Sweetdaisy's aim to be mortgage-free

sweetdaisy

It's been a busy weekend. We went to a Birthday party yesterday, followed by an Easter Egg hunt :icotbaske. DS1 had his face painted as Spiderman at the party and his face still has a tinge of Red to it and he has some black eye liner that won't come off!

Credit Card statement received this week and annual Cashback (which will be paid in January 2014) stands at £26.54.

I had been saving up my Childcare Vouchers, but from next week I am having to use my vouchers again (due to rising fees) and having to pay extra for the 2 weeks of Half Term break, plus another Inset Day .

I have given the house a really good Spring clean and the more I look around the more I see that we need a few jobs done. I need to re-paint my porch and kitchen and I also need to re-gloss doors and skirting boards - I hate glossing :mad: and it's not easy to do with two little ones in the house. Think that I will be joining the band wagon like most people do on a Bank Holiday and head to my local DIY shop!

Mortgage Overpayment 'pot' still has a balance of £210, as this month has been expensive so have not been able to add to it this week. I know that it makes no difference if the OP's are saved into the Offset or are paid directly to the mortgage, but I am finding that I feel I am not making much progress 'saving' the OP's as I am not seeing the mortgage balance reduce as much as I would like.

According to my spreadsheet I am still a long way off my target of getting mortgage paid by January 2022 - a target of repaying 4 years earlier just doesn't seem to be enough.

sweetdaisy

Happy Easter everyone :easter:.

I worked on Good Friday, so will claim double time for this (rather than Toil), but I do have Bank Holiday Monday and Tuesday off, which is good. I don't know what it is about me and taking time off work - I tend to take my time off in single days rather than take a full week and now that I have a few days off due to the Bank Holiday, I have come down with a cold, feel achy, blemishes, cold sores etc :mad:. It's as if my body knows I am taking a break and starts shutting down! Anyway, my plans for doing some DIY have gone out of the window for this Bank Holiday, as I don't feel up to it.

DH has been offered 12 hours overtime tomorrow (paid @ double time), so today we had a great day out with the children and went to an Adventure Farm and Zoo. It was very cold, but the boys loved it there. We took a packed lunch and ate out Tea. I bought the tickets online and printed off confirmation, so this saved us £2.81.

MFW side of things:-
I've had a good think (again!) about our finances over the weekend and I have streamlined my savings 'pot's as I started to have too many and it was getting difficult to divide the money into the separate pots. I also want to make things simpler for myself.

Since DH has been in his new job (6 weeks) I have been putting all of his extra money into Savings, so increasing the Offset Savings on a weekly basis. I have decided for now (as I am always changing my mind about this!) to directly overpay the money I have saved in the Mortgage Overpayment 'pot'. There are two reasons for this: 1) I wanted to streamline my savings 'pots' and if need be I can draw-down any overpayments and 2) I 'need' to see the online Mortgage Balance reduce as Overpayments are made. I feel that this is the motivation I need to reduce the term. I know that this is going to take many years and seeing the balance reduce gives me the encouragement to keep on going.

So, tomorrow is the 1st of April and I am going to start afresh with my new plans. I don't know how long it will last, as reading through my Diary you will see that I am very indecisive :rotfl:, but I need to start making things simpler for myself.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Happy Easter SD, sounds like a great day out for you all.

We directly OP more than we offset as I like to see the debt reducing. I also think we all have to check our approaches as life changes and what makes sense today, may not in a year or so.

I must admit I would be lost without my pots although I am considering closing a bank account which I've had for years. It only gets used for one DD .

By the way, being ill on holiday is a well known phenomenon

http://www.webmd.boots.com/travel/features/do-weekends-and-holidays-make-you-sick

Best wishes Tilly

sweetdaisy

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Happy Easter SD, sounds like a great day out for you all.

We directly OP more than we offset as I like to see the debt reducing. I also think we all have to check our approaches as life changes and what makes sense today, may not in a year or so.

I must admit I would be lost without my pots although I am considering closing a bank account which I've had for years. It only gets used for one DD .

By the way, being I'll on holiday is a well known phenomenon

http://www.webmd.boots.com/travel/features/do-weekends-and-holidays-make-you-sick

Best wishes Tilly

Thanks for the info Tilly. Having just read it, I agree - I have Leisure Sickness! :eek:

In terms of my 'pots' I still have quite a few, but have amalgamated some i.e money for days out, treats, clothing, household goods are in one pot - 'Misc/Treats' and I have one pot for 'Annual Spends' i.e. insurances, holidays etc. I have one main Offset Savings account so my 'pots' are virtual and I manage them using a spreadsheet which means I can swap and change them as much as I want.

Having the 'pots' has really helped me to look at where we spend our money and which ones we need to increase savings. I have reduced my pots from 11 to 8. For now, this has made me see things more clearly .

sweetdaisy

Mortgage Overpayment of £296 paid today. This means that I have reduced the term by another month and I am now on target to repay the mortgage 2 years early (January 2024) - half way to my original target of repaying 4 years early :j.

Also, I set myself a target in January of getting the mortgage down to £69,999 by 1st December 2013 and even without any further overpayments for the year - the mortgage balance in December will be £69,941 :j. I will have to think of a new target, but will need to give it some thought first.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

:j:j:j fab news :j:j:j

QB_Wolf

Good work SD, looking forwards to seeing your revised target :T

gallygirl

Well done

sweetdaisy

Thanks everyone .

I have decided that my new target for 31st December is to get the mortgage balance down to £68,600. It may be a bit tight, but I started the year with a mortgage balance of £76,600, so if I reach my target I would have reduced the mortgage by £8,000 in one year!

Back in work tomorrow . Took the children to a local Country Park. We had a great day and took a packed lunch with us. DS1 managed to get two splinters in his hand and it's the first time he has splinters and it took around 20 minutes getting them out using a sewing needle. He was very brave bless him!

I renewed my parking season ticket at the Country Park which cost £12.50 but we go in there once a fortnight or so therefore I get my money's worth.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Poor DS1 - I bet that was sore _pale_ Hopefully he soon forgot the pain/discomfort x x

Tilly x