New Diary For A New MFW Attitude

saver03
saver03 Posts: 651
First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
Forumite
edited 12 February 2019 at 5:04PM in Mortgage-free wannabe
We have spent the past few years focusing on the YOLO, as the kids say, and not really making any progress with our mortgage plans so now it is time to get serious!

We currently live in the first house that we bought and we want to go from this to our forever home. Our mortgage is a 10 year fixed so we can only overpay 5% without penalties. Our plan is to pay off the maximum as early as possible each year and put the rest into savings. And this is where I will have to stay very strong and not book a holiday :o

Our plan is to save up a decent size deposit, equity in our home and savings, so that we can get a good LTV and rate. We don't want to sacrifice our lifestyle and feel restricted by large bills. We currently live in a £94k house and are looking to move to one around £250k so it's a massive jump.

We also have a property that we rent out but I am not sure what we are doing with that, please see my thread on that as I could do with some advice. But at present I am not taking that mortgage into consideration as even if we do keep it we will be concentrating on our home mortgage and getting that paid off ASAP.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5963313
LBM 14/12/06 £21,947.17 DEBT FREE 12/04/09
MFW - December 2010 £76,199 - 4th February 2021 £37,360.90

Comments

  • saver03
    saver03 Posts: 651
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    We seem to be having a tough few weeks in terms of money going out :(

    OH's glasses should really be budgeted for in our "Yearly" account but I have a tendency to borrow from there but never actually put it back. We have a standing order for £120 a month but at some point just before payday I end up transferring it back :o

    We've had to get the gas safety done for the apartment we rent, again another thing that should be covered by the aforementioned yearly account but we have had it up for sale so didn't think we needed it. But we can't keep paying out £500 a month so we are going to rent it out again.

    I've broken a tooth and need it filling so that's just short of £60.

    OH gets paid on the last Friday each month so this means there is 5 weeks between paydays next month and I think we will just about break even. He is trying to sort out his old Lego from the 70/80s so we can put them on eBay for some extra money and I do have a few bits that I can sell too so hopefully that will see us through to April but we won't be able to pay any extra off, except the £150 that is done automatically.

    My biggest downfall appears to be takeaways/eating out. I am going to make an effort to meal plan and stick to it. Even if I come in tired or just can't be bothered I am going to cook :A

    We have a lot of concerts and theatre shows this year and I justify it by saying, "Well it is my 40th birthday year." This kind of mindset could land us in trouble and take us further from our goals.

    I need to keep my eye on the prize which in the short term is to move house so we need to OP as much as we can ASAP and then get the rest into savings to go towards our deposit.

    One day I will strike the perfect balance of being a good MSEr and living my best life :D
    LBM 14/12/06 £21,947.17 DEBT FREE 12/04/09
    MFW - December 2010 £76,199 - 4th February 2021 £37,360.90
  • Well done for starting a diary - I find it really helps keep me accountable (when I remember to update it!!). If you’re looking to identify where money is disappearing every month maybe try a SOA (statement of affairs)? I can’t remember the link off the top of my head, but if you google ‘stoozing SOA’ a great one comes up which formats for this site - if you post it here I’m sure folk will chip in with ideas on where you can save :) good luck with your plans!
    NMx
    - Mortgage 1 started Oct 2016 [STRIKE]£120,000[/STRIKE] £99,600
    - Mortgage 2 started Feb 2019 [STRIKE]£30,000[/STRIKE] £27,800
    - Student loan started 2009 [STRIKE]£16,413[/STRIKE] £7,500
    + New house fund £40,095/£40,000
    + Emergency savings £5,170/£5,000
    + S&S ISA £600
  • saver03
    saver03 Posts: 651
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    If you’re looking to identify where money is disappearing every month maybe try a SOA (statement of affairs)?
    NMx

    Painfully, I know where all our surplus income goes and that's on takeaways, eating out, theatre, concerts and just general overspending enjoying life :o

    I need to strike a happy balance so I feel that I am getting the most out of my life but I am also saving money and OPing the mortgage.
    LBM 14/12/06 £21,947.17 DEBT FREE 12/04/09
    MFW - December 2010 £76,199 - 4th February 2021 £37,360.90
  • saver03
    saver03 Posts: 651
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    edited 19 February 2019 at 3:48PM
    I was just updating my signature and thought I would do a little post to help keep me motivated.

    We have done our first OP for this year and it feels so good. It was only £158.08 but as they say, "Every little helps." Plus, I've just had a play with the overpayment calculator and if everything stays the same that small OP would save us £7125 in interest and we would pay off the mortgage 6 and a half years early :eek:

    OH has sorted out all his Lego and I have got a few bits to eBay so that is going to be my plan for the rest of the day. After looking at what things have previously sold for on eBay we have a few hundred pounds sat on our front room floor waiting to be listed.

    Looking over our budget for the next 5 weeks and it's the same old story, we socialise far too much :o And I always add on a few pounds extra just in case and then somehow we always manage to spend it all :mad: I think I am going to start a spending diary so we know exactly where the money goes. I think a lot of it goes on takeaway and eating out on a whim. I need to meal plan better and make sure we stick to it.

    Once our BTL is rented out again, or sold, then we should have around £500 month that I will put into savings and work very hard not to squander or book a holiday. I need to work on my self discipline, but I promise I am trying.

    Holiday wise there are SO MANY places that I want to visit and they are never cheap. I would love to visit the Galapagos Islands but the tour I have seen would cost £10,698 for both of us. And that is without spending money and getting from Manchester to London and back for the flights. But then I think well it is my 40th year so we should do something special. And then they might stop tourists visiting there as they need to preserve the islands and the wildlife. But that is a lot of money and it would help us greatly towards moving house.

    We do have a holiday this year as we go to Vegas for 1 week in July with meet and greet tickets to see Robbie Williams, so that was hardly cheap. But now I have buyers remorse as we have been to Vegas before and we have paid for it all in full and now have no savings.

    I need to sort my priorities out and stop acting like we have a lot of money, because we don't! And the big thing we need is some kind of emergency pot as no one knows what the future holds.

    Right well enough of my self indulgent waffling, time to be productive :A
    LBM 14/12/06 £21,947.17 DEBT FREE 12/04/09
    MFW - December 2010 £76,199 - 4th February 2021 £37,360.90
  • saver03
    saver03 Posts: 651
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    As I managed to clear off a pretty big debt in a few years I have decided that I need to get back into that mindset to help us pay off the mortgage sooner.

    I have started to use Swagbucks again and just need to get into a daily routine with it
    I have a few apps that I will upload receipts onto
    I need to make sure that I do my weekly checkout on Consumer Pulse even if I haven't made any purchases
    I have been meal planning and sticking to it so we don't just get a takeaway or eat out. I think we need to reserve eating out just for special occasions
    I am still listing all our goods on eBay and we should hopefully get a few hundred pounds

    My OH doesn't understand why I do all these things for such small rewards but I've tried to explain that it all adds up and overtime is definitely worth it. He already accuses me of being "tight" but I don't see why we should pay more than we have to for things and I am happy to spend a little time online finding out where the best offers are. But I know he will be happy if we can become mortgage free way before his retirement.
    LBM 14/12/06 £21,947.17 DEBT FREE 12/04/09
    MFW - December 2010 £76,199 - 4th February 2021 £37,360.90
  • LeighofMar
    LeighofMar Posts: 672
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper
    Forumite
    You're so right that all the little things add up and make a difference. My hubby sometimes wishes the budget was looser too but when he sees that the house should be paid off 7 years before his retirement, he feels better.
    Mortgage start date Dec 2015 - $64,655.00
    Mortgage end date Dec 2045 - NOT!!!!
    Mortgage balance  - $4600.00
    Business Savings $43,310/100k
    Hope to be mortgage-free by end of 2023 
  • saver03
    saver03 Posts: 651
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    Been playing with some money and overpaid to our maximum 5% for the year and this has brought us below £50,000 :j

    We do still have a long way to go as our plan is to buy a bigger house so I am just doing all I can to OP the maximum on our current mortgage and put the rest into savings. We want to have the biggest deposit so we hit the ground running with our end goal of being mortgage free ASAP.

    There are only a couple of jobs left to do on the house and as they are outside painting we have been waiting for better weather, which might actually be here. So once we can get this house on the market and moving forward I am sure this will spur us on to make even more savings.

    All my OH's old Lego is on eBay and is currently just over £170 so I am hoping for some bidding wars and double that amount come Sunday, fingers crossed!

    I'm still keeping up with my Swagbucks, Consumer Pulse and my receipt apps. And twice I have resisted the temptation to get takeaway and have stuck to the meal plan.

    We are still living our life as full as we can as we do plan to take the parents out for a meal to cover Mother's Day and the in laws birthdays but we have budgeted for this and any other social events we have and then the rest of the money goes straight into the ISA so we are not tempted to spend it.

    Still trying to find the perfect balance between living our best lives but being mortgage free
    LBM 14/12/06 £21,947.17 DEBT FREE 12/04/09
    MFW - December 2010 £76,199 - 4th February 2021 £37,360.90
  • saver03
    saver03 Posts: 651
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    We've had a very enjoyable long weekend, but on the plus side I did budget us a lot for it so we haven't actually gone over that amount :T

    Today I am going to meal plan as we still get far too much takeaway and are spending far too much on it. This isn't good for the bank balance or waistline :o

    The old Lego got us £300 after all fees etc. and that went straight into savings :j

    The savings pot aka the forever home deposit is filling up nicely but could be better! We are remortgaging our buy to let so once that has gone through we will have just over £20k and the monthly payments will be nearly halved.

    Once we have sold our current home we should get around another £40k so we will have a good size deposit. We are looking at houses with a maximum price of £250k as we want our LTV to be 80% as that is when the better rates kick in.

    Need to keep focussed otherwise it will be 12 months from now and we will still be in our current house desperate to move :(
    LBM 14/12/06 £21,947.17 DEBT FREE 12/04/09
    MFW - December 2010 £76,199 - 4th February 2021 £37,360.90
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