And now we go again...

EssexHebridean

...new diary title taken from the line I had already added in to my signature! 

Regulars will already recognise me - I've been here a while, although aside from one fairly short stint always on the DFW boards. A quick summary of our MSE history for those who have not stumbled across me before though - started out with a loan, and accompanying inevitable overdraft, got ourselves a workable budget and then attacked the loan, clearing that in 13 months rather than the 30 it was originally taken out for. Once that was gone we turned our attention to our mortgage - never massively large, but once we had bitten the MSE bullet we very much wanted it gone! that got cleared in 13 years rather than the more standard 25...more details on all of the above can of course be found in a slew of former diaries. Those diaries have all pretty much ended up on DFW in spite of not having had any conventional debt for somewhere approaching 15 years now, mainly because that is where the majority of my MSE Pals used to hang out, and as a result so did I. Now though and with also "knowing" so many lovely folk over on MFW, it feels like the right time to set up home in a new corner of these wonderful forums, if you will have me of course! (I know, but it's only polite to ask, no?!)

Now - 6 years after clearing that original mortgage, we've taken on a new one along with the purchase of a ludicrously bigger-than-needed-for-two-people house! The mortgage is actually slightly larger than the original, although at £115,000 not large by most folk's standards I would cheerfully agree. It is already shorter than most though - having done some careful sums we decided to pitch it at a 16 year term, and were fortunate to nab a 5 year fix at 4.03%, which also happens to allow unlimited overpayments...isn't that just a perfect thing for a MFW? (This is also ironically enough our lowest ever mortgage interest rate - which will no doubt come as a bit of a surprise to many!)

So we are now moved in to our lovely new house - and we love it every bit as much as we did the moment we walked in through the door when we viewed (and that was a LOT!). For the first time in our married lives we have a garden which is a huge treat. Right now the novelty of "going upstairs" is also strong - having spend the previous 20 years living in a ground floor flat! Pretty sure that one will wear off soon enough mind you! And now, before even having made our first actual mortgage payment we are of course already turning our attention to the overpayments... 

Next post will have plotting and planning and targets and goals...and as is my way I will also nab the third post "just in case"

EssexHebridean

So - were are we at then:

Mortgage:
As above - £115,000 over 16 years.
5 year fix @ 4.03% 
Unlimited overpayments allowed. 

The plan will be much the same as before - we will still be budgeting for fun to happen along the way, we both have hobbies that cost us money, and so we budget a decent lump each as personal spends. That also allows us to save for our own personal requirements for bigger ticket items too.
Initially we intend to just overpay by what we can each month - we are of course working with a completely new budget and so need time to settle in to that and make sure that all the new bills are known. We will be making some savings - no service charge payments any more, and we are giving up the tenancy of our garage too - but we expect the gas/electricity payment to go up, and we have also stepped up a council tax band...Water is an unknown quantity as we are now metered where before we had an assessed bill. There is also of course buildings insurance to pay for the first time ever in either of our cases! 

The initial target to aim for is to stick with our previous theme of the number 13 having been lucky for us - and so let's see if as a starting goal we can earmark a date of 1st September 2036 to be mortgage free for the second time round. That target is likely to change as neither of us are wild about the idea of letting it hang around for that long, so some refinement of the plan is certainly going to occur!

Savings:
We currently have four regular savers running from joint funds -
- a Pr1nc1pality Christmas one each - £125 per month going to each of those
- A C0v3ntry one - £500 per month
- A FD one - £300 per month.
We plan to keep these running t the ends of their terms then revisit whether to take out new ones. As and when each one matures at the moment the rough intention is that 50% of the contents will go to the mortgage - and the balance into the longer term savings pot.
I also have a dinky N'wide one at £50 a month from my own personal spends and will be continuing with that. 
We have a full EF in place "just in case the brown sticky stuff makes contact with the rotating cooling device" - this also doubles as our future car-replacement pot as well, and so we will add to that as an ongoing thing as well as by means of the proceeds of the regular savers above.

Budget:
Is all in place and is currently pretty squeaky - although I may well be overbudgeting for certain things at this point. At the moment the new house is taking us a little by surprise in terms of how relatively economical it is to run - it's background electrical use is lower than we ever achieved in the flat which is excellent news. I will continue with my weekly electricity readings, and will be keeping an eye on the gas use generally via the IHD, with readings there probably being once a month. Water also we will read once a month (that is a job for MrEH as there may be spiders down that hole!) and hopefully in a relatively short space of time we might have a clearer idea of some updated figures to inform a budget rejig - it will by necessity be a work in progress for the time being! I'll probably sit tight for a month or so and then do a proper budget review armed with updated figures.

Pots:
These are what make our budget work. We have them for all planned spending - car costs, household costs, holiday, a "joint fun" one, and also our trusty "virtual sealed pot" which gets the "sweepings" from the bank accounts when I round them down to a neat and tidy number. (Tilly tidies, in other terms). We've also got some solo ones - I have one specifically for funding one of my hobbies, one for clothing spends, one for general fun stuff etc. I'm entirely in awe of the sort of people who can run all their household budgeting from a single account and keep track of what funds are allocated to what - it's not for me though, and the separate pots also mean that a bit of better interest can be earned by those funds while they are sitting waiting to be used!
 

EssexHebridean

..and my usual "just in case" third post on the thread...

themadvix

Happy New MFW Diary (and home, of course!)! 😁 Looking forward to the plotting and scheming!

Crazycatlady2

Ooh house sounds lovely 😍

joedenise

Looking forward for your continuing journey now you have a mortgage again.  Really enjoyed your previous diary and will bookmark this one too.

Four_Seasons

Happy new diary, house sounds lovely, very much looking forward to hearing your future plans x

Makingabobor2

Have come across from your old diary to cheer you on. 

kayannie

@EH
Just caught up on your last diary & found this one but not read it yet. Your new home sounds lovely!

A couple of weeks ago you were hoping for some vouchers to arrive in the post from that watery place in Cumbria. If you didn't get them, I have some that I can pass on to you. They arrived in a magazine that I subscribe to, therefore aren't specifically for me to use. One is £10 off a £50 spend, and one £5 off £30.

If you can use them, pm me & I can pop them in post, or if you want to use them online, I can just give you the voucher codes.

If you don't need them, just ignore me! 

Oh, they expire 30th Nov.

KA

Cheery_Daff

Happy new diary EH, welcome to MFW! 😊 We also went from mortgage free to mortgaged again 😂 Well worth it in both cases I think 😊 Lovely to hear your description of your new house 😊😊

Humdinger1

Subscribed and cheering you on, @EssexHebridean! Now, about that marching band....love Humdinger xx