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Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

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  • Hi everyone! 

    So... 2049... yes, that’s the current end date for our mortgage and at that point I’ll be (gulp) 61 and my husband Red will be 64! I DO NOT want us still to be paying a mortgage in our 60s and so I’m starting this diary.

    I’ve had a diary over on debt free wannabe for the last 8-9 months and it’s been so much fun writing it, but we are debt free now (mortgage and student loan aside) so now it’s time to focus on saving, investing and mortgage overpayments.

    It’s a good time for a fresh start as our circumstances have changed quite a bit already in 2021. 

    On New Year’s Day I was a SAHM with zero intention of working for another 2-3 years - I was loving being at home with my two kids (DS5 and DD2), cooking & baking from scratch, trying with limited success to grow veg, learning skills like sewing and knitting etc. 

    About ten days later my old manager from my last job, three years ago, called me up totally out of the blue to ask me to apply for a job in her team. After much emotional turmoil I realised this opportunity was too good to pass up - it came with a promotion and the pay is good, I like the work and team, and I’m able to work from home and part time hours (finish at 3 and a Friday off). 

    I’m really enjoying being back and of course, even with childcare to pay, it’s still resulted in much more free cash for our family each month - we were only getting by before through very careful budgeting and strict frugality. We do hope to keep this up while using most of the increase in income to save and get ahead with our mortgage.

    So a few facts about us, if you haven’t been on my old diary:

    • we have two kids, Monkey who’s 5 and Bambi who’s 2
    • we have three lovely chickens who help keep our egg bill down (though our chicken feed bill cancels that out!)
    • we live in Glasgow
    • my husband Red fixes and makes things as a hobby, mainly out of wood but he’s partial to using copper too, and he’s trained in gas & electric too through his work - so we are always doing random projects at home 
    • I LOVE to make endless lists and budgets so if you hang around here you will be subjected to a few!

    And about our mortgage:

    • as of today we owe £112,843.07
    • interest rate 1.89% fixed til Feb 2025
    • monthly repayment £421
    • we bought the house 6 years ago for £155k (yes, we remortgaged the term up to 30 years again in 2019 which doesn’t sound sensible but we were struggling with the payments on one salary) and I think it’s worth roughly £170-175k now.

    I’ll do a rough budget below though I use YNAB, which encourages flexible budgets, so it does vary each month as we move money between categories. This two income budget is new to us too so there will no doubt be some changes!

    Wow, you are lucky having that interest rate fixed into 2025...I wish I was in that boat
  • Bluegreen143
    Bluegreen143 Posts: 3,702 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    @nastyphoenix I’m SO glad we fixed for five years!! Though our previous five year fix was a total rip off and we wasted a lot of money - so I suppose it’s a risk either way as to whether or not to fix.

    @the_cross_rabbit I’m not in principle against this but as he’s only 6 he doesn’t get enough pocket money to actually replace a £30 jumper 🤣 but maybe I could fine him a week or two’s pocket money towards the cost? 
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
  • Bluegreen143
    Bluegreen143 Posts: 3,702 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 7 October 2022 at 8:37PM
    So this evening we jumped in the car to go to Monkey’s school ceilidh and our tyre was flat 🤦‍♀️ I bumped a kerb when parking yesterday and thought it was fine but clearly not. 

    Managed to get a taxi within literally 3 minutes (the school is not walking distance, he gets the school bus there, and there are no quick/easy public transport options for that time of night with two small kids in the rain, even though we live in the middle of the city - too much walking on both end of the bus!) so we still made it to the school dance but it was £15 for a taxi there and back, plus I’ll have to get a new tyre tomorrow 🤦‍♀️ 

    Still, the ceilidh was fun. The school haven’t done this yet since Monkey started cos of covid, so felt very lovely to be there! 
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
  • savingholmes
    savingholmes Posts: 28,953 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Ceilidh sounds awesome 
    Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
    1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
    2) £3K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
    3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £22.5K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.1K) = 28.2/£127.5K target 22;12% updated 6/7
    4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
    5) SIPP £4.6K updated 6/7/25
  • savingholmes
    savingholmes Posts: 28,953 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Great result on the tyre
    Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
    1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
    2) £3K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
    3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £22.5K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.1K) = 28.2/£127.5K target 22;12% updated 6/7
    4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
    5) SIPP £4.6K updated 6/7/25
  • Bluegreen143
    Bluegreen143 Posts: 3,702 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 11 October 2022 at 11:20AM
    Just got my payslip as I get paid on Thursday. 

    £1,556 net + £240 into my pension = £1,796

    Budgeted as follows:

    NEEDS
    Car bills pot - £80
    Groceries - £500*
    Petrol & parking - £150*
    Misc - £50*

    Obviously I budget for the mortgage, energy bills etc from Red’s salary!!

    * aiming to come under in these categories so I can move excess to savings - I managed this this month.

    WANTS
    TV/music subs - £37
    Gifts & celebrations pot - £155
    Holiday pot - £46
    Me - £300
    …… Bills £125
    …… Savings £25
    …… Clothes £50
    …… Fun/hobbies £100
    (I moved £14 left in the Fun pot from last month to my own savings pot too) 

    SAVINGS
    Pension - £240
    Help to save - £100
    Emergency fund - £137

    Emergency fund is now at £1,678.79.

    I think our Help to Save pots now have £2,300 between them which is great, and in November we get £600 each as bonus, which we are putting towards our eventual log burner (did I tell you all that the start date for the conservatory got moved back two weeks 😡 can’t wait for it to be done!!).
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
  • Bluegreen143
    Bluegreen143 Posts: 3,702 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 11 October 2022 at 8:09PM
    Very busy day at work, though it was mainly meetings so got little actual work done 🙄😂

    Once I picked up the kids we did a brief playpark visit then I did an hour’s work from 4-5pm (the kids were playing nicely though also Red came home in that window and took over when he did). 

    I always have a couple of hours extra to work each week that I can’t squeeze into my normal working time I have between school runs, but I’ve done all my extra time this week now so don’t need to worry about it tomorrow or Thursday.

    Made sweet & sour chicken (not the deep fried kind in batter, just normal chicken) with a choice of egg fried rice or plain boiled rice and broccoli on the side for dinner. AND IT WAS A SUCCESS WITH THE KIDS FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!! Bambi ate her chicken (in sauce), plain rice and broccoli but the real success was Monkey, who chose egg fried rice and had two helpings of everything, even eating the onions and peppers in the sauce 🙌🏼 It’s making me sooooooo happy how much better their eating is getting! Monkey did help cook tonight but previously that’s never been enough to persuade him to eat it - I think as he’s getting older though he is taking pride in helping to cook. Plus he saw how large an amount of sugar goes into the sauce which no doubt helped persuade him 😂😆

    Haven’t been to the gym yet this week as tbh feel like I have a bit of a cold and need extra sleep. Will skip again tomorrow and will aim to go on Thursday, but in the evening rather than getting up so early in the morning. Next week
    I’m off work for the October break anyway so will go back to early starts after that!

    My bathroom paint and gloss has arrived! Waiting on all the extras like brushes/rollers and tape. Usually Red takes the lead on all DIY so it’s quite exciting having a little project of my own! And we have never painted the bathrooms since moving in so I’m looking forward to a change.

    Frugal wins

    1. There was just enough leftover soup from
    last night for my lunch with a toastie (and plenty leftover chocolate cake for snacks, ahem)

    2. No heating on yet, and when I checked my bill from Shell our usage was less than I’d feared

    3. I’ve been very good at composting food waste for the last couple of weeks, as we can be a bit intermittent with it (we don’t have a little food waste caddy as I NEVER remember to empty it before it goes gross! So composting relies on me using a bowl each time I cook to collect scraps, and sometimes I get out of the habit). 

    4. Red noticed that Echo speakers are on a mega cheap sale so picked one up for the conservatory in advance of it being built, for only £20. Which was free for my budget as he paid with his money 😆 we have our little Alexa speakers everywhere in the house and it’s inevitable we’d get one for the conservatory so might as well buy when there’s a sale.
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
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