Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

I have been reading other peoples posts for a while,trying to get myself in the right frame of mind to start overpaying on the mortage.DH and I have a house worth about £220,000 with a mortgage of £159,000 although we only paid £120,000 for it (£93,000 mortgage) to start. So as you can see we have been not so great in the past! Last year we also owed about £20,000 on credit cards which is now down to £10,000. I really want to get rid of the mortgage before our youngest turn 18, the twins are nearly 10 now. So any words of encouragement would be great, I need keeping on the straight and narrow.

Xmas paid for by saving £1 a day minimum in a sealed tin, plus homemade/sale stuff.
Birthdays now in monthly budget, plus extra vouchers earned

I am taking part in the earn £2012 in 2012 challenge on the up your income board, so whatever earned from that will be split between op's and holidays fingers crossed.

Budget from may 2012 onwards:

income.................2092.00
child benefit..........188.60
child tax cr..............0 no longer!
total....................£2280.60

mobiles x 2...........32.00
tv licence..............12.37
elec/gas................140.00
water....................60.00
council tax............125.83
home insurance.......11.83
pension..................21.90
life ins....................15.17
sky ........................21.00
car tax....................15.83
car ins.....................22.00
car maintenance.........8.33
petrol.......................60.00

school dinners............48.00 (1 dinner/1 bacon sarnie each pw)
pocket money.............20.00
clothes.......................30.00
birthdays....................50.00

grocery.......................250.00
(food/pets/cleaning)
DH's money.................100.00
0%cc ................................32.35
mortgage interest.........425.00
mortage overpayment....778.39


money in: £2280.60
money out:£2280.60







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SmartRRRR

My advice is always this - know the difference between what you WANT and what you NEED.

Think carefully about why you want something, and only buy what you need; you will spend less.


Good luck on your MFW mission.

Jonbvn

Get rid of the expensive CC debt before you move on to the mortgage.

black_taxi_2

agree--clear credit card--PRIORITY

newgirly

I forgot to mention, my credit card is on 0% until August, which is also when the expensive fixed rate ends on the mortgage. Am thinking of getting a one account as DH gets a lump sum once a year, approx £8000 from work.

pammyj74

Good luck on being MF. Have a look at all the challenges on here (see my sig!)
Also try and look at your outgoings and see what you can save by changing suppliers and insurance (going through cashback sites etc)

Do you work full time? I work part time and in the evenings I do surveys and reviews etc to gain some extra cash.

Definitely watch what you are spending and ONLY buy things if you really need to and have the money for already (not on CC)
Join Freecycle if you need anything just ask, someone may have it for you (I got a breadmaker the other day and have had a childs bike)

Set yourself a target to OP each year (mine is £3k)

Maybe see about decluttering and doing a carboot now they have started again?

Once you start OPing it will become an obsession!

Good Luck x

financialbliss

Hi newgirly,

Welcome to the mortgage free wannabe forums. May be worth listing your mortgage balance and rate, your credit card balances, rates and when any 0% deals expire, so that we can advise what should be paid off first.

Biggest debts first, as others have mentioned. Chances are that that will be the credit cards.

Financial Bliss.

Glamazon

newgirly wrote: »

I have been reading other peoples posts for a while,trying to get myself in the right frame of mind to start overpaying on the mortage.DH and I have a house worth about £220,000 with a mortgage of £159,000 although we only paid £120,000 for it (£93,000 mortgage) to start. So as you can see we have been not so great in the past! Last year we also owed about £20,000 on credit cards which is now down to £10,000. I really want to get rid of the mortgage before our youngest turn 18, the twins are nearly 10 now. So any words of encouragement would be great, I need keeping on the straight and narrow!

hi!

Just wanted to say good luck - I'll try & read your thread when I can

newgirly

I can't wait to start overpaying on the mortgage in August, I have already started doing online surveys and have earnt about £60 using topcashback in the last 2 months. I have cut my shopping budget from about £120 per WEEK! to £60 which is a start, but I know i can get it down further whith help from some of the other boards. Must try to get kids to eat what we eat a bit more and not be so fussy! I do a bit of cleaning for some extra money sometimes, but am a SAHM, at the moment it is easier as OH has just taken over running the company he was working for, which was a bit unexpected, and he is working from 4.30am until at least 7pm sometimes much later, and often weekends, so he is not around much. I am hoping that if we can pay the mortgage off earlier than the 30 year term we currently have, he can leave if the stress gets too much in the future. Anyway I am off to make some homemade bread for lunch, one of the only things EVERYONE in the house likes! Have a great day.

wymondham

Good luck newgirly!! We did this a few years ago (for my 40th). It's a nice feeling not having to pay any rent/mortgage etc - makes you feel 200% more secure in this uncertain world. I did it by evaluating all outgoings, checking i was getting the best deals, cashing in all bad/poor investments. I changed to a current account mortgage so I overpaid automatically (anything left pays the mortgage) - we did it in a few years. You've had some good advice on here, especially the poster who said evaluate what you NEED rather than what you WANT - remember it's not what you earn, it's what you spend that decides if you'll be successful...

Just to add be sensible about it - don't let it rule your life!

pammyj74

wymondham wrote: »

Just to add be sensible about it - don't let it rule your life!

It's a bit late for that for me lol