The Smith Clan - Mortgage free in Germany

Quick update for this week.

The sun is still shining happely all day long. Other parts of Germany experienced thunderstorms.

This month is turning expensive for us:eek:
Appliances failing beyond repair.:mad:
Push bikes needing repairs - three of them
Fuel prices jumped high....
Business expenses me and Mr. Egon76 have to pay out, before we can claim them back, have hit the €1000 mark as well.
I just have done a budget update. The reconciliation will happen next week. I am glad I am doing this on a monthly basis.

I am having a meeting with the bank next week, to look into options for repaying more of the mortgage in the short term. There will be an update on this next week too.

I wish everyone a nice evening
Egon76

So, I have managed to update the budget and below are the figures. Some outgoings are only quarterly or yearly. But for easy budgeting, I have broken them down into monthly payments. We actually have a monthly and a yearly budget. The yearly budget reflects the regular outgoings the month they are due. The actual budgets are more detailed than the summary below. We do have business expenses which are usually paid out of our emergency fund and when we receive the money back, we put it back in. Any money not spend at the end of the year in any category and refunds (tax etc) will go into another account to either overpay the mortgage or any emergencies.

Monthly budget:

Income total:...........Euro 6850

Outgoings:
Cars (ins, fuel etc):..............Euro 569.71
Clothes:...............................Euro 150
Groceries:............................Euro 475
Hairdresser:.........................Euro 30
Dining out:...........................Euro 30
Pocket money:.....................Euro 117
Subscriptions/clubs:.............Euro25.10
School (lunches, trips etc):...Euro 65
Rental property (all costs):...Euro 778.81
Own Property (all costs):......Euro 2605.28 (includes improvements, mortgage, insurance etcetcetc)
Other insurances:..................Euro 98.16 (liabilty insurance, an old pension payment)
Motocross:............................Euro 221.69 (fuel, clothes, repairs etc)
Golfing:.................................Euro 67
Push bikes:............................Euro 120 (repairs, clothes)
Pet:........................................Euro 31.88
Emergency fund:...................Euro 945 (this plus anything extra is going towards overpayment of the mortgage unfortunately, we are limited to 5% of the borrowed amount )
Pension contr.:......................Euro 129.58
Gifts:.....................................Euro 75
Holidays:...............................Euro 120

We also have a UK bank account, were we have a total of 28000 pounds in savings etc. This is actually our emergency fund, which we don't touch (we do invest some of it in different higher paying savings accounts). Mr. Egon76 already receives a regular pension into this account, so this amount will keep going up. There are also some minimal outgoings from the UK account - into savings for our DS1 and DS2.

The challenge is now to find ways/options to use (all) the German emergency fund money to pay off the mortgage. :cool:

Egon76

We had an (for us) expensive weekend.

Yesterday, DS2 needed new shoes as he has outgrown his old ones, and he needed white tshirts for some school curriculum. Mr Egon76 needed some clothing for his work-do in a couple of weeks.

We also had to buy some ventilator for the boys rooms, as the north of Germany is experiencing a very unusual hot period. Not that I am complaining.
On top of that, we bought new duvets and pillows for ourselves.

DS1 has project week this week. And again, we have to pay for the outings they do every day. The bill will be handed to us afterwards. :eek: Even though I put money aside for school extras, it is less then what I need until the school year is finished. We also still need to pay for his upcoming class trip. DS1 changed school throughout the year, and even after asking a few times for the costs of the trip, we still haven't been told the amount we have to pay.

I do a major food shop every two weeks only. All I top up in between is for milk and veg/fruit. This week came to 212 Euro. We top up on meat from the turkish shop. This should last us for some time.

Both boys are away on a school trip in the same week. Mr Egon76 and I are challenging ourselves with eating out the pantry for that week. A date night will be included as well.

I wish everyone a good evening.

Egon 76

The remortgage for in three years time was not approved. This came down to one of the mortgages is ending at the end of June 2021 - just over three years. Therefore, we have to re-apply for it all again on the 1st July, to stay below the 36 month. German bureaucracy at its best .:o We have to sit tight and see what is available then.

This week, we had to buy some birthday presents, as both boys birthdays are coming up in July. This year, neither wants a party. We are likely to just have some fun days out over the summer holidays.

The electricity bill came in as well this week. It is a refund of Euro 63. This will go straight into the fund for the mortgage overpayment.

Ah, also as of tomorrow, both our sons will be on class trips for the week. Mr Egon76 fancies going out for a meal in the big city. I think I rather just go to one of the restaurants within walking distance and enjoy a nice beer in one of the beergardens. :cool:

Ahhhh Germany lost against Mexico tonight in the world cup.
Mr Egon76 and DS2 watched with the neighbours.

We are still within the budget for everything so far. But the last couple of month have been expensive.... Have to keep a tighter hold over the rest of the year.

Egon76

I've just realised, how long I haven't updated

I am on leave right now. Summer holidays for the kids and the weather is lovely. Lots of sunshine :T Most of the time we can be found at the outdoor swimming pools.

We have now re-mortgaged for 2021 (Total re-mortgage amount of Euro 140000) It does gives us peace of mind and we are happy with the deal. :beer:
We had to take out two deals again. As of May 2021 we are paying Euro 1120.48 a month in total. This is a little less then what we are paying now. Also, the repayment right now stands at 3%. With the new deal, the repayment stand at 8%. We are also able to pay 5% overpayment once a year as of June 2022. The mortgage lenders in Germany aren't very flexible in this So, with taking the monthly repayments and possible overpayments into account, the earliest we can be mortgage free is Dec 2028. So a good celebration to look forward to, as long as we can pull it off. I don't want to jinx it.

Discussion our options with Mr. Egon76, we have now turned our minds to paying off the renovation credit asap. We took Euro 50000 out in 2015 (10 years) to renovate the inside of the house. This stands at 1.98%, with a monthly repayment of Euro 400. Again, we are able to do a yearly overpayment of 5% (Euro 2500). And I just transferred Euro 2500 as the first overpayment. :j:T
The aim is, to overpay every year until it is paid off. Again, if we can make the yearly overpayment from now on, we will have it paid off 21 month early.:dance:

Any money left over after putting aside for the over payments, I want to save. The last room to renovate in the house is the upstairs bathroom. I don't like the style and it is getting yucky. :eek: No love lost between that room and me. So my mind will focus on getting ideas for a new bathroom/re-design

Here again the priorities of where the money will go:

1. Overpayment mortgage 1 and 2 (total of Euro 6750 yearly) until the prediction of the outstanding mortgage for 2021 stands at Euro 140000 (gosh it feels so complicated)
2. Overpayment of the renovation credit (total of Euro 2500 yearly) until it is totally paid off
3. Saving up for the bathroom renovation (anything left after saving for point 1 and 2)

Off to change and update my signature

Egon76