browsing the mortgage market has become far from an attractive prospect. as she comes to the end of her two year fixed rate, she s going to see her monthly payment of £1,000 go up more than a quarter to 1,270 and it will impact other areas of her life. the mortgage increases are really affecting my life at the moment with the cost of living and i get married next month, so my pennies are very tight, and £270 a month is quite a big amount of money for me to have additional outgoings for effectively nothing new i m not gaining anything from this so any holidays or extras that we want in our life, we are unable to do. shelley walker s choosing to pay interest only likely to cost more overall in the long run, but for now it makes the cost of living more bearable as other bills increase. i ve chosen an interest only mortgage because it s cheaper on a monthly basis, so that means that i m more able to afford the luxuries that i like to have in life.