Make Me Mortgage-Free!

beingjamie

I’ve always enjoyed reading these - so here‘s my Mortgage Free Wannabe diary.
I’m 36 and married with (recently) two children.
DW and I have just confirmed the second re-mortgage of our house – bought in March 2015 for £230,500.
Remortgaging to Santander in 2017 gave us a nice boost in equity, when it was valued at £275,000.
There’s £182,000 still to pay between now and March 2040.

Like many, I’ve/we’ve been so eager to buy our first property. Since we managed it, I’ve had a dream that’s (almost) the opposite – getting rid of that mortgage!

I’m going to track my/our MFW journey on here.
It’s mainly to keep myself motivated to overpay, but hopefully it’s useful to read, and, maybe, it’ll help me learn a few things too.

I’ll start properly after the weekend. Just preparing my SOA and having a proper look at all of our financials. As you can probably imagine, a lot’s changed over the last couple of months!

Here goes..

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

beingjamie

Hey, thank you! So excited to have started a thread of my own!

Thank you for making it a bit more lived-in

beingjamie

So that all of this makes sense, here's a monthly SOA.

I'm typing in March of 2019. The monthly mortgage repayment and APR reflect our new rate, once re-mortgage #2 takes effect from 2nd April.

The monthly income figures don't include an increase in monthly income - likely to be around 2%.

So that's hopefully an extra £8-10/month that could be OP'd.


SOA:


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1300
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1194.38
Benefits................................ 165.6 (child benefit)
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1285

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 649
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 149
Electricity............................. 10
Gas..................................... 10
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 10.5
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 17
TV Licence.............................. 6.2
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 9
Groceries etc. ......................... 140
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 2
Car Insurance........................... 33.5
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 40
Childcare/nursery....................... 800
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 8
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 20
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Christmas............................... 0
Gym..................................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1986.2

Assets
Cash.................................... 5000
House value (Gross)..................... 275000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 500
Total Assets............................ 280500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 182000...(649)......1.99
Total secured & HP debts...... 0....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Cards...........................0......0...... .0
Total unsecured debts..........0......0.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2494.38
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1986.2
Available for debt repayments........... 0
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 508.18

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 280,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -182,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 98,000

juststuff123

Hi beingjamie

Gas / electricity and TV licence look on the low side, you have nothing in for Christmas / gifts / haircuts or holidays. Is this accurate? Is this because your partner pays for these bits?

beingjamie

Oh yes - gas and electricity are too low.

DW pays for her own hair cuts, although this is really a joint SOA.

Mine are free, because DW cuts my hair at home. A £7 set of clippers that I bought in 2010 have been a great investment!

Christmas is correct in the sense that we don't budget to save for it monthly - it will go on a new 0% card which I'll get later in the year.

Gas and electric are too low - should be £70 in total, so let's add £50 there.

Thank you! :T:T

beingjamie

PROGRESS:

Today I've marked £10 off the mortgage.

Our budget's (really) tight as you'll see above.

But today I've redeemed £5.17 in cashback (NatWest MyRewards) and sold some old VHS tapes on Depop (profit: £5).

So that's £10.17 sent to Santander and ready to OP when the new mortgage officially starts on 2nd April.

We have a 123 account, so I multiply OPs by 1.01 (to include the 1% cashback we'll receive).

So I'm scheduling a Direct Debit OP of £10.27 :j:j:j

miss_undastood

Your water looks a bit too low too - as a family of 4 I’d expect it to be £25-35 or there abouts?

Do you only spend £9pm on broadband?
£140 a month on food is only £32 per week. Is that right?

For me I find writing down what I spend where for a few weeks helps me to find out where money goes.

Good luck in your quest. Break it down into manageable goals. I like to get down to the next £5,000 band - a 10,000 band feels like it takes too long!

Think where you can realistically be in 1,3 and 5 years and work towards it.

In 3 years I want my large mortgage to be under £150k, we have a household income of about 60k so it’ll be a stretch but if we focus we can do it.

Good luck!

comeandgo

Hi. I don't think ou have calculated your income correctly. If you add the three items together it is £2,660.

beingjamie

Thank you so much.

Our water is correct (we are lucky there).

Groceries is also correct. DD eats her meals out during the week - my parents have her on one day, and nursery feed her all her meals on the other four, so this is included in their cost.

I'm wary of implying that she eats for free, because nursery is comfortably our biggest expense.

beingjamie

Yes - because I hadn't included child benefit. Thanks for the spot, @comeandgo!