Want to be mortgage free in 8 years or less!

TwinnyD

I'm hoping that writing this diary will help keep me on track to my goal as I find other people's very inspiring and am in need of inspiration

Bit about us
Mortgage started - 2006 25 years £150k
Current overpayments to Dec 2011 £27.4k
Outstanding mortgage & term - £95.4k (split into 2 nearly equal parts) & approx 13 years (one part has 4 months more outstanding than the other)

I've always wanted to pay the mortgage off early but never had a target date until now so September 2020 is the latest I want it paid off by and plan is
OP of £10k Jan 2012 (£5k off each account) - done :T waiting for letter confirming new terms
Overpay £200 from Jan 2012 this is where it gets tricky as will be using savings that we may need to live off if work circumstances change. Will also try to make money on Ebay and save money on food shop to overpay more than the £200. Income has dropped 40% since having children so no spare money in budget at moment and I'm probably mad to be trying to do this!
All support and ideas welcome

TwinnyD

Have set myself a grocery target and Ebay target for January

Grocery target £400 spend so far £136.57
Do food shop on a Tuesday so 5 week month might make target quite hard along with prices seeming to increase with every food shop

Ebay target £30
Bids so far 99p

Will add anything I make on these to my February overpayment. Have been reading other diaries for ideas and thought adding the £ that I save from not paying council tax in Feb & Mar was a good one so will be doing that.

lincoln-potter

Hi Twinny,

Firsty welcome to the MFW boards.

Secondly congrats on your progress thus far with your aim, you seem focused which is certainly needed.

You say you have two equally split mortgages, are the interest rates the same on both?

If you post a detailed SOA we might be able to highlight a few area of improvement?

Regards
LP

tuttifruiti20

looks good - the only thing you need to be careful with is to make sure you don't go over any maximum per year re-payment amount that you can make. A lot of fixed term mortgages have a 10% cap on the amount you can re-pay per year so make certain you don't have one of these and that you're not going to fall foul of it.

TwinnyD

LP Thanks for the welcome Interest rates are both 2.5%, not able to do SOA as OH doesn't want me posting it but thanks for the offer of help. Childcare is the big expense at the moment where we've reduced our hours to cover it but wouldn't have it any other way so just need to keep motivated whilst things are tight.

Tuttifruiti thanks for your reply, we are on 2.5% BMR so unlimited in how much we can repay, were limited to £500pm when on fixed rate.

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Good luck to you, hope oh is fully on board as it will really help,

Squirrel

sweetdaisy

TwinnyD wrote: »

Overpay £200 from Jan 2012 this is where it gets tricky as will be using savings that we may need to live off if work circumstances change.

Good luck in your quest to become mortgage free . It is recommended that (ideally) you have either 3 or 6 months salary in savings for 'emergencies' should your work circumstances change etc. However, if you already have enough saved and confident that you could cope for say, 6 months if you lose your job, then you are sure to reduce your mortgage a lot quicker with regular overpayments.

TwinnyD

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Good luck to you, hope oh is fully on board as it will really help,

Squirrel

Thanks, OH is on board as in letting me get on with it and nodding and trying to look interested when I talk about it. Probably thinks I'm slightly mad though!

Sweetdaisy this is one of OH's concerns but we have over 6 months worth that I wont be touching for this years overpayments. I'm also pretty sure that we can withdraw on the overpayments on our mortgage that we made when it was fixed if it came to it.

sweetdaisy

TwinnyD wrote: »

Sweetdaisy this is one of OH's concerns but we have over 6 months worth that I wont be touching for this years overpayments. I'm also pretty sure that we can withdraw on the overpayments on our mortgage that we made when it was fixed if it came to it.

We have an Offset Mortgage and we too are able to withdraw any overpayment made. I hope not to do this, but it's nice having a safety net should we need the money in an emergency.

Good luck with your MFW journey. This forum is great as there are so many people with such good advice and money saving tips to keep you motivated .

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi TwinnyD, I am sure you can quietly encourage OH on board, as it certainly helps. Good luck with all your plans and enjoy the journey.

Best wishes Tilly

SJ1

Good luck from me too, looking forward to sharing the journey with you...

SJ