2009 MF Wannabe's

TOPAZ_2

Hi SmileyG

Thanks - its part planned overpayment & part the sale of some shares (£1400) which I had planned to do in June - but brought forward. Unfortunately I wont be able to do this every month.

My Target is to reduce my balance to £150k by the year-end - so this is the drop in my balance - not all overpayment - so approx £600 of it would have reduced anyway.

But I am doing all the usual things - keeping discretionary spend low by...
keeping grocery bills low (approx £180 per month for 2 adults and 2 small children)
Keeping fuel bills low - only £61 per month for both Gas/Elec - though think this might need to go up by £10 per month
Keeping personal spending low - looking for every opportunity to have some fun with the family for the lowest cost - so now that the weather is improving - lots of visits to parks/bike rides/picnics/home cooking with the kids/painting. The key is to do something fun every weekend - life is for living after all
Starting to grow veg/fruit at home - another activity to get the kids involved in

The key ( I have found) is to put quite a bit of effort in the preparation of finding fun things to do - to keep the costs low or nil - then there is no sense of deprivation.

My daughter passed a dance exam - her first one, and I bought her a toy of her choice as a well done - (she didnt know about this in advance) - it cost £30 and she played with it for all of 3 hours over 2 days and has not touched it since. The 85p I spent on flower seeds for her to grow herself in homemade compost and soil (in ice cream tubs) is already giving much more interest and excitement - it just goes to show - its not how much you spend - but what you spend it on.

Sorry to ramble

Topaz

Emsky123

Yay, its like having my name up in lights, Thanks Zav:T

Just got paid and already working out how much i can over pay, will report back later in week once i have made my first overpayment.

phizzimum

TOPAZ wrote: »

My daughter passed a dance exam - her first one, and I bought her a toy of her choice as a well done - (she didnt know about this in advance) - it cost £30 and she played with it for all of 3 hours over 2 days and has not touched it since. The 85p I spent on flower seeds for her to grow herself in homemade compost and soil (in ice cream tubs) is already giving much more interest and excitement - it just goes to show - its not how much you spend - but what you spend it on.

so true!

Zavarony - I've pm'ed you my february update

BARGAINHUNTER!

My mortgage rate came down again this month to 3%, so my Feb overpayment was £391.17 which makes the total for this year £770.23 - quite a chunk towards my £3k target! My mortgage balance also dropped below £40k - its really nice psycologically to see the balance start with a 3 and not a 4!!!!!

WestonDave

Hmm struggling to keep track a bit at the mo - technically I think I've Op'd £1065 so far this year (based on comparing all the various balances in my offset group), however I know we owe about £500 in nursery fees that should really have come out of that, and OH was made redundant last week (no cash yet!) so that might impact things later on - have to deal with that when it happens I guess.

So allowing for the £200 declared last month, and the £500 set aside for nursery fees I make it £365 OP'd this month to go on the total and £565 for the year to date. Best update the sig as well. I like February - short month, no birthday and no council tax!

frazzmunch

It is not going according to plan for a variety of reasons, but still managing an overpayment of sorts......

February op is 343.....will do better in march!!

cheapo_man

Hey guys -

Just checking in to say hi.
Looking forward to getting on the wagon with you all.

Zav - I pm'd you with my plans

Thanks, and good luck to all.

violetblue

Payday for me, so I've OP'd another £200, and transferred £300 into savings. This brings my total for the year to £1755.38 out of a combined OP/savings target of £5000 - really pleased with that!

Unfortunately that's probably the last overtime payment I'll get this year though, so things will be a bit tighter from here.

co123456

I have settled an Abbey 6 month 0% credit card deal (3K). I will be settling a 12 month 0% Halifax credit card deal (8K). I anticipate that I will not be able to obtain repeat deals therefore these two cards will be closed very soon leaving me with two active Stoozing credit cards, along with my Egg Money card. This leaves me with a mortgage debt of 15.5K - 35% of which is at 0%. I'm realy winding down my stoozing at the moment. My next target is to get the debt down to 10K on the 15th of May, followed by a slow burn which should last until September / October. I can not wait to see a four figure debt.

Good luck everyone and keep going!

waves117

payday at last....just overpayed £1000 this month :j , which brings my total so far this year to £1725........hope i can do as well next month....


keep going everyone and remmeber every penny overpaid will help get rid of the mortgage quicker.......keep it up......:beer: