The thriftyish way

127 Posts

Introduction
In 2019, DH & I sold our tiny 3-bed semi-detached, and moved into a huge 3-story, 4-bed Edwardian home, almost doubling our mortgage.
This move gave us the much-needed space for our 4 children aged 13,11,9 and 7. However, we bought at the absolute top end of our budget and took our mortgage out over 39 years.
We tied in less than 6 months after we bought at 1.64% for 5 years and that fix is coming to an end in May 2025. When the fix ends, if we end up paying 6% (or more) our payment will shoot up by £300pm. We don’t have much flexibility to extend the term, so need to reduce the shock as much as possible! My plan is to alter our budget now to overpay an extra £300 to put us in a better situation, we currently overpay £84, so our overpayment needs to be almost £400
We tied in less than 6 months after we bought at 1.64% for 5 years and that fix is coming to an end in May 2025. When the fix ends, if we end up paying 6% (or more) our payment will shoot up by £300pm. We don’t have much flexibility to extend the term, so need to reduce the shock as much as possible! My plan is to alter our budget now to overpay an extra £300 to put us in a better situation, we currently overpay £84, so our overpayment needs to be almost £400
DH's income is currently the only income as I am awaiting an operation to remove a teratoma / dermoid cyst from my ovary, and am under investigation with a neurologist as had some awful numbness/vibrating/pain/exhaustion issues over the summer.
Our debt-free journey from the debt-free wannabe board is hereMortgage
(will update this post as we overpay)October 2022 - £151,608 overpayment - £353
November 2022 -
December 2022 -
*At the moment all my figures are estimates as I am sat on the sofa with my phone - I’ve toothache from an infected tooth, (just had 3 root canals done) I’m recovering from a migraine and I have the operation on Tuesday to remove the teratoma from my ovary - so taking things very slow! Also have just switched from tax credits to universal credit recently and I won’t know exactly how it will affect our income for another 2 weeks.
November 2022 -
December 2022 -
*At the moment all my figures are estimates as I am sat on the sofa with my phone - I’ve toothache from an infected tooth, (just had 3 root canals done) I’m recovering from a migraine and I have the operation on Tuesday to remove the teratoma from my ovary - so taking things very slow! Also have just switched from tax credits to universal credit recently and I won’t know exactly how it will affect our income for another 2 weeks.
Mortgage-free wannabe!
Mortgage Debt May 2020: 159,804
Now: £151,085
Mortgage Debt May 2020: 159,804
Now: £151,085
5
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Plan of action
Car
Our car is on its last legs. It’s been a good runner but has holes in the sills and is very unlikely to get through an MOT. Realistically we don’t need a car, it’s a luxury. Although we can just about scrape the running costs, a new car is out of reach financially without bottoming our savings. We purposely moved the children schools as I couldn’t drive while I was suffering with numbness and cognitive issues over the spring/ summer. We did commute out to a village school but now they are in a school in our town that’s is a 15 minute walk from our house. DH can walk to work. It will cause a few issues, being unable to visit family, holidays, cheap days out, dentist in the next town over and possible ongoing hospital appointments. It also has an effect on shopping, I have been ‘practicing’ doing a weekly online shop for the last 2 months. This is a really tough decision.
Kids clubs.
I feel I should preface this by saying kids don’t get a lot of ‘things’ - presents are just for birthdays and Christmas. Treats such as chocolate/ sweets weekly. Clothes are a mix of new and charity shop, and they are good kids, usually grateful and unfussy. Because of the industry DH works, we get older phones and laptops that would otherwise be destroyed. They each have a computer that has been passed down from us, so they are tech ‘rich’.
All 3 girls all do gymnastics. It was £22 per month each, so £66 plus yearly national gym membership. Eldest 2 girls recently have started a competition group, 2 extra hours a week each, and even with help (they give us DD3 lesson for free) it’s now £132 pm. This might well have to stop and reduce back to the £66.
We spend 400-500 per month on food/cleaning. I have reigned this in massively recently, we were spending more, mainly buying less dessert/junk food. I am limited due to health more than I have ever been. I can’t just nip out for my yellow sticker bargains, or visit lots of different shops. Relying on a delivery once a week of mostly budget / own brand stuff. With the cost of living rising I don’t think I can realistically cut this, just keep an eye and try to stick to the lower end. Although with all the news from around the world and the possible blackouts planned this winter I am purposely overspending about £10 each week to buy an extra pack of pasta/rice or tinned meat / fish - so I know we have food in if the shtf.
Our energy bills peaked at £350pm earlier this year, with the delightful E0N refusing to lower the DD that I had raised to cover a previous deficit over last winter. When we were £1000 in credit, they have revised and with the gov help our payments are now £218. They used to be £145ish. We have bought under bed blankets and turned the heating practically off, luckily it’s still mild. I am the only one at home during the week and I sit with my back on an heat pad (mostly for pain in my back - which will hopefully go when they remove the teratoma). We have solar panels so they offset the cost, but we use a lot of electricity - this is definitely an area that we need to save money.
Mortgage Debt May 2020: 159,804
Now: £151,085
Food waste doesn't seem to be an issue but it might be worth looking at (It's a personal "Grrr"! of mine - a friend throws away so much food - bloomin' annoying).
I am happy to see you back though. I’ve missed your diary. I’m with you on the scary prospect of mortgage increases and hitting the overpayments now. My fix ends in Feb 2024, so need to do what I can to make sure the overpayments are covered. It certainly is changing life for lots of people and is probably scuppering my plans for a couple of years off work.
NSD 10/18
2023 decluttering 10,161🏅💐⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🏅🏅🏅🥉🥈🥇
2023 decluttering goals: 🥉3,000 🥈4,000 🥇5,000 💎12,000 🏆 20,000
Mortgage Debt May 2020: 159,804
Now: £151,085
Sorry to hear of health issues and I hope you are all well again soon and that your operation is able to solve things for you.
A difficult decision re the car. Can you earmark some of the money you currently budget for petrol and car bills to use for the occasional taxi to activities or hire car for special days out? Just a thought.
CM
Hello @Cornish_mum I guess in that respect we are really lucky that health hasn’t been a big issue for us until these last few years. It has been much harder recently to stay on track while not being well and I am used to buzzing around at 100mph and I just can’t do that atm.
Operation Cancelled
Ive had some bad news today, it’s more than likely my operation will be cancelled on Tuesday. I had an appointment with an anaesthetist today, who needs information from my neurologist, and was shocked to hear my appointment was so soon after the appointment with him. To cut a very long story short, at my pre op in July, the nurse flagged me for a notes review due to me having numbness/pain/tingling in my arms/face/legs. The op was scheduled for the 8th August but had to be cancelled. The doctor reviewing my notes said they wanted to wait until after my neurology referral in September. I have spent many hours since chasing things, and getting nowhere. As far as I was aware gyne had already written to neurology, but the anaesthetist I spoke to today had no clue. He also informed me that for safety, it’s advised people wait until 7 weeks post covid to operate as the risks of complications triple. I had Covid on 6th October, so I am just 3 weeks past. So I need;
A ) The anaesthetist to speak to neurology to get the info he needs to give me the go ahead - and
B ) My gyne surgeon to agree the risk of making me wait is greater than the Covid complication risk - which it could be, I’m on the cancer pathway and my symptoms are worse than they were in June. They think my mass is benign, mostly due to it’s appearance on MRI and my age but they can’t tell for sure until they biopsy.
Mortgage Debt May 2020: 159,804
Now: £151,085
NSD 10/18
2023 decluttering 10,161🏅💐⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🏅🏅🏅🥉🥈🥇
2023 decluttering goals: 🥉3,000 🥈4,000 🥇5,000 💎12,000 🏆 20,000
Looking for positives
B ) I think cancelling parts of the kids clubs makes sense not only financially but from a simplicity point of view too. With my health not great we are already stretched really thin. Football is cancelled for DS tomorrow anyway, the third time in as many weeks and it was actually a huge relief for both DH and I. When we signed up the training was at our local park, which is only 5 mins away and DS is more than capable of walking himself, we had no idea it moved to a village high school for the winter, a 10min drive.
D) DH is decorating the living room. We already have the paint as I bought a huge tub of white gloss a year ago, and we are using the paint we bought for the hallway on 3 for 2 last year. We used some of DH’s unexpected bonus last month to replace some really old blinds for our absolutely enormous 5 windows so it should look lovely and fresh for Christmas
E) I drove to both the dentist and the hospital this week. I’ve not driven for months, but I really wanted to give DH a break. I felt okay driving, although a bit dazed after the operation news!
1 ) Book a plumber to look at our stop tap. It’s more of a ‘slow’ tap at the moment and we need to be able to successfully turn water off to the house if anything happens
2 ) Provide metre readings for energy on the 1st.
3 ) Overpay the solar payment on the mortgage
4 ) Update all the budgets when universal credit give us the info (should be around the 9th Nov)
5) Investigative lowering phone contract tariffs. We pay around £30 for DH, myself, DS & DD1 on sim only deals
Thrifty.
Mortgage Debt May 2020: 159,804
Now: £151,085
Mortgage Debt May 2020: 159,804
Now: £151,085