Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

AnW'sMum

Next update is in October, can everyone PM TallGirl as soon as they can to make TG's job that bit easier. I am looking forward to this next update as it marks the halfway point in our challenge. There have been some fab reductions so far and everyone is a winner as every £ reduction is a £ closer to freedom.

sallyb17

Sorry guys that I've not popped in for a while.

I'm not 'on target' yet but I am down from £114,437 to £110,012.

Life has been getting more expensive lately, and I've probably not been as frugal as I was at the start of the challenge. However due to an imminent change in employment circumstances I should have some spare cash to throw at the mortgage over the next 18 months to try to meet, or even exceed, my original target!

I've PMd TallGirl with my current balance.

Regards and good luck to all!

Sally

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Just popped on board to say 'Hi' to everyone and catch up on recent happenings!

I agree with benbenandme, I wouldn't have got so far without this challenge to inspire me so thanks DD for starting it off.

My balance stands at £20,500 but I am hoping to pay at least £1,000 off the capital at the end of the month, it has greatly helped that I haven't had to pay interest due to crafty management of stoozepot! Sadly, this will soon have to be paid back at the end of the year and it seems to me that the stoozing days are not as fruitful as in earlier times due to credit crunch etc.. At least I have reduced the balance by a heck of a lot and when interest payment kicks in with be for a smaller amount and hopefully for not as long.

I can't wait to get below the £20k mark as its a real psychological boost.

As regards frugality, I have continued being frugal...(switched energy suppliers to a capped tariff via quidco, vouchers through pigsback, growing veg, economising on energy ie using my remoska for cooking, charity shops for clothes and xmas presents, good budgetting and trying to anticipate any extra bills by building up little saving pots pencilled into my bank book) and despite the odd glitch in temptationional spending and not much work available over the summer, we are managing to stay on track. I keep watching the news and thinking we were so right to do this, I would hate to owe what I did before. The funny thing is, we haven't actually done without anything and are probably eating better and more healthily.

Keep up the good work everyone, we're over 1/2 way there now....I can see the finishing line in the distance!

TallGirl

Just wanted to say thank you for all the updates its great you are getting them in early gives me more time to do it bit by bit. Remember we are looking for balances up to 1st October and I will post the chart on the 12th October.

Painting my sliding door and otherwise I am glued to the Ryder Cup. Love golf and lovely to see my countryman on the team. Go Europe beat the Yanks.

Limeycat

Latest news from me in preparation for October update (before I forget again!):

• actual mortgage balance stands at approx £88,500 - Yay!
• ISA savings now stand at approx £8,000, which, although I'm not overpaying, I'm classing as "against the mortgage" - Yippee!
• Hence my notional mortgage balance is now £80,500 - Whoop whoop!
• I'll be remortgaging in November, when my 5 year fix at 3.89% ends - Sob! 8(
• I'll be changing to an offset mortgage (on repayment basis), to which I'll be linking all my savings and my current account - Hurrah!
• I've done some offset demonstrations which suggest that, if I were to retain existing savings and continue to add more at same rate as I'm doing now, I could be mortgage-free in about 9 years, instead of the 20 years I'm remortgaging for - Hurrah again!

In reality, I think I can do much better than this, I feel really inspired - can't wait to move onto offset and watch savings grow while mortgage repayment tumbles!!

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

Hope everyone's own challenges are going well too.

Have PM'd the above to TallGirl for the update

Kaz2904

We finally got our fireplace fitted last Friday which is great but what with that and getting more bits and bobs for finishing the lounge it meant we spent £525 on Friday.
We have our eye on a wood burning stove for our dining room but it's going to cost at least £3k. We have the money in savings but it will clear everything we've got in our slush fund. Need to think on this a little longer.

We're still slogging on with the payments and think that we will get there in the end. At the moment our focus has to be on getting the house done and finished as it's been too long waiting. Now that DS is at school I think we are going to find that we have more available time to get on with stuff. Obviously this will impact on overpayments though. Time to get the balance right I think. (I will find it easier to do overtime though with DS at school so maybe some extra pennies for the pot!).
Anyhoo, I've rambled for long enough, ttfn, Kaz.

ailuro2

Kaz - wait till summer and buy it then, in the sale!

Do you have a reliable source of seasoned logs? If you do, and somewhere to store them, wood burning stoves can be pretty efficient.

Kaz2904

It's not going to be in the sale unfortunately! It's a stovax Riva jobby, I can get one for 1k, then the flue will cost a bit. We need to have scaffolding put up too to get the flue in. I keep looking around online but will go into my local shop and ask them about all the whistles and bangs that come with it. You can get ducting to heat other rooms and fans to blow the heat around so will get that costed.
Spoke to a colleague last night who's parents have one and they got it cheaper from a different company. If I can get them to come to my area I may save some pennies!

monkeymutz

Hi all

Have been away for ages - can anybody let me know when that next update is due?

thanks
MM

TallGirl

Certainly can

Update is due 1st October and I am posting the chart on the 12th October so PM me anytime before then.

Many thanks