Plodding determinedly up a 300k mountain!

michelle09

Downshifterella wrote: »

You are going great guns at the Mortgage Michelle09 well done!!
Good luck with the lodger situation bet it'll be great to have the house back even a little earlier than expected!

Thanks! I am weirdly excited ffor the next mortgage payment (will go out Monday) because when I round it up we will hit £250k exactly. After 18 months of telling people about our quarter of million pound mortgage, we will actually be down to that.

It will be amazing to have our house back. (Lodger #1 moved in our second week here so we really haven't spent much time alone in this place). Originally I was a little disappointed because I had planned on OPing their rent until December, but now one is going I keep looking at the other one and hoping they will suddenly find somewhere. They have a week off next week, maybe I will ask if they've started looking. :rotfl:

Current Balance: £250,700.00
Kitchen Savings: £2,500/£13,000

Busy_Mee1

Hi Michelle I have been enjoying reading your diary - I also have a big mortgage and agree it does feel like a mountain to climb. However you can make good in roads into it if you stick to the plan and keep plugging away. You have done brilliantly well and will be sub a quarter of a million soon.
Good luck with the lodger !

newgirly

Well done, passing a milestone does help with motivation a lot when it's a big mortgage. I still can't believe we have paid our own mortgage down so much since joining the mfw board in 2010 up to our eyes in debt as well! Sticking with it defiantly works

michelle09

Busy_Mee1 wrote: »

Hi Michelle I have been enjoying reading your diary - I also have a big mortgage and agree it does feel like a mountain to climb. However you can make good in roads into it if you stick to the plan and keep plugging away. You have done brilliantly well and will be sub a quarter of a million soon.
Good luck with the lodger !

Thanks Busy Mee1! We will get there eventually, right? And an MFW diary seems to be a good way to keep on track with like minded people and get there much quicker.

newgirly wrote: »

Well done, passing a milestone does help with motivation a lot when it's a big mortgage. I still can't believe we have paid our own mortgage down so much since joining the mfw board in 2010 up to our eyes in debt as well! Sticking with it defiantly works

Thanks newgirly! It's great to see that people keep coming back for years, great incentive for those of us just starting out.

michelle09

It was payday on Thursday, and as OH covered the bills from their payslip on the 20th, I dropped most of mine into the kitchen savings account. We also got the last payment from lodger #1 and so put it on the mortgage.

Got to week 3 on my couch to 5k running app which means the app started asking for money. I was hesitant because it's £2.79 (not a huge amount, I know) for something I will hopefully not need again by Christmas. But in the end I decided that you can't really put that much of a price on your health. And I've dropped the first 1/2 stone of the 2 1/2 stone gain which is wonderful. It doesn't need to come off quickly, as long as it comes off!

Physiotherapy next week again, the fallout from the original damage caused my kneecap to twist so I have loads of exercises and prodding to stick it back into the right place. Eventually the muscles should build up enough for it to stay of it's own accord.

Since targets seem to be going around, here are my September targets.

1. Break the £250,000 mark on the mortgage.
2. Put £2000 into the kitchen fund.
3. Move gas/electric supplier before the 50% BG increase on October 4th.
4. Clear out lodger #1 room and encourage lodger #2 to leave quickly!
5. Measure up spare rooms and decide on furniture/decoration.
6. Lose 4lbs (the holiday make this a litle harder...)
7. Complete weeks 3, 4 & 5 of the couch to 5k challenge.

Current Balance: £250,600.00
Kitchen Savings: £4,500/£13,000

michelle09

Target number 1 cleared already! Mortgage day and I rounded it up, so we are now at £250,000.00 exactly. Which is not only a lovely round figure, but also puts us passed the end of year two balance nine months early. Definitely a nice thing to focus on while I recalculate our budgets without the rent money in.

This evening OH was off work and so cooked us a lovely roast gammon (with enough for bubble and squeak tomorrow and Wednesday!) and now we are off to Wembley for the England v Slovakia match. I'm guessing that the tickets didn't sell well because they offered them to emergency service workers at the weekend for £10 each instead of the planned £55. We're both into football but neither of us have seen England men's team play and we can get to Wembley on the bus so no extra expense.

Current Balance: £250,000.00
Kitchen Savings: £4,500/£13,000

michelle09

Been keeping busy, sorted out our bank accounts and dropped another £100 on the mortgage so it was under the £250k mark. Called the mortgage provider and had our monthly payments recalculated and another £6.50 has come off! I know it's better to reduce the term but as we have unlimited OP capacity and no-one knows what the future holds, I like to have the mandatory payment as low as possible.

Have put in an application on the MSE big switch to move our gas and electric to EDF, hopefully it goes well. They're estimating an extra £200/year, which is £200 less than the BG renewal estimate and I'm hoping with the lodgers gone it should drop to about what it was last year.

Dad had an office clearout and found the £10 premium bond that my grandmother bought in my name the day I was born, so it's been in quite a few draws! As £10 wouldn't make much of a difference to our budget, I've decided to leave it in there, so maybe one day it'll be a lovely surprise. And OH has always been keen on "investing". :rotfl:

Knee is playing up quite a bit today - suspect the walk to Wembley didn't do it much good. So no gym tonight, icing it this evening and hoping to go tomorrow.

September Goal Update
[STRIKE]1. Break the £250,000 mark on the mortgage.[/STRIKE]
2. Put £2000 into the kitchen fund.
[STRIKE]3. Move gas/electric supplier before the 50% BG increase on October 4th.[/STRIKE]
4. Clear out lodger #1 room and encourage lodger #2 to leave quickly!
[STRIKE]5. Measure up spare rooms and decide on furniture/decoration.[/STRIKE]
6. Lose 4lbs (the holiday make this a little harder...)
7. Complete weeks 3, 4 & 5 of the couch to 5k challenge.

Current Balance: £249,900.00
Kitchen Savings: £4,500/£13,000

michelle09

Another week gone! And another 1 1/2lbs, so happy with that. Ended up at work 3 hours after my shift yesterday so really hoping the overtime is approved for that one.

Lodger #2 has asked for a reference so I think they'll be off soon. They're viewing other places today in case the first one falls through.

Cooking today. One of our groups of friends tend to meet up at someone's house rather than go out. We've taken to assigning a "theme" and all bringing a dish that relates to that. Today is aubergines. Trying to be a bit different I have an aubergine chocolate cake in the oven. Pureed aubergine is not the most attractive looking thing in the world, but the cake smells all right. Fingers crossed it tastes good!

Current Balance: £249,900.00
Kitchen Savings: £4,500/£13,000

michelle09

The aubergine cake was a success! Probably won't do it again real soon because with aubergines, ground almonds, a lot of dark chocolate and most of a jar of honey, it wasn't the cheapest thing to make. But it was very moist and went very well with ice cream.

Expensive week this week - my professional registration was up for renewal. Which is several hundred pounds paid out just to be allowed to go to work. On the bright side, I need to sort my tax return soon and I can offset the last three years against it which will make job #2 almost tax free.

Both OH and I are off work today so having a lazy one. Been to the gym, watched some TV, made a lovely chicken and basil risotto with some leftover chicken from the roast earlier in the week. Bought some curtains with an Amazon voucher from TCB for lodger #1's old room so will put those up this evening if they turn up soon.

Current Balance: £249,900.00
Kitchen Savings: £4,500/£13,000

beanielou

Have loved reading your diary.
I hope you were not involved in todays events

As you can see from my signature plodding is good