Baby steps to being mortgage free

pammyj74

Its good that you are now heading in the right direction hun. well done. this site definitely keeps you motivated.

With regards to the garden and plants, this year I have attempted to plant from seeds for the first time in the hope of saving money I have a few trays of seeds that have started coming up so am hoping they will survive lol I have told myself that I am NOT buying anymore plants from garden centres (also got a few rose bushes and shrubs off freecycle lol)

Good luck with your payments x

Wildchild_2

I like your thread and good luck on paying off the mortgage. That's what I'm going for too. Ever since I calculated how much of my regular payment goes to interest every month.

i like that feeling that when i overpay it all goes off the mortgage.

Baby_steps_2

Wildchild wrote: »

I like your thread and good luck on paying off the mortgage. That's what I'm going for too. Ever since I calculated how much of my regular payment goes to interest every month.

i like that feeling that when i overpay it all goes off the mortgage.

Thanks wildchild, I agree completely when you work out how much there charging you it just makes you all the more determined!!

Well I've noticed on here a lot of people set themselves challenges for the year so thought I would give it ago and then in a years time I can review the progress I have made, so by the 31 March 2010 (when I'm planning on re-mortgaging, although my fix ends in July planning on switching to SVR for 8 months to reduce the LTV);

- Reduce the mortgage to £155,000 (7K by normal and overpayments)
- Earn 200 using cashback sites (currently £110 so another 90 by next April)
- Earn £75 from survey sites (currently registered on Toluna and Valued opinions, not sure of the current balance).
- Clear all debt (currently £2750 credit cards and £1000 overdraft, i know naughty girl not mentioning the OD before, but was going to crack on with this after the CC debt dealt with. Plus clear plan in place will be gone by Dec).
- Save £500 (not a lot but after dealing with all the debts this seems realistic).

I think that’s it for now. To be honest the key thing for me is getting everything the right way round in money terms. Since becoming a student I have spent the money on credit and then paid it off. I'm really keen to teach myself to save for what I want and then to get it. I think this is really important for me and I also now appreciate this takes time as have to shift the debt, then save for anything else I want.

Will be intersting to see how the next year (well 11 months!!) goes and where I have got to.

pammyj74

Good luck with all that, It great that you have got it all written down and have set yourself goals. Typing it on here makes me more determined to do it as if you fail or dont try as hard then everyone here can see it (thats how my head works anyway) and that is why I started to type up my challenges etc.

Once you have your debt cleared it will be a huge weight off your shoulders.
I too do not buy anything unless I have the resources for it.
I have not used my credit card or been in my OD for the past 4 years (since ex left)
I have got used to living frugally. I buy most of my clothes from charity shops which might sound slobby but you can get some great clothes from there on a good day! I hate paying full price for things and I will shop around for days before I actually buy it.
if I see something that I think someone will like as a xmas present on offer I will buy it now. I normally have a few xmas/birthday presents around the house all through the year lol

Its just little things like that that build up to being able to OP.

SmlSave

Good luck with your challenges baby steps!

joe1996

The first baby step is to pay an extra 100 pounds on each monthly mortgage payment you make. That 100 pounds is applied directly to principle. That will begin to payoff your mortgage faster.

SmlSave

But joe, what if you don't have an extra £100?

Baby_steps_2

SmlSave wrote: »

But joe, what if you don't have an extra £100? ]

Luckily I do have the £100!!! (smlsave where do u get the images they are amazing!!!)

Thanx for all your good wishes. Very excited to see it all written down. Really motivates me to try and achieve it. Looking forward to the long bank holiday weekend, although I can see it bring dangerous to mse ways!!

SmlSave

I image google them

Have a good bank holiday!

Baby_steps_2

Hi all,

Well good and bad news. Bad news first, bought myself some toiletries from boots. They had a points event on and I had a five pound off voucher plus an extra 200 points for the skin care stuff I usually use. As well as this I got a free gift with some good little extra bits in I can use. Plus saving the points for xmas presents. (does that justify it enough!!):p

I have also got my first ever quidco payment this month of £30 (the best bit is £10 of it was for a credit card I applied for that I got rejected from, so I didn't even have to bother using it!!). This has therefore gone off the credit card, I will get this paid off so the extra can go to the mortgage/savings.

Also not been doing so well on the food shopping budget. Had a budget of £196 (less than usual due to buying some stuff for the garden). However looking at this seem to have spent £96 in the first week and half:mad:. On the plus side bought loads of meat, cleaning products and toiletries for the month. So hopefully all I should need is fresh fruit and veg to get me through the month. I am determined to do this so will be interesting to see how it goes!!

Hope everyone has a lovely BH weekend (even if the weather is rubbish!!)