The Fun Starts Here.....

allmannerofthings

So, apparently I shouldn't overpay before my mortgage payment comes out, as this confuses the system and it will take the usual payment out of my overpayment and only count the balance as overpayment. I had an email from them to that effect, although they are supposed to be sorting this one out, as I didn't know. Nice if they could have told me beforehand, but they didn't tell me about payments under £500 not coming off the capital unless I advise them every single time either. There are also two pieces of information I've identified on their mortgage information online that are actually incorrect. I can't say I'm impressed with Nationwide so far.

In other news, we have a lot of work to do on our house, so we've had a rethink and decided just to overpay the £280 a month for the time being, and to save anything else that we can towards home improvement. The £280 means we'll be mortgage-free in 10 years instead of 14, so that's something. As time goes by, hopefully we can pay off more.

My plan for the moment is to find any bits of spare money where I can for the renovations. I'm determined to reduce our grocery spend, starting with using up what we have and not wasting anything. I'm trying to meal plan, but I am so bad at it. I never fancy what I've planned, or I forget to defrost things. I cancelled the Radio Times recently so that saved a bit! I've subscribed for years, and only really noticed recently it was costing me about £130 a year, which seems ridiculous when I look at it for ten minutes a week, set things up to record and don't look at it again. Mobiles, internet and utilities are all good deals, so the main areas I can take action are groceries, eating out/takeaways and general spending, which at the moment is plants, sometimes is books. I'll see where I can cut down. Also I need to get onto selling things, I've got quite a few books and DVDs that I could sell.

I'd really like to be putting all the savings to the mortgage, but so much needs doing to the house too, it's hard to know what's best.

armchairexpert

Hi! Love a shiny new diary, will subscribe and enjoy seeing how you go.

My approach when I'm cooking something I know Mr Expert won't eat is to let him know ahead of time that he'll have to get his own dinner. We both sort out our own lunches as well. Is there a reason why you do all the cooking?

allmannerofthings

armchairexpert wrote: »

Hi! Love a shiny new diary, will subscribe and enjoy seeing how you go.

My approach when I'm cooking something I know Mr Expert won't eat is to let him know ahead of time that he'll have to get his own dinner. We both sort out our own lunches as well. Is there a reason why you do all the cooking?

Hi ArmchairExpert, thanks for subscribing! Whoever has the most time has done the cooking, looking back over our relationship. Back when we both worked full time it was shared, and when Mr AMOT was out of work and I was working, he cooked more. These days he works full time and I'm at home, (and no children at home), so I mostly cook at least the weekday evening meal and usually make his lunches. He still cooks sometimes, particularly on weekends. If I'm out he does his own thing.

allmannerofthings

:j:j:jHad a letter today from the bank that said our recent overpayment has reduced the term by two months:j:j:j Forgive the excitement, it's our first overpayment! :j:j:j

andy1886

Congratulations on that news . All the best for the future overpayments .

allmannerofthings

Mr AMOT was paid on 20th and since then we seem to have been very spendy. I've bought plants for the garden, and we've needed bits and pieces for DIY - we're currently working on the living room, but the whole house needs doing. It will be an ongoing project for at least a couple of years. We need new windows, kitchen, bathroom remodelling, outside of the house painted and everywhere decorated and new carpets. My parents have offered to lend us the money for the jobs, but I'm really reluctant to borrow, even from family. We have the money set aside for the living room renovations, but after that we'll either have to borrow or save it as we go along, which will take a looong time. I don't want to touch our emergency funds - we have £2000 for emergencies and about four months living expenses put away in case of Mr AMOT being made redundant. I think I need to have another look at our monthly outgoings and see where I can cut.

I've had a little bit of cashback recently and I've been skimming my bank accounts each time I sign in to them. So far I've got £85 towards my next 'extra' overpayment (on top of our regular £280 a month), but any other savings will have to go towards renovations for the time being.

allmannerofthings

I am really impatient to pay extra on the mortgage. Our regular overpayment of £280 a month will reduce the term from 14 years to 10, but if we could just manage to overpay £500 each month, we could reduce it even further to 8 years. I've been skimming my bank accounts regularly this month and had a little cashback on some online clothes purchases. I just need to find another £50 or so to be able to overpay £500 this month, but then I'm thinking about the renovations we need to do too, so maybe I should save anything extra for that?
Our whole house needs renovating, this is a long-term project that will probably take us a few years and cost a lot. My parents have offered to lend us money, but I'd rather avoid borrowing from them if we can, or borrow as little as possible. I'm really torn.

Jessy103

Hi AMOT! Overpaying the mortgage is definitely addictive and I'm often wishing time will go faster so I can make a payment!
I suppose with the renovations and borrowing money from your parents it depends on how fast you want the house to be finished and your ability to be able to live with the things that need doing. We had a new bathroom fitted last year and although we had a healthy deposit we still need a loan to be able to get the bathroom we wanted. We were able to get a 0% interest loan through wickes for one year which spread out the cost but we were able to pay back early so maybe that's worth looking into. Good luck and you're doing great with the overpayments!

allmannerofthings

Jessy103 wrote: »

Hi AMOT! Overpaying the mortgage is definitely addictive and I'm often wishing time will go faster so I can make a payment!
I suppose with the renovations and borrowing money from your parents it depends on how fast you want the house to be finished and your ability to be able to live with the things that need doing. We had a new bathroom fitted last year and although we had a healthy deposit we still need a loan to be able to get the bathroom we wanted. We were able to get a 0% interest loan through wickes for one year which spread out the cost but we were able to pay back early so maybe that's worth looking into. Good luck and you're doing great with the overpayments!

Thanks Jessy!

The house is awful. Everything needs doing! I moved here about fourteen years ago as a single parent with a very low income and all I could afford to do was paint over the existing wallpaper, which I did in some of the rooms. Almost all my furniture is old and secondhand or knackered - or all three! :rotfl:I had no money for years, then met and married my husband but I had a chronic illness for several years, and he had a long period of first redundancy and unemployment, and then had to take a job at a much lower salary than previously. So for years the state of repair just got worse. Now we have bought the house (previously council) and are doing okay we want to decorate everywhere, new carpets, bed, wardrobes, windows, bathroom, kitchen, paint the house, landscape the garden. We'll be at it for years I expect

I've decided just to make the regular overpayment which reduces the term from 14 years to 10, for now. Any other little savings I will apply to the renovations for the time being.

We had some good news today, my husband got a bonus at work which should be about £1900 after tax etc. That will mostly go towards the house stuff

allmannerofthings

This is my favourite time of the month, well every two months really, as that's when I get to make an overpayment! My bank is a pain if I overpay less than £500 - I have to contact them every time to request they take the amount overpaid off the term and I totally don't trust them to do what they say, so to make my life easier I overpay every couple of months when the amount I've put aside is larger. As long as it's over £500 they will automatically take it off the term. I think the banks just like to make it more difficult for us to overpay!

I overpaid £900 today, which means since taking out this mortgage in March we've managed to reduce it from £115,000 to £110, 755.67 :j I'm really pleased with that. We're putting aside £280 each month to overpay, but I managed to save quite a bit more than that - and I know I said in my last post I was going to put it towards house renovations, but I couldn't resist the lure of the overpayment - it's addictive, isn't it? :rotfl:

This month I am going to get some stuff together to sell, I keep saying it and not doing it and I know I have some DVDs/books/CDs that can go on Amazon, and maybe I'll get my head around ebay for some other stuff too - I've not sold on ebay before, any hints and tips, anyone?

House renovations are progressing along slowly. The carpet is gone and part of the walls have been stripped, we had a new gas fire fitted and a new suite delivered and that's about as far as it went. We've been busy every weekend for weeks, so not really making progress. The fences need painting front and back, as does the shed, and we're supposed to be landscaping the front garden this year. How do people get all this stuff done?

Really pleased about the overpayment though! :j