New life, same goal! Pursey’s quest to be mortgage free.

Pursey

I started a diary back in 2011 with the aim of being mortgage free within 10 years; a goal I would’ve smashed (within 7), if we hadn’t bought our dream house in the hills.

Life has changed so much since 2011, most significantly because we are now blessed with 3 wonderful children. Then we found somewhere perfect to live, but unfortunately it came with a massive price tag, and to get it we had to do a ‘let to buy’ to raise the deposit. This means we now own two houses and have two mortgages to pay off!

Our old home is rented out, so I’m using The rental to pay that off, but I really don’t want to be stuck paying off our new home for 25 years, so I’m starting again with a fresh thread.

So far I have overpaid £1030 this year, but am not sure if I’m pushing too hard, as with it being a bigger house we have loads more expenses and of course the children’s stuff costs us a lot more than we used to pay out.

I’m going to try and change the small things in the hope that these will add up to big changes. Firstly, stopping/reducing drinking, as it costs us a fortune and we don’t really get any benefit from it, especially now. Also, stopping buying food or snacks when out, as we are both terrible for that. I’ve not been on this forum for some time as I have lost my frugality mojo, but it’s now back with real force, so I’m hoping to write on here regularly to help to keep focused.

Fingers crossed for a £6000 overpayment this year and mortgage freedom in 15 years

liuhutOz

Good luck with the plan! I'm in a similar position in that if I had stuck with my first place it would have been paid off this year. I now have a massive mortgage and want to op so that I can hopefully have it paid off in 10/15 years.
We have also cut down the spending this month by reducing drinking and eating out. I joined the take your lunch to work challenge and saved approx $350 just on that!

upwards

the frugal habits will all come flooding back to you for sure! well done on 'getting back on the horse'!

Pursey

Thank you both, hopefully it will come flooding back.

Wow, $350 saving, I haven’t worked out the figures, so might pop on and join that thread too

I also think I’m going to try one of the nsd threads, as it’s too easy to buy bits here and there and justify it to myself, especially when I’ve got the kids with me!

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

Couldsavemore

Am know picturing a horse called Frugal!

I get all nerdsville over 'mortgage maths'. I find it helps motivate me.

LeighofMar

Welcome and congrats on the dream home in the hills.

Pursey

Well the weekend is over and we have avoided alcohol again I also avoided buying junk food, except for a chocolate bar whilst I was at work, which set me back £0.70, so not the end of the world. Funnily enough I was disappointed to have broken it though.
I feel like I need to brush up and get my head fully in the right place now. I also want to get fit and loose weight, as it’s crept on in the last 12 months. We have a running machine, so I can’t use the weather as an excuse!
Tomorrow I intend to start getting rid of stuff from our garage, including a number of items that need selling. I will then put that money directly into my mortgage. I’m also going to speak to the provider about new deals, as we are coming up to renewal time.

My husband is the cook in our house, and doesn’t like to compromise on ‘good food’, but we’ve agreed to scale down our food budget by £10-20 a week - he said less was impossible
Feeling pretty positive though. Oh and just opened a LISA as pension planning seems all the more important and links in with our mortgage free dream

Pursey

Today has been a good day, I found out that our home has been revalued at over 18% more than we paid for it, which has helped us get a better ltv. We are now trying to sort out our remortgages, so hopefully this will be sorted soon.

Today mortgage one is at around 274500 and mortgage two is at around 78000. Unfortunately our tenants are leaving in June, so we need to start thinking about what we do now. We already know of people who would like it, but are not sure about renting it out to friends of friends.

Need to start working on those overpayments!

Pursey

Remortgage has gone through today.
Mortgage 1 is now at 270000 and mortgage 2 is at 79000.
We also have new tenants in our old house - phew!
No overpayment this month though, so will need to set it up for Sept again.

savingholmes

Glad you managed to get new tenants.