Light the fire...

lucielle

That sounds like a good weekend. 

L

savingholmes

Glad things are going well with you. Sounding very organised.

woodfired

*Sidles in looking guilty*

Hello!

I am very sorry for being AWOL AGAIN!  Its been a ridiculously busy year and I have let things slide on he diary front (again).  However, like many of us I am very much focused on trimming the fat in order to prepare for the coming winter and the leaner times.

First, a few confessions and a catch up.

So, late last year we received planning consent to build an extension across the back of our house.  We were unsure as to when we might actually do the work, however, once planning was granted I wanted it done yesterday.  So, we borrowed an extra £27k on our mortgage, taking it back up to the starting balance we had when we moved in (eeek!!!).  We also borrowed £10k from family on an interest free loan to be paid back whenever we can- no rush at all to repay.  Finally I took an interest free for 24 months CC out.  So these, plus savings and a pay-as-we-go-along type arrangement financed the work which ended up costing somewhere in the region of - whisper it- £100k. (!!!)

I appreciate that this sounds like a horrific amount but we have stretched this budget by working day and night and all day every weekend/holiday ourselves to achieve a fantastic space with 11m of sliding patio doors (arranged as a glass corner), 2 roof lanterns, a new navy blue shaker kitchen with white quartz worktops, new utility room, we've removed 3 structural internal walls and obviously re-plumbed had new electrics, plastered it all, carpets/tiles/new lighting etc etc etc.  A huge job, but we are so pleased with it.  OK, confession over.  

We have saved along the way by doing loads of work ourselves but also kept our original ovens - approx 15 years old but great quality NEF so couldn't justify new- just got them professionally cleaned.  We reused the old kitchen including sink and worktops in the reconfigured utility room and installed some new double doors picked up for £100 on clearance from a local warehouse a couple of years ago ( we made the hole in the wall fit them rather than the other way around!) - we knew they would come in handy eventually and are excellent quality.

I've done my own painting, sanding, tiling (tiles left over from prev. job in the garage), hubby did all the labouring type jobs, took out walls, all the joinery work, levelled the floors and we plasterboarded the whole space ourselves.  I've kept most of the old furniture, just given it a facelift with some paint and pinched other bits of furniture from around the house to furnish.  We got two new sofas at cost from a customer of DH's.   

So needless to say, we haven't been focusing on saving or OPing this year but have thrown everything at the project in order to owe as little as possible by the end.  I have this week made the first family loan repayment (£250) set up a regular OP to the sub account for the extension (£150) and I am clearing the CC balance of £2700 at a rate of £100 a month but will OP this as and when.  I have a 4 year plan to clear all of these debts but am aiming to clear them sooner.

One thing we invested heavily in during the build was insulation, we went over and above building regs requirements in order to super insulate the extension/kitchen and utilty. The kitchen is open plan to the extension and we have a woodburner in there, the plan is to try to heat only this one room with the stove and use the CH for the kids bedrooms for a short time each day.  We have been lighting the fire in the evening as the nights are a bit chillier and the room still felt really warm when I got home at lunchtime today - so fingers crossed the insulation is doing its job.

Anyway, I will update with mortgage figs etc shortly, WF x

lucielle

Lovely to 'hear' from you and gosh how busy you've both been.  The extension sounds amazing and I'm sure you'll pay it off quicker.
L

woodfired

lucielle said:

Lovely to 'hear' from you and gosh how busy you've both been.  The extension sounds amazing and I'm sure you'll pay it off quicker.
L

Thank you Lucielle! Nice to 'see' you - I hope you are well? I must go and catch up with some diaries.  I've really missed having the time. x 

savingholmes

The extension sounds amazing... If you got all that done for £100K but only have a £40K over-hang left to clear sounds like you've done really well or have I misunderstood?

Regardless welcome back. It's your money and your home - and you likely added value so an investment too... Enjoy it.

woodfired

Hi SH!  Good to see you. 
Yes you are right, we have managed to cashflow/use savings the other £60k.  Thanks to COVID meaning limited holidays (in our caravan when we have got away) and little spending on socialising over the last couple of years. We could never have dreamt of affording this kind of work when we moved in but here we are and I feel very lucky.  Thanks for popping by x 

themadvix

It sounds like a fantastic improvement to your home and worth the money! Good to see you back though 😊

woodfired

themadvix said:

It sounds like a fantastic improvement to your home and worth the money! Good to see you back though 😊

Thanks Vix, its lovely to be back!  As soon as the final (well - almost final) payment was made I was itching to get back into saving and OPing. I HATED that every penny we earned was immediately swallowed for months on end and I had virtually no savings to track.  I do still have £10k in shares and I am still contributing to my SIPP each month so we did keep something going but it has been hard and I'm so looking forward to watching my savings grow and paying down this debt.  Hard to explain in real life but I'm in good company here haha!  x

woodfired

Financial update.

The main mortgage account has ticked along with no OPs this year and will hit £213 000 tomorrow when the payment goes in.  This is down from £218k when I last posted in Jan so not too bad.  I'm quite liking thinking of the mortgage as two separate loans, doesn't seem as scary when broken down!  The original loan was fixed for 5 years at 1.41% in January.  I'm very happy with that considering how the rates have risen since.  We hope to set up a regular OP soon but are currently planning to OP as and when.  This loan is less important as it is on a slightly lower rate.

The extra we borrowed was £27000.  Now stands at £26 418 but the payment hits tomorrow.  This is on £1.99 fixed for 5 years but we hope to pay it off before despite a small redemption fee that will be payable.  I'm aiming for max OPs on this account whilst saving up to pay off the balance alongside.  To start with we will save the child benefit cash as this is handily paid into an unused account so we can ignore it.  We are also due to finish paying a small loan off in the next few months so will continue to 'pay' the repayments - just into savings instead.  These alone would comfortably pay it off in 4 years, any extra added is a bonus.

CC balance (£2700) is set up to pay off at £100 per month and I will aim to pay off more when I can.  Rounding down the balance here and there is a good start.

Family loan £10k I aim to pay back at £250 per month.

Finally, if there's anything left I would like to try to build up some savings!  Currently have about £1000 set aside after final building payments have been made.  Not much of an EF but both business accounts are looking healthy if we needed short notice access to cash and I do have my shares still.  This is definitely an area to work on though.

Its good to be back! WF x