Oasisfeverish - The journey begins to freedom.

oasisfeverish

Hi and a Happy New Year to all.

The journey begins........

Like many others, who have a LBM, it's time to do something about it. Being that it is 1/1/11, I thought as good a day as any to start making a change in our lifestyle.

Our aim is to pay off as much of possible of the mortgage by OPs.

Our background is, there is me, my OH and our DD who will be 3 on the 22nd of this month. We both work part time which allows us to spend time with our DD and watch her grow. Although this does mean that we are not on loads of money but still feel by being clever can reduce the mortgage.

Our goals for 2011 apart from reducing the mortgage is to move this year, we may be lucky to find a bigger place without increasing the mortgage due to moving location closer to OH's family and friends and prices there for a 3 bedroom house, are very similar to the 2 bedroom house we are already in. However we would like to ensure the next home is suitable for a number of years, so an increase in mortgage is more than likely on the cards.

The mortgage details are £55,083.10 outstanding as of 30th Dec 2010 and on a fixed year for the next 7 years at 5.99%, and can over pay 5% per mortgage year, which is £2,764.71 up to 30th Sept 2011. We are approx. 27.5% to 30% LTV. It has 27 years left to run it's natural course, however there is no way it will stay that far away.

With such a high rate at present it is important we OP as much as possible without affecting our normal day life. I have joined MFW and have set a target of £1,200 for 2011 in OPs.

We have our calculator at the ready and will post updates of our projection after each OP made.

So that's it for now, I do have some funds to throw straight at the mortgage already albeit only £58.71, but have to wait until my Bank sends me a PINsentry device to make these payments.

Summary:
Outstanding mortgage as of 30/12/2010 - £55,083.10
Original MFD - October 2037
Overpayments Made - TBA
Outstanding mortgage as of __/__/____ - £
Revised MFD -
Interest Saved - £
Months Saved -

dimbo61

Welcome to the board and good luck in the OP,s this year
Dont forget every penny helps and with a mortgage rate of 5.99% its better to OP rather than save.

yukkibear

Welcome to the boards, good luck with your journey

twinklie

Welcome and good luck.

oasisfeverish

Thanks guys,

Hopefully our journey will be a good one, have just entered another 15 competitions, which if am lucky and win something that will be useful to keep then great, if not will see if it sells or keep for birthday /xmas pressies and then put the equivalent of value to the mortgage as it's a saving.

cha97michelle

Welcome and i look forward to seeing how you get on.

oasisfeverish

Well this morning I thought I would meal plan, so went through the freezer and cupboards, wrote everything down and planned the week ahead's meals.

Hopefully this will stop us buying food that we don't really need and also the OH works for M&S and at the end of the day food is reduced to 25% of retail price if going out of date and she gets 20% staff off that too.

It did surprise me what freezer food we have and that we tend to put new stuff at the front and forget what's hidden behind. No more of that now. :j

P.S. OH just walked in picked up a shepherd's pie for 1 and Toad in the hole for 1 for 25p each plus some other cheap bits.

oasisfeverish

Well finally my PINsentry arrived since ordering it on the 1st Jan.

I have now made my first ever OP :j of £118.19.

I set myself a target of £100 per month, so pleased I've managed to do that in the first two weeks of the month. Thought I would post a breakdown of where the money came from, in case any of it helps other prompt their minds to think "hey I can do that too".

£7.47 - Closed an old bank account.
£32.25 - Saved from SKY by getting a half price for 6 months deal, so thought I would put the savings as a OP monthly.
£1.00 - Scratchcard win, card was given to me as a cracker present.
£17.99 refund of a PS3 game that I managed to get cheaper by this difference.
£9.49 refund of a book that I had paid for but then didn't need in the end.
£14.99 refund of a lamp stand that we decided didn't go with the rest of the look.
£35.00 savings on grocery shops over last two weeks, only picking up bargains / deal items, half price or better.

We have been meal planning for the last two weeks and it really does help, especially that we keep a list of everything in the freezer next to the meal plan sheet, so it's easier than routing through the freezer each week to see what is left.

Summary:
Outstanding mortgage as of 30/12/2010 - £55,083.10
Original MFD - October 2037
Overpayments Made - £118.19
Outstanding mortgage as of __/__/____ - £
Revised MFD - September 2037
Interest Saved - £131.95
Months Saved - 1 month early

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Great to see that you are able to meal plan. I'm totally rubbish at this but I'm trying to improve. Good luck!

oasisfeverish

Got an email from National Lottery Thursday morning, thought could it, could it be me! lol

Well it wasn't the big one....£10 for matching 3 numbers, but it's another £10 I'm throwing at the mortgage as soon as it hits my bank account.

And then low and behold, this morning another email from National Lottery, and I thought could it, could it be me again, alas this time £5 for matching Thunderball and 1 number, so have requested that also to hit my bank account.

They do say things come in 3's, so watch this space Thursday morning, if I don't post, it's because I'm already heading over to Camelot to pick up the double rollover cheque lol!

So another £15 I have to throw at the OPs. It's right what others say this is getting highly addictive.

Summary:
Outstanding mortgage as of 30/12/2010 - £55,083.10
Original MFD - October 2037
Overpayments Made - £118.19
Outstanding mortgage as of __/__/____ - £
Revised MFD - September 2037
Interest Saved - £131.95
Months Saved - 1 month early

oasisfeverish

The £10 from National Lottery hit my account this morning, so no point in it staying there. Off to the mortgage it popped.

Total OPs for January now at £128.19.

Strangely by putting just another £10 across has reduced the term by a further month. So it just goes to prove no matter how little the OP is, in the long run it does make a huge difference.

Summary:
Outstanding mortgage as of 30/12/2010 - £55,083.10
Original MFD - October 2037
Overpayments Made - £128.19
Outstanding mortgage as of __/__/____ - £
Revised MFD - August 2037
Interest Saved - £143.11
Months Saved - 2 months early