Our 'Mortgage Free By Forty' Dream - Truly Madly Hannah

trulymadlyhannah

I couldn't rename my old thread so Ive started a new one, the old one is here

7 and an half years ago, in the space of a year we; got engaged, married, saved for a deposit, bought an house and fell pregnant.

My husband also lost a job in ICT (Just before we signed the mortgage), started agency work, was taken on full time, was made redundant due to the recession (Just before our wedding), he started agency work again but.. after that run of bad luck... he received a phone call from an interview he had had earlier in the year, the position was open again and they wanted to know if he was still interested, Yes Yes Yes! (because at the same time I was off work suffering from work-related stress)

The next few years were tough, we had a new house, new baby and we really had to sit up and learn a tough lesson about money!! We owed about £12000 in debt back then, which compared to some of the figures Ive seen on here isn't a lot, but for us on a relatively low income, its huge! We are now debt free

The Mortgage
We bought just before the recession hit and fixed for 5 years... We had no idea what was ahead and when the recession hit we had to go onto interest only for a few years. We bought our 3 bed semi for £122'000 in 2008 and today we owe £97400 with 17 years left. Our fix ended a (long) while ago, but DHs credit rating is still low as we are recovering from defaults due to reduced payments and partial settlements.

We are paying the standard variable rate, crossing our fingers and toes rates don't rise until we have a better LTV and a better credit ratings. Depending on what our house is worth, in June 2016 we should achieve the crucial 75-85% LTV and theres a chance that DH's credit rating will improve, so we are hoping to fix then.

The Future
We are very family orientated and currently i am a SAHM to my four children. We live simply and are hardworking, I cook most meals from scratch and we make do, patch up and mend a lot!

We have an allotment and grow own food to help, and plan to keep chickens soon too.

I also write a blog about our mortgage journey, lifestyle, minimalism and positive thinking here

Hopefully this 'diary' will help keep me motivated and surrounded by like minded people

SueP19

Didn't want to read and run................wow you have had quite a time of it (got the t-shirt on that one too) :rotfl:

Love the blog and a huge welcome

trulymadlyhannah

Feeling positive. Last night i applied for the £212 Marriage Tax Allowance and we sold a desk on our local facebook group for £10.

This morning I took two bags of clothes to a weigh shop in town and received £5.50, then promptly spent it in @ldi on hot chocolate and cake - not so good.

The one area that we are doing badly with at the moment is food shopping, our budget is quite tight (I think anyway - its £250 for 4 weeks for 2 adults, 4 children, to include nappies, milk, toiletries and cleaning) We are already £36 into next months money and I have 2 weeks left! next step is to head over the old style when the children are in bed for inspiration!

trulymadlyhannah

SueP19 wrote: »

Didn't want to read and run................wow you have had quite a time of it (got the t-shirt on that one too) :rotfl:

Love the blog and a huge welcome

Hi :hello:
I love your biography! Thank you, will definitely be checking back and reading your thread later

SueP19

Food :mad::mad::mad::mad: I would be rich if we didn't eat, we go through £400 a month 2 adults :eek::eek::eek:

I am trying monthly planning and buying the main items in bulk from cheaper shops, not sure it's working though :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

trulymadlyhannah

I know! Food is one of our biggest outgoings. My 3 youngest are still fairly young and dont eat a lot. My eldest who is 6 years old eats as much as me! We have an @ldi thats just down our street so we buy everything there, if they dont sell it, we dont have it! I want to start visiting the local market and shopping at places like @pproved foods but I havent been brave enough yet. I used to meal plan a month in advance, but at the moment I am lucky If I start thinking about tea until 4pm..:rotfl:DH has started building a chicken shed, but our allotment is more like a pond so he hasn't had chance to continue.... The plan is to buy chickens eat egg with everything :rotfl:

trulymadlyhannah

I thought I would do a SOA..... and Im in negative balance.... ooooops!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Total monthly income.................. 2243.1

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1100
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 114
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 41.5
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 41.5
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 32
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 100
Petrol/diesel........................... 25
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 68
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 6.5
Contents insurance...................... 6.5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 22
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 95
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 120
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Household fund (Decorating, allotment).. 120
Total monthly expenses.................. 2299.12


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 115000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 117000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 97400....(1100).....3.99
Total secured & HP debts...... 97400.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,243.1
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,299.12
Available for debt repayments........... -56.02
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount short for making debt repayments. -56.02

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 117,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -97,400
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 19,600

Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

Glad I did that really. I have a spreadsheet but I havent updated in a few months.
I am [STRIKE]anal[/STRIKE] organised about payments so everything has seperate saving accounts and standing orders to keep me on track. It does even itself out a bit because we only pay the council tax for 10 months of the year so we get Feb/March off.

Ive inputted the new amounts for this year, the water rates and council tax have just increased.

Our boiler broke last year so we ended up taking out a boiler insurance to get it fixed, it worked out for the best that because it took the engineer 3 attmepts to fix and it would have cost a small fortune without the insurance. But because they fixed it first the cost is a whoopping £22 a month.

So I have £56.02 to find.

I think I am going to ammend the holiday budget from £120 to £80 (we almost have this years money already saved as we didnt have an holiday last year, I had a baby and DH and 2 operations) The amount also covers our national trust membership and days out, which is why its quite high.

'Saving' £40

and the household budget from £120 to £100.

'Saving' £20

Ive just remembered that my eldest goes to cubs so I have an extra £10 per month I missed of the SOA, I cant see anywhere else to take it from apart from clothing from £100 to £90.

'Saving' £10

All this to avoid lowering our mortgage payment :rotfl:it will be worth it in the end...

Our contracted minimum is £675, and we pay £1100 so lots of flexiblity, and looking at those figures, realistically we might need to decrease if we struggle, fingers crossed we dont!

newgirly

Hi Hannah, I wanted to pop and wish you all the best with the new diary. I did notice on your soa that you don't have any child benefit listed?
I have used approved foods in the past and it can be worth it, if you shop in aldi then it may not always be cheaper as it is often named brands discounted, but I have found things like casserole mixes etc. Much cheaper

Anyway all the best and I enjoyed reading your blog

lulabelle1

Best of luck with your MF journey. I'm truly impressed and inspired with your OP's... It actually makes me feel ashamed of my current spends, which is good as it might kick me up the backside to sort myself out. well done and good luck!

Beckyy

Hello!

Looking forward to reading your diary. We have chickens and they're great!

SueP19

Hiya if you have a smart phone I have found a fabulous app called "my supermarket" great for comparing

Approved foods- not tried I did look but found it was things I wouldn't buy anyway

As for your budget shave the pressie fund :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: