Team Remote_Control: Mortgage-Free before I'm 63

LadyWithAPlan

Reading this, thinking I will joining the big mortgage people soon -probably £380k but I am looking at it as a monthly challenge to OP rather than the scary monster number it is

t2rry

Hey @remote_control, checking in again now I've moved and settled.  Now in the £390k mortgage team here!  Quite pleased to have found that our standard payment takes nearly £1k off the balance per month, but wow it's scary big when I work out the balance after 5/10 years still!!!!  Looking forward to seeing how you do it!!

remote_control

Hey everyone! So lovely you have checked in

6th of month update
Mortgage: £365,679.46
Debt on 0% £9133.90
Overpayments in July and August: £750
Savings £0
Holidays abroad: 1 

So we spent our savings on a holiday and it was wonderful! Lovely to get some sunshine and go somewhere new. So overpayments for August was lower than the £125 a week target. Big milestone to go under £10k on the 0% cards. And it's less than a year until it is all done. 

Looking forward to having a money saving autumn though and first aim is to build the savings back up.

£350k doesn't look that far away too!

remote_control

1st of month update
Mortgage: £363,647.97
Debt on 0% £7,433.68
Savings £425

Thought I'd write down figures to show myself that it is all moving in the right direction! We just seem to be spending so much every month at the moment. Some of it is yolo to do some nice family things, the children are really expensive as they do lots of clubs and activities which have extra things they need or performances that we need tickets too! A lot going on at school too. Anyway, now is a good time to try and get back to my money saving ways so that I don't overspend in Dec. I think the Christmas shopping is nearly done.

powerspowers

Good progress RC! Have you considered selling the children on eBay? 

Keep chipping away at it, do you have a debt free day you are aiming for? 

remote_control

Haha that made me laugh! 

Debt will be gone in July. 0% runs out in Aug so should be ok. My current plan is to save rather than pay more to the debt

remote_control

First of Jan 2022 update

Mortgage: £360, 831.56
Daily interest (will need to work this out)
Debt on 0% £6602.64 (1st Jan 2020 this was £31,432.40!)
Savings £825
Target for 2022: Remortgage and knock a few years off the term (and hopefully get a lower interest rate!). Save, save, save (rather than OP on mort or debt). Get back to moneysaving ways.

Interesting that we've paid off £24,800 from our debt in two years. I don't think I ever realise that we have done that and what an acheivement that is. It is debt from house renovations so we've not added to it and it's just been ticking down in the background. It is mainly thanks to covid though as we saved a lot in 2020 and paid it as a lump sum a year ago. 

remote_control

Still perpetually in overdraft these last few months which is really annoying! Hopefully it will be a constant reminder that we need to wind things in and stop spending. I've never listened to Dave Ramsey but maybe I should!

I think some of the spending is post covid blow out, which includes buying some new clothes after buying none in 2020! We've also had some people close to us die and get ill and that coupled with covid has definitely made me a bit yolo. 

The numbers aren't quite in yet but I think our spending in 2021 was just a fraction above our income. But that spending inclues £800 a month of debt repayment. This is obviously a little too high for us if we're going in to overdraft. So we either need to reduce that or reduce our monthly spend (obviously I would prefer the latter!). We do have £800 in savings though. I'm not going to cash that out for being £100 in overdraft though. That's a cycle I don't want to get into. 

Off to ebay things.... Or could go to the bank and pay in the Christmas money I got. 

t2rry

Hi @remote_control, just checking in as I came to have a lurk - you've done brilliantly in those 2 years, that's a huge amount to have saved.  I feel you on the spending in the latter part of 2021, definitely a culmination of a lot of things but I think it's true for a lot, especially the YOLO thing around christmas this time.

I am not quite ready to join the mortgage free boards yet, we're concentrating on doing the house up so it's going to the right place, just in a different way.  I've decided to put some monthly savings aside though at the same time to make me have to think more carefully about spends on the house.  As exciting as it would be to really smash through doing it quickly, I'm sure having to think more carefully about what I'm spending on it will be better in the long run.  

Anyway, I'll continue to see how you're doing, you're giving me great inspiration for mortgage free planning!!!

remote_control

First of Feb 2022 update

Mortgage: £359,743.57
Daily interest (will need to work this out)
Debt on 0% £6579.80 (1st Jan 2020 this was £31,432.40!)
Savings £3225
Target for 2022: Remortgage and knock a few years off the term (and hopefully get a lower interest rate!). Save, save, save (rather than OP on mort or debt). Get back to moneysaving ways.

So we remortgaged online and weren't able to change the term. We went for a 5 year fix. It is a lower interest rate but we had to pay a fee for the new product. It will take 2 years for the saving in monthly payments to cover the fee. (We didn't add it on to the mortgage though, I paid it on a 0% credit card which has to be paid off by end of March).

We have been fairly moneysaving, only because we're not doing many days out etc. We're in Devon for half term though so that might add up, especially if it is cold or rainy. 

We had been in our overdraft for a few months so any frugal ways have really just got us out of that situation. Loving the debt being in the 6s!