Waving goodbye to my mortgage!

beachie

Hi,

Welcome to my new MFW diary. I have posted on here before and have had a Debt free diary for a while, but feel I should now turn my attention to my mortgage for a while since my credit card debt is all on 0% and managable.

I am Beachie, so called because I live near the sea and love going to the beach! I live alone with my cat.

I bought my flat, aged 24 on £17'995 a year for £97'000 which even for then when they were dishing out mortgages was a large lend at 5.5 times my income!

Over the last year or so I have been overpaying in dribs and drabs, often forgetting to overpay and thus my loan has only reduced to £90'499.

I now earn about £22'000 which works out around £1328 (after pension deductions, cycle to work scheme etc).

Last month my payments went as follows

£300 mortgage interest
£250 off the mortgage capital
£193.15 car loan payment
£150 to credit cards

Everything else was bills, petrol, food etc. I have only spent around £15 on food this month (going at the right time to get reduced food!) but have spent more than usual as had 2 nights out, I went to a Take That gig and had a night out for a curry. These all added up, but I feel I have managed to do alot with my money this month.

This month my aim is to pay minimum of the credit cards, since they are 0% and pay more to the mortgage.

I have set myself an aim of £500 off the capital of the mortgage every month which I use to pay the mortgage this month (so it is a nice round number and drops below 90k) and then save the £500 in an ISA next month at a higher interest rate so i can pay off if/when my mortgage rate rises or I move to a fixed rate.

I have a figure of becoming mortgage free in 10 years, which will land me to my 37th birthday. By this, I mean having paid off all what I owe now (even though I will most likely taking on more mortgage when I move to a house).

I have played around with the calculators and have come up with a plan starting with this weekend where I will attempt to earn £100 somehow.

So far this week I have changed my broadband provider, because someone else was offering a cheaper rate and there was good cashback to be had. With changes to my car insurance and other bills I am hoping to spend a £1000 less on bills this year than last.

Hope someone wants to join me on my journey. I am very excited but also a little depressed by how much some people can overpay by.

beachie

• Charge mobile phone at work.
• Go to the loo at work before leaving.
• Use a timer to ensure I don't spend to long in the shower.
• Reduce the amount of clothes I wear (and need to wash!).
• Cycle to work and shower there.
• Turn off lights when not needed.
• Go to the supermarket at the right time to get reduced foods.
• Check all utilities on an annual/end of contract basis to ensure I am on the best deal.
• Make sandwiches for lunch everyday.
• Spend an hour at work on MSE at the end of the day rather than at home.
• Pick local fruit - have found a lovely load of apple trees near me in a park and blackberries when in season to freeze.
• Buy cheap shower gel/shampoo to use as handwash.
• turn off microwave when need used - I have plenty of other clocks to tell the time from!
• Go to bed when it gets dark in the summer to save electricity and get up early.

beachie

22nd July 2011 - £90'448
01st July 2012 - £87'199

CathT

Good luck Beachie, you could try maximising income with surveys sites and selling things on Amazon and ebay etc. I am here for the long haul as am not able to overpay by a lot but it all makes a difference.

OldSchool_3

You can increase your income selling some things on ebay. I learned from your tips. I'll makesandwiches for lunch everyday that's for sure.:D

Courgette

Good luck, beachie! Welcome to the madhouse!

fishfins

I love the second point on your list! :rotfl:

It's a very good list though and has some things I hadn't thought of before so thanks!

beachie

fishfins wrote: »

I love the second point on your list! :rotfl:

It's a very good list though and has some things I hadn't thought of before so thanks!

Thank you. It saves quite a bit of water over the year! :rotfl:

I will build the list up over time, evntually splitting it out into categories and see how things go. It reminds me when I need inspiration!

beachie

CathT wrote: »

Good luck Beachie, you could try maximising income with surveys sites and selling things on Amazon and ebay etc. I am here for the long haul as am not able to overpay by a lot but it all makes a difference.

Thank you. You have certainly done well though in the last year! :T:T

I find it really difficult to feel happy with my efforts when some people are able to pay £2000+ a month when I can only pay a few hundred, although of course, no disrespect as I really enjoy seeing what they do!

goobergirl

Welcome Beachie and good luck.

Please don't be disheartened by others who can OP big sums. It's all relative I think. I am very jealous of the amount of mortgage you have!

You are doing everything right and have a good plan. Just concentrate your efforts and you will soon see that balance tumbling down.

:beer:

Ayeshalush

beachie wrote: »

I find it really difficult to feel happy with my efforts when some people are able to pay £2000+ a month when I can only pay a few hundred, although of course, no disrespect as I really enjoy seeing what they do!

Hi beachie. Welcome to MFW.

I feel that way at times as well, however the smaller amounts that I do pay have already knocked almost 7 years off the mortgage end date. Just keep chipping away, it's surprising how much of a difference it actually makes.

A
xx