SLLM (Single Lady Large Mortgage)

Sistergold

@HelloB, that was good planning when you fixed for 5 years. It’s good that you managed to recover from the debt/divorce and you are now back ontop. Welldone

feeldaburn

LadyWithAPlan said:

Glad to see we are all moving forward in 2023. I have signed up for a twice weekly DIY class - 10 weeks of level 1 carpentry and level 1 plumbing starting next week after my Autumn 10 weeks of general DIY which I loved.

I tiled and repainted my bathroom and its a joy to walk into. I now need to do the same for my kitchen and I have lots of other DIY to do in the flat but its tax month, lots of paid work and I am doing my side hustle again in February,   so I need to get back to working for that - and getting in that gym, so a busy January...plus I have bought a new Made.com workstation in the auction so this weekend as it arrives, I am sorting out my study from trashed to clear and peaceful
 I am not drinking though for January which frees up more time

I’m reading through the diary and love the sound of the courses you’ve done LWAP! What provider were they with? Especially the beginner women’s course? I’m London based and soon to be homeowner 

LadyWithAPlan

HelloB said:

Thanks ladies! 

My ex abruptly left with massive debt and ended up going through an acrimonious divorce in 2020. At one point I didn't know how I could pick myself up, let alone take on a relatively big mortgage on a single income. Thank goodness I fixed the mortgage for 5 years at 1.68%, it's now 8.24% on the Halifax SVR. 

Wow that makes your mortgage pay off even more impressive! Well done

Sistergold

Dear diary and dear friends. 

I have been lurking for too long. Hope you have all been okay? I have been okay and working as hard as ever but enjoying too. Splashed out a bit by going to New York for a few days, just shopping and sight seeing, that was hectic but nice. I have also been saving hard as I want to massively pay down the mortgage again this year. I am looking forward to pay down by £150k by the end of the year. That will be the second big push and this should bring down the mortgage to below £100k once below £100k that will be a good figure to pay off with one final push after some years . I am also hoping to save enough to be mortgage neutral before I pump in the £150k. So to be honest I have really been pushing hard at savings. 

Oh how time flies?! I have once again approaching to the end of my current mortgage deal. As always I will go for a tracker product. I have been getting alerts to switch but have not accepted any of their offers as they were only offering me fixed rate products. So I waited it out and now I am being offered one discounted tracker mortgage product each time I check . So I am still postponing accepting a product as I am just wondering if the rates might go down or they might just offer me something better. 🤷‍♀️ I am not also too pressed if I fall into standard variable for a bit but will definitely try to avoid that. 

As I plan to massively pay down I did not want to fix as all their fixes were going to make me pay a penalty of 6% on early repayments initially and now down to 4% penalty for the 2yr fixes but more if fixing for longer. The only tracker they are offering me will charge me 1% penalty early repayment for 2yrs. I am glad that now they are offering me a tracker as they were trying to force me to fixed rate. I will need to choose a product by end of May

The product I will likely choose 👇🏽

My current product is 1.7% discounted 👇🏽

I am currently paying £1989.88
and new product mean I will be paying £1994.48 so I will be paying just under £5 more per month. 

The rate hikes have been a hard slog thank goodness rates are down a bit. £5 more per month is not to bad. I can see the end now and I can smell the sweet aroma of no mortgage. Just a few more years to go once I pay the £150k. 🤞🏽

hope you have all been okay and making your overpayments. I have been managing to continue with the £100 OP. Every little helps! 🌺🥰

dawnybabes

You’re doing great and living as well as paying it down 🥰🥰

Mysaving

Hi @Sistergold good to see post :-)  Wow, a huge overpayment of £150k by the end of the year would be amazing and very motivating! I hope the rates go down even further so you get an even better tracker deal. The next BoE interest rate meeting is 8th May so you could hang on and see how the base rate will affect the mortgage rates.

Good on you for saving hard. I'm taking a similar approach so I know it's not an easy feat especially in this economy. I recently made a £20k overpayment after not making any in a very long time. I debated on whether I should keep it in an ISA but ultimately, I want to prioritise paying down my mortgage early and save over £100k in interest in the long run. It's encouraging to finally see the balance go down significantly. 

Sistergold

dawnybabes said:

You’re doing great and living as well as paying it down 🥰🥰

Thank you @dawnybabes 🥰

Sistergold

Mysaving said:

Hi @Sistergold good to see post :-)  Wow, a huge overpayment of £150k by the end of the year would be amazing and very motivating! I hope the rates go down even further so you get an even better tracker deal. The next BoE interest rate meeting is 8th May so you could hang on and see how the base rate will affect the mortgage rates.

Good on you for saving hard. I'm taking a similar approach so I know it's not an easy feat especially in this economy. I recently made a £20k overpayment after not making any in a very long time. I debated on whether I should keep it in an ISA but ultimately, I want to prioritise paying down my mortgage early and save over £100k in interest in the long run. It's encouraging to finally see the balance go down significantly. 

Welldone on the £20k OP, that’s a lot! Yes the interest payable is a lot and it’s good to pay down to reduce that as much as possible. If I look at the tracker quote and the amount of interest payable of £133k?! I know I have to pay down the mortgage as quickly as possible as I don’t want to pay more than necessary. 

Thank for that reminder concerning the 8th of May BoE meeting, will hold out till then as there is no real hurry. A delay will cost just under a £100 each month which will not be the end of the world. Will wait and see what happens in May. 🌺

Mysaving

Thanks Sistergold.

seventh88

Well done on what you've achieved this year and great to hear you had a lovely trip to NY too keep going, you'll get there.