[B]One married couple, a newborn baby and our first home (and mortgage)[/B]

VeronicaMars

Finally! :j

Our first mortgage - only took 33 years!

Mortgage at start = £175,295.00
Today's balance = £174,095.05

A bit about us. We are a married couple with a newborn baby (1 month old) . My husband works full time and I am not in work at the minute (long story). We receive no benefits or other income other than his salary.

I was previously a DFW however thankfully I am a complete convert so our money is in good hands :money:

We put every penny we had into the deposit and buying a car (no finance) therefore, before we start making overpayments my main goal is for us to get an emergency fund in place. Planning to put away enough to cover 6 months mortgage and bills :whistle:. We also owe my mum some money as she helped us by lending money to get set up with the house furnishings etc. so that needs to get paid back ASAP.

With only one income this is going to be a stretch but we can do it, just not as quickly as I would like! Once I am back at work we plan to use my salary to pay down the mortgage. We also still need to do some work on the house. Some rooms need plastered and redecorated to our taste, rooms still need to be furnished and we need to fix a gas fire which we are going to convert to a wood burner. Once the mortgage is paid off the dream will be for us to both start working part-time and working towards some sort of financial independence. We've put our ambition behind us and just want an easy stress-free life!

Too much to do and not enough money :rotfl:

Right, I'm off to try and do some cleaning whilst baby is sleeping!! :cool:

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

Kittenkirst

Good luck with your mfw adventure :starmod:

zcrat41

Congratulations on your new baby!
Happy new diary!

VeronicaMars

Thank you! Been wanting our own home to start our family and it has all came at once :smileyhea Mr Mars is also loving having somewhere that is finally "ours". He has been doing some DIY every weekend. Can't wait until it's decorated as we want it - I'm not being ambitious, i'm keeping things really simple. I just want a lick of paint in the rooms, but can't do that until they have been plastered.

However I really really want the mortgage paid off on it!!! :money:

I tried to transfer £200 to go towards my mums loan but it wouldn't let me?!?! Will call the bank today to get that sorted.

We owe my mum roughly £6,250 so want to try and get that paid back asap.

jodles16

Hi there, love the name after only recently finding the series! So good!

Well done on all you have achieved so far, and congrats on the house and baby!

Jodles

VeronicaMars

Thanks Jodles16!

WELL, after deciding I was going to create a buffer fund before making any overpayments, I've now decided that each month I will make a "rounding down" payment! So it won't be big, but enough to slowly reduce the balance whilst we pay back our family loan and create a safety net!

This months (and first ever) overpayment was £66.22.

£102.46 paid to my mums loan this month. Was a big spend month with some baby purchases and then 3 family birthdays so this was a lot lower than what it would normally be! Our family have REALLY helped us out with the baby and just our circumstances the last couple of months so we did not want to scrimp on the birthday presents!

I feel much better just making a £66.22 overpayment. Reminds me of when I had debt and I wanted to save, even though I knew I should be putting all my money to the debt, I felt much better knowing I was accumulating a small savings pot!

Focus at the minute is:

1) Bled two radiators, want to bleed the rest in the house to ensure we are getting as much as heat as possible if we are putting it on!

2) Our food bill. Need to get a meal plan sorted and some cheap meals thrown together! Thinking a veggie chilli from mainly tinned items in the slow cooker.

3) Home purchases - such as a rug (wooden floors in an old house make for a chilly winter) and some curtains and thermal blinds. Hopefully that will help.

4) Look into foraging for wood for our fire! FREE heating Husband is not keen on this idea but I am. Need to research further...

5) Buy Radflek radiator sheets

Any tips on heating an OLD house are much appreciated! I'm going to also look into getting draft things attached to the bottom of our doors!

x

tootallulah

I see my next door neighbour every day with wood she has foraged on the bottom of her push chair! She walks with her baby through the local park and picks up kindling and sometimes quite big bits of trees. It always makes me smile - good for her!

try_harder

Hi veronicamars and tootallulah .I do that too when i walk my dog ,i carry the branches back home or to my car ,they soon add up .Welcome and good luck on your journey.