SLLM (Single Lady Large Mortgage)

Sistergold

Good morning laddies
Mortgage payment went out yesterday
👇🏾


and balance has moved from 👇🏾

To👇🏾

So I am now below £410k, I am happy as this time when interest is added it will stay below £410k 💪🏾🎉🥳. As you can see my minimum payment at present is £1955.09 but I am paying £2955.08 as have set up OP to go with monthly payments. I do miss the £999.99 as when it was going into my savings it feels better seeing the growth. While I know mortgage is going down faster it just does not have the same impact/feeling as when it goes into savings. I think my overpayments will need to be payed for years before I can feel I have made a difference! For now it just feels like a drop in the sea, I know it is a long journey to mortgage freedom! Just wish it could be quicker! Xx

savingholmes

You are doing well. 

Merlin's_Beard

You've paid over £78,000 off your original mortgage amount, I think? That's impressive!

Sistergold

Thanks @savingholmes, @merlin’s_beard

EndlessStruggle

I tend to post on Facebook groups and only using those people suggested multiple times.

I tend to prefer older tradesman especially as it's an old house and they are probably more used to older features.

My boiler serviceman used to install/service 100s of my boiler when he first started. 

I've got the roofer 8am Tuesday and another I'm awaiting a date and time as I was emailing him close to shutting time on Friday.

Be interesting to compare quotes but really need those gutters done asap. 

My bodge is only good if it doesn't rain as the water butt won't hold enough water. 

If it rains I'll have to put the connectors back together and connect it back to the downpipe.

At least it is getting a chance to dry out a bit.

savingholmes

Glad you can get people to come. Can be hard currently

Sistergold

Understanding my Early Repayment Charges 
So I have just been trying to understand how my early repayment charge will be calculated if I payed more than the £999.99 per month which I can pay without a penalty. My current product unlike other previous experiences does not even allow me to pay 10% without a penalty which I have gotten to accept. In any case I have so many other plans which will use up my money so I felt it was okay not to get hung up on being able to pay large OPs. 

So at present I will be charged 1% of any amount over OP of ~£1k till 31st June 2022 and thereafter 0.05% penalty till 31st June 2023 at which point I need to change to another deal. 

I was not sure how this current 1% penalty will be charged, for example I have a direct debit OP setup of £999.99. If I payed another £100 ad hoc OP, will penalty be on the £100 or on the ~£1100(comprising of £1000 allowed OP and £100 excess OP)?. So I called WestBrom bank and it turns out if I made extra over payment the penalty will be on the total OP that month so £11(1% of £1100) and not £1(1% of £100) as I thought. So I think I will not be making any excess OP as I don’t want to start paying penalty on the penalty free OP amount aswell. 

Well I also asked what my new monthly payment would have recalculated to if I payed the £100 excess OP(the excess OP will trigger a recalculation which will include all OPs I have made so far and I can choose to reduce term or keep term same and so reduce monthly payment). They calculated that because of my previous monthly £1k OPs my new repayment amount would potentially go down to £1908.76 per month from the current £1955.09 per month 😇.

I am going to leave the OPs the way they are as it means I am effectively OP more as my monthly payment stays the same as long as I pay the free OP. This will mean come remortgage time they will now recalculate everything to include the £1k monthly OPs and this might mean my monthly minimum payment might go really down maybe to £1700s per month come 1st July 2023?🤞 this is me just day dreaming maybe? At present all my OPs will continue to go to reducing monthly amount until l am now paying maybe under £1k at which point I will make all OPs to shorten term 🤔.

badmemory

It might be worth calculating how much interest you would save long term by paying the IRC, possibly waiting until July when it is only 0.05% & paying it in a lump & then another lump when your fix ends.

Sistergold

Kitchen preparation update
The architect has come back to me with the options for structural work that will be needed to remove the chimney breast. All three options are not really going to make financial sense for the amount of storage space I will gain. So at the start I wanted to do two things to free up more kitchen cabinet space 1) remove chimney breast, 2) move boiler to garage. So basically I will no longer do 1) but hopefully this week I will be able to do 2). As I am not removing chimney breast it means I don’t need to wait anymore! I would have hoped to get the chimney breast removed but hey half a loaf is better than nothing. 

So I will now order the kitchen cabinets in three instalments to see if I like the design? If I ordered the whole lot and I don’t like how they turn out it will be a waste of money? If I order in sections I can make some adjustments to the design? Let’s see how it goes with the fabrication. 💁🏽‍♀️

Will let you know once first order goes through.💋 Xx

EndlessStruggle

I had the roofer come today and I asked for a quote for the dormers and the main roof.

He said the felt was looking very old even just looking from the ground. Said the same as the surveyor pretty much about everything.

I've got another one coming tomorrow.

I also had a handyman come round to look at jobs who is going to charge me a day rate of £150 per day, which I didn't think was too bad at all.

He was so nice, he even helped me with some things that I was worrying about.

I had my first homeowner "my house is falling apart" worry. 

He wants me to write a list and he'll just plan his days accordingly and grab materials before or during lunch. 

He's doing my guttering tomorrow, he's going to reuse as much as possible and my internal stop !!!!!! and depending on time, he'll move on to the next job.

I had the asbestos results back and they were positive but I'm suspicious of the bloke who came out so I've ordered a back up kit from Amazon and going to test the same area and I actually got a multi sample kit so I'm going to test everywhere for piece of mind.

Mum told me to be careful I'm not being scammed and to be honest now I think about it he just put the sample in a plastic bag, I never saw him seal it up and he didn't use any PPE.

Might just be me being suspicious but it's a lot of money to remove it so I want to be sure it is there.