Mortgage Reduction Journey

its_neos_matrix

Hello All,
I am a very long time reader many a diary, and thought it about time I started a one detailing what we are doing as a family to reduce the mortgage we currently have outstanding. We are aiming to pay off the mortgage in 10 years, instead of the 20 which is remaining.

Some details:

We are a family of four, me(32), wife(31), son(6), daughter(4 ). I know a lot of you use OH, DD1 DD2, but I still don’t fully understand what these mean!!?

I have done an SOA which I will post soon, but basic details are:

Income £2600
Mortgage £153,000 @ 2.5% = £810/mth.
Currently overpaying by £500/mth.

We need to up the over payment slightly to hit our target. We are looking at the grocery challenge on the old style money saving thread to reduce the monthly spend on food as this is our single biggest monthly cost, however the OH already does every well and says we only spend £60/wk on food.

I have started to record what we as a family spend each day in a Google doc. This has really hit home for both me and the OH of use as to how much we spend, and how the little things added up make a big difference.

Also looking to up my income by designing websites for people. Have already designed two websites just by word of mouth and they are both really happy with what I have done, so might pursue this some more. Need to start with designing my own website and getting my name out there!

We also have a few bits and bobs which could be EBay’ed, so that might add a few pounds to the pot, although I don’t think we will make that much on them.

There is a big cost coming down the road however, we have decided to extend the house. Very early stages at the moment, just getting the drawings done, but costs could be around the £25K mark. This will obviously set us back on our target, but it is something we both want to do and will improve how we use the house and the space we have available. If costs are higher than this however we might wait and save up to carry out the work. Would be interested to hear how other people have financed extensions, any advice welcome!

The one thing we, as a couple, find is in short supply is our time. By the time I have got home from work, dinner, reading with the kids, putting them to bed, we just want to relax. This is why I have started the diary. I am hoping with our drive to get this mortgage gone and the support of everyone on here, the evenings can become more productive.

Well that’s about me done for this post. Will update with the SOA soon and more info on how we get on with our MFW adventure!

Lois_E

Hi its_neos_matrix and welcome to MFW.

I'm a big spending-diary fan. I definitely spend less when I'm having to record it all. And besides, I like making little graphs and charts on excel. Writing a diary on here is good too, and so is getting involved in the discussion and commenting on other people's diaries.

Good luck for your MFW journey.

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Good luck and welcome. While your children are so young is a great time to cut back as they are too young to ask for many expensive goodies and going out is quite difficult anyway, so not too tough to restrict expensive outings. I wish I had thought of it when I was your age!

Well done on making a start,

Squirrel

CathT

Wishing you lots of luck. I have similar circumstances and goals to yourself so will be following your journey. This weekend might be a good ebaying opportunity as it is free listing.

its_neos_matrix

Morning All,

Thanks for the messages everyone!

Slightly expensive day yesterday:

£10 - Pub
£30 - OH Girly night out.

Hoping for a NSD today, will be at home for most of the day so hopefully wont be to tricky to achieve the NSD. Rumor of a BBQ at friends later so that would be nice - come on the sun!

Have a good day all.

gallygirl

:wave:Hello and good luck :wave:

You've worked out that OH is other half (or you could use Mrs inm). DS is darling son, DD is darling daughter, DS1 eldest son etc.

its_neos_matrix

Hello All,

Thanks GG!

Didn't get round to EBaying any of our stuff, however we have put our old tent on preloved so hoping that will sell soon.

Well it has been an expensive couple of days!!

We are of camping in cornwall next weekend, so decided to buy a Cobb BBQ. We have wanted one for ages and think we will get a lot of use out of it. Trying to save a bit of money we bought it off EBay. It is second hand but has only been used a few times, and comes with quite a few extras, so for £110 we were quite happy about that.

We also bought some camping equipment which we needed, chairs, tables etc. Have managed to borrow a cooker for the holiday though, so that was a little saving.

All these should hopefully be on-offs and last a quite a few years!! Here's hoping anyway.

Also it was my birthday yesterday, so I bought some treats for everyone at work, managed to get some deals at the supermarket, but it still came to £10.

Because of this, and the costs while at the camping site, we might miss the £600 OP this month, will have to see how it goes.

its_neos_matrix

Managed to OP by £600 this month :j
This was quite an expensive time as well, we had a camping trip to Cornwall (in the rain!!) so there were a few purchases made for this, and then the money spent while there.

The list of our monthly expenses has got a little behind this month, will have to get it back up and running again.

Also quite fancy getting a drawing of the house with 151 bricks in and as each thousand is knocked off colour in a brick. I have read other people do this and think it will be great motivation for all of us.

Hope everyone is well.
J