Welshlassies MF quest by 40

evab_2

I hope everything gets sorted for you, especially finding out where the money for the carpet has gone!

I think your doing the right thing by focusing on other areas of your life that need to be the priority right now, but still well done with your MF achievements so far.

Best wishes Ev x

Welshlassie

Hi all, thought I'd stop in and give everyone a quick update, I've managed to get us back on a reasonably even keel, we still have a few thousand sat on a 0% card, but this is the remainder of the van as we haven't managed to sell the original van as yet. We have had some interest in the last couple of days and once it has gone the card can be gone and we will be back on track MFW.

I'll be redoing the budget again over the next week or so and checking everything is the cheapest rates etc. think we're ok, but always worth looking.

We've just had a few days in Cornwall and a few day trips back home so feeling refreshed. We'll be going away again for the bank holiday in August and hoping to have a few weekends away between now and then. We may also have a week or so away in September/October.

Since we last spoke I turned 30 so we are now officially into the last 10 years of our mortgage (hopefully) - even though there is actually 26 years left on the mortgage. I was thoroughly spoiled with several nights out and a surprise weekend away at a spa with DH.

Regarding the MFW goal we've continued to OP a small amount and are running at 10% of our £2,500 target to pay off this year. All extra cash has been going towards the card, but this will mean once the cash is available from the sale of the van I will have a small lump sum to pay off hopefully, unless we decide to stash it in a savings account. As long as we can get the mortgage to £190k by Dec ready for the MFiT-T2 to start we'll be happy, so only actually need about £1,600.

I have continued to monitor the possibility of switch mortgages on to a better rate, but haven't found the right deal to even consider speaking to IF about waiving the ERC or finding a better rate with them. Realistically I don't think it is going to happen especially as the ERC is running at around £7,500.

I'll still be sitting on that back seat for a little while longer, but looking forward to get back into the swing of the MFW journey asap.

setmefree2

:T:T well done on all your progress :T:T

and Belated wishes

Welshlassie

Yesterday evening we had it confirmed that a new mortgage we have applied for has been approved. This will reduce our monthly payment by almost £700. We will also be reducing the outstanding amount by almost £8,000, which takes us well below our overpayment target and means we'll hhave to reassess our MFiT-T2 challenge targets.

Hoping to have it all set up by September so we can get back into OPing big style.

I have been reviewin the mortgage market closely since the rates started dropping last year and only now have I found a way we can do it. It will involve us borrowing some cash from DH parents, but this can be paid off in 12 months and we'll still be better off every month.

We are wiping out our savings to get us in this position, but because it is saving us so much every month, we're not too worried as we will be able to replenish our savings very rapidly over the coming months.

Once I know exactly what our monthly payments will be I'm going to be redoing the budget again and setting amounts for DH payback, savngs replenishment and OPing, in addition to all the other areas we save up each month (birthdays holidays, car costs etc).

I am so excited by this. (does that make me a little bit sad?)

DH has decided he wants to wind up his business in the next few months as now he no real need to find the work as the money isn't needed. This means he can concentrate on looking after DS and number 2 when they arrive as we have decided we can now afford to have another baby and will doing something about it towards the end of the year. DH's business has been very slow since the, market crashed and other than one or two bookings he has outstanding for this year, has no other bookings and its not been cost effective to advertise to date. The money left over in the business account once it has been wound up will be paying for a family holiday next year, I can't wait.

So all in all it has been a very busy few months making lots of big decisions

StuartGMC

It's good to hear of the update, the great news on the mortgage front and that your OH can on this basis be home with the children. Best wishes on pulling all the details together for the replenishment of savings etc. Hope you can book your holiday early so you get what you want at a good price, but I guess that depends on whether you'll have a bump by then. Either way, best wishes.

THRIFTY_GIRL

Nice to hear from you Welshlassie. Excellent news that you have managed to ditch the high rate mortgage. Best of luck and i'm sure we'll bump into each other again before the year is up. Maybe there will be some baby news by then:p

evab_2

Great to hear from you and with exciting news too, well done on the mortgage and overpayments I'm really pleased for you x

Tesco_points_addict

Fantastic news Welshlassie, thats a massive difference on your mortgage payments, no wonder you are excited (and no thats not sad!):j

Keep up the good work.

TPAx

setmefree2

well done on your new mortgage and with all those future plans

Welshlassie

Hi all, the big update.
We finally completed on the new mortgage on Friday 3 months after the initial application was put in. We had all sorts of problems getting it sorted, but its done now. Our new mortgage is a tracker 1.89% above BOE for 3 years against the original 6.3% fixed until Feb 2013. We have also reduced it from £191,600 to £178,500 . We do owe DH parents a few thousand, but we can pay this off quite quickly and replenish our savings and still be in a position to OP hopefully. This week I'm going to redo the budget and do some swapping around on the utilities etc, especially as we have been with our gas and electric companies over a year now, and I think there are cheaper options out there.

We've just had a gorgeous week in Cornwall in a lovely Lodge with a hot tub. We left the dog at home, which meant we were able to go to many of the attractions that don't allow dogs such as the Eden project. We had ordered a load of Tesco vouchers, but the postal strike meant they didn't arrive before we left, so they will be returned to Tesco. A bit annonyed by that, but nothing we could have done about it.

I've updated our targets for the MFiT-T2 challenge starting in Dec to reduce the mortgage to £155,000 in 3 years. Hopefully we can achieve this and more, but we will hopefully have a bump to deal with next year so this may reduce our ability to OP somewhat.

That's about it for the time being, but will be updating our journey more over the coming weeks/months.