Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

sweetdaisy

DH had a meeting in work today and everyone was informed that they are going to be made redundant this Friday instead of 31st October. But at least they will be paid up until 31st October, so he'll have a normal pay at the end of the month and will have his redundancy money at the end of November. Even though we have known for a long time that he will be losing his job, know that the time has come it's all a bit scary!

On the plus side, I am doing well with managing on a fixed weekly sum of money for spending, food shopping and fuel for cars, so am confident that I will hopefully be able to make his redundancy money stretch further.

I started my new healthy regime today and did a short walk - only 25 mins but as it was raining I was determined to go out and wasn't going to give in to the weather on the first day.

southerndave

Well done and keep your chin up....

sweetdaisy

Received some money from doing surveys this week, so total overpayment made for October so far is £156.

Received a quarterly mortgage statement from Natwest that said we are on target to repay the mortgage by July 2024 - 1 year and 6 months early (however this is based on monthly mortgage payment and does not take into consideration offset savings). Compared to the last quarterly statement in July we have shaved off another month off the repayment date . Based on my spreadsheet, taking into consideration overpayments, we are due to repay mortgage 1 year and 8 months earlier, so I have this date on my signature.

DH was made redundant yesterday and as soon as he finished work he went for an interview with an agency. There were a few positions going on a 'first come first served basis' and the person who had an interview before him was the last one to fill the vacancies , however DH was told that there are some more positions coming up, was given information about the job, asked his clothes size and if he has the correct footwear and was asked to give bank details for payroll. So it looks promising and hopefully something will come up soon. He also had to take his Passport and P60 as proof of ID and even though the job is with an agency and is a temp position (as most are) it is full-time hours, earning more an hour than his previous job, so fingers crossed!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi SD, that's such great news about your DH. Hopefully he will be called back.

More money is a real bonus too :T

It's fab to knock another month off, Tilly x x x

sweetdaisy

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Hi SD, that's such great news about your DH. Hopefully he will be called back.

More money is a real bonus too :T

It's fab to knock another month off, Tilly x x x

Thanks Tilly. I am pleased to be making inroads into reducing the mortgage and the advantage of an Offset Mortgage is that there is the safety net that any overpayments made can be claimed back, however hopefully we won't need to do this.

DH applied for quite a few jobs last week and is feeling positive at the moment. The ideal situation is that he gets another job and his redundancy money will stay in savings (untouched) and be used to offset against the mortgage.

gallygirl

Sounds like there may be good news very soon, here's hoping :T.

CathT

Fingers crossed for the job. You are so positive and are doing really well to make OP's at this uncertain time. Good luck for the fitness drive, I have a dress I want to wear for a night out and Christmas so I would be pleased to lose a few lb's!

sweetdaisy

CathT wrote: »

Fingers crossed for the job. You are so positive and are doing really well to make OP's at this uncertain time.

Thanks Cath. My mortgage overpayments are made up from money saved by paying nursery fees using my built-up childcare vouchers and earnings from survey/cashback sites and any weekly underspend on food shopping - so I see this has 'bonus' money and use 50% of it as an overpayment and 50% goes into savings. Doesn't always work out like this, but seems to be working at the moment.

CathT wrote: »

Good luck for the fitness drive, I have a dress I want to wear for a night out and Christmas so I would be pleased to lose a few lb's!

I went for a 1 hour walk yesterday and hope to do the same later on. I am fine with exercising, I just can't help myself when it comes to treats! Really have to be more disciplined. I have some vouchers from surveys sites which I am going to use to buy some clothes, so I want to tone up a little first. Good luck with your fitness drive too .

southerndave

Well done with the agency and I hope it works out for you both, a bit extra even if only temporary helps and it's easier to find work when you are working apparently, so fingers crossed!

sweetdaisy

_party_ Today is the 1st Anniversary of my MFW diary and my quest to become mortgage free _party_

A year ago our mortgage balance was just over £84,000 and it now stands at £77,804, so in one year we have reduced the balance by £6,470.

When I started my diary I was wasn't really taking full advantage of our Offset Mortgage, so I increase the monthly payment and have been making small regular overpayments since. My October 2011 mortgage statement stated that we were due to repay the mortgage 1 month early and a year later we are now set to repay 1 year and 8 months early :j.

We have 13 years and 3 months remaining on the mortgage and my target is to repay by February 2022 (4 years early). I will be 42 years old and ideally I would love to have it paid in 2020 to coincide with my 40th Birthday, but don't think that this is a realistic target.

I would like to thank everyone for the advice and continued motivation and encouragement to keep on track. In hindsight I do wish that I had started my MFW journey years ago, but better late than never.

I love feeling that I am part of a 'secret' group on here because other than close family no one knows my MFW plans. When I have mentioned it in the past some people become jealous/look at you stupid at the mere suggestion that you want to repay a 25 year debt early! So I quietly keep my calculations to myself and constantly think about being mortgage free.

Whilst I am on a strict budget at the moment due to my Husband being made redundant, I live within my means and make sure that we don't miss out on doing fun things as a family and do have 'treats' - as you only live once and need to enjoy life .