Making chicken feed of my mortgage

A question about : Making chicken feed of my mortgage

Hello

After reading lots of inspirational MFW diaries I have decided to start one of my own as a record of my progress and to keep me motivated.

When we relocated to our current house 4.5 years ago we gained a bedroom but more than doubled our mortgage
Luckily Mr MWC had a very generous 4-year relocation package and even luckier it was paid out in full when he was made redundant 6 months later…

A little about the mortgage…

July 2002

Original mortgage (interest only)
4.49% fixed rate
Redemption date = July 2027
Ј90,250

April 2008

Further advance (repayment)
5.62% fixed rate
Redemption date = April 2028
Ј106,190

October 2012

Original mortgage (interest only)
2.50% BMR
Redemption date = April 2028
Ј88,660

Further advance (repayment)
2.50% BMR
Redemption date = August 2026
Ј79,832

We have been paying Ј134/month into a S&S ISA for the past 10 years to pay off the capital on the interest only mortgage - fingers crossed. Note to self: check performance of S&S ISA.

We made our first OP of Ј2,750 to the FA last November and this year we have OP’d the equivalent of paying the FA twice a month, every month

A little about me…

41 years old
0 children
7 chickens
Work FT in a job that bores me to tears but pays well and allows me to finish at lunchtime on Fridays

A little about Mr MWC…

Happy to OP as long it doesn’t affect our lifestyle
Recent convert to topcashback

Today I have…

Sold 2 boxes of eggs @ Ј1.25/box
Shined my sink (after scrubbing it and bleaching it first)
Made sausage, barley & kale stew for dinner
Been unable to locate a dividend cheque for Ј265 that came in the post last week…

muddywhitechicken

Best answers:

• Good luck on becoming MF!
  (I'm still a Mortgage Wannabe - saving for the deposit!)
• Best of luck on your MFW journey!
• Thanks for the good luck messages Domino and BookWorm.
  Today I have:
  Walked into town
  Opened a Loyalty Saver a/c at the BS ("disputing" how longer I have been a member - they say 14 years, I say 25+ years!)
  Bought cheap mealworms and sunflower seeds for the chickens
  Done 2 loads of laundry
  Made spiced crab apple jelly for my Christmas hampers
  Made chocolate brownies
  Spent an hour pottering in the garden - picked yellow baby plum tomatoes and raspberries
  Cleaned the conservatory
  Shined my sink
  Mr MWC made 5 root soup with bacon for lunch and Bengali butternut squash and chickpea curry for dinner. Yum!
• Good morning.
  Today we are going on a guided fungal foray. Free for me, Ј5 for Mr MWC as organised by my employer's S&S club (costs me Ј12/year but more than pays for itself). Forager's nip (HM sloe gin and blackcurrant vodka) and the brownies I baked yesterday are packed.
  We'll have to pay Ј2.50 for parking and then we are planning to find a pub for lunch.
  Have a great Sunday everyone.
• Welcome to the site, MWC... I am so jealous of your mushroom foray today, and if you're in the south at least, the weather is wonderful for that sort of expedition.
  Have a great day!
• Welcome to MFW!!
  Your job sounds like mine too - I hate it but I get the advantage of working from home so I just grin and bare it for the time being.
  You sound like a couple of quite adventurous cooks (to me anyway!)...I'd love to be able to do things like that - maybe when I become a lady of leisure (I can dream!!)
  Anyway, good luck on paying off the mortgage!
• I've had a lovely day today
  The fungal foray was a big success - between us we found 50+ different fungi in 2 hours... and some of them were even edible! Mr MWC was the only person to find chanterelles You're right Sepa, the weather was perfect. Then we went to lunch with friends and it was their turn to pay, so a cheap day out
  4 eggs from The Girls today. The best I can hope for at the moment is 5/day as 2 of the older chickens are moulting and have stopped laying for the winter.
  For tea we had a big bowl of padron chillies (a freebie from my brother's allotment) fried and sprinkled with sea salt and the leftover soup from yesterday.
  I'm not sure that we're that adventurous lvm - after reading this diary for a couple of weeks, you'll see that we get quite repetitive. We're definitely greedy though and spend an absolute fortune on groceries!
  My sink is still shiny I often struggle to multi-task in my personal life so I can have a spotless house or perfect garden or diet/exercise or have a hobby but I tend to get obsessive about one thing and the others go to pot (although at the moment everything seems to have gone to pot...)
  The weekend is almost over and I have to go back to work
• No NSD here today... but I have plenty of lame excuses why I spent Ј15.50 instead of the 50p I needed to... is there a *rolls eyes* smiley?!
  Another 4 eggs today.
  Venison sausages (from the freezer) for dinner roasted with the leftover root vegetables from Saturday and juniper berries.
  My sink is still super shiny
• Nearly a NSD but I took FIL's dog to the vet - Ј24 for a consultation
  I have a plan to make some money though... a colleague was saying that he was having to throw out loads of stuff (DVDs, designer clothes etc) because there was no room to store anything in his new flat and he couldn't be bothered to sell it himself... so I offered to sell it for him... with a 50:50 split
  My S&S ISA is actually a mortgage-linked equity plan. I received a review/statement in the post today. The fund has a current value of Ј21,848.85 but a projected shortfall (at 7% growth) of Ј1,950 in 15 years time At 5% growth the potential shortfall is Ј19,950
  Yummy dinner again today - Mr MWC made roast acorn squash stuffed with squash, bacon & thyme risotto and gremolata. And he washed up as well - what a star I will have to check out the shininess of his sink though!
  Only 3 eggs today.
• Today I have:
  Sold 3 boxes of eggs @ Ј1.25/box
  Defrosted HM spag bol for dinner
  Shined my sink after picking out yesterday's risotto...
  Only 3 eggs again today.
  Tomorrow I am:
  Going to New York!!!
  Flight was on sale and booked via TCB, hotel and transfers are free as accompanying Mr MWC on his business trip and I had a fistful of dollars anyway
• Hello, have subscribed and am jealous of your chickens
• Thanks edinburgher. Mr MWC is a scientist.
  Hello MrsP1983 - chickens are the best pets in the world
• I'm back
  NYC was really and not too expensive.
  We ate at Momofuku on Friday *drools* and Momofuku's Milk Bar on Friday (peanut butter & ritz cracker ice-cream and pineapple upside down truffles), Saturday (green apple & cheddar ice-cream and compost cookies) and Sunday (crack pie)! We already have the momofuku cookbook but I really want the milk bar cookbook now. It is 30% off on Amazon but with my head on, I have resisted and put it on my Christmas list instead. If only I could have resisted some of that food...!
  I've just had my shopping delivered (Sainsburys, Ј12 off a Ј60 spend)
• Welcome back Glad to hear you had a good time
  Well done on resisting the cookbook. Very MSW
• Thanks BookWorm
  Today I have:
  Drooled at the memory of crack pie
  Resisted buying the momofuku milk bar cookbook again
  Taken lunch to work - raw veggies, marmite breadsticks, fresh/dried fruit
  Failed to resist the vending machine at work due to boredem (three times )
  Shined my sink
  Only 2 eggs today (+1 softie)
  Mr MWC rustled up a storecupboard dinner of spinach & ricotta tortelloni with pesto, peas and fried onion
• Good morning
  I forgot to mention previously that there was a little action in NYC... the maid replenished the aveda toiletries every day so I have enough to last me for a couple of weeks
  Need to pick up my lift share in 15 minutes so I'd better get a move on - have a good day everyone.
• Hi and welcome to MFW.
  Just popped in to wish you luck.
  MCI
• Thank you MCI
  Today I have:
  Received my monthly CC statement. It's significantly lower than normal but still doesn't stand up to close scrutiny
  Supermarket/groceries = Ј335.45 (+ I spent an additional Ј81.94 on my debit card...)
  Petrol = Ј91.16
  Toiletries = Ј67.52 (in addition to what is included in the supermarket shop)
  Amazon = Ј25.52 (DVD boxsets that I can't get on LoveFilm or Netflix - will try to sell on when we've finished watching them)
  Plants = Ј26.42 (I don't have room in the garden for these...)
  Miscellaneous = Ј233.10 (treats for The Girls, vet bill for FIL's dog, coffee, magazines, train tickets, a half price coat and a pair of trouser that don't fit but I haven't got round to returning yet...)
  Looking on the brightside, my loyalty points have been redeemed and I will be receiving a Ј25 JL gift voucher in the post soon.
  Mr MWC is away on business again (back Friday) - this city is not as as NYC so I decided to stay here! I hate cooking just for myself so I took inspiration from this forum and had eggy bread + maple syrup for my dinner
  3 eggs today