Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

southerndave

Great news on the training. I have CSCS card from another job and had to pay for it myself and I can tell you it wasn't cheap, so to get offered funded training is brilliant. Good luck with it!

gallygirl

Great news on the training .

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi SD, that's fantastic news x x x

sweetdaisy

It's been a busy week - 90% Christmas shopping has been done (inc stocking fillers) and half of the presents have been wrapped :xmassmile. I am 'on-call' next weekend and can't go far so will probably put up the Christmas decorations as DS1 is getting excited.

Received a Credit Card statement this week and I earned £29.29 cashback last month, so the total of £96.38 cashback earned for the year will be paid in my January statement, so I will pay it towards the mortgage.

Monthly interest of £215 has been added to the mortgage this week. Mortgage Balance is: £77,170.00.

Renewed my BT Line Rental Saver at a cost of £129 - it has increased by £9.00 compared to last year, but worth it as I can save over £40 a year.

Some bad news on the ReAct Funding for DH . After being ill-informed by the Careers Advice Service, it now turns out that he does not qualify for funding for electrical courses such as 17th Edition and PAT Testing, as a minimum of NVQ Level 3 in Electrical Engineering is now needed to be able to have the courses funded. But on the positive side, he has secured funding for CSCS, Health and Safety Passport and Scissor Lift training, so will do these courses first and then pay for the electrical courses.

sweetdaisy

All Christmas presents have been bought and I have spent around £30 more than last year . I am really pleased as I have remained within budget and have had to buy for more family members this year. Took DS1 to town this afternoon and spent over an hour queuing for him to see :xmassmile Father Christmas in his Grotto. It was a long wait, but DS1 loved it. Christmas decorations have been put up in the house - don't usually do it this early but the children are excited. DS2 is 16 months old and within 30 mins of the tree going up, he had already managed to pull a few baubles off the tree.

Total mortgage overpayment made for November was £182, so my MFW date is still 1 year and 9 months early (April 2024), but hopefully it will reduce by another month shortly. I felt down the other day as it feels that I am never going to reach my MFW target of 4 years early (2022). My problem is that I am impatient and combined with having a couple of really stressful weeks in work - reducing/paying off the mortgage is my only option of being able to change jobs/work less hours.

I have been doing really well with the surveys and cashback and earned £100.62 in November. Received £7.61 from TCB today, so that will go into the mortgage overpayment 'pot'.

Due to DH being made redundant we have made a claim on our mortgage protection insurance to see if they can help us out (hopefully they will - otherwise I'll cancel the policy). We have had the policy for nearly 12 years and never had to make a claim, so not sure how it works. Because we have an Offset Mortgage and have been making regular overpayments, I am not sure if this will prevent us from claiming on our insurance? So, I am going to place all mortgage overpayments into Savings in a separate 'pot' rather than make direct overpayments until we know where we stand.

DH is continuing to apply for jobs, but no luck at the moment. He goes to the job centre 2-3 times a week and is checking all job websites etc, but there's not much around at the moment.

sweetdaisy

So far this month I have received £42.04 from cashback/survey sites. The Mortgage Overpayment 'pot' balance now stands at £234 and as it is sitting in the Offset Savings account it is still working hard for me by reducing the interest owed. When DH gets a new job, I will then pay it directly to the mortgage.

This year has been the first year that I have been making regular mortgage overpayments and in January 2012 I signed up to '2012 mfw'. My initial overpayment target was £800 and I have paid way above my target and have exceeded it by over £600!

I have been playing around with my MFW spreadsheet (which I seem to be doing a lot of lately :rotfl:) and so far this year we have reduced the mortgage by over £6,000. Current mortgage balance stands at £77,170 and by the end of December 2013 my aim is for the balance to be in the high £60k's. According to my spreadsheet it is possible to reach this by December 2013 if I overpay £157 a month. As I have rounded up my monthly mortgage payment to £700, I automatically overpay by £57 a month, so just need to overpay and additional £100 a month.

I don't know why, but it seems that to have my mortgage balance in the £60k's is a big milestone for me. I would love to get it down to £67,000 but I think that this is being too adventurous and I don't want to get disheartened if I don't reach it. So anything under £69,999 in December 2013 will do just fine!

Had an Npower bill (for dual fuel) and my monthly payment has been reduced by a whopping £1.00 a month. But unfortunately I have had a Water statement and even though our water usage has greatly reduced since last year our monthly direct debit has increased by £4.50.

southerndave

You're doing really well, very impressed, especially given the circumstances. Keep it up!

sweetdaisy

My car had to go into the garage today as it needed a new wheel bearing - so that has set me back by £64, but at least my car is safe and has been fixed (something always seems to go wrong with the cars before Christmas!).

Received £3.00 for doing a survey so it has been added to the mortgage overpayment pot which has a balance of £237.

Received a letter from DS1's After School Club provider, with details of their price increase for 2013. Luckily it hasn't risen by too much.

I have set up all of my financial spreadsheets for 2013 and can't wait to start all over again in the New Year.

DS1 wrote his letter to Father Christmas :xmassmile today (and wrote one on behalf of his younger Brother). I asked him what he would like, his reply "toys". I asked what type of toys, his reply "any toys Mummy" and added that DS2 would like some pyjamas and crayons! DS1 is 4.5 years old and is very excited this year, so I can't wait until Christmas Eve to wind the children up before bed. He asks everyday how long it will be until he can put out a mince pie, glass of milk and carrots for Father Christmas and the Reindeers!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi SD, that takes me back a few years. I love the sheer joy and anticipation which they have on their faces.

Best wishes Tilly x

sweetdaisy

Received payments from some survey sites this week, plus underspent on my weekly food shop so mortgage overpayment 'pot' balance is now £265.

I thought that I had finished all of my Christmas shopping, then remembered that I had forgotten to buy the children socks and pants for Christmas, so spent an additional £14.50.

I have a Sim Only mobile phone plan and pay £17.50 (approx) a month, so contacted my mobile provider today and managed to change my Sim Only plan and save myself £7.00 a month . I now only have to pay £10.50 a month (which includes VAT) and I have 300 free anytime minutes and unlimited texts, so this suits me fine as I do not use the internet on my phone and I tend to use my landline in the evenings as it is free after 7pm.

Had a statement from my Stocks and Shares ISA investment account (which will be used when the children are older to fund any college/university fees, house deposits etc). We pay £100 a month into the account and we have gained £170 in interest in the past 6 months, so I happy with this as it is a long term investment.

DH went on some training courses last week - so now has his CSCS Card, completed Health and Safety Passport and Scissor Lift training. He is continuing to apply for lots of jobs, but no luck yet .