Lolu's Mortgage Free odyssey

misslolu

@jamesanning that's an idea i've had for a while, unfortunately my mortgage is only a few years old and I put just over 11% in as a deposit. I don't have enough in it to take money out for a BTL. Hopefully this will be more feasible in the next 2/3 years, we're also considering buying a new place to live in and keeping the flat as a BTL when we do.

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan it's an option i've definitely considered but most of the deposits and second payments have been paid at this point so it would be a waste of money. I'm trying to justtake it in my. stride and do what I can when I can.

misslolu

Its been a quiet few weeks, but things are starting to hot up again. The wedding is in just under a month and bills are flying in! I'm trying to keep a handle of finances but it's proving difficult. Luckily we're not massively overspending so it's fine!

As part of my roundup I also looked at my future plans from October last year, where I made some forecasts about money that i'd want to spend in 2024. Surprisingly, there's a large difference from my estimations to what's actually happened for the most part.

Car
This was the most correct as I estimated £5k which we got as a loan from OH's CC, the car was less than that but we used part of the loan we took out to pay the first tax, fuel and insurance payments, as well as some accessories.

Wedding
This is the one i've really pulled back on, something I didn't mention is that £35k was supposed to be the total budget including everyone's contributions. I was thinking we'd be paying about £15kish with parents handling the rest. It looks more like £30k is going to be the budget and we're doing a max of £10k which is much more reasonable.

Honeymoon
This is still way up in the air as OH has just started his job and we're unclear about when he can begin to take leave and how long for. I've also reduced the scope of the trip as I realised travelling between multiple cities is tiring and expensive. It will likely be a 2 city holiday at most so shouldn't be more than £3k considering flight, hotels, transfers and spending money.

General House/Personal Spending
This is still 0, people have started sending us gifts from the registry so i'll wait till a month after the wedding to start getting items that weren't bought. I'll also be purchasing my two main items after the wedding, hoping to get a new chest freezer and a sideboard  for the dining room. I've seen £300 for each, so thinking of a max budget of £800 for all the bits including delivery.

Altogether this is £19k with about £11k already spent, and the only thing on credit is the car (which is already 10% paid off). Wedding costs and general spending will be cashflowed so the only potential debt watch is the honeymoon which can be cut back on if necessary. I'd prefer to cashflow it or up our credit payments to get it paid off very quickly. It's a blank canvas at the moment, so we have a lot of control.

Finances for the week
CC2 (Ours) -  3,597 3,782
CC3 (His) - 5,516 4,772
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1185 1,102
Student Loan - 5,978 5,761
Mortgage - 184,186 183,702

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 16,276 15,327
Total Debt - 200,239 199,029

S&S LISA - 10,448 10,553
Premium Bonds  - 8,325 8,375
Joint Savings -  3,259 2,899

Joint savings are really depleting but next week, we'll make our last planned joint payments which means that from then, funds should be used for our next goal, which may or may not be our honeymoon. Apart from that we've also had a service charge bill come in that needs to be paid which will also go on the 0% CC just to give us some breathing space. That card always seems to go up for some reaosn, so i'll be upping the DD on that too, we only have 8 months or so to pay and i suspect it will need to be transferred to a new card.

Otherwise, I think we're in a really good place. I have a bit of money earmarked for my personal wedding expense, and hopefully I won't have to spend it all. OH should be getting his first salary paid from the new job as well which will also help with expenses. And it does look like, mortgage and 0% card aside, we're making good inroads on the debt. 

misslolu

The wedding has been and gone and i'm soooo happy, it was such a lovely event, well worth the effort and stress but at the same time i'm happy it's over. Now we canmove on with our life and plan towards some smaller but still significant moves. Unfortunately, due to some last minute expenses it's also meant we've had to taken on a bit of debt to cover all expenses and there's still 1 more vendor to pay. I had hoped to cashflow the whole wedding which would have been ambitious, but may have been doable if OH's work situation hadn't changed right at the beginning of the month. As it stands, the debt has increased by about £1k or so apart from the service charge, we'll know the full amount once the last vendor has been paid and we've sent out all returns etc etc but this is how the numbers are looking right now:

CC2 (Ours) -  3,782 5,645
CC3 (His) - 4,772  5,079
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1,102 1,086
Student Loan - 5,792 5,568
Mortgage - 183,702 183,476

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 15,327 17,378
Total Debt - 199,029 200,854

S&S LISA - 10,553 10,789
Premium Bonds  - 8,375 8,375
Joint Savings -  2,899 1,400

On a positive note, we're still receiving gifts, hopefully that wil help offset some of the debt, but we're quite happy with where we are financially at the moment. Some of my goals for the year will need to be delayed but not by much. The final piece of the puzzle will be to plan and book the honeymoon and determine how to fund it. Ideally, we'd not use more credit so it's up to me to plan something that can be paid off with funds already in the bank + upcoming salaries which honestly shouldn't be too much trouble.

Jessy103

Congratulations to you both 🍾💍🎉

powerspowers

Congratulations Lolu!! 

misslolu

Thank you @Jessy103 & @powerspowers!!!

I think we've received our last gifts now, so we've begun planning for our last major purchases for the year. Some of the decisions we've made:

1. Purchasing a chest freezer to supplement our small freezer
2. Purchasing a wardrobe to aid in organisation of OH's and my stuff

Something we're still considering is another sideboard in the living room to help with kitchen/tableware, but it's entirely possible I could get away without one if I do a good kitchen organisation bit. So i'll start with that and see what happens. We've also decided to fund the honeymoon (which is next week) from savings for £1000, and personal spends from September's salary.  The rest will come from credit if necessary but ideally we'd not spend more than £300-400 on non-accomodation and trasnport needs.

CC2 (Ours) -  5,645
CC3 (His) -  5,079 4,931
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1,086
Student Loan - 5,568
Mortgage - 183,476

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 17,378 17,230
Total Debt - 200,854 200,706

S&S LISA - 10,789
Premium Bonds  - 8,375
Joint Savings -    2,200 2,000

misslolu

So we're back from our honeymoon in the mediterranean, it was so lovely and warm and just what we needed after a very busy year. Payday came and went while we were away, so i kept an eye on it just to be sure everything went smoothly. I managed to get myself all confused and in a tizzy but i think i've gotten myself out of it now. As expected we didn't really spend so much on the trip, less than £1500 altogether for 8 nights, including all flights and transfers in both countries. I think thats an absolute steal! Something to add to the list for next time is fasttrack at immigration, because we spent sooo long in the queue and it wasn't fun. A look at finances:

CC2 (Ours) -  5,645 6,246
CC3 (His) -   4,931 4,451
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1001
Student Loan - 5,568 5,373
Mortgage - 183,476 183,211

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 17,230 17,071
Total Debt - 200,706 200,282

S&S LISA - 10,789 11,144
Premium Bonds  - 8,375
Joint Savings -    2,200 802

Joint CC has gone up (again) because i've just got myself a new phone as mine was on it's last legs. I paid on the CC as i wasn't sure if i'd have enough to cover it with all the money flying around. I don't quite have all the funds neessary for it but I will next month. I've decided, though, to put the money towards interest bearing debt for now and i'll add it to my debt to pay off once i've paid this card off. Right now that leaves me with about £1200 of personal debt on the joint CC (familiar numbers!!) which I likely won't be paying off until mid next year as i'll be prioritising the student loan before this one. We're reducing the amount we put towards joint savings so I should be able to pay this off pretty quickly with the snowball. The target debt-free date with no extra payments or snowball originally would have taken me well into late '26 which seems so awful, currently I have April '26, which is a bit better and every month reduces based on how much extra payments I can do.

Also, in very exciting news we're officially TTC! It may take a few months for my body to get back to normal, but the aim is to have the baby here by the end of next year. I'm only in my early 30s but I definitley feel like i'm going to be an older mum already, so really hoping it all goes to plan. It's full steam ahead for us at the oment and I really can't wait!

skint_spice

Congratulations on your marriage 🎉🎉🎉

misslolu

Thank you so much @skint_spice!!

We ended up cash flowing the honeymoon entirely, so no additional debt there, but it does mean that we're lower than we've ever been in the joint savings. Knowing that we've now reduced the joint savings amount since we're no longer aggressively saving for the wedding does leave me feeling a bit apprehensive. There's another big bill coming in December and obviously Christmas as well (which is less than 100 sleeps away) so we may need to up it slightly just to make sure we get the bills paid off on time.

CC2 (Ours) -  5,645
CC3 (His) -   4,451 4,076
Medical Loan (Mine) - 1001
Student Loan - 5,373
Mortgage - 183,211

Total Non - Mortgage Debt - 17,071 16,095
Total Debt - 200,706 198,306

S&S LISA - 11,144
Premium Bonds  - 8,375
Joint Savings -    802 1,200

We now officially have no more large scale purchases left on the radar, so we can really focus on getting the debt down to a more manageable amount. I'd absolutely love to get it down to £10k but that's an unachievable dream at the moment, so I think i'll settle for £14k which is definitely a big stretch but potentially possible depending on OH's pay over the Christmas period. 

I'm going to try to ramp up extra cash as well, maybe do some account switching and other bits and pieces. With us planning for a baby, it would be nice (and financially prudent) to be well on our way to debt free by the first 3 months of maternity leave (when I still get full pay). That gives us a year from conception, and trust me i'll be checking, to get everything done and dusted. Probably slightly our of reach for now, but could be a reality by the beginning of next year!

misslolu

I've decided to try something a bit different money wise to help with pain free but progressive debt payments. I mentioned before that we've lowered our monthly savings commitments which has meant I have a bit more cash to myself each week. However, for the past two months i've noticed that money disappearing to who knows where and i've not used it wisely. Instead of that, i've decided to put EVERYTHING into debt payments except for my savings commitments (long + short term savings, investments & PBs) and household contributions leaving myself only £100 a week until payday plus an extra £50 if the payday isn't on a friday. Then every Friday, I sweep the extra money towards debt.

The way I see it, £100 a week is more than enough for normal spending and should also cover any unexpected expenses that could potentially come up midweek. This way I don't put myself inadvertently into difficulty by paying too much to debt, but I still get to pay off a decent amount each week. It's an added benefit that it adds some spice to the middle weeks of the months which would otherwise be very boring. I'll let you know how it goes! Finances:

November
CC2 (Ours) -   6246, 5,986 
CC3 (His) -    4,076 4,017
Medical Loan (Mine) -  1001
Student Loan -  5,370
Mortgage -  183,211

Funny enough, it's been a really great few weeks for surveys, and after totting up how much i've made for the year, i'll probably get to at least 3 full payments just from surveys! IT's amazing how just a few minutes here and there can really add up and i'm really happy with my take this year.

I've also been working on a spreadsheet to calculate my DFD and i've finally gotten all my various scenarios to tally. Yes, I know there are already options available to do this automatically, but i'be really had fun building what was initially a very simple calculated sheet into a much more complicated and convoluted one. I'm sure noone else but me can read it at this point, haha. Surveys and additional payments are showing up quite well for me. I've also increased my monthly debt payment by almost £100. Then end result is my DFD has moved forward to Jan 2026 for my most conservative estimate and September 25 for my optimistic model. It's worth noting that my interest free CC will be interest bearing at that time, so I may need to rejig the debt onto my low interest rate card or hope for another interest free card.