Debt free and buy a house by 35

andymc29

Pay day's here!!! I'm always a bit cautious about how much to overpay at the start of the month, so I've paid 791.29 in order to get the total to a nice round £2500, feels really good to know I'm just over 90% of the way there. And assuming things go okay this month, I'll be able to do another three or four hundred quid before the end of the month, getting it down to just over two grand. I'm going to try ebaying a few things this month too, hopefully make a hundred or so doing that and maybe get to the 2000 left over mark, meaning I'll get it down to about a grand on my next payday. So I may end up having to tell the GF that's there just under a grand left. But I think she'll take that okay. She wasn't looking for me to move in with her before Christmas really anyway, she's even talking like she'd like us to be engaged first, which is fair enough, living at home isn't too bad, and it is good for saving money (aside from the extra fuel costs driving to the GF's house).

andymc29

Had a lovely date out with GF last night. Went to Prezzo's for dinner (using a voucher I cna get on my phone through an app, came to £25 for two drinks, a sharing starter and two mains.), then the cinema to watch "One day" (her local cinema is only £4 each during the week). Had a really good night except one point where I was saying that I'd like to overpay my mortgage when I get one as much as I can because I don't like being in debt any more. She was argueing that a mortgage is a "good debt", where as I now see all debts as things to pay off quickly and not let linger, especially something viriable like a mortgage that can suddelt get very expensive. I think she was just worried that I'd put paying the mortgage off before having a life or going on holiday. This isn't true at all, I just want to live well within my means and be comfortable with things.

Kepp

I don't have a mortgage at the moment but if I did I would certainly overpay it!

I wouldn't put my life on hold to the degree that I do with paying debts back but having seen what a difference small overpayments make to a mortgage I wouldn't be able to justify not.

Just imagine how much of a life you could have once the mortgage is paid off and you had that cash in your pocket every month!

Choc-addict

andymc29 wrote: »

Had a really good night except one point where I was saying that I'd like to overpay my mortgage when I get one as much as I can because I don't like being in debt any more. She was argueing that a mortgage is a "good debt", where as I now see all debts as things to pay off quickly and not let linger, especially something viriable like a mortgage that can suddelt get very expensive. I think she was just worried that I'd put paying the mortgage off before having a life or going on holiday. This isn't true at all, I just want to live well within my means and be comfortable with things.

Sorry lurker here and love reading your progress! Perhaps she's being a little defensive by saying that mortgate is a "good debt" in that she has given you quite a hard time about clearing your "bad debt" etc etc....you are nearly there (and should be so proud of yourself!!!).... ....I could be wrong of course but just perhaps she's trying to justify her debt in that she doesn't see it as a debt, yes it's not a bad thing but at the end of the day it is "debt" and thousands can be saved by overpaying on it

....I shall go back to lurking now

mrsb83_2

Your GF has some weird ideas about debt generally.

I will definitely be overpaying mine when I clear my debts. I won't work as hard as I do to pay down other debt, but mortgage free living is such a worthy goal that I want to do whatever I can to get me there quicker.

Giddytimes

I'll be overpaying my mortgage too, as soon as my debt free day arrives. In my eyes a mortgage is only 'good debt' if you can guarantee to earn more than the interest it is costing you elsewhere, otherwise you should throw as much as you can at the mortgage (whilst still having a life of course).

If my mortgage was fixed at 4% and I could earn 5% after tax from a saving account of course it wouldn't make sense to overpay it, I'd be putting the money into savings instead. Until that day it is bad debt in my eyes.

Maybe it would be worthwhile showing your girlfriends a mortgage overpayment calculator at some point, so she can see how much you'd be saving in interest by overpaying, money which can be used for future holidays etc.

andymc29

We had our trip away to the GF's sister in Oslo last week. This was the trip that I initially said no to as it was going to cost around a grand each, but we've managed to cut the trip down and do it for 350 quid each. Which for any one in the know, is good value for a five day trip to Norway. We had a really good trip, really nice weather, lots of walking, going out on boats on the fjord, looking around museums. It's a beautiful city and the people are really nice. Just a shame everything is so massively expensive. Just to give an idea, if you go to a pub, a pint will cost you £8 and burger and chips will cost £15, you're then meant to leave a 15% tip on top of this. All the food in the supermarket's is double what we pay, it's ridiculous. good we still had fun, just didn't eat much. Having said that, the museums were really expensive too, on average, about £8 each for each museum. And the aiprort train costs £20 each way for a 25 minute journey.

Still, I'm glad I went, and would love to go back when I have a lot more money to spare, it's not good being on holiday and having to watch every penny.

Otherwise, my debt is still going down, it's not as low as I'd like, but clearing it before Christmas looks definite. So a debt free Christmas is still on the cards. My GF has said that she thinks we shouldn't go out for dinner at restaraunts anymore until my debts are paid off, and she's trying to get me to take packed lunches to work more often to save money. I think it's great she's trying to encourage me like this.

andymc29

I got a letter from Barclaycard this morning, they've increased my credit limit to £9800, well isn't that just lovely of them! Is it bad for my future credit chances if I have a huge credit limit on my card?

iwantahome

Hi Andy,

When I was in your position I cut my available credit right down to around 15% of my salary. I read somewhere on here that having too much available credit was bad on your credit file for getting loans etc in the future (I'm not sure if this included mortgages or not). But I cut it down anyway. Plus another reason was that I did not want the extra unrequired available credit. I knew I wouldn't use it so it wasn't getting rid of temptation as it wasn't really temptation, I just saw it as unnecessary for me personally.

Now that my debt is clear and I'm on the mortgage saving journey I know that when I do get a place of my own I don't want to furnish it with items bought on credit, I want to pay cash for everything. Saying that however if I did need to use a credit card and wanted a zero percent transfer option then I read you can be refused an application if you have too much available unused credit elsewhere.

Hope that helps in some way.

andymc29

I sold my TV last night for £130. Wasn't using it, can't see ever needing it again in the near future. So decided to get rid. Sold it on Ebay to a young couple who are just setting up home and needing to find good prices on things.

Wish I had a few other big things I could sell really. Being this close to being debt free is making me really impatient. I know it sounds silly as it's been over two years now and I'm on the home stretch but I just want it over.