MFi3 & before I am 40 + my MB journey

TallGirl · 4 January 2008 at 11:59AM

As you may know I am an avid MSE fan and really got into overpaying my mortgage thanks to the MFi3 thread which I help update the chart for.

I have never really thought about having a diary but reading others I feel it is time I took the plunge and got one. My plan is to write about my mortgage free plans and also a bit about life and everything in general. I hope that is OK I might ramble quite a bit.

TallGirl · 4 January 2008 at 12:00PM

Firstly a bit about myself. I am 37 years old, live on the South Coast and work for a large company as a sales rep. I am originally from Denmark but moved to England in 1994 where we bought our current house. I have known my husband for 16 years but we only got married in 2004. He has had his own small family business since 1987 when his family returned from South Africa. We have no children just a big cat.

I was at University when we bought the house so only had my student grant from Denmark and DH was of course self employed. DH had bought a family house when they returned in 1991 but we needed a place of our own desperately. We bought a small new build for £87,500 and thanks to FIL we got an £80,500 mortgage as he gave us the deposit.

We got talked into taking out an endowment mortgage and to the honest I did not have a clue about finances then. We did not have a penny to our names and bought most of the furniture on credit. So that was us 21 & 28 years old with a £80k mortgage due to be paid off in 2019 - really scare then.

Anyway to cut a long story short we have since re-mortgaged to an Offset Mortgage with the Woolwich. That was in 1999. We cashed in the endowment and paid off some credit cards. We still owed £80,500 but decided to overpay then by £250.

TallGirl · 4 January 2008 at 12:01PM

So fast forward to the start of the MFi3 Challenge in April 2007 I had been an avid Martin Lewis fan and been on this site since May 2006. I decided it was time to start really getting rid of the mortgage we owed £45,500 then.

I love our offset mortgage and as DH is a 40% tax rate I have not been able to find a saving rate that can beat offsetting. We also have separate finances so his savings just sits in his own current account. We have had lots of expenses in the last few years we have been able to save something.
Here are some of the things we have paid out for
2004 Wedding and Honeymoon
2005 Extension to house increase from 2 to 3 bed house
2006 New car for DH

I liked the idea of paying it off in 3 years as I will be 40 in 2010 so my plan has been the following.

Increased my monthly payments to £1000 (an extra £500 a month)
Paid off the monthly interest charged each month so I have a nice round figure
Use Quidco, Moneybackmadness, Greasypalm and Topcashback for everything I can
Pigsback & Lightspeed panel for vouchers for treats
Sell things on Ebay we no longer need & buy nearly new & new clothes
All extra money earned from above to go into pot dedicated to holidays
Cook from scratch use slowcooker to make big bathces to freeze to avoid going out for meals or take aways.
Do bulk shopping at Macro
Be a total points tart with Tesco, Sainsburry and Boots
Each time I get a paid increase I increase the amount I save each month or overpay on the mortgage.

We still have holidays and go out for the occasional meal and we both have an expensive hobby but you only live once.

I think that is enough for now will come back tomorrow with my goals for 2008.

setmefree2 · 4 January 2008 at 12:35PM

Good Luck TG:j....I'm truly looking forward to reading about your mortgage free journey:T:money:

115K · 4 January 2008 at 1:51PM

Best of luck TallGirl:j

inkie · 4 January 2008 at 3:15PM

Great idea TG - look forward to reading about how you plan to do it, and I am sure that you doing this will help to keep you focussed!

Little_Mama · 4 January 2008 at 4:18PM

Good luck Tall Girl.

I too am 40 in 2010 and would love to pay off the mortgage by then but I'd have to win the lottery seeing as we've still got £116K to clear......:rolleyes: ho hum.

Still I want to have made a significant reduction and all your diaries always give me good ideas and spur me on.

All the best
LM

Leighthal · 4 January 2008 at 6:39PM

Good luck.Whats your expensive hobbies BTW?

Jillinoz · 4 January 2008 at 9:39PM

Good luck TallGirl. I can definitely recommend being mortgage-free by 40. More money for the botox...:D

wymondham · 4 January 2008 at 9:42PM

good luck TallGirl, I did it (just!)

comping_cat · 4 January 2008 at 10:39PM

Good luck - i hope that you hit your goal!!!

MFi3 & before I am 40 + my MB journey

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