Petroni's big fat financially responsible mortgaging

Petronisoup · 2 January 2019 at 6:00PM

Hello everyone,
Here to join the journey to a mortgage free future after reading through loads of other people's diaries and witnessing the achievements of the members of this forum.

My boyfriend of 8 years and I discussed late last year that we need to be more financially sensible and channel our earnings to good use, including mortgage overpayments, house renovations and savings.

We'd like to become mortgage free quickly to give us the flexibility to do other things in the future – maybe go part time or take some holidays travelling to new places, and feel more financially secure if we have kids. Also keen to cut down on the interest payments too while it's a high balance to make the biggest impact.

Our goals are:
- Aim to be mortgage free by 40, cutting 8 years off the mortgage – long term goal
- Renovate the bathroom eventually – long term goal
- Get a good pot of savings together (At least £5000) – long term goal, aiming for Dec 2020
- Pay my dad back for a loan he gave me a few years ago (So far paid £2300 out of 4700) – short term goal, aiming for May 2019
- Pay off credit card for new front door and patio doors (£2500 on a 29 month interest free credit card) – short term goal, Aiming for Jan 2020

I'll post a bit more about our financials next but feel like I've rambled on enough just now haha! Thanks for having me!!

Petronisoup · 2 January 2019 at 6:09PM

So we purchased our home for £108,000 and paid a 15% deposit in mid 2014
Our mortgage today stands at £80541 at a rate of 1.79%, fixed until June 2019. 18 years 1 month left.
We're looking to overpay at least £200 per month starting at the end of this month.!

My payment to joint account = £700
Partner's payment to joint account = £650
Total £1350
I get paid slightly more so happy to put a bit more in.

Joint monthly direct debits and payments:
£438 mortgage!
£111 council tax (was £107)
£98 gas and electricity!
£29 100Mbps internet with Virgin
£23 water with water meter
£28 home insurance!
£29 dog food!
£18 pet insurance!
£65.21 Ikea sofa for 6 more months!
£30 for Very for 2 more months (bought a hoover and some new duvets)
£40 allocated for dog walks!(can fluctuate depending on amount of days I work away)
Joint food and house stuff budget = £160!
Joint overpayment =!£250!
Total £1319.21

Annual things
£150 TV licence (£12.50 per month)

This leaves us both with a healthy sum of money to cover our personal spending, saving up for holidays and car insurance etc. Also gives partner leeway to carry on with his hobby of 3 cars, two of which are very old project cars that don't really go anywhere!

We also tend to pool our personal money together for household renovations, holidays and new furniture and will both be paying £100 each towards the 0% credit card we got out to buy new front door and patios (The people who quoted us gave us an offer we couldn't refuse and they desperately needed doing). We're aiming to clear it in 1 year rather than the 29 months window we have with the credit card.

What are we already doing?
- I use Quidco for cashback when I buy anything online (pretty good when I get to book train tickets and hotels for work!)
- Use Natwest MyRewards for cashback
- Member of a mystery dining website so we can sometimes eat out and get some of the money reimbursed for the report
- Have cut down the “eating out” budget from the joint account and now this goes towards the mortgage overpayment
- Meal prep for work week then freeze the meals ready for us to eat - partner buys his snacks for the week out of his own money as he's got expensive tastes and loves his branded chocolate and pop

In our home we've done loads of renovations since moving in, so I feel less guilty about not overpaying the mortgage until now.

So far we have:
- Fully replaced and renovated the kitchen with all new appliances and fittings. (This included knocking off heaps of plaster and I still get flashbacks about the dust today!)
- Chopped down 7 huge fir trees and had them taken away.
- Salvaged my parents' fence and used it for our garden, and had a made to measure gate created by my partner's welder friend.!
- Pulled out a hideous fireplace and had a new electric fire fitted in the living room (would have had a real fire but the plumber checked it and the chimney floo didn't have good ventilation).!
- Redecorated dining room, living room and master bedroom.!
- Full plastering of hallway and stairs due to very thick artex, decorated and new light fittings installed.!
- Front door and patio doors replaced.!
- New garage doors for double garage!
- New electric box!
- New boiler!

SIGH! And I thought we had hardly done anything these past 4 years...

We've just made our first mortgage overpayment of £90 today which seems quite little compared to some of the bigger overpayers I've read on here but feeling happy that we've finally started doing it.

Bit about us and our lifestyles –
I work from home with some travel to exotic places (Aberdeen, Milton Keynes, Huddersfield... the glamour!) I have a personal trainer that is helping me lose weight and get fit, via weight lifting. It's the first exercise and eating regime I've found that I actually enjoy and my coach has really helped me develop a positive mindset and healthy lifestyle, so I'm keen to keep this going (think I'd rather stop going out than stop paying my PT!).

The partner paints cars for a living at a local dealership and has a BIG obsession with cars generally – modifying them, painting them, going to car shows etc, he spends almost every weekend tinkering with something or other. This is the main reason that we don't pool all of our money together, just a part of it because a lot of his outgoings are on cars. I'm glad he has a hobby and he's extremely talented, but I'd just get frustrated if we shared our wages and saw what he spends on the cars!!!I also tend to go out for meals with friends a lot so very much like having my own money pot. We've also got a cat called Phil and a rescue dog called Jenson.

starnac · 3 January 2019 at 3:35PM

Good luck on paying off your mortgage. You have done a lot to the house since you bought it by the sounds of it. DH and I also have our own "spending" money as we both like to have a bit of freedom with our money.

Petronisoup · 3 January 2019 at 9:42PM

Thank you Starnac! It didn't feel like we had done that much as we've spread it out over the years but nice to get it all down!

Glad to know you have personal money too, I completely agree, I'm sure it's saved us a lot of arguments. :rotfl:

Petronisoup · 4 January 2019 at 4:42PM

Hi just an update!
I've joined the 2019 mortgage overpayment thread and have committed to overpaying by £2500 this year. 90/2500 so far, not much to go right?! :rotfl:

Frugal wins -

I just got loads of stocking filler presents discounted at Asda Living for a total of £10.50, when for all of them it should have been over £30! Will save me money throughout the year when I buy presents for friends and family.
I have a voucher for £50 to spend at my local shopping centre so saving that towards some new work clothes when the time comes.
Also have a £20 voucher to spend at Ikea because we bought our Christmas tree there. We've recently renovated the hall and need a coat stand so hoping to nab one with this voucher.
It's my birthday next Tuesday so my parents are taking us out tonight to Turtle Bay for tea, their treat :P
Booked some hotels for upcoming trips and changed our energy supplier using Quidco for cashback.

Frugal fails -

Loads of veg has gone off in the fridge, pretty angry at myself for wasting food
We spent a lot more over Christmas than we thought we would so our food budget is a bit tight this month and we need to get back into meal prepping / shopping at the cheaper supermarket rather than the big shiny one down the road.

Next week we should be back in a routine so will consist of meal preps and reining the spending in. :A

Petronisoup · 5 January 2019 at 9:46PM

And another update - just made another overpayment of £30 so that when our mortgage goes out this month it will knock us into the 79,000's bracket! Exciting Saturday night obviously..:rotfl:

Petronisoup · 6 January 2019 at 9:38PM

Frugal win - meal prepped our lunches ready for the working week!

Petronisoup · 9 January 2019 at 3:10PM

Little update today: I've made a set of spreadsheets to help us budget each month and I should be comfortably able to pay my dad back by May, pay the 0% credit card off by December and overpay by at least £200 per month.
The spreadsheets have certainly made me realise how much we were frittering away on takeaways and other random stuff!

Also just been given a nice BBQ for free which will come in very handy in the summer :j

Petroni

Petronisoup · 11 January 2019 at 10:49PM

Saw some others posting about no spend days and monthly challenges - I thought I was pretty good at not spending my money on random stuff but was horrified to see i've got hardly any spend days and neither has my partner! We're always paying a fiver for a coffee and a snack or "bits" for the house that we don't really need. And the new year sales are a minefield for spending my money on stuff I don't need!

So I've made a conscious effort not to spend this week unnecessarily and I've so far managed 5 no spend days in Jan. Gonna try and get it up to 15 no spend days and aim for 20 next month! It's already worked and stopped me from buying the following;

A takeaway
Mars bars
Another throw (we have about 9 throws.. how many blankets does a girl need? :') )

Petroni

the_cross_rabbit · 12 January 2019 at 12:07PM

you are doing really well, its always a shock when you really start to look at what you are actually spending your money on. At least you can start to make in roads into your problem areas and can alter as you see fit.
CRx

Petronisoup · 13 January 2019 at 10:34PM

Hi Cross Rabbit, thank you for stopping by! It's definitely been surprising to see how much we are sending down a black hole.

I read your thread last week actually and it really inspired me, especially your allotment veg! So much so that I've started off small with a mint plant.. so if I can keep that alive maybe we will branch out to something else like growing a chili plant :rotfl:

Petroni's big fat financially responsible mortgaging

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