The second hurdle - Nichelette v the huge mortgage

Nichelette

beanielou said:

Jukst do your research on DS's surgery as it can revert.

That's interesting. I'll investigate, though I'm not sure we have a lot of options as it's already really hard with his shoes and I expect it will get harder the longer his feet get. He will be in splints after cast but I don't know how long for at the moment. 

beanielou

I have CP so i hear you.

Nichelette

Quick one before my lunch break is over... 

More redundancies are looming at work, but I don't think it will apply to my part of the business. Mixed feelings as tbh I'd like to go, but we need to move first. Would get nearly 20k in redundancy if I did now. Suppose I should count my blessings. Small pay deal was approved so now we're on just over 100k combined. Feels like a huge amount (we were both raised in households where money was tight so it is meaningful to us). It has been backdated so we're getting about £800 extra this month (though DH car tax of nearly £200 is also due). 

Am doing pretty well on prolific. I'm actually on track to go over the 1k allowance, so I will need to stop when I'm close as don't want to get taxed on it and it screwing up the tax code for my proper job (complete lack of trust as you can tell lol). 

I have started using sprive for shopping vouchers to OP mortgage. I have the same thing available through work, but sprive is more user friendly so I figure I may as well use it. I did download a couple of years ago then didn't bother with it.. 

Should probably do a new SOA as thing are different now no more nursery for DS1 & all bills seem to have gone up loads anyway.. 

debtfreewannabe321

Great news with the extra pay and being backdated!
£20k is a good amount for redundancy but would it affect your ability to move, do you need your wage for the mortgage? I hope it goes whichever way you need it to 🤞🏻

Nichelette

Would definitely reduce what we could borrow, but to be honest I'm not sure I'll be able to hack my job for long after March when my immediate manager retires due to the over zealous micro manager above him (which I would at least understand if we were under performing, but it's the complete opposite..). I've been there since 2005 with a brief gap for final year of uni. I just feel like I'm done now (also get the feeling most of the directors who have been replaced in last 5 or so years aren't good people..). It's very much jobs for the boys up there now. At the same time I understand I'm in a good position, but I'm really questioning if it's worth being unhappy. Am 40 next year so maybe mid life crisis 😂. It's a shame as my immediate team are great and what has kept me going for so long. 

I checked, and currently with existing lender we can get up to 555k on a mortgage with nursery fees accounted for. We have about 190k in equity and obviously need to factor in stamp duty and other moving costs. I checked worst case scenario, and being sensible, even if I jad a min wage job for a while I'm sure we'd still be able to definitely get something bigger albeit obviously not at our ceiling. I'm now putting £500 into vanguard each month which will be put towards moving costs when we get there. 

Positives are DH is doing well in his job, and they are at least starting to give him overtime for the extras he's doing (he's the lowest paid in his team but doing about 3.5 people's jobs). 

We were paid on Friday so I've moved £800 into nursery account, £500 into vanguard, £200  was car tax and I've paid just over £500 off the mortgage as that gets us into the 191k bracket. Nearly in 180's!

Oh, also had Wednesday afternoon off work (impromptu). I managed to sand the handrail on the stairs and get 2 coats on the wood in the kids bathroom which needed doing, so we are still slowly ploughing away at the house!

Nichelette

Oh, and the other positive is that I've already worked for so long before the kids arrived that I've technically qualified for full state pension when you account for the time until eldest reaches adulthood. If it exists by then 😅

South_coast

You're getting very close to taking £100k off the mortgage. I hope you have a celebration in mind for that 😀?

Nichelette

South_coast said:

You're getting very close to taking £100k off the mortgage. I hope you have a celebration in mind for that 😀?

Oh good point! I'd been so focused on the 10 intervals I'd not even noticed 😅. There is a lady who does prints that I absolutely love. I already have one, but they're not the cheapest, so I might get one for each 100k as a treat 😆. I think it would actually be nice to have a visual, as (extremely long story in an old diary) 10 years ago I didn't even think we'd ever get a house. 

Embarassingly I remember sitting in the pub one day with my now husband just crying after seeing the bank as I thought I'd be stuck on my dad's mortgage for the rest of my life. We'd not even been together that long. Surprised he hung around, but here we are 😂. 10th anniversary next year actually!

Nichelette

Dumping SOA here, will comment separately in a minute...

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.................... 2

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 2807

Partners monthly income after tax....... 3436

Benefits................................ 187

Other income............................ 0

Total monthly income.................... 6430

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 1164

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 20

Council tax............................. 208

Electricity............................. 68

Gas..................................... 68

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 68

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 23

TV Licence.............................. 15

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 26

Internet Services....................... 24

Groceries etc. ......................... 250

Clothing................................ 50

Petrol/diesel........................... 180

Road tax................................ 33

Car Insurance........................... 50

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 800

Other child related expenses............ 100

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

Buildings insurance..................... 5

Contents insurance...................... 5

Life assurance ......................... 0

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60

Haircuts................................ 0

Entertainment........................... 200

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 0

Total monthly expenses.................. 3477

Assets

Cash.................................... 9375

House value (Gross)..................... 383000

Shares and bonds........................ 500

Car(s).................................. 23500

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 416375

Secured & HP Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 191990...(1164).....4.9

Total secured & HP debts...... 191990....-.........-   

Unsecured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

CC.............................3399......85........0

Total unsecured debts..........3399......85........- 0

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 6,430

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,477

Available for debt repayments........... 2,953

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 85

Amount left after debt repayments....... 2,868

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 416,375

Total HP & Secured debt................. -191,990

Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,399

Net Assets.............................. 220,986

Nichelette

So quickly did a new SOA. Salary amounts might not be exact as we had backdated pay last month so I've had to calculate it, but it shouldn't be much out if it is. 

Electric and gas is dual fuel so I've just halved it, though we're £417 in credit so apparently next bill is reducing to £103 so about £30 less a month.

Mobile is for both of us. TV is sky sports which is one of our few entertainments and is always on in our house so it's worth it to us (I also cancel over summer when no football).

I think groceries is less as we're not big eaters, but it's a guess. Kids get fed all meals at nursery during the week and just have snacks when they get home. I'm veggie and kids only eat fish so we're not spending a lot on meat. DH and I don't eat breakfast and I often make cheap stuff like soup for lunch. Often DH will eat veggie dinner with me. 

Clothing and fuel are also best guesses and averages. I don't drive much, but my car has a big tank. It takes about £60-70 to fill depending on prices, but that will often last me over a month depending on what I'm doing (work in same office as DH so we share when I go in). 

Nursery is a rough average after tax free childcare is accounted for a it varies depending on length of month. 3 years down, 2 years left 🥳. 

Other child expenses, entertainment and presents are best guesses (I have a fairly big family). We're working most of the time so dont get out loads. 

I've put £10 for medical but we don't have any regular prescriptions etc and kids are free. I stopped seeing dentist at 19 as I couldn't afford when at uni. This has actually reminded me DH needs to book a check up. My teeth are good but his are terrible. He was very lucky to get an NHS dentist some years ago. 

Our buildings and contents is for some reason very low and always has been...

Emergency fund isn't 0, but it's covered under cash (PB's). 

Obviously once DS2 is out of nursery that will make a big difference to us. I also make just under 1k on prolific. I'm too scared to go over the small earnings threshold because I'm scared it will screw up my tax code for proper job so I stop just shy to avoid it. It's not guaranteed so I don't include it. I also get a small amount in from kids old bits in vinted. 

So anyway, on to the fun bit...

As I've already mentioned, my manager retires in March. I've just found out that my counterpart at work (there are only 2 of us) is pregnant due in Feb. Obviously she will be going too. Because of this I forsee everything being dumped on me as I'm pretty sure with all the cutting my immediate manager won't be replaced. At the same time there is a big change coming in spring which will impact our work for the worse. Ideally I was hoping we could move then I'd get voluntary redundancy, but if it's voluntary and they don't get rid of everyone (I don't think they will), it now seems highly unlikely they'd let me take redundancy which is a bit gutting. I'm so desperate to leave now too 😩.