My Single-interest only-mortgage journey

Monkeychops16

I have had a bit of a spendy day today :-( I took the girls to the playcentre, but as I had a one free voucher I only had to pay one entry fee of £4.50 and I spent 85p on a drink. I then had a top up shop in Morrisons; £12.00. Last spend was £50 on stick to plug into the tv. I don't know much about this but have heard good things-as I cancelled sky after 8 years I hope this will do us...?!!!

I have made my first o/p of this diary £50!

I am going on holiday on monday for a few days; hopefully I wont spend over my budget :eek:

My monthly interest £434 a month, applied at the end. Not sure how this £50 affects my balance I guess not until I pay off an additional £434 to wipe out the interest charged? Maths was never my strong point sorry!

sarahevie1

Well done on cancelling sky - hope the stick thing works.

Play centre sounds reasonable, have you tried parks for free etc. We used to go to soft play A LOT and it can mount up. Now dd1 is 6 she's beginning to outgrow it. We like city museums, art galleries, for a free day.

Ccarter

sarahevie1 wrote: »

Well done on cancelling sky - hope the stick thing works.

Play centre sounds reasonable, have you tried parks for free etc. We used to go to soft play A LOT and it can mount up. Now dd1 is 6 she's beginning to outgrow it. We like city museums, art galleries, for a free day.

I like the play centre as DD1 is relatively safe. The park is a nightmare due to her disability it's a lot more dangerous and she needs a lot more supervision. She's quite immature for her age, she works below it so an art gallery wouldn't be suitable yet but I will definitely think about museums thanks. 👌🏻

Monkeychops16

I'm back from my holiday. All ok on budget front for that. Plan to overpay more this month seems to have gone out the window as I have some large purchases to make.
1-new fridge freezer (freezer completely broken. I did get it fixed last year but broken again. I've been living without a freezer for 6 months and it's costing loads in fresh food!
2-new laptop. Had mine about 5 years and it's over heating and switching off.
3-deposit on hen do
4-little bit of school uniform

Not sure how to approach the first two. Argh everything comes at once booo

Pushkin

Hi MC - it won't mitigate the cost but when you buy the freezer & laptop try ordering through one of the cash back sites. Takes a bit of time to do the research (through price runner to find lowest price etc) but worthwhile. Amount you are spending even 5% back will be a few ££££.

Monkeychops16

Thanks thsts a great idea I didn't think of that at all 😀:beer::beer:

Monkeychops16

So after paying my first £50 off my mini stats are now

£50/£3200

:T

Ali-OK

Well done :T Another bit bites the dust!

Agree with Pushkin, shop around online and use the cashback sites. I used AO for a replacement washing machine at Christmas and their comms and delivery were excellent and they're often doing cashback via Qu!dco. I got an additional 10% by signing into Qu!dco via Paypal as well.

Always something to pay out for.

Monkeychops16

Ok well I have received some advice that completely contradicts what I thought.

A more adultier adult said that I should just continue paying the interest payment as I am. There is no point struggling and I need to enjoy the time with the children. In 16 years (when the mortgage ends) they will be 20 odd so shouldn't be living with me. The house should have increased in value and then I can buy a flat or something for myself.. I did state that in the 9 years I have lived here it has not gone up in value-but he seems to think in 16 years it will..

Clearly everyone on here disagrees and wants financial security.

I am confused???

ajmoney

Monkeychops16 wrote: »

Ok well I have received some advice that completely contradicts what I thought.

A more adultier adult said that I should just continue paying the interest payment as I am. There is no point struggling and I need to enjoy the time with the children. In 16 years (when the mortgage ends) they will be 20 odd so shouldn't be living with me. The house should have increased in value and then I can buy a flat or something for myself.. I did state that in the 9 years I have lived here it has not gone up in value-but he seems to think in 16 years it will..

Clearly everyone on here disagrees and wants financial security.

I am confused???

Unfortunately not many people away from this site see the point in overpaying anything and see mortgages as a long term debt that will eventually go. A lot of us discuss money things on here and nowhere else for this reason as people look at you like you have 3 heads when you say you want to overpay on loans and mortgages.

I don't really understand interest only mortgages completely as I am on a repayment one but I guess it depends firstly whether you would want to move house in 16 years. When you repaid your debts did you do it gradually over the term you took them out for or did you pay them down to get rid of them earlier? I agree that you want to make the most of the time with your children but it might still be an enjoyable challenge to see how far you can pay the mortgage down at the same time. You could even work at overpaying for say 10 months of the year and then have 2 months off in the summer and spend the extra money having fun with your children during the summer holidays.

Ultimately only you can decide the best course of action but everyone on here will support you to overpay and not give you the sort of advice you have already received.

What percentage of your house did you take your mortgage out for? If you overpaid nothing for 16 years and sold your house for this price you bought it would you be left with any change? Maybe think of the overpayments as working towards a deposit for a future home of you were to downsize as you would be improving the LTV on you house anyway.

I admire any single parents who have a mortgage and are trying to overpay, my sister can't afford to do anything but rent unfortunately. We have 2 incomes coming in and are on a very good combined income but my DH has no real interest in getting involved on my journey. Only last night when I was reminding him that I would like to get rid of our mortgage four years earlier than we are on target for (we should already clear it 4 years earlier than we took it out for) he said "or we could downsize at that point rather than clearing it". He wants to retire early so maybe I should show him that savings in interest in that time.

Anyway, sorry for rambling, I was writing as things came to me so my post might not make and sense! Welcome to this board and I hope you enjoy chatting to like minded people who will support your decisions or show you a different/better way to do things rather than convince you that you are wrong.