I really really want to be........mortgage free!

A question about : I really really want to be........mortgage free!

Just starting an official diary of the countdown to getting mortgage free.

It will, I warn be a very long countdown! Currently standing at 140k and hoping to be mortgage free by 31.12.2020. That might be a little optimistic I know but that's what I'm hoping for.

You might say, that's okay, pull your belt in but I've got a house too in need of lots of repair (I brought it like this, on purpose, it was the only way I could afford a house in the village I wanted!) doing it up ourselves as much as possible a bit at a time.

Okay then, ideas and advise please......!

Best answers:

• Welcome along! I guess the first thing to do is a SOA so we can see where you can possibly tighten your belt and have extra money for repairs / overpayments?
• Thanks, I am really new to this. What is a SOA?
  Sorry!
• Statement Of Affairs - basically a copy of your budget so that people can make helpful suggestions for budgetary changes (as JimLad says)
• cool I will try to get that done, to be honest I dont have a budget. The first thing I should do is create a budget then!
• A good budget is essential! Good luck.
• Good luck, a plan of attack will help you to achieve your plan and a budget is the cornerstone of that.
  All the best!
• Okay this isn't totally accurate now but here the initial stab at it. Will update tomorrow once I dig out some paperwork.....
  Household Information[/b]
  Number of adults in household........... 2
  Number of children in household......... 1
  Number of cars owned.................... 1
  Monthly Income Details
  Monthly income after tax................ 3000
  Partners monthly income after tax....... 600
  Benefits................................ 0
  Other income............................ 0
  Total monthly income.................... 3600
  Monthly Expense Details
  Mortgage................................ 850
  Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
  Rent.................................... 0
  Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
  Council tax............................. 154
  Electricity............................. 46
  Gas..................................... 0
  Oil..................................... 90
  Water rates............................. 15
  Telephone (land line)................... 0
  Mobile phone............................ 0
  TV Licence.............................. 12.12
  Satellite/Cable TV...................... 81.81
  Internet Services....................... 0
  Groceries etc. ......................... 100
  Clothing................................ 100
  Petrol/diesel........................... 60
  Road tax................................ 2.5
  Car Insurance........................... 27.98
  Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
  Car parking............................. 20
  Other travel............................ 25
  Childcare/nursery....................... 0
  Other child related expenses............ 0
  Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
  Pet insurance/vet bills................. 35
  Buildings insurance..................... 0
  Contents insurance...................... 39.79
  Life assurance ......................... 28.63
  Other insurance......................... 0
  Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 80
  Haircuts................................ 20
  Entertainment........................... 160
  Holiday................................. 0
  Emergency fund.......................... 0
  Additional life ins..................... 23.06
  Dog food................................ 10
  Total monthly expenses.................. 2000.89
  
  Assets
  Cash.................................... 1000
  House value (Gross)..................... 350000
  Shares and bonds........................ 5000
  Car(s).................................. 7000
  Other assets............................ 0
  Total Assets............................ 363000
  
  Secured & HP Debts
  Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
  Mortgage...................... 140000...(850)......0
  Total secured & HP debts...... 140000....-.........-
  Assets[/b]
  Cash.................................... 1000
  House value (Gross)..................... 350000
  Shares and bonds........................ 5000
  Car(s).................................. 7000
  Other assets............................ 0
  Total Assets............................ 363000
  
  Secured & HP Debts
  Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
  Mortgage...................... 140000...(850)......0
  Total secured & HP debts...... 140000....-.........-
  Unsecured Debts[/b]
  Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
  Cc ............................7000......100.......19
  Total unsecured debts..........7000......100.......-
  
  Monthly Budget Summary
  Total monthly income.................... 3,600
  Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,000.89
  Available for debt repayments........... 1,599.11
  Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 100
  Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,499.11
  Personal Balance Sheet Summary
  Total assets (things you own)........... 363,000
  Total HP & Secured debt................. -140,000
  Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,000
  Net Assets.............................. 216,000
• Nice and detailed, thats what we like to see!
  Just a quick skim and i can see a few figures that i think might be a little high. This of course is completely my opinion and feel free to ignore / justify anything i pick out!
  Ј90 on oil - Seems a lot. Is this for hot water and heating? You could optimise your timings on the hot water to make sure you only just have enough hot water for your daily routine.
  Ј81 TV - Im guessing this is virgin cable and also includes internet as you have nothing in that column? Do you need all the channels / speed you get? I bet you can get this cheaper.
  Ј100 on clothing a month? Seems like a lot even for 3 people. Is there someone with a clothes addiction?
  Ј39 a month for contents insurance - Does this include buildings? Thats 468 a year and seems VERY high. Our contents and buildings combined is about 150 a year.
  Ј80 a month on presents? Thats a lot of birthdays! Ј960 a year
  Ј160 a month entertainment...Whats this include?...seems like a lot to me but then im suger scrooge!
• Does anyone know of a good app ipad monitoring everyday spending.
• you can design your own on Excel.
  Possibly need 1 sheets for planning:-
  -cash flow (for all annual, 1/4ly, 1/2 yearly costs) to ensure your monthly saving for these meets the timing when they come due)
  -separate sheets for monthly current account reconciliation.
  (don't forget to include all costs (ATM, cheques, CC purchases, switch etc)
  I also have a 3rd to subdivide my savings account into named sub accounts for stuff linked to the Planning sheet (Motoring, clothes, oil, etc)
  When you deposit in your monthly allocation for these costs it auto diverts to sub accounts and when you spend against named account , it provides running balance. It is highest interest account so interest accumulates.
  All of you in household need to have agreement on what you want to achieve and have a family discussion about it
• Today I brought 5 packs of Tesco value chocolate at 30p each and melted it into silicon moulds = 3 Christmas presents.
  I'm giving all adults hampers for Xmas to save money so I'd better get going on this.
  I'm estimating this will save me about 150-200 pounds this christmas.
  Got bzzagent invite for luxury shower gel so that's handy.
• very pleased with myself, just rang sky and got Ј11 off per month for 3 months and also have set reminder in my phone to ring again end of feb and renegotiate or cancel sky sports then. Go me!
• Just been on compare the market for buildings and contents and I can definitely get this down. Need to check my current policy to see if it's easy to leave. Any other good comparison sites to check or any other tips for me.
• Ј20/month sounds like a lot for haircuts to me.
• I estimated it at getting our hair cut every 2 -3 months. 3 of us. Mine costs at least Ј30 as its very thick and is at last an hour. The boys are Ј10 each approx so I estimated Ј20 per month. Is that a lot? Should I shop around more?
• Was trying not to spend anything today but ended up spending 35 pounds. Epic failure :-(
• Okay a bit about us.....
  There's me (40) my bf (49) and son (6) we have 2 dogs and did have 3 chicken but they died of a mystery illness earlier in the year and we've been too sad to replace them. we work together and for ourselves. We've been doing this for 10 years and our income is pretty consistant.
  We haven't been the best savers throughout our lives , we did a world trip 11 years ago that took our whole savings and we had to restart saving. I have been looking through it and we have 8k in total. Don't have much at all in terms of pensions sorted certainly not enough to live a decent retirement. Plan is to get mortgage free then invest in a btl or a commercial building.
  We moved 18 months ago into our current house. Previous house we brought and did up. Ended up with a 130k deposit for current house. Has paid off a bit and have about Ј140 k now on a mortgage. Current house is very old needs doing up too and although it's structurally okay and livable in just about everything needs doing. It's a lovely big house and in a lovely area and it's the only way could afford to live here was to do it up.
  We have just finished sons bedroom which has ended up costing about Ј2000 but of this we treated him to a new bed and furniture Ј700 and we had to have the heating flushed out as the rad in his room wasn't working so that was an extra Ј300. So I can estimate Ј1000 per bedroom room that includes getting someone in to skim it, replace the radiator and a wool carpet fitted. We don't plan to actually do much more for the next 6 months in the house so there should be some money for OP.
  I overpay a little every month, as a minimum I always round down to the nearest Ј10 even if I can't do any more than that. Most months I OP by 50-100. I want to double this to start off with. I'm sure I can do this with cost cutting.
  I'm recording all our everyday expenditure in a free app I downloaded which is going to be really useful. I will at some point put the rest of my bills in but for now I'm recording everyday spending as I'm sure we can get this down and I'm going through my bills one by one to see if I can reduce each one by shopping around,
  I'd appreciate any support, hints and tips :-)