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Lolu's Mortgage Free odyssey
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Aww thanks @cornishmum @Chiglepig @South_coast @penny*pincher_2 @riotlady ! I'm also dreaming of hurrying up and being mortgage free haha.
At the moment, I live at home, so there's no huge rush to get me out (apart from my sister who is hoping to get the room back to her sole ownership). I've managed to move most of my stuff out, including my desk and lots of kitchen stuff. At worst I probbably have a suitcase worth of stuff left, but i'm keeping that here till i've got the new place fully sorted out.
I've now done all the admin bits, so bills & council tax are sorted so now i'm moving onto the actual flat issues. For some reason some of my lights aren't working, even though the bulb itself seems to be fine. I've called an electrician but they haven't gotten back to me even after being promised. I'm also trying to get some paint for the living room as it definitely needs a new coat or two because of some marks, then I also want to change the current accent wall in my bedroom from wallpaper to a new colour of paint.
All in all it's not much, to be fair I bought the property slightly over what i'd wanted because I knew they'd just replaced the bath and kitchen and knew I wouldn't need to do so before I upgrade. Once that's all done I'll get the bigger ticket items like TV & washing machine.
Also, it's been so hard to find a regular cleaner in the area. I've never been the best at cleaning and shy away from it because of back pain (in my 20s!) I've actually managed to do a once over of the flat (in 3 separate bits to avoid stress) but since this is much bigger than what i'm used to i'll definitely need someone to come in at least once a forntnight. So if anyone knows a good company in Kent, i'm open to suggestions.2 -
Got myself an electrician to look at my lights this weekend thankfully, I have a feeling i'll be in the house from Thursday to sunday and i'm a bit torn. On one hand, I have a mattress still in the box it was delivered in, but i don't really want to unpack it because I still want to paint this weekend or later on in the week but on the other hand, if I don't then I have a few uncomfortable days sleeping on the floor. Decisions, decisions.
I was also hoping to get some coving up before painting, but honestly i'm not too excited about the prospect of doing all that admin and the money leaving my account. Especially as i'm cash poor and credit rich these days. I think i'll leave that for now, i'm a bit tired and time is running out.
Finances wise, I had less cash than I expected after paying outstanding fees so I got myself my first adult CC with a £7k limit (0%). I told myself i'd only spend 4k of it, but after spending almost 2k on sofa, bed etc I doubt i'll make it past 3k, I do see myself justifying silly things like midweek takeaways on them so i'll have to nip that in the bud.
Next steps are to receive all my deliveries and paint the rooms, lets see what I can get done this week.
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Some advice I was given when I got my first credit card was never to use it for anything which I wouldn't still have by the time I got the bill. Of course, I completely ignored it, but those words were ringing in my ears when I got the bill and saw transactions for food and petrol which were long gone and I hadn't yet paid for.
Now I have a card which earns me reward points, so I use it for everything - but I pay it straight off from my spending pots afterwards 😀Mortgage start: £65,495 (March 2016)
Cleared 🧚♀️🧚♀️🧚♀️!!! In 5 years, 1 month and 29 days
Total amount repaid: £72,307.03. £1.10 repaid for every £1.00 borrowed
Finally earning interest instead of paying it!!!3 -
That's brilliant advice, SC, I'm going to pass it on to my DD!@misslolu, the first few months are always spendy - hang on in there, you're investing in yourself as well as the bricks and mortar, it will settle down2014 starting mortgage £165,0002015 second charge £20,000 - Jan 2021 paid off in fullCurrent outstanding balance - £115,8561
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South_coast said:Some advice I was given when I got my first credit card was never to use it for anything which I wouldn't still have by the time I got the bill. Of course, I completely ignored it, but those words were ringing in my ears when I got the bill and saw transactions for food and petrol which were long gone and I hadn't yet paid for.
Now I have a card which earns me reward points, so I use it for everything - but I pay it straight off from my spending pots afterwards 😀
The electrician came and managed to fix the issue in 30 mins, apparently, the previous owners had done something silly when trying to remove the light fixtures. That one issue fixed the lights in the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom & the extractor fan in there too.
I was also able to get my paint for the bedroom & living room sorted, done a base coat for both rooms and finished off the living room with the help of some friends. Unfortunately i've managed to get paint everywhere and my hand has cramped too much to do the bedroom too. I think finishing off the painting and cleaning up are now jobs for the weekend, because i'm way too tired to do those now.
I eventually decided to unpack the mattress and put it in the living room, my back was aching too much on the floor so it's been a welcome experience. The bed frame is coming sometime this week so once I get the paint sorted, i'll put it together and that'll be me well on my way to be ready to move in.0 -
The credit card I got was 0% for 20 months but only purchases made within the first 60 days are eligible for that interest-rate. So I've been kind of rushing with my purchases because I know that I need to leave some time for returns and repurchases if necessary.
I probably have till about 10th of August to get everything together which is about four weeks away. It sounds like I have ages, but time really flies and I can't believe one month has already gone out of two. I've got my final two major purchases, a washing machine and a TV and looking at the money for both of them was almost painful, but that's it!!
I also have my first mortgage payment coming up, I'm with Atom mortgages and they seem to give a month of grace period before you have to pay, so even though I got my property in June my first payment isn't till August. Come to think of it I've not even said anything about my mortgage and payments.
So I got a mortgage of £192,375 with a 10.52% deposit (don't ask) and interest rate of 3.49% fixed for 2 years. That means I have payments of £867 until 2023 where I hope to fix for another two years but with a lower LTV. I'm hoping that in the two years I can pay off the remaining 4.48% to get me to 85% LTV. A bit of rough maths tells me only to overpay about £2000 in that period to get to the LTV assuming the price of the house stays the same. At less than 200 a month I think that's quite doable, in fact I'll probably be aiming for something closer to £5000 of overpayments over the two years.
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Just caught up with your diary Lolu, congrats on your new home - it sounds like things are coming together nicelyMFW 2021 #76 £5,145
MFW 2022 #27 £5,300
MFW 2023 #27 £2,000
MFW 2024 #27 £6,055
MFW 2025 #27 £2,350 /£5,0001 -
Hi Lou, just read your journey so far. So thrilled for you, I'm sorry you've had a few hiccups but from what I read, we all do!
I will look forward to reading more!1 -
Thanks @powerspowers@killerpeaty! Things seem to be moving along swimmingly at the moment. I have a locksmith coming to change my locks today ( a bit late, but I tried to DIY and was thwarted by a lack of tools). I'm slightly pained because it's £70 I wouldn't need to spend but do, ah well.
I also received my induction pot set, bed frame, desk chair & washing machine last week. I managed to set up the bed by myself after much struggle and strife but had an absolutely awful time of getting the mattress from the living room to the bedroom. IT was SO heavy and hard to manouever especially as i'm quite short. Ah well, I did it and my bedroom is looking very nice and put together, or it would if there weren't huge amounts of clutter on the floor.
So the plan for this week is to set up the desk chair, receive my TV, get my locks changed and finally interview my new cleaner. Hopefully I can do a 1 hr whizz round because the whole house is in such a state, I don't want to scare her off.
I thought I already sent this post but on Monday it seems that I forgot to press send, ha ha! The cleaner came for her interview and I'm still waiting for my TV and sofa to come. Haven't managed to do the desk chair either. It's been such a hectic week!! A neighbour of mine might be helping bring some of the rest of my stuff, so that should be my last big trip, yay! I have a lot of tidying to do though so I think I should get to it.1 -
I think collecting tools becomes a thing once you have a place. I went from nothing to having a cupboard of tools and paint. So I would have been the same!
How come you're sofa and TV are delayed?1
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