's ours. Moved in over the weekend, but the first thing that went up was the Christmas tree (we completed 19th December!).


I'm trying to plan a bit for mat leave too, also not pregnant but I'm already thinking of child care and how long we can afford for me to have off.


Small OPs work. Our SO is £102.90 a month, and I worked it out that every OP knocks a week off the mortgage. 5 years off if we carry on like this, though I'm hoping to have it gone in 10 years...wishful thinking!!

Monie

Yes we got the keys still not sorted a lot of things even though I have not had a spare moment, still no curtains or TV aerial and it's been 3 weeks. We do however have a puppy to add to the clan! So we each added £50 to the pot to make the first OP of 553.51. What a pain in the neck that was trying to get the account info and telling them I want all future payments to be taken off the term. Still need to update our Safe net figures but will do that when everything calms down.


To add to the expenses a nice £400 plus garage bill, thank god we only have one car!


Will be buying more bits for the house gradually as I under estimated the furniture fund, we have however got the main things so it's just paint and the girly stuff to get. Also want to deck the whole back garden as that is quite small and currently mud and slabs, maybe in place for next summer, I do love my gardening. Brought Raspberries, and a few other bits to keep my green fingers going.


Just a shame the current monthly OP will be more like £110 rather than £320 that I would like, however you never know when some pennies may come your way!

Monie

I know I've been away and not posted. Things got a bit much after we moved in for me anyway.

As I said in my last post you never know when extra pennies come your way so our current OP stands at a grand total of 763.51, monthly OP has been increased to £125.00....getting closer to the 320 I saved money on our energy bill so the difference will be directed to the mortgage.

I have also been growing some veg outside, not much ready to et yet but hope to save a little money on our food budget as that just seems to be increasing every month somehow!

I am currently unemployed but hope to have another job soon. Just needed some time to myself, got a couple of interviews lined up but only one that I would be over the moon to get as it will be a little more money which will be nice to get the garden completed.

Speak soon.

Monie

I hereby declare I am a very bad diary keeper!

It’s very easy to keep up a diary when things are going swimmingly but when they aren’t it hurts.

So things took a turn which I wont elaborate on too much but this meant I have been the only one earning for some time.

Over payments stopped.

Car accident happened so new car on finance (I know not very MSE but the security of a bigger and newer car with safety features is lovely)

Sofa and bed payments have come to an end which were on 0% to give us more flexibility when we moved in and have been in our first home for just over 3 years now.

I also have a couple of 0% credit cards to keep paying as well as my studying fees which I can justify as without this I wouldn’t be earning anywhere near what I do.

So about being positive about the future, I have accepted a new job offer with over a 5k pa increase but this means a company car so that will take some of that for taxes but it is an increase and a sensible career move.

We want to start a family soon and also think we would like to buy more rural before this happens, we want more outside space, a bigger house might be nice but the garden is the motivator and we don’t want to overstretch ourselves, the aim is to reduce the outgoings and not increase them too much.

We shall see how payments go but the car is the most sensible his as that’s 9.8% APR and the mortgages is something like 1.64% so would save on interest much more by hitting the car first.

I will need to keep both as we have a large dog now and would hate to damage the company car and to pay out for that and keeping our own car helps if job situation changes as you never know.

My signature says LTV goal by 2021 and without any substantial over payments just by the value going up, based on similar houses in area and one exactly the same we are currently at 75.04 % and with normal monthly payments we are there in a roundabout way.

We have had a surprise that a You tube video we posted of our puppy 3 years ago has randomly got over 1 million views which means our videos can gain revenue, how much exactly time will tell as you tube needs to give us the green light first but this is something we will likely pick up as a bit of fun and if it gives us a few ££ all the better. What a shock though but everyone is asking for updates and sending lovely comments.

Will post about some things I have been doing to reduce bills since last posting at some point soon.

Note to self. Must get better at this!

A_Frayed_Knot

Welcome back !!!

Real life just gets in the way sometimes and other things are a demand on our time, that said even the small things like rounding down you mortgage balance - I felt I was still "working" at being MF.

At least property has went up in value - that helps :j