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Bumbling along to be Mortgage Free

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cha97michelle
cha97michelle Posts: 5,818 Forumite
Part of the Furniture
edited 5 November 2011 at 8:50AM in Mortgage-free wannabe
Deleted due to reasons I don't want to go into, but all my posts are going, sorry.
«134567104

Comments

  • Catanddogs
    Catanddogs Posts: 93 Forumite
    Hi
    I will be watching your progress with interest.
    July 2008 .......£175.000 :eek:
    December 2010, .£126500, March 11 £113.000, March 2013 .£103.000, October 2018 .........£61.000, Feb 2019 59800.
  • barnaby-bear
    barnaby-bear Posts: 4,142 Forumite
    Hi everyone,

    Thought i would start myself a diary on here as i am quite a keen MFW and i want somewhere to store my progress and further motivate myself. DH isn't interested in it to the same level as me. He is happy for me to control the budget as long as there is decent food on the table, but he doesn't really want me to bore him with the finer daily details. It's nice to share it with someone though.

    We took out our mortgage when i was 25 in 2004. The house was £95k, and we needed a mortgage of £73.3k at 4.99% on a 5 year fix, based on my salary as DH was self employed at the time.

    We were quite naive until the 1st mortgage statement arrived in Feb 05, when i realised we had paid nearly £500 per month but the capital had only reduced by £900. It felt like a huge slap really.

    I was then determined to pay off what we could when we could to be MF as soon as we could.
    • March 05 - overpaid £3665, which was the maximum we could per year. They tried to reduce my monthly payment, but i asked them to leave it at the original level.
    • July 05 - overpaid £1665. Again asking for the monthly payments to remain unchanged.
    • Oct 05 - forked out rather a lot of money to get married.
    • Nov 05 - managed to scrape together another £2000 to fill that years overpayment allowance
    • Aug 06 - overpaid another £1000. At that point i was 6 months pregnant and also decorating the living room/dining room of our house and forking out about £4k on furniture.

    At this point the bank advised us that we were at risk of incurring charges due to leaving the monthly payment high so we left it at that stage due to me taking off 11 months maternity leave.

    I then went back to work, and discovered i was pregnant again the 1st week back, so not long after that we had another bedroom to decorate, more furniture to buy, and not enough time to think about the mortgage. I have had another year off work. I went back a few months ago (not sure if it is sustainable though as i am not coping well with working and being a parent of a 2yo and 1yo).

    We have just finished the 5yr fixed and dropped onto the SVR mortgage at 2.5% (guaranteed 2% above base rate) as there doesn't appear to be many bargains around that i want to take a gamble on, so i want to overpay like mad while we can.

    Mortgage balance Jan 01/09 - £55,875.25
    Mortgage balance Jun 19/09 - £53,483.09

    I am also trying to pay into ISA's and 2 child trust funds, plus replace some immediate access emergency spends that have dwindled severely due to being off work for 2 years out of the last 3. This will be from trying to budget sensibly and careful household management rather than suddenly getting access to large funds as with 2 small kids there is always something that needs to be bought.

    Recent improvements to the budget were:
    • DS2 turned 1 so no more need to purchase formula milk (i did BF for 5 months so some savings there but he was a big demanding hungry boy)
    • DS1 thankfully after 6 months of persuasion has decided to potty train in the last week so reducing spends on nappies (although he still wants to wear nappies so more persuasion/bribery needed i think)
    I hope i can learn from this board and perhaps inspire someone else as i have been inspired. There is no better feeling in the world than seeing that figure decrease and know that you are a step closer to achieving the dream.

    Michelle x
    I think that's really impressive progress.
  • canne_2
    canne_2 Posts: 124 Forumite
    You have done really well! Do you have a goal for when you think the mortgage will be paid off?
    The Mortgage Free in Three - Take 2 Challenge (MFiT-T2): #58 - Goal: Get to AU$50 000 by 12/12/12
    Current balance: $84 693
    2011 MF Wannabes: #102 - Goal: Overpay mortgage by AU$15 000
    Total paid for 2011: $2253.16
  • RosieTiger
    RosieTiger Posts: 863 Forumite
    Welcome to the fold your already doing really well !
    RosieTiger - Highest £242,000 Feb 2004 :mad:
    Lightbulb Dec 2008 £146,000 by March 2026:eek:
    MFi3T2 and T3 No 28 - Dec 2009 Start Balance £117,000
    Current Position-Fully off set by savings since March 2013
  • setmefree2
    setmefree2 Posts: 9,072 Forumite
    Mortgage-free Glee!
    RolandChayer-WelcomeSmiley.gif and goodluck.gif Looking forward to following your progress :D.
  • taka
    taka Posts: 3,483 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    :hello: Hiya! Good luck!
    Mortgage free as of 12/08/20!
    MFiT-5 no 45
    You can't fly with one foot on the ground!
  • elliemoo
    elliemoo Posts: 4,593 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Hi! good luck with it all.

    I too am trying to get my mortgage paid off as soon as possible and hope to do so in about 3-4 years but agree it is hard with small children. I have 3 children, the oldest is 8 and they can be expensive, but I think every litttle overpayment helps along the way.
  • pammyj74
    pammyj74 Posts: 3,290 Forumite
    wow your overpayments are fantastic and I am amazed how you afford it all. I am just about to start a diary myself and so far this year I have overpaid £1100. I am now trying to pay £100 a month and maybe a bit more if I get any extra money in.

    Good luck to you
    x
    MPs left feb '08 276- Dec 13 36 :T MB Jan 10 ~ £82,377 Dec 13 ~ £29987
    EMFD was Feb 32 :eek: NOW Dec 2013 its Dec 2016
    MF new target Dec 16 REACHED!! :j
  • current best newcastle bs 5 year fix at 5 % 90 day notice.
    Mortgage Start jun 2007 £88500 Outstanding Balance £51000
    Overpayments 2007 Nil 2008 £1040 2009 £7853 2010 £10000 2011 aiming for £18000 (6k so far)
    The Early Bird Gets the Worm, but the Second Mouse Gets the Cheese!!
  • Floxxie
    Floxxie Posts: 2,853 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    Hello,

    Well done on your mortgage challenge. I too used our ISA funds to pay down the mortgage but then had second thoughts a while later so am using them as our mortgage rate is currently 0.98% so can still find ISAs that pay higher than this.

    I also invest in Zopa (if you pop over to the referral board, you'll find a people offering £10 if you invest £2k by a particular date - at the moment it is by the end of June so I would leave it until the beginning of July and use a referral then)

    I joined Zopa when it first 'opened' and have had mixed results. The returns are good but the bad debt and late payments have jumped this year (although you do only lend £10 per person so your loses are minimal).

    Now I've posted on your diary I shall be able to follow your progress!

    Floxxie
    Mortgage start September 2015 £90000 MFiT #06
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