The first hurdle - Nichelette v the huge mortgage

Nichelette

Thanks all. DH interview went pretty well from what he has said. We work at the same place so I understand a lot of the questions and answers he gave. I think if he doesn't get the job it will be because someone was really good and not because his interview was bad.

DH has some sad times but overall is coping far better than I expected he would. I wish his mum could see as I know she would have been worried about him. I've not had anyone so close to me be terminally ill before, but I think I did a lot of my grieving when she was still alive. She sent us an anniversary card (she had a brain tumour and couldn't see out of one eye) which she had started writing and SIL had to finish. That was less than a month before the end, and honestly reading that was heartbreaking.

We've done another meal plan. Spend was £15 largely due to husband's meat, but I can't complain about that. It has been so good getting home from work and knowing what to cook rather than hoping for the best and eating junk. Am keeping on top of spending so far .

Need to update sig but mortgage now 273 exactly so still plugging on.

Sorry for any typos. Autocorrect on kindle is awful! Need to do proper update on pc!

StripeyTightsSpottySocks

Hi Nichelette

My heart goes out to you both ((hugs)) as savings so eloquently said, life happens still.

The thing with interviews as well is (and i'm sure you know) but they are good to do to learn from them and gain confidence in the process / get used to new types of questions being asked etc - I really hope Mr N has got the job but just going for it and making that decision is excellent too :T

Nichelette

Very quick update...

Whilst I haven't really been present on here much lately I have been working away still. I have very fortunately made 1.5k from matched betting in the last 6 weeks which had helped me pay for Xmas, and some other annual bills that all seem to fall about now!

In the last couple of days we have reached 20k capital off mortgage which I am really happy with considering we have been in the house less than a year.

I expect to fall slightly short of my 15k overpayment target, but had it not been for replacing the kitchen and the Scotland flights I think that would have been achieved. We're at about 13.5k at the moment and started to overpay end of march, so about 9 months ago. I really can't complain about how things have gone. Next target is 256k mortgage which is 80% LTV. Fingers crossed for achieving that by July!

savingholmes

Hugs. Hope your Christmas was okay. Wishing you a Happy New Year.

You've achieved a lot this year.

Nichelette

Bit delayed, but thanks Saving, I hope you've had a good year so far!

I'm not loving this new forum design. Keep looking all over the place for things and getting confused!

I thought now would be a good time to update... I haven't had a lot of spare time as my other matched betting related side line has been talking all of my time. It's basically like having a second job, but I've managed to make 5k since I started on 2nd November. The 5k has covered various things. 

In Jan I finally accepted that my 15 year old car was no longer economically viable to repair and bought the lovely black Golf of my dreams. I got an ex demo one, so it's basically new but I saved a good few k on it. It's so lovely! I had originally gone to look at a Polo, but thought to hell with it, I'll most likely have the car until it dies too, so I'll get what I've wanted for years rather than compromising. Not compromising means I now have about half of the value on credit, though I have been paying it down quite quickly, largely because of the extra I've been making which is averaging about 1k a month. The interest on that is larger than the mortgage which is why I've been sending it there. It's typical me to buy a car two months before we'll probably go into recession when I've been umming and ahhing about replacing the car for so long! 

Anyway, husband and I are fortunate that we are both still working due to the essential nature of our jobs. I don't expect this will change regardless of what happens with the economy. I loathe not going to work normally, but I know I need to be grateful as there are people far worse off than me. 

Initially I got excited about dropping interest rates thinking we'll be able to get a good remortgage deal, but since the gravity of the situation has become apparent I wouldn't be surprised if house prices drop which will scupper my 80% LTV target. There's nothing we can do aside from plugging away. I had a plan and everything as I obviously don't want to owe loads on the car come remortgage time either, but I think it has gone to the wall. I'm not worried about having enough money day to day, but this will most likely cost us in the long run.  My regular saver matures in a couple of weeks which will give me £3800 to pay off of something. I'm not really sure which way to divert it now.  

Hope everyone is coping with being inside, and that this passes swiftly with as little damage as possible. 

Nichelette

Only two weeks since my last post. Am almost making a habit of this!

Why is the spacing massive between paragraphs when I write now, it's so annoying!! I keep thinking I've double spaced things!

So far this month we've paid off £2733.50. We're still very fortunate to be working from home on full pay. We work for a utility network and our jobs are necessary so I think this is unlikely to change. We could be paid more elsewhere working for smaller businesses but now I'm grateful for the stability we have working for the company we do. I've always had that at the back of my mind when I've considered moving elsewhere and I suppose it's paying off now. 

My regular saver matured today, so in a few days I'll have it to go towards the mortgage (about £3,700) which will nearly take me to my 7k target for the year. It's annoying as I would prefer to pay it off the car and could have still met the 80% on the house, but I can't even overpay that at the moment as they're only taking emergency calls. Wish it was possible to do it online!

I'm definitely concerned about prices dropping and remortgaging as everything is so uncertain at the moment. I'm less bothered about losing money on the house than I am being able to remortgage so I'm having to really divert any spare money there as I feel it's a moving target. It's just my luck to get a new car and end up in this boat with the mortgage after such a long period of financial calm in the world *sigh*. I graduated in 2008 so I've literally spent most of my working life since then feeling the effects of the crash or austerity. I'm not complaining, I still know I'm very lucky, just annoyed at my poor timing with anything financially significant in life! We've tried so hard to get where we are now, and whilst we could still afford pretty high rates, I would just love to get a break. I was really looking forward to spring after all the horrible weather, I wanted to try and go on a little break somewhere nice as we haven't really had much quality time together since husbands mum had the cancer because all of his holiday was spent visiting her and his holiday year renews in June. We've basically never had a proper 'holiday' together in the 6 years we have been together as we have been saving so much. I need to stop grumping and be grateful *slaps wrist*. 

£256,000 would have been 80% LTV at the original house price so we'll see how it goes. In happy news we're nearly in the 250's which I think is pretty good going for 15 months in, especially as I only began overpaying around this time last year. 

So anyway, that's where I'm at now really. I've made £80 this morning from my sideline so that's good. If I can continue to make 1k a month it will help us masses. Fingers crossed. 

savingholmes

Wow - you've overpaid masses. It looks like you need to update your signature. Glad your job is okay and you can both WFH. We can too - my job should be okay but DH works for a charity so a bit more iffy. It sucks if you miss out on the LTV because of a house price drop but it really depends whether most people sit tight - if they do then house prices won't drop as much. Some may have no choice though which is rough. I also managed to graduate in an earlier recession and DS is about to do the same.

Nichelette

Thanks Saving. Am glad you can still work. It would be rubbish. There are worse things that could happen but I need to at least do my best to reach it. You may be right, if things stall and we're in this situation for a long time maybe we could catch it before anything completely nosedives, though again I expect banks will be more cautious regardless. 

Nichelette

My regular saver money became available to me today so that's £3700 more paid off the mortgage. I made another £110 last night from sideline but I pool that money in case I need it and use it to overpay at the end of the month so I'll be doing that again. 

savingholmes

Well done on the OP.