Two years to mortgage neutral...

curly_moose

...is completely doable if I'm focused. Feel free to join me. Hi! 

It's just me. I'm in my mid late mid-thirties. I used to work all over the place and loved to travel, but I've mainly been at home since Covid happened. I've had my little flat for 7 years and I've always overpaid on the mortgage, but in a really random way. I worked out - or rather I used the Mortgage Overpayment Calculator - that the balance would have been around £40k more now if I hadn't, so it was totally worth it.

I realised when I signed up to a new deal before Christmas that being mortgage-free is properly within reach.

I can only overpay 10% of the original loan a year which works out at approx. £933 a month. There's no reason why I can't do this and reach my other goals (hi New York in 2024!) if I pay attention. Last month I did my first ever budget (so proud!) and I've started keeping track of my spends.  

At the moment, things look at bit like this...

Household Information

Number of adults in household........... 1

Number of children in household......... 0

Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 2752.5

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 0

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

Total monthly income.................... 2752.5

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 393

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

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

Management charge (leasehold property).. 61

Council tax............................. 98

Electricity............................. 49 (includes gas)

Gas..................................... 0

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

Water rates............................. 20

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

Mobile phone............................ 6.5

TV Licence.............................. 0

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

Internet Services....................... 22

Groceries etc. ......................... 150

Clothing................................ 40

Petrol/diesel........................... 25

Road tax................................ 0

Car Insurance........................... 35

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20

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

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

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 0

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20

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

Buildings insurance..................... 0

Contents insurance...................... 7

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

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

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40

Haircuts................................ 10

Entertainment........................... 120

Holiday................................. 50

Emergency fund.......................... 50

Mortgage overpayment.................... 910

S&S ISA................................. 500

Car tax................................. 13

Beauty box.............................. 20

Contacts................................ 15

RAC..................................... 5

Total monthly expenses.................. 2679.5

Assets

Cash ISA.................................... 15620 (Emergency fund)

House value (Gross)..................... 160000

Stocks and Shares ISA.................... 5712

Car(s).................................. 4500

Other assets............................ 1100 (Some Euros and cash for car insurance next month and a new phone)

Total Assets............................ 186832

Secured & HP Debts

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

Mortgage...................... 49710....(393)......1.45[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 49710.....-.........-   [/b]

Unsecured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR[b]

Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 2,752.5

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,679.5

Available for debt repayments........... 73

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0

Amount left after debt repayments....... 73

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 186,832

Total HP & Secured debt................. -49,710

Total Unsecured debt.................... -0

Net Assets.............................. 137,122

Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com. 

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

happymum37

Good luck xx

curly_moose

Thanks @happymum37!  

I’ve somehow managed to spend two thirds of my January food budget already. It’s been eye opening keeping track. Most of the spends are less than a fiver. I have this habit of nipping to the shops after work to get a walk in. It’s like when it’s cold and dark, the benefit of the walk isn’t enough to motivate me to go out and I need treats. Like a toddler. Or a puppy.  

I'm also doing Veganuary. Badly. So far there has been butter, pate and Qu*lity Str**t. But I made some falafel and I've been drinking oat milk, so that counts, right?!  

Today’s spends include £0.90 for a loaf of bread (for my butter and pate) and £2 on a lottery ticket for Saturday. Apparently it must be won. 

I forgot that I've got £2k in Premium Bonds saved from the first lockdown when I did nothing and spent no money. I haven't won any bonuses on them, but they're growing at about the same rate as my cash ISA, so I've not lost much there either.    

It may be too soon to talk about politics on here, but I feel like it's just not plausible that the PM, particularly this PM, wouldn't know a party when he saw one. 

curly_moose

I started a diary and now I find I’ve got nothing to say. I haven’t really been doing anything except working from home and watching Netflix. Rupaul’s Drag Race is strangely compelling. 

I was supposed to go to a gig on Friday, but I really wasn’t feeling it. And then my oven broke. And now my boiler has stopped working, so I’m not unhappy I didn’t spend £50 on a night out. I’m waiting to hear back from a friend of my brother, who’s a plumber, to come and have a look at it. At least it’s not cold.    

Trying to work out where the money is coming from to solve these problems has been a new thing. I could always find it, but then I’d be skint afterwards. I'd just be lurching from spendy month to spendy month all the time. 

I think the oven can probably wait. I've got a hob and microwave. I'm sort of hoping it will stop me eating so many chips, but so far my beige food cravings have just transferred over to toast instead. I really need to do something about that. 

curly_moose

My piddly £50-saved isn't going to help me very much, since my boiler isn't worth repairing. It's going to be £2-3K for a new one. Apparently I've been really lucky that it's lasted so well since it's a kind of boiler that was fitted as part of government scheme in the early/mid-noughties and they're a bit notorious for being unreliable and rubbish.

I guess this is what emergency funds are for (and I'm very happy to have one as this would have been much more stressful without), but it's definitely feeling like a step in the wrong direction. 😔 

In happier news, I was going away for the weekend to the New Forest (aka my happy place with my favourite people) and I'm now free tomorrow afternoon, so I've booked some leave and I'm driving down early. 💕  

curly_moose

Wow, I am not good at this journaling thing. I’ve been feeling a bit disheartened after everything seemed to break at the same time in February. I’ve sorted out a new oven, but I’m still waiting for the boiler… it’s not a bad time not to be spending money on gas, I guess?

My plumber wasn’t well and I’m still not completely sure how much it’s all going to cost. In some ways it’s an advantage to have a personal connection, but I don’t feel as comfortable pushing as if it were a purely professional relationship. In the meantime, boiling the kettle to wash up is a minor inconvenience.

I’ve squirrelled £1300 from the last couple of paycheques, so I’m feeling a bit better about the ‘hit’. I’m a bit sad about it as £500 of that is back pay from the ‘cost of living’ increase that I’d earmarked for my holiday fund.

I did win the princely sum of £25 on my Premium Bonds this month and got J0hn L3wis to refund £34 for a price match on the oven. I used £150 of vouchers from doing the ONS Covid study on it as well.  

Non-financial life is pretty stressful. My mum has dementia, which is the cruelest thing. There’s not too much of her left and it’s been a process of incremental losses for so long; it’s exhausting. You feel like you’re grieving all of the time with no real end in sight. My dad is her main carer, but I’m his main support as we don’t have any other local family. 

I spent too much at the beginning of the month on food - I had a week off and I hadn’t really realised how much I’d been using work to avoid dealing with my parents, so I ended up doing a lot of ‘eating my feelings’ - so I’ve been trying to eat from the freezer more. I was a little bit impressed that I found a steak from 2018. Should I be worried that in my head that’s a couple of years ago? 

curly_moose

Freezer steak was a fail, but freezer herby chicken with homemade wedges (wedge-shaped roasties bashed about with some garlic puree and polenta) and yellow sticker bagged salad was a win last night, for all of about 50p. It's nice to have an oven again.

The other freezer win was some fresh pasta dough I found in a corner. So tasty with some creme fraiche, frozen veggies and stilton melted in. Next time I’ll freeze it once it’s rolled out though. It’s too messy and faffy to do more often than you have to.    

I’m officially out of 'food money' for the month. I had some ‘fun money’ reserved to go out for supper with my besties from school on Friday, but everyone’s coming to mine instead for a takeaway, so I’ll shift some back over. I need to get some snacks in, but it'll still be cheaper than a restaurant.    

Does anyone else find that their food spends vary wildly month to month? I don’t know what I’m doing…

curly_moose

Almost a no-spend weekend. I bought a Mother’s Day card. It’s a tricky day as it feels a bit like we’re going through the motions these days, but I saw my parents yesterday for a bit. I dropped my car off as dad wanted to borrow it and I wanted it to be taken for a drive. It’s more fuel efficient than theirs so wins all around. 

I had a lovely evening with my school friends on Friday night. It’s funny. Whenever we get back together we end up falling into the same roles we had 25 years ago. It was accidentally super cheap, because W4gamama’s didn’t pack my katsu curry. 

I’ve been living off left overs all weekend. And watching Bridgerton. I didn’t hate it, but I think the first series was sort of unexpectedly charming and the new one… wasn’t. 

Boiler’s getting sorted tomorrow. Hopefully. It’s closer to £3K than £2 but must be done. I know I’m super fortunate to have savings that make this is a minor annoyance, rather than a big issue. 

It’s awful hearing about how folks are struggling. I’m not looking forward to fuel bills going up (why is my standing charge tripling?! Who knows!), but I’m fairly confident that I can absorb it into my budget. I really feel for families with kids and people on fixed incomes. There’s nowhere to go.  

powerspowers

Just caught up on your diary curly, how difficult the situation with your mum is 💐

happy new boiler day, we also had the cheap warm home model and it lasted years, hopefully you will find the new one a revolution 

curly_moose

@powerspowers thanks so much for your kind words. It’s been really tough. I think it would have been anyway, but I’m sure the pandemic has made it even more difficult. The one saving grace is that she doesn’t seem to be distressed by it. I miss my mum, but it would be so much worse if she ‘missed’ herself. 

The new boiler is a revelation! And just in time for it to get properly cold again. We had snow last week! In the end, it took 2 days and an unplanned-for roofer and somehow it was £180 less than I was originally quoted. 

It’s been a quiet few days. I ended up spending £78 getting my docs re-soled. I’d like to be the kind of person who gets things fixed rather than throwing them away, but it’s difficult when it’s that expensive. If they’d been regular boots I might not have bothered, but I *love* these. They don’t make the model anymore. I got them to throw in some free leather insoles, so that was a little bit money-saving, but it’s pretty much destroyed my ‘clothes pot’. (The most money-saving thing I could do is lose weight, so I can wear the clothes I already own.)

South_coast

curly_moose said:

(The most money-saving thing I could do is lose weight, so I can wear the clothes I already own.)

Love this 😀 I suspect you're not the only one!

I'm sorry to hear about your Mum. My gran had dementia too, but was also fortunately quite placid with it. Aside from the odd "I have no memory" comment, made in a very offhand way, she really didn't seem to have any concept of it, and was quite happy to sit quietly in our company even though she didn't know who we were. Both parents are very lucky to have your support x