Twinklies mortgage journey 2.0

twinklie

New Beginnings
So today is the start of our remortgage and as such I thought it would be nice to start a shiny new diary. Hopefully I can be reflective of the journey so far and make some new and focused goals. 

Just to bring anyone who doesn't know me up to speed. I am married, 2 kids, a dog, a house and an allotment. There's nothing particularly exciting or different, we just plod along the same as everyone else. 3 members of the household are Autistic so that does create some challenges at times as the world isn't necessarily as accommodating as it could be. But hey ho. 

DH had a house when we met and then, we had to rent for a long time whilst DH finished up his postgrad studies as a mature student and we bounced around a bit. We are now settled back in the place of our birth and trying to pay down this mortgage as quickly as we can, whilst still remembering to live - the kids are only young once. 

Mortgages
So mortgage 1 on this house was 2.59% and a 5 year fix over 19 years (not 25 - so automatically 6 years off). In that time we managed to pay off £54,785.14 off the capital. This finished yesterday and we are now on our new mortgage rate. We were due to pay off by Sept 2037. With OP's I managed to get it down to July 2037. 

Mortgage 2 is at a rate of 4.64% and a 5 year fix. It's better than a lot of people have, but my goodness it stings. We paid extra off the mortgage between getting the mortgage offer and starting the remortgage. I didn't ask them to recalculate the monthly payments however, so we are automatically OPing. We are now set to finish the mortgage in May 2037. So a bit more shaved off actually. So in theory without doing anything we should pay off the mortgage 4 months earlier. 

Obviously I plan to OP as and when I can. 

Money Making
DH works full time, I work part time (3.5 days per week). Both are a decent wage (not crazy London wages) and we are in an ok but not super flush position. To make extra money I do exam marking every year (for my sins), although for my sanity I've cut back on this now. I used to do 4 exams in a season, I'm now down to one as I just don't have the time, capacity or will power to do 4 anymore. I'm also just dabbling in the world of Vinted selling. I'll put my information regarding that on a separate post. 

I think that's all I need to say on this first post. I did have another thread which I'll give you the link to in case you are really bored and need to look at my ramblings from my earlier journey. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5915027/twinklie-returns-to-the-property-ladder/p1

Hope you'll join me on the next stage of my journey and if you have any top tips/life lessons I can use, please feel free to share.  

twinklie

Vinted selling
So I've literally just started dabbling with this. I can't stand the FB Marketplace situation where people come to your house and you waste your life waiting for them to knock at the door. Sooooo many no shows and too much bad timekeeping for me. 

We have sooooooo many kids clothes that are in great condition but are just no good to us anymore. And the house is weighed down with the clutter. So the aim is to declutter and make a few quid to go towards, getting a desk for the kids room, a laptop (for school work) and to save for high school uniform for DS1 who will start in September next year. I'm not expecting to be able to pay for all that - but any money towards it can only be a bonus. 

Anyway last month (mainly yesterday) I listed 19 things. I sold 7 in September. 3 quid has hit my account so far. So I think I'm going to keep a monthly track of it. I'll do something akin to the below. I won't list as being paid until the funds are actually released to me. 

September
Listed - 19 items. 
Sold - 7 items. 
Paid - £3. 

October
Listed - 20 items. 
Sold - 7 items. 
Paid - £32.

Humdinger1

I have subscribed @twinklie and am looking forward to cheering you on.   Very impressive progress to date and you will definitely knock yet more off the mortgage while living your life love Humdinger xx 

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary 

twinklie

beanielou said:

Happy shiny new diary 

Have you had a promotion in here @beanielou? An ambassador no less. 

I have to chuckle, it took me three goes to write ambassador - my phone kept changing it to ambulance. 🤣

beanielou

😂 😂     😂 😂

twinklie

Current state of play on Vinted.

October
Listed - 9 items. 
Sold - 5 items. 
Paid - £16.

I’ve got £31 pending as well. So I’ve had to slow down on the uploading so I can keep up with things. It’s a busy few weeks but hoping to do a bigger upload of stuff on Thursday I think. 

I’m just so happy things are leaving my house tbh. We’ve just so much stuff I find it overwhelming. 

twinklie

My automatic monthy OP because of not asking them to reduce the payment is £27.87 (random). I've just added a £25 OP today. So that's a total OP of £52.87 this month. It's unlikely I'll add more to it tbh as I'm not quite sure where I stand in terms of monthly payments, as a few things have been recalculated - so we shall hold fire now I think. 

Better safe than sorry, especially with Christmas around the corner. 

twinklie

Managed to request £131 back from Octopus, so that will pay the bulk of the house insurance which is due at the end of the month. 

Winner winner. 

Uploaded more on Vinted today. I I’ll try and do more tomorrow too. 

I had my covid vaccination this morning though and I’ve been really tired all afternoon. I was meant to attempt my first 5K (not a race, just me), but I had a nap instead. 

twinklie

October
Listed - 24 items. 
Sold - 8 items. 
Paid - £42.65

I slowed down on the uploading of things because we’ve had a lot going on. Hoping to get more uploaded today/tomorrow though. 

The stuff I’m uploading at the minute isn’t bigger items like I have been though so I’m not sure how successful I’ll be with these bits. But I think if I mix things up with a few nicer bits I might get somewhere. We shall see. 

I have sold something else last night though which is exciting. 

4 days of work next week then off for half term. I’m a bit stressed about it as DH is tutoring throughout and I’m solo parenting the kids. I’m going to have to try and keep them busy so they stay quiet. Not an easy task with my two. 

We will be out 2 days because they have a group on the Wednesday and shoe shopping and haircuts on the Thursday. 

Any ideas more than welcome. There’s obviously walks, park etc if the weather is good. But for rainy days I’m thinking:
- games day (board games). 

- toy/train day. 

- cinema

Im not really sure after that - obviously I’m looking for MSE activities. 

Pollie

Do you have a local library that has free events?