Mortgage free by 2021?!

hiddenshadow

Luckyinlife wrote: »

Great OP :] money

Ya labour costs can be crazy i dont mind paying them if they are fair i guess its about time vs working vs hassle

let us know how you get on :]

Thanks! Yes, I don't mind paying for labour but DH is pretty confident we can install ourselves - even if we can do the majority of the work ourselves and get someone in to do any fiddly bits (if we install a gate, and/or the bits closest to the house) then that should save quite a bit. Not really looking forward to actually doing the work (our garden has 2+ years of overgrowth in it now!) but at least we're not in a rush.

(Mainly still a bit annoyed at BIL who visited in the spring for a weekend to - supposedly - help with the fence, and then did F-all. DH gave up many weekends over the last decade helping with their house, but I guess when the shoe's on the other foot, it's not a big deal.)

hiddenshadow

Tried to open a joint TSB account with DH today, but was told we have to come back on Friday. Did at least deposit £6.99 in coins that I'd counted out from our jar of 1/2/5p pieces. (Not sure where the 1p went as I'm sure I counted out £7 even; and after we left I remember another 2p that was in my bag. Oh well!)

Have sent a £7 OP to the mortgage. £5 until I hit 90% of my 2015 goal - may get that done this month!

hiddenshadow

We’ve tentatively decided on a solar company. £6,000 to install, should generate ~£650/year savings/income.

Assuming we use some savings to pay for the install and “pay ourselves back” in our budget categories, we should only have to take January off from big OPs and make a smaller OP in February. According to my spreadsheet, this would put us back a month to being MF (May 2021), but we’ll OP whatever income we get from the solar so that should balance out.

It may not be the best mathematical decision (compared to investing the £6k for the next 5+ years) but I think it'll work out OK and it's an environmental win.

I’m excited!

ourcornercottage

hiddenshadow wrote: »

We’ve tentatively decided on a solar company. £6,000 to install, should generate ~£650/year savings/income.

Assuming we use some savings to pay for the install and “pay ourselves back” in our budget categories, we should only have to take January off from big OPs and make a smaller OP in February. According to my spreadsheet, this would put us back a month to being MF (May 2021), but we’ll OP whatever income we get from the solar so that should balance out.

It may not be the best mathematical decision (compared to investing the £6k for the next 5+ years) but I think it'll work out OK and it's an environmental win.

I’m excited!

Yay another solar MFWer, there's a few of us. I send FIT payments directly to the mortgage OP so I have my target every month (£450) and my target on a FIT month (£600-£700 depending on weather). The leccy savings just help with the bills. In a couple of years I will start to put a little on one side for a new inverter as they usually so whilst panels still have life in them so I'll budget for a replacement in 5-7 years.

Don't forget new applications for FIT dry up soon so don't take too long deciding

hiddenshadow

ourcornercottage wrote: »

Yay another solar MFWer, there's a few of us. I send FIT payments directly to the mortgage OP so I have my target every month (£450) and my target on a FIT month (£600-£700 depending on weather). The leccy savings just help with the bills. In a couple of years I will start to put a little on one side for a new inverter as they usually so whilst panels still have life in them so I'll budget for a replacement in 5-7 years.

Don't forget new applications for FIT dry up soon so don't take too long deciding

Thanks!

The company's coming out tomorrow evening to do their detailed survey, and assuming we decide to go ahead we'll aim to install by mid-November.

Our quote includes a 20-year warranty on the inverter (they've factored in having to replace it in ~10 years), so that's one less thing to worry about. (We'll probably have sold the house by then, but who knows?)

Will probably look into buying a new dishwasher so that it can have a timed delay function (washing machine already has one thankfully). I'm also hoping (possibly foolishly) that we might be able to get away with putting the heating on for a few hours in the afternoon and then not needing it in the evenings. We'll have to see how MSE we can get with the electricity savings.

Sundaysgirl

Exciting progress! And hitting 90% of target only 78% of the way through the year :T Sounds to me like you should be upping the target

hiddenshadow

Sundaysgirl wrote: »

Exciting progress! And hitting 90% of target only 78% of the way through the year :T Sounds to me like you should be upping the target

Haha, that'll be next year. Our real target for this year is just getting below the £165k mark as that's the requirement for our refinance in January. I upped that a bit so that we'd pay off more in 2015 than we did in 2014 (by a whole £2 ), but if we're going to chuck £6k at solar panels in a month we'll have to funnel money towards that for a bit. And DH will get his license soon (I hope!) so we'll be shopping for a car. And replace the central heating system. And install a water softener. And...the list goes on. At least none of those things are a rush (other than possibly the water softener as there's a deal on for another two weeks so we'll have to decide whether to go for it or not).

2016 is going to be a good year for OP goals, though - with luck we can knock out between 25-30k off the principal. :cool:

Sundaysgirl

Ok, you're off the hook! That's a long list... do you really need to do it all, given that this isn't your forever home?


And could you do without a car, given that you already do? If you don't need it for everyday use for work (which I'm presuming you don't as you manage otherwise now) I would be inclined not to other. DH and I have one, which we use purely as a runaround at weekends. We managed perfectly fine before we had it, and whilst it's nice to have, and provides freedom, it is a luxury.


Apologies for the interrogation


We keep toying with the idea of a water softener but can't quite bring myself to bear the cost in this house. What's the deal?


p.s. your 2016 goal is fabulous!

hiddenshadow

Sundaysgirl wrote: »

Ok, you're off the hook! That's a long list... do you really need to do it all, given that this isn't your forever home?

Probably not, but in theory it's all MSE (and helpful for future sale) - heating system is probably 20+ years old and it functions but we got a pretty good quote (£5k incl VAT) to replace it with a more powerful/efficient model and install a combi boiler. Right now you don't really get any heat output downstairs/in the kitchen so it would be nice if that could work. Will probably do that in the next year or two.

Water softener is mainly to prolong the life of our appliances/etc. Our local plumber (who's pretty reasonable) quoted £780 to install one, we also got a flyer through the door for £499 so we're probably going to do that (have to arrange that by the first week of November).

And could you do without a car, given that you already do? If you don't need it for everyday use for work (which I'm presuming you don't as you manage otherwise now) I would be inclined not to other. DH and I have one, which we use purely as a runaround at weekends. We managed perfectly fine before we had it, and whilst it's nice to have, and provides freedom, it is a luxury.

That is very true. We could do without a car, as we've managed for two years. The main issue is the pets - we've had a couple of scares with our older dog and needed to take him to the vet sharpish, and finding a taxi who's ok with 1) dogs in general 2) a sick dog wrapped up in a blanket can be a challenge. We've been setting aside ~£100/mo and will probably look to buy an older model for £1k or thereabouts in the spring. We won't drive it much so as long as it's in reasonable condition it should last for quite a while. (In theory we can save money - or at least time - visiting the in-laws as well as we could just drive up rather than spending 3+ hours on the train.)

I think our main "luxury" house expense is the fence - we originally planned to install it before we got our second dog (a retired greyhound), but it turns out he's not bothered by not having a fence. (There is a barrier on all sides of the garden, it's just not solid.) So there's no real rush to do that. I would like to try and get it done this winter/spring, though (assuming we do it ourselves) so that in the spring we could possibly try and plant/grow some veg. No idea if we'll be successful at that, but if so we could drop our food budget by ~£60/mo and not get a veg box.

Apologies for the interrogation

No, it's good to have your assumptions challenged.

p.s. your 2016 goal is fabulous!

Yeah, I can't wait. Is it really sad that I'm looking forward to seeing my mortgage balance drop most of all for 2016? DH was mocking the OCD-ness of the idea of Tilly Tidies this morning and told me I need to find 51p for the mortgage so it's an even number. But hey, at least playing around with hypothetical payments/timings in a spreadsheet is free entertainment, which is more than I can say for his spending.

Sundaysgirl

Sounds like you have given it all a lot of thought!


Re the car, pet travel was the key reason we caved and bought one.


Final challenge : can you not grow veg without the fence?!


Not sad at all - I LOVE planning my future OPs!