Starting the mortgage free path

bownyboy

Payday today and mortgage payment and overpayment gone through so stats are as follows:

• January 2013 - £118,289 / £418 / £13.95
• February 2013 - £117,302 / £393 / £13.11
• March 2013 - £116,372 / £390 / £13.00
• April 2013 - £115,439 / £386 / £12.90
• May 2013 - £114,508 / £383 / £12.79
• June 2013 - £113,574 / £380 / £12.70

Ring fenced ISA savings of £2,500 so effective balance of £111,074

bownyboy

Bit behind this month, stats below as of July 1st:

January 2013 - £118,289 / £418 / £13.95
February 2013 - £117,302 / £393 / £13.11
March 2013 - £116,372 / £390 / £13.00
April 2013 - £115,439 / £386 / £12.90
May 2013 - £114,508 / £383 / £12.79
June 2013 - £113,574 / £380 / £12.70
July 2013 - £112,541 / £377 / £12.59

Ring fenced ISA savings of £3,000 so effective balance of £109,541

Broken through the £110k barrier!

bownyboy

Some updates on what's been happening since I last posted.

Open Gardens
A few posts back I mentioned how we were opening our garden for charity in aid of the stroke association. My months of toil paid off and we had a fantastic turn out and managed to raise £1050 in just 4 hours! We couldn't have done it without generous support from friends on the day.

Needless to say I haven't done much gardening the last few weekends!

Piano lessons
Now that the garden is not taking up so much time, I decided to start taking piano lessons. It's £25 for an hour. Had 5 so far and loving it. Something I always wanted to do and means I get to practice on the £1 upright piano we got from gumtree last year.

It's £100 a month and could go towards mortgage, but hey, life's about living as well right?

Holidays
Off to our 2nd MSE holiday on Friday. A week in southern Spain for the price of an easyjet return ticket as we're staying with relatives. Can't wait, work has been manic so looking forward to relaxing by the pool with the kindle

MallyGirl

Piano lessons have been on my wish list for years. I thought I would keep pace with DD when she started but that didn't work out and she will be taking her grade 3 exam in November.
Well done on the open garden - I love my garden but it doesn't have enough interest to make the visit long enough. Plus we are about to make a mess building a kitchen extension/garden room starting in August. I have just emptied a bed that will be lost and the poor transplanted plants are not happy in this heat.

bownyboy

Start of the month and payday again:

• January 2013 - £118,289 / £418 / £13.95
• February 2013 - £117,302 / £393 / £13.11
• March 2013 - £116,372 / £390 / £13.00
• April 2013 - £115,439 / £386 / £12.90
• May 2013 - £114,508 / £383 / £12.79
• June 2013 - £113,574 / £380 / £12.70
• July 2013 - £112,541 / £377 / £12.59
• August 2013 - £111,690 / £374 / £12.48

Ring fenced ISA savings of £3,500 so effective balance of £108,190

bownyboy

The piano lessons have been going well. Really enjoying it. Trouble is our MSE £1 piano from gumtree is failing badly. Very out of tune with some keys not working. My teacher looked at it and had a good belly laugh and said nice piece of furniture shame about piano.

So think I'll treat myself to a keyboard this month as its my birthday.

Looks like I'll need to spend around £300 for a full size electric keyboard like the Yamaha P35.

Not an insignificant amount but I probably buy one big thing a year for myself and this will be it for this year.

bownyboy

Few more stats to keep the morale up!

• 59 - The number of payments left If I maintain my overpayment plan before becomming mortgage free
• 28.6% - The amount of mortgage paid off
• 66 - the number of months my overpayments have reduced the mortgage term by so far
• £59 - The amount of monthly interest saved compared to this time last year

djohn2002uk

Bownyboy. How about updating your We're opening our garden - 8 weeks to go! thread. Lots of people waiting for info.

bownyboy

djohn2002uk wrote: »

Bownyboy. How about updating your We're opening our garden - 8 weeks to go! thread. Lots of people waiting for info.

Right, yes must update that thread, lots been going on so been a bit slack.

bownyboy

Start of the month and payday again:

• January 2013 - £118,289 / £418 / £13.95
• February 2013 - £117,302 / £393 / £13.11
• March 2013 - £116,372 / £390 / £13.00
• April 2013 - £115,439 / £386 / £12.90
• May 2013 - £114,508 / £383 / £12.79
• June 2013 - £113,574 / £380 / £12.70
• July 2013 - £112,541 / £377 / £12.59
• August 2013 - £111,690 / £374 / £12.48
• September 2013 - £110,744 / £371 / £12.38

Ring fenced ISA savings of £4,000 so effective balance of £106,744