It started with £48.17p

PiggyBankShaker

Hi all,

I've been over on the DFW board for a year and whilst I'll still be there for a while (repaid £9200 debt but still £4200 debts @0%) last night I took my first step towards early mortgage freedom in the form of a £48.82 overpayment.

My OH (names here as ATS) and I decided a while ago that we would overpay the mortgage as fast as we could after we repaid the debt, but on Thursday something happened that made me decide to start now.

ATS was due to get a his work contract renewed on Thursday and we had decided that we would use all the pay from that job to overpay the mortgage, as I earn enough at the moment to cover all other outgoings.

However, fate had other ideas and the powers that be decided to let ATS go instead of renewing his £27,500 a year contract.

OUCH. :mad:

It may seem counter-intuitive but I decided to push on with the plan, albeit on a much reduced scale. Hence the initial overpayment of just £48.17p.

My reason for pushing on regardless is that the next few months will be depressing enough until ATS gets a new job or I get a better paid job. (I'm due to be reduced in hours from full time to three days a week in September, so we HAVE to get more employment soon)

I think that we will feel so much more positive and proactive and in control if we are able to overpay the mortgage even though our circumstances are so far from desirable.

At the moment we have calculated that we can afford to overpay by about £50 a month and we'll mainly be servicing that by selling stuff on ebay and other money making schemes.

I'll post about our current financial circumstances in a bit.

Thanks for reading.

sushistar

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry to hear about your OH's redundancy. What a shock. Sorry, not many words of wisdom, but heartfelt sympathies.

PiggyBankShaker

Thanks sushistar. We'll be okay. It's just a knockback. My OH is a star and I know that something good will come along for him soon.

PiggyBankShaker

Our outstanding mortgage is £87,000 at 2.5% variable. Our monthly mortgage repayments are £452.21. Current completion date Dec 2032. :eek:

We don't have much spare cash, as we are saving as much as we can in case ATS doesn't get something soon. We have about 6 months outgoings in the bank, but hopefully we won't have to dip into them and some of it can go towards overpayments at a later date.

Sepa74

This forum is full of stories today about the importance of an emergency fund. It must be a weight off your mind to know it is there.

Fingers crossed that your OH gets a new job presto!

PiggyBankShaker

Sepa74 wrote: »

This forum is full of stories today about the importance of an emergency fund. It must be a weight off your mind to know it is there.

Fingers crossed that your OH gets a new job presto!

Thanks Sepa. I hope it won't come to it but it is a huge relief to know it is there.

PiggyBankShaker

Made on overpayment of £23.89 today. Had £43.89 come in from Paypal so spilt it between the savings and the mortgage. Means that the mortgage is still £87,000 and we've cancelled out the last four days of added interest.

downsizer3

Well done for the debt you've cleared so far.
Its hard when your income changes dramatically but you are approaching this the right way and with savings to back you up - its at least not the heart-stoper it could have been.
Hoping something crops up soon for OH and you can get back on track with those OPs.

PiggyBankShaker

downsizer3 wrote: »

Well done for the debt you've cleared so far.
Its hard when your income changes dramatically but you are approaching this the right way and with savings to back you up - its at least not the heart-stoper it could have been.
Hoping something crops up soon for OH and you can get back on track with those OPs.

Thanks Downsizer. Yes, I hope it is just a blip. Fingers crossed.

sharpy2010

PiggyBankShaker wrote: »

Made on overpayment of £23.89 today. Had £43.89 come in from Paypal so spilt it between the savings and the mortgage. Means that the mortgage is still £87,000 and we've cancelled out the last four days of added interest.

This might be a daft question, but is it possible to overpay on all mortgages, or do you have a special type which allows you to do so?

Well done on the overpayments though!

PiggyBankShaker

It depends on your terms and conditions. Its very important to check as some mortgage lenders charge you to make overpayments. We're with Nationwide and our mortgage allows unlimited overpayments.