My Mortgage Free Diary

mpgsheep

Hi all,

After lurking here for 3 months, decided to finally sign up and start my diary. My wife and I bought a 3 bed maisonette (1st and 2nd Floor) in August 2008 for 168,000, with a 5% deposit, with Directline 30yr mortgage, 2yrs fixed at 6.89% (ouch!), and since August 2010 we are on the SVR, currently 1.5% above base (so 2.0%). This change in interest rate means our payments dropped from 1070pm to 623pm, however this coincided with the end of my wife's SMP, so we maintained our payments until now, as she has resumed work (3 days per week). This coupled with a new job for me, means as of January's payment, we will be overpaying by £400. The balance as of 30th November 2010 was £157,996.50, so a long way to go. At the moment am sure is a lot of redundancy in our finances, so am hoping to increase the overpayments as the year goes on, however also depends on the interest rate. Will get to work on my signature now!

yukkibear

Welcome to the boards, and good luck with your journey

mpgsheep

Checking my signature works...

RosieTiger

Welcome aboard!

Spiggle

Welcome and good luck with your MFW journey.

All the best,
Spigs

mpgsheep

Good morning all,

Thought I would keep a record of what I am doing to add to my overpayment pot. So today I have listed 5 items on ebay, just clothing that is sitting in wardrobe taking up space and is never worn. So hopefully this time next week will be posting about how much it has sold for though in all honesty only expecting max £25 in total, but it all counts!

originalmiscellany

Likewise me too - just checking in to see how you're getting on!

mpgsheep

First overpayment went out today . Am holding off on speaking to Direct Line until tomorrow, make sure it has time to register.

Also updated my signature with "holiday fund" added. We (OH and I), decided that we want to do a uk based holiday for 3 of us in the summer (we have a wedding on the south coast to go to so going to tie in to save 2 trips), and we budget £1000 for this - i know its a lot, but is our utter max, we did same last year and only spent £700, and is a budget designed to cover EVERYTHING, and not just travel, accomodation etc but all outgoings. Then we would like to go to the Caribbean in December, and we would go all inc, so budgeting £3000 for now until booked. So any extras (ebay/selling phones etc) will go into this first, as well as £300 pcm. Once this has reached £4000, then we will start another savings project, or add the £300 to overpayments (obv depends on interest rates etc).

We had some money leftover from a project last year to start it with, and my OH just paid £24 in from our loose change pot, so currently stands at £493, which seems like a good start, only 2 months to go and will have the first holiday saved for.

cha97michelle

Another new diary. :j Welcome and best of luck with your challenges.

mpgsheep

First overpayment is in, along with regular payment has pushed mortgage down. Seems like a very long way away to clearing it, but from reading (all) the other diaries, know ultimately that these regular payments will have big difference over time. Constantly trying to work out how to save more! Started moving £4 a day to an online saver for every day I bring lunch in, so will add £20 a week to my pot (as I hardly ever buy food).

SmlSave

Wellcome to MFW