EconomicSlave's MFW Journey.

EconomicSlave

Hi all,
Here is the start of my MFW journey...

Mortgage started in October 2005 with purchase of first house, mortgage of £87,899.

Overpayments made:
£2003 in the first 2 years.
£1400 in years 3-4.
£860 between October 2009 - Nov 2010

Although I have been making overpayments throughout the mortgage, these have been small and only reduced the mortgage term slightly. Now that I'm a father I want to ensure this mortgage disappears as quick as reasonably possible. As my forum name suggests, I'm very much of the opinion that Housing (whether you have a mortgage or rent) is effectively economic slavery, housing could and should be a not-for-profit industry as its a basic human need.


My initial targets:

• Reduce mortgage from £74,869 (end of Nov 09) to £70,000 by Dec 2011.
• Pay off the mortgage completely by the time I'm 35, so by May 2018.

Kind regards
EconomicSlave

EconomicSlave

Having decided to move from mere overpayments to a serious MFW attempt, I have overpaid as much as I can this month.

My mortgage provider limits overpayments to £499 a month.

I have a standing order of £50 per month overpayment, and in addition I have put any cheques paid from my self-employed work and spare cash into the mortgage rather than my savings account (where the temptation to spend or help out friends/family grows too strong).

Total overpayment for December 2010: £490! :rotfl:
I'm really pleased with this, particularly as it will save another £624.34 in interest over the remaining term of the mortgage (so in total £1114.34 less to pay).

This cuts about 2.5 months off the term of the mortgage!!!:cool:

The other half is quite unaware of this sum, thinking I have overpaid by about £60, she doesn't approve of the overpayments, feeling instead we should spend it on a better lifestyle.
Thanks
EconomicSlave

Spiggle

Well done so far and welcome to the boards.

Good luck for your MFW journey.

All the best,
Spigs

RosieTiger

Good luck to you on the journey!

knithappens

Fantastic work on the over payments, I regiged my budget today, so I will be increasing my over payments this year - looks good on paper, just hoping I stick to the budget so I can pay off my mortgage asap

adwat

Welcome and good luck with your overpayments. One bit of advice I'd like to offer - get her indoors on board as this will help immensely.

EconomicSlave

Thanks for all the replies and encouragement so far! This forum does help to show there is support and encouragement out there - mutual support ensures we all keep on task.

Really good point about getting 'her indoors' onboard with this, a topic for discussion I think...:eek:

Anyhow, some money-saving I am trying:

• Used to be driving about 30 miles per day and then paying upto £12 just to park up for the day, at the end of October I decided this couldnt go on anymore. I'm self-employed and I realised that one of my main customers was creating the vast majority of my mileage and parking fees. I gave up the customer and took on others that wouldnt require me driving around a lot! I now catch the bus / walk and I generally try to minimise usage of the car.
• I just used the 'Demotivator' tool on this website and found out I'm wasting £750 per year on those sandwiches I buy when working each day - probably much more when I add in a cold drink, possibly a hot drink, a newspaper and whatever else. Decided to start keeping a record of this - hopefully it will shock me into spending less and taking food / drink in. Buying newspapers is truly a waste of time for me as I'm on the 'BBC News' and 'The Guardian' websites everyday.
• Currently experimenting on a small scale with 'Matched Betting', focusing on football - mixed-success so far, I'm just about breaking-even - not sure how the professional gamblers do it?!

Anyone got any thoughts on Stoozing? I have read up on it, but I'm not sure how realistic it still is with the limited credit available now. I have 2k available on an interest free credit card which I could put towards payting off the mortgage.
Economic Slave

dimbo61

Stoozing is now more difficult than ever and I think that boat left when the CC companies started to charge 2.5/2.9% transfer fees even with 16/19 months interest free periods.
Better looking at cash back cards paying 1% on everything you spend and quidco etc

EconomicSlave

dimbo61 wrote: »

Stoozing is now more difficult than ever and I think that boat left when the CC companies started to charge 2.5/2.9% transfer fees even with 16/19 months interest free periods.
Better looking at cash back cards paying 1% on everything you spend and quidco etc

Sounds interesting, some questions:

• Cash back cards? - Credit cards I assume that give like 1% cashback for everything you spend, and I guess you do your monthly shopping on that and pay back immediately using wages??
• Whats quidco?

dimbo61

I have a Capital one cashback card and you need to read up and sign up about the cashback websites ( I think quidco is the best as we have earned over £1000 in 3 years)
You MUST clear the whole balance every single month so dont do it if you have CC debts and no emergency savings

EconomicSlave

dimbo61 wrote: »

I have a Capital one cashback card and you need to read up and sign up about the cashback websites ( I think quidco is the best as we have earned over £1000 in 3 years)
You MUST clear the whole balance every single month so dont do it if you have CC debts and no emergency savings

Thanks dimbo61 - you're a star!:cool: