Ultrarunner's aim to be mortgage-free

ultrarunner

Nice little surprise this morning with £17.50 cashback from changing electricity supplier in the summer.

Needed it after a run of bad luck - had to replace a leaking washing machine hose which flooded my kitchen over the weekend while i was away, and the plug was chopped off my freezer while it was outside defrosting (I have a tiny flat so no room for it!)

30th birthday is nigh so have also received a few cheques from my aged parents and grandparent, they will come in useful for the MOT next week and the credit card. Going to be a cheap month I think as all I will be doing is college work, and I can claim back the cost of getting into London each week from work.

Twiddy

Just caught up on your diary UR and you're going at a great pace to get this mortgage off your back, well played! Keep uo the good work. I drop in to peoples diaries from time to time so expect a periodic note of support from me when I next check in.....

Cheers
T

GreenSaints

Hey,

Just spotted your diary. Your mortgage is roughly the same as ours (starting £83118 and we also had a 5.89% 5 year fix with Nationwide, though ours started in 2004). When our fix finished, we just went onto the standard variable rate which is 2.5% for us at the minute

You're in a great position to over pay that much. If you cut your food budget (I've only just been doing this. It's a lot easier then it seems) you could have at least another £100 to throw at the mortgage.

Good luck with your journey

ultrarunner

Hi Twiddy and Greensaints, thanks for the messages. I am pretty pleased with how it's gone so far.

I can only overpay £500 per month, but it's rare that I'll have enough money to do more than that, the rest can go to savings accounts.

Quite a busy day yesterday - a college tutorial in London, then down to see a few friends to talk to them about pensions, then out for a few drinks. Tiring and not cheap. As of yesterday I am in my 30s... scary.

ultrarunner

I had one of those "why are you bothering to overpay on your mortgage" conversations with my friend yesterday.

He's going out to do a ski season, having been made redundant, and is suggesting I go out skiing (never done it before) to visit. I asked how much it would be for a week or so and he reckoned £1000 or so. Can't see that happening! I explained that after bills etc what I have left I am saving and throwing at the mortgage.

Cue a lack of understanding... ah well

ultrarunner

Well I've pretty much decided to get my flat on the market asap and move to a bigger place.

I've borrowed a sofa from my mate, to make my rather small studio seem a bit larger. Need to do a bit of a rearrangement of furniture at the weekend, then give the place a thorough clean.

Sold my old flat screen monitor for £15... no need for it to gather dust. Need a bit of luck as in the last 2 weeks I've had a leak from my washing machine hose, a leak from my freezer and my toilet ballcock isn't working. Attempts to fix and replace it haven't got me anywhere (and made it worse) so think I'm going to bite the bullet and call in a plumber or handyman.

As it happened an estate agent who sold a similar flat in my block called me today, so he is coming round next Friday. Also trying to find a local job after having spent 80 minutes sitting in traffic this morning :-(

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning U, hope all goes well with the little jobs you need to get complete/fixed.

ultrarunner

Thanks Tilly!

Success - I fixed the loo!

ultrarunner

Gosh, I'm so tired... a busy few days.

My friend came to stay on Thursday night, and I discussed my list of jobs to do... he pointed out a few other things and we added them to the list. On Friday I went off to work and as he's between jobs I left him to sleep on.

At lunchtime he called me and said he'd done all the jobs, and cleaned my kitchen as well. He then made some more suggestions and asked for permission to nip out and buy a few things to complete those tasks. I was stunned when I got back, the place looked amazing. A true friend!

Today I have: met my friends on the ridgeway for a run, bought a curtain rod and curtains to mask my doorless wardrobe (thought it would look better if potential buyers didn't see my socks), bought some paint to tidy up the paintwork, and ordered a remote control, aerial and wireless sound transmitter for my hifi. Not cheap, and I need to take back the curtains tomorrow as I decided they weren't what I needed - I've eyed up something in homebase though which should suffice.

Estate agent is coming round on Friday...

Sepa74

Ridgeway!! I've walked a fair bit of the Ridgeway - the southern and the northern bits, but missed the bits in the middle.

I love that part of the world particularly the Wiltshire section, around Uffington Castle. There are a few spots where you can feel on top of the world!

Lucky you, being close enough to run along it regularly