GAP and LMG, can we become mortgage free?

savingholmes

Hope so for your sake

EssexHebridean

Ey up GAP - just noticed you'd not been about for a while. Hope all is OK in your world? 

beanielou

Hope all is well in your world GAP.
MIssing you & your posts. xx

girlatplay

savingholmes said:

Hope so for your sake

EssexHebridean said:

Ey up GAP - just noticed you'd not been about for a while. Hope all is OK in your world? 

beanielou said:

Hope all is well in your world GAP.
MIssing you & your posts. xx

Thank you, All.

I can't believe it's been over a year since I last posted here.  The time is going so fast.  I have been lurking around MSE for the past couple of months and I feel it's time to come back here again.  I just had to read back my own diary to remind myself what I had been wittering on about. 

I felt my MH sliding last year and then my health took a bit of a nosedive. My hospital consultants had dangled a new (to me) medication in front of me but administration wasn't moving very fast.  I finally got to start it in June and, aside from a few hiccups, I'm feeling much better than I have in a few years. Of course, I'm a woman of a certain age so there are other things to deal with but I'm in a good place at the moment.  Thank you to the person who private messaged me a few months back to ask if I was okay. I don't want to embarrass you but you know who you are and your thought was appreciated.

Things have been, to quote our Beanie, "plodding along". I still feel like I'm trying to get the various budget pots back up again but it's been a year and I've managed to get the car through another MOT and service, pay a year's VE tax and a year's insurance, plus I've paid off the most expensive part of my dental treatment and started saving for the next part (once an MSEr always an MSEr) so I can't be doing too badly. That was all while adding to the buy out fund.  I have updated my signature to today.

I came up with a new plan or a new train of thought about the mortgage and buy out for when the time eventually comes.  I know last year I was banging on about overpayments and how I couldn't talk LMG into making them.  Well, it seems like that wasn't a bad thing as I'm doing quite well out of interest on my savings. The mortgage rate is 2.69% and my lowest paying savings account is 4.8%.  I decided that each time I save £1,000 I'll put it into an account with a better interest rate. I've managed to lock away £1,000 at 5.95% for one year and £1,000 at 5.5% for two years. I'm now almost £400 into the next block which is at the 4.8% (variable). I'm happy to lock the funds away as I don't need them before July 2027 (which is now just over 3.5 years away. Time, slow down a bit please). I have been doing the 1p challenge on here, just for myself, not declaring to anyone, and it keeps me motivated.

I decided to amend the target in my signature to £40k, rather than the £87k I had before. £87k was completely unrealistic as a target for me but also, if I were to buy LMG out in July 2027 then unless the house prices shoot through the roof, I'm only going to need about £35k.  I am still saving into the S&S ISA and I do have two EFs, one which is easy access and is my true EF, I won't touch it unless it's an emergency, the other is currently locked away and I'm using as a sort of long term EF but I expect to eventually need to use that towards the buy out.  There is just over £3k in that.  All in all, I have around £13k so far that can be used for the buy out if necessary.

We haven't made any decisions, I'm just trying to streamline my plans.

I'm going to try to update regularly.  I might go back to PADing again as that was working well.  I won't be able to catch up with all that I have missed in the diaries that I follow but I'll jump in where they are and try to figure it out. I've dipped in and out of some so I have a little knowledge of them.

savingholmes

Welcome back. Glad you are feeling better. I started a year 3 diary recently if you fancy jumping into that one.

beanielou

Hello. Hello. 

So good to hear from you. 

So glad that the medication is helping. 

Keep plodding xx

EssexHebridean

Oh it’s good to see you back! Glad things are going well - that’s great news about the medication. Also very sensible to recognise when prioritising MH a is the main thing to focus on too. 

girlatplay

savingholmes said:

Welcome back. Glad you are feeling better. I started a year 3 diary recently if you fancy jumping into that one.

Thank you.  I've had a quick look at your first couple of posts so I'll bookmark that and get stuck in.  I dipped into your year 2 diary at one point so I know you were talking about moving. You've come on a bit since then. I missed your DD moving out. I'm looking forward to catching up.
 

beanielou said:

Hello. Hello. 

So good to hear from you. 

So glad that the medication is helping. 

Keep plodding xx

Thank you.  I really feel so much better than I have for such a long time. It's not perfect but I'm not struggling every single day now.  I'll catch up with your diary too. Again, I dipped in and out but I've not been in for a while.

EssexHebridean said:

Oh it’s good to see you back! Glad things are going well - that’s great news about the medication. Also very sensible to recognise when prioritising MH a is the main thing to focus on too. 

Thank you. I had to take a long break. I was trying too hard and giving myself anxiety. I thoroughly enjoyed your selling/moving dramas. I wasn't logging in but I found myself coming back frequently to check where you were up to. Once you moved I could relax again so I've not been in your diary since early September. I'll be back though!

girlatplay

When I was emptying a box last week (yes, we've lived here over a year. Yes, there are still boxes to empty. Many people assure me we're not the only ones) I found an envelope with my name on it and £30 in paper notes. That's not like me at all, to have money I don't know about, a rare occurrence.  This morning I took that to the bank and paid it into my account.

I usually do the money shuffle when I get paid on the last day of the month but I was a bit slower this month. I sorted that out earlier tonight and now all the funds are in their rightful places. £50 to the buy out fund.

Total to the buy out fund today = £80
Not too shabby for my first day back here!  Thats me up to £459.04 towards the next £1k.

beanielou

Amazing. Nearly half way to the next £1000😊