Lurking MFW finally posting: Mortgage free in 2025

blocpartyfan · 25 January 2018 at 11:34AM

Thanks newgirly! Sorry for the very late reply; you're suggestions have been great. I will definitely have a peek at the mfw challenge thread.

I traded in my smart phone for a Nokia 3310 over the Christmas holidays as one of a few measures to stop falling down the Instagram/etc rabbit hole! So anxiety fuelling - has definitely been difficult but better for my health overall. But one of the difficult things is I can't easily access this thread

In fact, overpaying the mortgage to the maximum so early in the year has meant I've been brave enough to spend money on booking our 10 year wedding anniversary trip to New York! So am probably not doing so well on saving, but it's almost like a tiny window of what mortgage free would be like i.e. not having to worry

blocpartyfan · 27 January 2018 at 9:03PM

Clearly a week of annual leave has given me way too much thinking time! Coming to the end of the month after paying the maximum amount off the capital for this year has meant more splurging than normal (aka that 10 year wedding anniversary trip!). Returning back to a more frugal sense of mind, I have downloaded a comprehensive mortgage calculator and read some old posts about clearing your mortgage in 3 years. I didn't think that would even be a possibility, but there more I think about it the more sense it makes.

The last 3 years of my life has flown by, and it's bizarre to even consider that at this time in 2015 I was 5 months pregnant with my son, pondering what life would be like! It makes absolute sense to me to now want to plan for March 2021 in the same regard, and pay the dividends and do the hard work to be mortgage free. It would mean saving over 50% of our current earnings every month, and would entail a significant shift in the way we live, but I recognise this would only be for the short term of three years. We would still have enough money to live comfortably (and I will be much more reliant on the this forum to do it!) but to have that sense of freedom and security of knowing that we can live and work as we please is more rewarding than the comfort of not having to be particularly careful with our money (which makes no sense, really!).

So we will have one more month so we can pay off our mortgage and from March will start a huge shift in our living style. Quite exciting, if scary!

blocpartyfan · 10 February 2018 at 9:43AM

Hi again lovely forumites!

The realisation two weeks ago that the progress made at the beginning of the month to overpay the maximum 10% of the mortgage balance was a helpful one. Since that day, I've kept a few spreadsheets - one to scare and one to motivate!

So to scare, DH and I have been tracking our daily expenditure - which means everything has to be recorded and poured over. Boy is it painful when you realise that third trip to M&S in two days for chocolate chunk biscuits may not be a necessary one :rotfl:

And to motivate, I've calculated how long it would take us to clear the entire mortgage if we both save £1k a month and use it to overpay when the next date comes around. It's scary to even think about it - but it's possible to clear the entire mortgage by May 2020....:exclamati

So this is what I need - the combination of the scare factor and the motivation factor of this message board! Will get myself up to speed with where everyone else is now

And on the scrimping, we've packed lunches to take along to our day trip to the Postal Museum in Holborn. I'm actually excited about what this represents for us!

blocpartyfan · 7 March 2018 at 11:04AM

Another few week's have passed since I've actually posted, it's amazing how that happens! Also weird to think that I've been lurking on the forum over this time for tips and and encouragement, and overall have been lurking since early 2005! This forum has stayed it's brilliantly helpful self with amazing posters that make it what it is, and yet the passage of time means 13 years have gone by. Anyway, enough existential chat.

DH and I have continued with our plan to see how realistic it is to go frugal, tracking all our spend (a very easy way to induce feelings of frustration at any 'waste'), trying to spend our time seeing friends and family rather than spending money eating out many times a week, taking a flask of tea (we all, including the DS at age 2 and a half, love it!), finding vouchers we haven't gotten round to using and spending them rather than new purchases, rooting around my parents to find things I'd forgotten I had, making attempts to reduce the grocery spend down from £400 a month by using Lidl for basics, batch cooking and taking in lunches, re-gifting, finding cheap days out (Regent Street Cinema Kino club for kids is a new favourite at £1.75 each!)...and always open to suggestions.

I definitely got into a habit of overspending as I felt I was worth it. Having a good job with a few material possessions but getting enjoyment from experiences and eating out made me believe we were being incredibly frugal. We've just found a clear goal to help us really prove that we could do more to control unnecessary spend. And this had the uncanny effect of making a date night eating out at a wine bar in East London even more pleasurable than ever.

Now off to read all your stories!

Kittenkirst · 7 March 2018 at 8:18PM

Its amazing how all those small treats you reward yourself with add up and actually are so regular they arent really treats- just daily spends!

Wow 2020 is an amazing time to have paid it off by- thats such a huge motivation right there

Retter · 7 March 2018 at 9:46PM

blocpartyfan wrote: »

The realisation two weeks ago that the progress made at the beginning of the month to overpay the maximum 10% of the mortgage balance was a helpful one.

I’m debating this at the minute and can’t seem to come to a decision. Pay in £6k in one go and spend the rest of the year building up my pot or just keep it balanced at a £500 per month overpayment. The lump would save me £87 in interest. I have an aversion to reducing the size of my safety blanket but I think it’s more a psychological thing. I hate the thought of cashing in any premium bonds... 6000 fewer chances to win the million :rotfl:

Kittenkirst · 7 March 2018 at 10:34PM

Retter- could you do half and half. Pay in £3k now and op £250 a month and £250 into savings a month. Best of both worlds?

Blibble · 7 March 2018 at 11:55PM

Urbanshyne wrote: »

Hi, welcome. I know it's a mortgage free forum, but Bloc Party? Whatever happened to them? I thought they'd crumbled like an old lady's hip in 2007. A quick look on Spotify suggests otherwise - FOUR further albums. Who'd've guessed it!

Look forward to following your progress in 2018. Happy New Year.

Nowt wrong with a bit of Bloc Party. I was 13 when you think they crumbled (yikes that makes me feel old! :rotfl:)

blocpartyfan wrote: »

Hope everyone is having a good first week of 2018 - TGIF!

The relief paying off our maximum overpayment of 10% of the mortgage at the start of the year is wonderful. It now means I don't need to make any more overpayments this year, and instead can save towards making sure we comfortably have enough to pay the same proportion of next year.

Question - how to stay motivated when I know there is no more coming off the balance through overpayments?

Could you save to become mortgage neutral? Bump up the 1% savings rate (5% is fairly widely available) and see how quick you can save up the £135,000?

Best of luck, sounds like you've made grand progress already

blocpartyfan · 18 March 2018 at 10:47AM

Hi Kittenkirst!

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this lovely message and positive vibes:T The one thing about having a frugal old style nokia phone (only £5 a month to keep it going!) is that I miss so much on this forum.

The small treats do indeed make such a big difference. I've realised just how much I am motivated by small rewards, and how my spending before I started this plan was totally that way inclined. For instance, "I've worked, I should use my money to reward myself by eating out with my friend/husband/family to have something to look forward to."

I think 2020 is incredibly optimistic - feels really scary doesn't it?!

Will now read your old posts to catch up with where you are. Hope this has been a good week for you :j

blocpartyfan · 18 March 2018 at 10:51AM

Retter wrote: »

I’m debating this at the minute and can’t seem to come to a decision. Pay in £6k in one go and spend the rest of the year building up my pot or just keep it balanced at a £500 per month overpayment. The lump would save me £87 in interest. I have an aversion to reducing the size of my safety blanket but I think it’s more a psychological thing. I hate the thought of cashing in any premium bonds... 6000 fewer chances to win the million :rotfl:

:rotfl: definitely know what you mean on the fewer chances to win!

There has definitely been a psychological impact of lumping it all in at the start of the year, that made me so excited that I'd achieved everything I needed on the second day of the year! It was through reading other stories on this forum I realised that whilst that was one approach, motivation to continue to save could come from a longer, end goal of shifting that mortgage free date from 2035 to 2020/2021! That was enough to help!

I'd say keep going as if you didn't have that amount, no matter what you use the £6,000 for! Sounds like your doing a fab job! :T

Lurking MFW finally posting: Mortgage free in 2025

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