Getting rid of a London-sized Mortgage

misscousinitt

Sensible goals there...

Airbnb!!!! What a great idea - ideal as you are in London - hotel accommodation can be soooo expensive in the Capital.

Glad you are pleased with your kitchen - so satisfying getting everything in it's place!

MCI

Moneyfordreams

It's lovely when you fix your place for you

great plans to have , insulation a must our old house still cooler at the top, I'd love to do that foam stuff on the inside of the slates.. but never got further than the pictures in the sunday papers.

@irbnb has been fantastic for us. We are close to a northern city but live in a nice spot with other attractions. We have earned around £5000 in the last 12 months. Plus we have a lodger too (but he's another story).

Tropically

Airbnb is going well! We have another lovely lady today. We have hosted three people now and so that means an extra £100 to the joint account and we are almost fully booked until December. For the last few days we have open I have increased the monthly rate quite a bit so nobody is likely to book them. We are still one of the cheapest in London but I really wanted bookings so i didn't mind. Now that I'm almost fully booked, I appreciate the nights with no washing!

I have just come back from a week in the Caribbean! We stayed with family and had a DIY scuba diving holiday by doing shore dives and using our own/my family's equipment. I am very very pleased to say that the week trip for two cost £450, including four days of scuba diving which are normally £150 per person per day. The flights were booked using air miles and booked several months ago. The holiday was basically cheaper than real life! I also had a very serendipitous event where last year for a holiday I took out a bunch of American money for a holiday thinking that I wouldn't be able to pay by card for hotels etc. where I was going (Asia). Turns out they took card everywhere and so I had $500 in cash which came back home with me after the holiday. I was able to use that to pay for the holiday which was priced in dollars, thereby avoiding that 20% drop in the pound and meaning I didn't spend my day-to-day money on the holiday at all. This is the only one-time benefit I will experience with the drop of the pound.

Tomorrow is payday! I had a surplus of £275 this month and so have transferred £100 to the now-empty holiday fun and £175 to the joint account. Hopefully my partner will also have a surplus and will contribute that. He doesn't get paid until the end of the month so I will wait until then to do the monthly spend calculations.

Unfortunately that £175 didn't last too long because I had to buy blinds for the new kitchen. At the moment we didn't have anything up so people could see right in. Not so good for when I want to get something out of the fridge in my pyjamas! We had taped up a small piece of fabric while we were away so that people wouldn't be able to see our house was empty. Can't have an expensive kitchen with taped up old curtains.

Nonetheless we have made good progress this month and our savings are up to £5,322 because I took that holiday money I didn't spend and the monthly surplus. Over half way to goal number 1!

Kittenkirst

What a fab and low cost holiday! Sounds like the perfect antidote to the chilly weather here.

Whereabouts did you go in the Caribbean?

Tropically

Kittenkirst - I was in the Cayman Islands staying with my sister! She is also coming to visit me this week to do some Christmas shopping in London. It's going to be so much more expensive. Already this month is expensive. I hate the cold!!

We used to live in a small flat which was rated almost A on its EPC. We usually didn't have to turn the heating on until January. Now, we are in a much bigger C rated house and it's so cold. Soooo cold. I don't like turning on the heating every day. Ahhh!

Plus all the parties are turning into being very expensive. Already I have spent too much...

Tropically

So my sister arrived, and that was certainly an expensive week. Winter Wonderland, cab fares, shopping, I don't really have any money left for the month but luckily I am going home to visit the parents on the 22nd until the second week of Jan.

I have purchased a thermostat! Our house doesn't have one and it's been tricky because once or twice I've accidentally left it on over night and then work up at 2 am sweating! Very bad environmentally. We have no way of knowing or controlling the temperature and just turn it on or off as needed. But I got a Tado so once that arrives we should be able to control the temperature a bit better.

We have also been fully booked on Airbnb until December. It's been good - it's so easy and our guests have been really lovely. I haven't turned the calendar on for January onwards. We might potentially have someone who has no where else to go stay with us for January (for free). I am waiting to be contacted about that. Then, I need to meet them.

My partner has been thrilled about airbnb, Mostly because I have been sharing the money but he doesn't do any of the cleaning, greeting, or website maintenance! He says that it's his house too. I was always going to count it as 'ours' but I wanted it to be 'ours' in 'my' account. He wanted me to hand at least some of it over to the joint account. I agreed, begrudgingly.

He's not a good cleaner or person who does chores and I really want 5* Airbnb reviews. He wonders why I get mad when he asks, "Honey, where do we keep the broom?" When I left him in charge of the last minute tidying (putting away dishes, folding the hand towel in the bathroom etc.) we got a 4* review for cleanliness!!

Anyway, with the £500 of Airbnb income and the leftovers from last month, we have managed to stash £1870 this month and got £300 of interest/cashback bringing our total savings up to £7496.31.

Runders

Hey Tropically,

Just read through your diary after you posted on mine, you are right, we are twins!

I giggled when I read about your sorted foreign money. I keep each currency separate in little money bags, and like you have some I'll never use again. I'm intrigued by the machine you mentioned that also takes foreign coins, are they quite common in London? I may have to bring some of my stashes with me on my next theatre trip if they are. I recently got rid off all the notes I no longer needed, but have plenty of coins left.

I can totally understand how your entertainment amount was £700. It's just me and sometimes I hit the £500 or more mark a month. If I go to the theatre I want good seats, my days of sitting behind a post or at a dodgy angle are over. I will however by the £5 standing tickets for the globe as I love the atmosphere in the pit. Eating out is also such a money gobbler for me and it's so easy to do it without really realising how much you spend in a month.

Keeping the diary has defiantly helped me to keep it in check, but I am not going to lie, there are still months when I am outrageous with my entertainment money. Like you, I don't want to miss out on a good show, or even the lead actor who is doing it at that particular time.

I have subscribed to your thread, it sounds like you are making great plans and strides already

Tropically

Runders wrote: »

I giggled when I read about your sorted foreign money. I keep each currency separate in little money bags, and like you have some I'll never use again. I'm intrigued by the machine you mentioned that also takes foreign coins, are they quite common in London?

They aren't particularly common but there are 5 in pretty convenient locations - London Bridge, Kings Cross, Westfield.

I am going to have a very spendy week next week because Hamilton tickets are being released!!

But with GOOD news, we have now reached our goal of having £10,000 in savings for the house. I invested in an Abundance debenture which paid 12% per year to fund a wind farm, plus it just returned my cash to me this week. Very pleased. I hadn't invested a lot but still got £40 interest. I will continue to invest with them but right now I just wanted to achieve that goal.

We put £800/month extra into our joint account, we each saved £300 for long-term savings, I got £300 ish from my Abundance investment, my boyfriend had £500 squirrelled away from before and he didn't tell me about it, we got some interest and rounded off the monthly accounts so in total, we dedicated an extra £2,500 last month. £800 of that is money we had already saved but hadn't included in the calculations but we saved over £1700, almost half of our total income in December.

Yay! On to Goal 2 now...

Tropically

I have just burnt my finger and my dinner :(:(
I am so desperate for winter to be over. I am sitting wrapped in a blanket with the heater off. We also have a severe condensation problem in our bedroom. I knew we had a little problem, and I would often leave the window open to let the room air out when I was at home but not yet ready for bed. I think a mouse got in that way. I was in the bedroom and turned around and he stopped in his tracks. He looked just as shocked as I did. He hid under a wardrobe and my boyfriend didn't know what to do. He said that his sister would chase them out of the house. I couldn't tell if he didn't realise that was a euphemism or if his sister did actually try to chase them.

But anyway, I told him that idea was silly and we should put a box over it and put it outside. I got a box and he was in charge of scaring the mouse out from behind the wardrobe. It worked the very first time and within 20 minutes, the mouse was free outside and the window firmly shut. I was incredibly pleased with myself that it worked. We have been leaving it open a crack so that it can still vent but no mouse could get in.

Still, last night there was water condensing and dropping off the ceiling like I was in a cave. It was dripping on the floor in loud drops. I have spent the evening researching what to do. There are some behavioural changes and then we may need a dehumidifier. I really want insulation, as our house currently doesn't have any. I need to figure out whether insulation will make it worse, or better.

We have stopped the airbnb for a bit because I got a request from a refugee charity to see if I could house an asylum seeker for a month. He has been here for a couple of weeks now and he is a lovely guest. He is very easy to have here. The hardest part is not projecting your feelings onto the person. I want him to tell me his life story and for us to bond, but he is a regular person getting on with life and doesn't want to air his dirty laundry.

But, we've been in the house for a while now and have a better idea of what we are spending. I thought I would do a new SOA based on the time in the house to date. The previous one was based on our last property, which was smaller and much warmer.

So our new SOA since we bought the house is:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2250
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2101
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4351

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1340
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 114.91
Electricity............................. 39.06
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 42
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 8
Internet Services....................... 22.4
Groceries etc. ......................... 219
Clothing................................ 116 This is all shopping, minus groceries. Could be lower.
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 269 - train fares
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 15 - next year I need to combine these two but didn't do it last year
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 70 - We save every month for Christmas so that it feels free
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 550
Holiday................................. 400
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Charity................................. 63
Naughty Food............................ 73 - need to get this down, this includes work lunches and take away
Gym..................................... 30 - new years resolution to get healthy
Total monthly expenses.................. 3426.37


Assets
Cash.................................... 9000
House value (Gross)..................... 425000
Shares and bonds........................ 5500
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 439500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 318000...(1340).....1.75
Total secured & HP debts...... 318000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
0% Kitchen Loan................4157.38...0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........4157.38...0.........- - This is stoozing and have a date in the diary to pay it off without any interest.


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,351
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,426.37
Available for debt repayments........... 924.63
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 924.63

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 439,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -318,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,157.38
Net Assets.............................. 117,342.62

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

We are transferring a total of £750 to the joint account and so we can overpay £500/month starting next month. I don't have an accurate statement on how much we still owe but my credit report says we owe £312,907.

Goal 2: Get the mortgage below £300,000.

Our mortgage decreases naturally each month by £848. If we didn't overpay, we would naturally reach below £300,000 in March 2018. That is toooo far!

If we overpay by £500/month, we would reach £300,000 in October 2017. But let's try and be a bit more ambitious and aim for the end of August 2017. To do that, we will need to overpay £765/month. This looks do-able based on our SOA.

try_harder

Well done ,you are doing amazingly well and £10,000 saved already that is so good.