FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

TallGirl

I also wanted to say good luck. Very brave of you to get your own tradesmen but I agree B&Q are a rip off for fitting. I am lucky I found a guy who did everything apart from plastering and he arranged someone to do that. I am sure it will all go soothely but be prepared for surprises and increases in cost. Also it is hard to resist all the lovely shinny things you can get for bathrooms.

PS if you can't get the taps the Bathstore has some really nice ones.

financialbliss

TallGirl wrote: »

I also wanted to say good luck.

Also it is hard to resist all the lovely shinny things you can get for bathrooms.

Thanks TallGirl,

Finished work at lunch time today. Spend the afternoon taking out the shower cubicle, taking off the remaining tiles and earlier this evening I removed the old shower tray, which was a 760mm square tray. Getting a 900mm with a curved front as a replacement. Don't mind doing a bit of work if I can keep the cost down.

Where the shower has been leaking in the past, the stud wall has totally failed - black mould in places and plasterboard reduced to mush in others. Luckily we have been quoted to re-board and re-plaster the entire shower cubicle walls.

I do anticipate a few more costs, eg we want a chrome thermostatic radiator valve (TRV) on our new towel rail radiator instead of just re-using our current white TRV.

As for shiny toys, saw some stunning black tiles with a sparkle - at £85 a square metre - great tiles, but we could not bring ourselves to spend £255 on a 3 metre square ensuite floor, which aren't really going to be seen apart from myself and Mrs Bliss. Opted for black slate effect floor tiles in the end (I think, as I've not got the bill to hand - £11.74 a square metre), with white wall tiles and white suite.

Current running order is plumber on Saturday to strip out and prepare new pipework / soil locations, plasterer on Monday and Tuesday to re-board and plaster, Thursday and Friday for the tiler to do the wall and floor tiles. Currently unsure about when the plumber is back, due to the lack of taps. Taps are part of the suite, so I think we're going to stick with them.

FB.

shopgirl2512

Crikey! You have been busy! Hope all goes well with the bathroom...

jfox_2

FB, your thread is great! i've read the whole thing! you are doing really well and a great inspiration to everyone else!! good luck

MFdream

My mortgage is with ING direct flexible. Everymonth I ring to customer services for making OP directly into capital and also need to clarify with them to reduce the term instead of just lowering monthly payments (for this type of capital payment, it has to be at least GBP 1000). I am not sure if i can make OP online as and when I have spare cash. They accept regular OP, but it will be taken out only on the day of regular monthly payment.

so my question is this- does anyone know if online OP is available with ING direct (to make any amount and anytime)? Can I make OP by making instruction from my current bank account into ING mortgage, not by DD from ING?
I will have to ring customer service to find out if i don't get answer here. Their phone lines for mortgages used to open until 8 pm, but it has shortened to 6 pm. Not easy to make calls as I usually get home late.

financialbliss

Last day of February already. Bathroom project been keeping me busy, so I've not posted much here in recent days. I'll try and give an update this weekend. But as far as interest goes, it looks like this:

Month / Payment / Interest (per day) / Net reduction / Balance.

January: 1,200.00 / 237.37 (7.66) / 962.63 / 58,537.37
February: 1,200.00 / 210.99 (7.54) / 989.01 / 57,548.36

Totals (Payment / Interest / Net reduction):

Minimum: 1,200.00 / 210.99 / 962.63
Maximum: 1,200.00 / 237.37 / 989.01
Average: 1,200.00 / 224.18 / 975.82
Grand Total: 2,400.00 / 448.36 / 1951.64

Comparing February 2008 to February 2009 - 2008 daily interest was 8.90 per day compared to 7.54 in 2009.

Got funds in place for mortgage coming out tomorrow. Again, intending to overpay tomorrow by 301.97 to up the monthly mortgage payment to a total of 1,200.00.

FB.

StuartGMC

FB
Good to hear that all is still running to plan and target. I concur, time is flying by; I think it does go faster when you have children (or is it very simply a reflection of age?).

I've just been "running" the numbers on my own financial matters and have dropped a larger amount than usual against our mortgage; as it is offset, it doesn't influence interest we are charged, but it does mean the capital owing is dropped and we're still aiming to pay off in October as there is now only £18000 outstanding.

Lunar_Eclipse

StuartGMC wrote: »

I've just been "running" the numbers on my own financial matters and have dropped a larger amount than usual against our mortgage; as it is offset, it doesn't influence interest we are charged, but it does mean the capital owing is dropped

I don't understand that Stuart. It should influence the interest you are charged, unless you are fully offset (and thus pay no interest/mortgage).

We have an offset mortgage and the amount offset in the current account/savings against the mortgage does influence the interest we are charged. Looking at a simplistic example, ignoring the reality of daily interest, supposing I have a 100k mortgage and 10k offset, I am charged interest (the mortgage interest rate) on 90k, my net debt position. As the amount offset varies throughout the month and by month itself, the net debt amount also varies. And thus the interest owing on the mortgage. Likewise if I used this 10k offset to make a 10k overpayment, I would then have a 90k mortgage and pay interest on that 90k. Does yours not work this way? Or you are in the very fortunate position of being fully offset and in effect mortgage free. Confused.

StuartGMC

LE
Simplistically we are now offset 88.1% and our effective interest rate is 0.61% today, and yes it varies through the month as our current a/c is in the offset, but the OP itself rather than it residing in offset doesn't change this.

What I was trying to say was that with £19251 owing and offset by the £1251 means interest charged on £18000.

With OP of £1251 the mortgage is reduced to £18000 so interest would be charged on that sum.

As you note this is the same and it doesn't matter from an interest charged perspective whether the £1251 is OP or offsetting as per your own example.

If you then say that we have the additional offset varying per month then in both cases it is still based upon the proportion of capital which at any one stage is not offset, identical in both cases.

The reality for us is that we only incur interest on about £2500 for the mortgage, even if 100% offset the effective interest rate is still more than 0% because you lose interest on your savings, but these days that figure isn't much greater than 0%.

Even with our S&S ISAs being 45% down, we are presently net positve overall, but these can't be set against offset of course.
Trust that clarifies it.

Lunar_Eclipse

StuartGMC wrote: »

Trust that clarifies it.

Yes thanks.

I have just returned from a trip into town with my parents and children. We had afternoon tea at a Maison Cafe. My absolutely to-die-for chocolate cake was £3.80, not very MS. Although we were treated by my Dad, along with some £38 school shoes.

I really should start my own diary to prattle on about such things on my own thread, although we're all friends here right? :T