Mind The Gap 31 December 2017 at 2:24AM in Mortgage-free wannabe 8 replies 953 views

Greta_Sharbo

Welcome.

I've lurked around these forums for years and years - time to actually take some action.

So who are we...
Myself and OH bought our first flat 12 months ago - and we love it. In comparison to some (many) we have a modest mortgage so we have little excuse for not making OPs and improving our savings and pensions. We must stop money trickling away on unnecessary spending!

The diary is here to try to make me stick to - and stretch my goals - so please join me on my journey. I'll be spending tomorrow (later today now!) glued to my spreadsheets finalising my plans and then I'll update!

GS

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

Greta_Sharbo

Thanks BeanieLou

So an impromptu New Years Eve party prohibited much in the way of spreadsheeting on the 31st and today was rather a lazy day. I’ve been working on some plans this evening though so here we are.

About us
We bought our first flat in Dec 2016, and moved in a month later.
As mentioned above we only have a modest mortgage - currently £67000 (although we only have modest wages as well!)

We are on 5% - not great - so the reduction in balance each month after interest always seems pitiful

Will be nice to see if we can get a better rate at remortgage in December 2018.

This years plans include:

Saving for a wedding
Increasing emergency fund
Increasing pension contributions
Overpaying mortgage!

And
Decluttering and getting rid of junk
(Losing weight - personal target!)


So....

I’m aiming for a modest set of overpayments to start us off - £2000 for 2018. I think we can comfortably overpay £75 per month after wedding/EF savings and pensions but with additional income and better planning and budgeting I hope we can stretch it!

Greta_Sharbo

Current balance £67102.16
24 years left to run
Daily interest is £9.19 per day (yuk!)

Blibble

Best of luck! We're not dissimilar in what we're trying to save up for - we've got an ongoing wedding fund as well as it's so tempting to pinch from that and put it towards OPing the mortgage! Having a diary is a grand way of keeping yourself honest & an awesome first step. :T

Greta_Sharbo

Got an email today from EDF with our new DD amount for the year - down by £10/month and £90 credited back to us.

Budgets readjusted and added £10 to it to move £100 into emergency fund money.

Payday for OH next week for 1st overpayment!

10 swagbucks earned too is it just me or do you get screened out of an awful lot more surveys on SB now? It all adds up eventually I guess


Back to work tomorrow - depending on the weather I'll walk to work to save the £2.20 bus fare!

Greta_Sharbo

An interesting week.

Work was super busy with some people still on holiday. Few niggly things happened this week so in a fit of annoyance I applied for a new job. Not even sure I want to move on but we'll see what happens.

OH had a bit of an idea for a new business so exploring if that might be a goer. Watch this space!

A good week for spending as we still had lots of food left over from christmas.

Booked a trip to Harry Potter studios for later in the month - all budgeted for - so any suggestions of nice things to do nearby would be useful

wishingthemortgaheaway

Welcome, your overpayments will make such a difference to the interest charges, just keep plugging away.

Wish

Greta_Sharbo

Sometimes you feel like everything is falling apart don't you!

Fridge is on the blink - literally. The light flashes so much that looks like a rave in our kitchen. Needs fixed.

Spotted some water ingress in ensuite on Monday - got it checked by someone who did a temporary fix. By Friday another leak in a different place. Appears whilst in the loft they have dislodged something further. Went up into lift, is absolute soaking - and now we have a hole in the ceiling!

Some temporary fix! Should all be covered but is a bit of a hassle.



Been shuffling money all week - think in these parts we call it a Tilly Tidy? - to build up EF - may just wait to see what happens with ceiling before we commit to an OP though.

Nice cheap night last night round at family - took free beers and they made dinner. Yay.

Off out for lunch today for OH birthday. Need a nice quiet Sunday.

Just remembered this week about an old pension from a job years ago so waiting for some paperwork to see what's in that.