Double or Quits

afoolandhermoney

Me and OH have taken the plunge and are second stepping up the ladder to our “forever home” (at least that’s what we hope it will be). This means not only borrowing almost double our current mortgage :eek: but also extending the term to 34 years – currently we’ve 17 years of an original 25 year term left.

We’ve had to extend the term to meet the affordability checks (even though our new, larger mortgage will be £200 a month less than we currently pay, the bank say we can’t afford to pay more and reduce the term – yes, I’m confused by that too but hey-ho that’s the new lending rules for you).

We know the bills will be higher in our new place (3-bed detached vs current 2-bed terrace, means more heating and higher council tax) but my commute will almost halve and we won’t have to rent a garage (next to no parking where we are now), so we’re hoping things might balance out if not go in our favour. A bigger garden will also help as we can begin to really live the Good Life and grow our own veg (and keep chickens/ducks - but maybe not a goat).

Although the new mortgage is affordable and at a low interest rate for 3 years, we’re still a bit (a lot) scared at borrowing for that long. So we’ll be working hard to pay our mortgage off more quickly – whilst still trying to improve our quality of life along the way (oh, and maybe start a family at last).

Here’s hoping that you lot can keep me motivated and staying on track. For the first year the plan is to save up the “overpayments” in case of any unexpected changes in our bills and then make the overpayment at the end of the year – although our balance is calculated daily and it would make sense to overpay as early as possible, I’d like to get settled in to the new place and have a better idea of what our regular outgoings will be before committing to payments that we wouldn’t then be able to get back. On top of this we’ve drained a lot of our savings, so I’ll be building up our emergency fund and also starting a baby fund (as my income will drop sharply on maternity leave and OH’s income is very variable). Once we’ve got a better handle on things then we should be able to make overpayments monthly (we can pay up to 10% of our remaining balance without penalty).

dark^knight

Hello and welcome

If you don't mind me asking...how big a mortgage are we talking about here?

afoolandhermoney

£157k - not a biggy by some standards but still a lot for us

A_Frayed_Knot

Hello and welcome:wave:

Sounds like you have a plan, were you overpaying your last mortgage? and don't worry about the years, they'll shed off as soon as you start o/p.

Have a play with the o/p calculator on the main site, its fun and addictive, and if you've not used it before - you'll soon see what I mean.:)

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Good luck on your journey. And don't hang around too long for those babies.... I don't know how old you are but the sooner the easier. You have begun a serously sensible path.

afoolandhermoney

thanks all - I'm mid thirties and OH is just turned 40 so we know we need to get trying soon. We've been overpaying a little on our current mortgage and have really noticed a difference in the balance even with quite small overpayments - so we hope to up the amount in the new place and get the mortgage shrunk quickly :-)

afoolandhermoney

Sorry to have gone quiet - things dragged on somewhat with the purchase. BUT, we exchanged today :-D are will be completing tomorrow (fingers crossed it all goes smoothly).

Will be going off-line for a few days because, what with the move falling so close to Christmas, getting internet set up at the new place might take a while. Will be back asap with updates on our MFW progress

afoolandhermoney

And I'm back. Internet still not set up at the new house yet, but I'm back at work so can post over lunch.

Still getting the final bills for the old place (and telling everyone we've moved) so not quite ready to update the budget yet.

Previous owners left us with 1 weeks worth of LPG for the cooker and 2 weeks heating oil, so there was sadly some panic buying (without internet access I couldn't compare prices easily so may have paid more than we should) - however as the oil was 30p/litre (BIL paid 45p/ltr in August) we've filled up the tank and will now monitor how long it lasts (on previous owners usage levels it should last 10 months, but I've already turned the thermostat down 6 degrees to a more comfortable temp and changed the timer on the hot water so there's about 3 hours use less per day on that (the cylinder stays warm for hours so there's no point reheating the water just before bedtime) so we might last even longer.

Still can't believe we now live in such a beautiful place, its so quiet I can't sleep (I'm sure that will wear off)

Luckyinlife

Just caught up on your dairy great job :]

150k is Big huge to me amount of money so your not on your own thinking its big :]

Must be amazing moving from a terrace to a detached tho :]

I kinda skipped a step and went for a 3 bed semi in the hope if i can move to detached 1 day i will but if not i dont really have to move :]

How many times you walked around the house hehe ? do you mind me asking how much the place was ?

brizzledfw

Hi, just popped by as see we have similar mortgage amounts owing and are on the MFiT-4 challenge

Hello :wave:

Have a great weekend