Well, time is still whizzing past! Last week I went to Edinburgh for a couple of days and met up with a friend and had a great time. Edinburgh is a beautiful city - Mr G and I went there with the 4 DC last year. This time I was child-free and with a native Edinburgh-er (?) - so had some of the sights pointed out to me and history told as we walked around.
Saturday was DS3's 2nd birthday! He is such a sweetie and was spoilt rotten by everyone! We only got him a couple of toys because a- he's too young to know any different b- he has lots of hand me down toys from the bigger ones c- we knew he'd get lots of stuff from everyone else! I do now need to have a cull of toys though.. another job for the list! It was also my mum's birthday - we gave her a Radley purse and keyring (cost £14 groupon voucher and £3 - goods worth £43), a huge candle decorated with flowers (M&S Outlet reduced to £8 from £15) and a bodyshop gift box (£12.50 from £25 in the sale) Bargains!
I've decided to start following flylady again so have been working in our bedroom this week. I got everything out from under the bed (it's where I keep the Xmas and birthday present stashes and paper/ cards) and had a good sort out and vacuum. My drawers have been sorted and tidied (a few items put to one side for a charity bag) and mirrors and woodwork/ units polished. This leaves me the bathroom to give a good clean to and the landing/ dressing area to tidy and clean (and my wardrobe to sort) (We have our bedroom in a loft conversion - we have the whole floor to us - bedroom, massive bathroom and a landing/ dressing area between the two) So far it's going well - when I follow flylady (modified) it works - but I have to be 'up' to follow it, and recently I've been very down, so the house and garden need a good overhaul, as I've just not bothered :(
A good note from this week though is that I won £25 on premium savings bonds (we only have £600 in them). I paid this off the mortgage, along with some coins from the mortgage money box and rounded it up to make an overpayment to bring the mortage balance down to exactly £85000. I'm really pleased with this - we took a £130k mortgage when we moved here in Oct 2005 and a further £30k advance in Dec 2008 for the loft - so we've repaid £75k of capital in 5 1/2 years!! Our mortgage end date is officially Oct or Nov 2025, but I want to pay it all off by July 2016... eeek!!
Showing posts with label mortgage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mortgage. Show all posts
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Finances and Paying off the Mortgage!
Had a mini finances session this afternoon after seeing the accountant this morning - paid credit card bills online, transferred some money between accounts and sent £110 overpayment to the mortgage.
We moved to this house in late 2005 and took a £130k mortgage (about 47%LTV) - a big jump from our previous £34k mortgage! Because it was such a large jump (and we had DS2 on the way) we did increase the term - we took the £130k out over 20 years. However, it was always my intention that we'd pay it off sooner if possible. Along the way we've had some building works done and a new (bespoke real wood with granite worktops) kitchen put in (cost approx £20k). We also took a further advance of £30k in Dec 2008 (when DS3 was on the way!) for a loft conversion (cost around £36k) That meant our borrowing against this house has been a total of £160k - eek! However, our total mortgage is now just over £86k, and we are looking at an end date of 07/2017, as opposed to 11/2025 - not bad! We regularly overpa each month by rounding up our mortgage payment and I also pay any 'extra' money we receive to there - the premise being that if we weren't expecting it as our usual money then we won't miss it if it goes on the mortgage. Today's £110 was made up of money saved in a tin (1ps, 2ps, 5ps and £2 coins), a refund from a magazine subscription (cancelled as they went out of print) and the sale of some clothes. Ebay sales money goes there, as does any money received from cashback sites, nct sales and the like.
We try to strike a good balance between paying the mortgage off early (we have no other debts) and still having a fun life and treats. We're off to Disneyland Paris in October this year (cashback obtained, naturally!) and use things like Tesco clubcard vouchers for days at Legoland. We could tighten our belts further and hit the mortgage harder, but we might resent it then - this way life is still fun, but treats are recognised as such as they are not an everyday occurence.
We moved to this house in late 2005 and took a £130k mortgage (about 47%LTV) - a big jump from our previous £34k mortgage! Because it was such a large jump (and we had DS2 on the way) we did increase the term - we took the £130k out over 20 years. However, it was always my intention that we'd pay it off sooner if possible. Along the way we've had some building works done and a new (bespoke real wood with granite worktops) kitchen put in (cost approx £20k). We also took a further advance of £30k in Dec 2008 (when DS3 was on the way!) for a loft conversion (cost around £36k) That meant our borrowing against this house has been a total of £160k - eek! However, our total mortgage is now just over £86k, and we are looking at an end date of 07/2017, as opposed to 11/2025 - not bad! We regularly overpa each month by rounding up our mortgage payment and I also pay any 'extra' money we receive to there - the premise being that if we weren't expecting it as our usual money then we won't miss it if it goes on the mortgage. Today's £110 was made up of money saved in a tin (1ps, 2ps, 5ps and £2 coins), a refund from a magazine subscription (cancelled as they went out of print) and the sale of some clothes. Ebay sales money goes there, as does any money received from cashback sites, nct sales and the like.
We try to strike a good balance between paying the mortgage off early (we have no other debts) and still having a fun life and treats. We're off to Disneyland Paris in October this year (cashback obtained, naturally!) and use things like Tesco clubcard vouchers for days at Legoland. We could tighten our belts further and hit the mortgage harder, but we might resent it then - this way life is still fun, but treats are recognised as such as they are not an everyday occurence.
Mickey Mouse pizza :)
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