Mr and Mrs P are going mortgage free...

MrsP1983

I've been a long term lurker here and have read loads of diaries from start to finish over the past few weeks. Inspiring stuff! I've been talking to Mr P about overpaying and have finally convinced him that it's definitely worth it. Our mortgage is over 30 years and he doesn't really see it as real money, but I pointed out that even if we only overpay by 20% we'll save enough in interest to send Mini P to private school for sixth form, as well as knocking 9 years off our repayments, and he's sold :T

I've made a budget and have phoned the bank to up the direct debit, so the next payment will be an overpayment. We're only allowed to overpay by 20% while we're on our two year fix, so anything we can afford over that will go into ISAs, and then once the fix is over we'll start overpaying by more. The aim is to overpay by the maximum, which is £123.12 (so total payment each month will be £738.79), and put £400 into savings each month.

This is our first house, and we only moved in in June. The total mortgage was for £116,095 and the balance at the moment is £115,677.14. (Despite the payments already made! The interest is a killer. It's almost as much as the monthly payment.)

Mr P doesn't want to feel that we're living very frugally, so the key will be to manage this without him noticing that we're eating value beans...

Jonbvn

MrsP1983 wrote: »

Despite the payments already made! The interest is a killer. It's almost as much as the monthly payment

It's the same for all mortgages at the start. You will find that for each payment made, the amount of interest paid decreases.

MrsP1983

Hopefully it'll decrease swiftly!

islajoxxx

Hi,

I am starting this MFW journey just now as well - hopefully we can help each other along

I completely agree with the interest being the main problem - it is actually very scary how much that adds up to :O At least we are in the know that OPs can vastly reduce the total amount paid - it can only go onwards and upwards from here!

MrsP1983

Some goals to hit before Christmas 2013:

1. OP max allowed of £1723.68
2. Save at least £400 per month
3. Add any underspends from the budget to savings
4. Have at least 15 NSDs a month
5. Use things up before replacing them, particularly toiletries and unread books

MrsP1983

islajoxxx wrote: »

Hi,

I am starting this MFW journey just now as well - hopefully we can help each other along

I completely agree with the interest being the main problem - it is actually very scary how much that adds up to :O At least we are in the know that OPs can vastly reduce the total amount paid - it can only go onwards and upwards from here!

Hiya, good to know we're starting at the same time! Will go and find your diary

samtoby

4. Have at least 15 NSDs a week

That is impressive lol

chirpchirp

samtoby wrote: »

4. Have at least 15 NSDs a week

That is impressive lol

I thought that was impressive too.

Good luck with your mortgage free journey. Remember that it's a marathon not a sprint and at times life events will put things on hold and you may not be able to pay what you wanted to. However, every little helps and every month is a new month with a new beginning and you can always start over again.

MrsP1983

I've done 12 this month so far so I'm hoping it won't be too difficult to continue and improve on. The key is meal planning, I'm finding, as otherwise it's too easy to pop to the shop for something 'vital' for tea!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi MrsP1983, good luck on your journey. There is a balance to find and it's certainly different for everyone. Whatever you choose though, means money not paid to the financial institutions and that has to be good news.

Everyone is really helpful on this forum so you will get loads of support.

Best wishes Tilly x

MrsP1983

Thanks for all the welcomes everyone

I can't find an explanation for the little icons at the bottom of posts-most are self explanatory but what's the little speech bubble? It doesn't seem to do anything...

Also, can I only 'thank' people on my own thread? I can't see the thanks button on other threads.