Bufgers Diary (Slow start, explosive finish?!)

Bufger

I managed to finally get the wife excited about overpaying the mortgage! I was showing her my overpayment plan, entered it into my mortgage spreadsheet which shows the amount you'll have outstanding on any given month over the current term of the mortgage. This was showing as mortgage free by 39 but more importantly for her it was showing that in 4 years time we could upgrade to a 200k-250k house with the same monthly payments as we have now if interest rates are similar.

She then started looking at houses in that price range, fell in love with a few and is now committed to making it happen! Not quite moneysaving but the next step will be to convince her that we will continue to overpay once we get that house...

Bufger

My lift share has paid up this months money today, thats £70 into the overpayment pot. We'll take a family walk to the bank tomorrow to pay this in and do other bits of banking required.

Also some good news, 2 new people have approached me about joining our lift share. If they are compatible with our working times then that'll be a total of 4! 3 other people sharing that journey will give me saving of around £200 per month from when I travelled on my own.

Bufger

Overpayment of £100 made today. My plan was to pay £50 every month until august next year when my circumstances change (snowball of low interest loans like student debt) and i free up enough to OP £300 per month. Now i've sorted out a permanent lift share with work I think i'll be saving £150 per month so i've committed £100 of that to overpaying. I will commit the whole £150 after next month as soon as i build a small buffer in my current account.

Feels so good today

Bufger

On track for another £100 this month as well as the trip to Vegas!

I've set quite a strict budget for my trip as I dont want to dip into any other funds. I will pay the overpayment off before I go so i'm not tempted to use it as extra money over there. I cant wait until my student loan, car loan and sofa finance finishes mid 2014 as i'll have an extra £450 per month to overpay with!

Also not long until our bonus review at work. I'm hoping I get a bonus this year and a base salary increase so i'll put it straight against the mortgage

Bufger

Morning to anyone that does read this!

I made my monthly overpayment today. I checked the account I pay it from and had £XX4.92 so I paid £104.92 because I have account OCD

So thats 204.92 overpaid so far in 2013. I plan for £1,500 this year, £3k next year and £4k+ the year after when other outgoings start to snowball. When the Mrs is back at work and we have built up our savings again i'm hoping we can overachieve on these targets.

I also have loads of stuff to ebay. When im back from Vegas I will go on a mad ebay selling month and make as much as possible!

Vegas next week

Bufger

Does anyone know - if I make an overpayment from my Aqua cashback card will I get cashback on that? will there be any charges etc? as long as im under my limit I cant see i'd have any issues with it but i cant find anything relating to it in T&C's.

If its ok to do that then i'll reach my Aqua limit so much faster

Froggy-G

Bufger wrote: »

Does anyone know - if I make an overpayment from my Aqua cashback card will I get cashback on that? will there be any charges etc? as long as im under my limit I cant see i'd have any issues with it but i cant find anything relating to it in T&C's.

If its ok to do that then i'll reach my Aqua limit so much faster

Hi Bufger

Most bank / building society will not accept credit card payment for mortgage payment or overpayments.. You are better off giving your mortgage provider a call to check with them first..

You might be lucky and that would definitely help with your cashback..

Cheers
Froggy

Bufger

Thanks for your reply froggy I will certainly check. If not then with the large mortgage payments I currently have it makes Santander look appealing for renewal as long as they have similar renewal rates to the leading lenders. 1% cash back on a santander mortgage payment through their 123 account sounds good.

Bufger

We've just done our budget with the new part time working for my wife and childcare and we're not going to have much left over these next few months! Maybe not until September so I'm going to look at picking up some weekend work and more ebaying. Our outgoings excluding fuel is £2500 per month and all income is around £3000 so we have nothing for savings or overpayments unless we take these extra actions.

I hate it when money is tight. New soa needed I think!

Bufger

So i've done my new SOA and ive found a few areas we can change. I've saved £18 per month by cancelling my gym membership. Ive started to ride a bike, run and have some weights and a punch bag in my garage so im more inclined to use the free methods of fitness now! I've also cancelled by £20 mobile phone contract. I have a phone through work so in the day people can contact me on that but in the evenings i'm always at home anyway so i dont think I even need it!

So thats £40 per month free. The benefits of my new lift share are coming good, i havent had to buy fuel in nearly 2 weeks now so i'm saving lots there.

I've worked out that the continuous £100 overpayments will bring us to 81% LTV in November 2014 when our mortgage renewal is up. An extra £1300 will get that to 80% (if our house price stays the same as today on the zoopla estimate, 4k lower than we bought it for 3 years ago). If we dont quite make it to that point i'll go for a short term with no fees or stick on my SVR until we have the better LTV. I think we can do it though so thats the challenge now!

I'm going to see how the ebay sales go on all the decluttering but if it doesnt go too well I may have to give up my expensive hobby for this year. Its £65 per month and I have loads of kit worth around £500. That will be the last thing to happen though as I only have the one hobby and I love it so much. I'd give it up for my family but not without reducing everything else first!