Abyss's Mortgage-Free Journey

Hi!

Been following the boards for a lonnnnng time, but not much of a poster! Have been overpaying and living frugally for quite some time, but decided to start a diary as I like thinking about our savings and achievements so far, and DH isn't as interested in hearing all about it as I am talking about it! He's very on-board though, but does leave the finances to me!
All input from you lot welcome! Thanks!

So, me: 36, DH: 34. First baby due in six weeks!!!

We have £53,750 left on the mortgage, we got lucky and are on a tracker so are benefiting from the low interest rates at the moment, and it's meant we've been able to massively overpay for many months, especially as I took on this mortgage on my own, before I met DH, and now we have his salary topping it up.

Mortgage is currently just under £600.
Household bills are about £400. I could probably get this down a bit - I haven't done the energy switch thing for a couple of years, for example.
We live frugally and very happily.

We've been overpaying an extra £1.5k-2k (occasionally more if DH gets a work bonus) a month since we got back from honeymoon at the start of this year, and making a huge dent in the mortgage, feels amazing. Have been being very frugal, despite impending parenthood and consequent new outgoings (pram, carseat etc!).

I am on a good maternity package from work, and draw a full salary for the first nine months, then three months unpaid, then on full pay again for what equates to two months due to accrued annual leave being tacked on the end. I am not planning on going back to work, but leaving it open as I do qualify for subsequent maternity packages if I get pregnant again within a certain timeframe. (Though the key reason to try for a second baby quickly is mainly my age, and that we'd like the children to be close in age, rather than the focus on the work/maternity pay package. But obviously that is an added incentive!).

My mortgage is due for renewal in February 2011, so the goal is to overpay now as much as possible, then we'll be in a decent position to renegotiate a new mortgage (though I expect we won't get as good a deal as we are currently on). If we have no major unforeseen outgoings between now and February, I have calculated that we should be down to £36k, on a property I am guessing is worth about £250k.

I can't see us staying in this property though once our child is toddling, and we'd need to upgrade (especially if we are blessed enough to get pregnant quickly with a second (and third!) child), so it's most likely we'll be taking on a new mortgage in a couple of years (goodbye newly-acquired MF status!), but it would be great to have paid this first one off. Ideally, we'll keep this property and rent it out, and move somewhere much cheaper (we're in £ondon), and the tenants will help pay for the new mortgage on the new property. I am getting carried away jabbering on about this dream: for now, the main focus is paying off as much as possible til February 2011, re-evaluate where we're at then, and hopefully get the London pad paid off by the following February, or mid-2012 at the latest.

Thanks for getting to the end!!! Good to be here and share your journeys - good luck to you all!