The 'scenic route' to mortgage freedom...

PiggyBankShaker

After a break of several years I'm back on MSE. I need a diary for day-to-day financial accountability in order to help us achieve our longer term goals and dreams. My last diary really helped us get our of debt and raise money for home improvements at a time when we were struggling financially, and whilst we have moved on from then in many ways I think the mindset I developed while chronicling a long journey helped me to stay on track.

Anyway, here's the current situation:

Mortgage
£144,398

Length of term
23 years and 2 months

We have a 2.34% fix that ends in August 2024 so ideally we want a low LTV ratio at that point in order to get a good rate. Currently we have 62.62% LTV.

Why I've called this the 'scenic route' is because we can't really start paying down the mortgage in earnest yet because we are saving (supposed to be saving) for a house extension. Planning permission was granted in May and we have a structural engineer coming on Friday to calculate steel etc. But other than that we have no idea of timescale and costs, despite several emails and calls with our architect to try and get a clearer picture. Once the work is complete the value *should* go up and this will help with the LTV as well. I'd like to aim for max 40%

So the next twelve months, at least, will be a balancing act, trying to cut back outgoings and save as much money as possible, after that we can work out the best plan for mortgage repayment/debt servicing.

I'm going to post an SOA on Wednesday when we've been paid and then try and plan the month ahead.

LadyGnome

Best of luck with the building work and your eventual journey to mortgage freedom

PiggyBankShaker

Accountability check-in. Thanks @LadyGnome for dropping by and saying hi.

Just checked online banking and the CB has gone in. Need to pay the chimney sweep £45. So that leaves £136 until we get paid tomorrow.

Today's plans include:

• Stock cupboard check and meal planning
• A small bit of food shopping (SPENT £108.26)
• 2 wash loads
• ONS Covid test
• 1 hour digging the new driveway (if it stays dry)
• List 3 things on FB marketplace

SpendingPennies

Hi there, you have a great user name. Good luck on your journey, the building work sounds exciting. Just a thought, but my DH bought some chimney brushes and sweeps our chimneys himself. It saves a few pennies and is ok as long as you cover the fireplace first 😃

PiggyBankShaker

Hi @SpendingPennies Thanks for dropping by, great idea about the brushes especially as we'd like to install a second burner sometime in the future.

The 'small food shop' turned into a bit of a big food shop BUT that means we should only need fresh fruit and veg and bread over the next week. 

Also, not very MSE, but I've just booked DD on a horse Summer Camp at the cost of £240. She is horse mad and has had hardly any lessons over the last twelve months due to covid. I have to pay a deposit on Saturday and the balance by August 24th.

We're sitting down tonight (in between the football) and resurrecting our old spending tracker spreadsheet which was amazing for seeing where the 'slippage' was in our budget.

ladysummerisle

I really like your plans as I like a list! Even if in reality things move on to the next day, it’s really helpful to have it written down. I’m on maternity leave and have this idea that once the early early days are over, I’ll get a chance to really get stuff done. 

Following for motivation. 

PiggyBankShaker

Morning @ladysummerisle, welcome! I love my lists, so there'll be plenty of those in the diary.

Big drama in PiggyBank towers this morning is that OH hasn't been paid! He started a new job two weeks ago so we weren't sure how much his pay was going to be but we were sure it was going in today. I have been paid, but I'm very much the 'secondary earner' as I work part-time. So depending on what happens later today, we'll have enough for all our bills etc, but  nothing spare for savings, or the new windows we were going to order...

SOA to follow at some point

PiggyBankShaker

Morning! Lovely day here again, sun shining, birds singing etc

What's less lovely is OH and I have started the day with a row about money  I'm not even sure how it happened to be honest, but one minute we were talking about bills going out of our accounts this month and the next minute we were shouting at each other.

Anyway, he got paid today so we have done most of the money hokeycokey, and also paid a hefty deposit on new windows, which has left us skint for the rest of the month. I want to do an SOA but I need to need what bills OH has and I can't really talk to him at the moment so I'll have to post that later.

Today's List

• Do full SOA - we didn't do this, but we have set up a spreadsheet
• Order new windows
• Cook cauliflower pie for tea
• List 4 things on FB marketplace
• Do 30 minutes digging the new driveway
• Go for a walk

PiggyBankShaker

Morning campers! It's been action stations at PBS towers the last few days.

• The Structural Engineer came on Friday to do some mathematical magic so our house doesn't fall down when we build the extension. He was generally positive and there's only one part of the build that we can't do, so that's not too bad.

• We've booked a week's holiday in Scotland (Covid permitting) in August

• We did some more digging and building in the front garden.

• The spending tracking spreadsheet is working really well so far and it'll give us a much better grasp on our finances at the end of the month when we can see whereall out money has gone.

• One mini-disaster that's happened is one of us left all the windows on the car open last night when it hammered down with rain so the car is flooded and the seats are totally sodden. 

• OH listed some bits on FB marketplace - YAY! 
  

 Off to do some cleaning and tidying and get some steps on the FitBit!

PiggyBankShaker

Second post today... After a big finances chat OH and I decided to transfer £7,000 from our emergency savings onto the mortgage. The rational being that if the SHTF and we both lose our jobs (unlikely) then things would be so bad that we could rationalise borrowing money from the kids savings to keep us afloat until one of us got a new job. We've had that money set aside for two years and in that time we've paid something like £10 a day in interest - all for the sake of having it ringfenced 'just in case.' It feels like a good decision even if it is a little counter-intuitive given we are meant to be saving for the extension. But we have the mortgage now, and we control when we begin the expenditure on the extension.

ladysummerisle

You should be able to use the overpayment if needed to take payment holidays anyway so it’s still useful but gets rid of interest. I did this at the beginning of the year, even though I’m on maternity leave. It’s easy to hang on to money just in case but better to use it wisely.