Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

setmefree2

minimoocow wrote: »

Looked at the One account balance the other day (just been paid) and it said only £100 to go! Obviously that will go up over the month and I have the credit card to pay off (xmas pressies and car insurance) but looks like if we are very good we'll be MF in Two!!!!:j

HOWEVER, also found out OH is being made redundant :eek: so not good news - he's only been there 5 months or so and was loving it so he's obviously upset. He's hoping he can find a way to stay but so far all he knows is his department is being disbanded . . .

So we were looking forward to having a few more pennies to enjoy life but looks like we might have to be a bit frugal for a wee while longer but at least there is little danger of losing the house.

It does annoy me though that we have always been sensible and had savings while the rest of the country seemed to be frittering it away and yet now due to the slow down caused by people taking on too much debt (i.e. NOT US!!!) we are affected - it's just not fair.

END OF RANT!

MMC

xxx

Good and bad news there - Hope OH gets a new job soon.

setmefree2

Bargain_Rzl wrote: »

Well I've had a late night, and just before going to bed I decided I should have a look at my mortgage account and see if my transfer in has cleared.

It has :j :j :j

And my balance is now £39,246.67

So nice not to have it starting with a 4 any more... and to think that this time last year it started with a 5 :eek:

Right, bedtime.

That must feel brilliant

TallGirl

Sorry to hear the bad news about redundancy etc but also nice that people are still doing so well. I agree it is a hard slog but we are so close to the 2nd anniversary and 2/3 of the way through this challenge. I am still 100% committed to this and I hope everyone else sticks around. If there is to be a MFi3 part 2 why not look into that when we are nearer the end.

We are down to £13k plus £3500 bathroom loan but DH's business is really suffering and they are barely breaking even so a bit of a worry. He may have to cut his some of staff's hours. My job is secure for now but I do work in one of the only growth industries in this country -insolvency:eek:

ailuro2

something I just noticed - this is the most viewed thread in the mortgage free wannabe board, even more viewed than any of the stickies - I do hope our little band of MFi3s are inspiring just a small portion of the almost quarter of a million views this thread has had.

If everyone who looked at it paid an extra £10 or £20 a month extra off of their mortgage, I wonder how much interest that would cost the banks. Even better - if they carried on paying the same when their interest rate went down - how much would the country save and be able to spend it on something 'real' instead of lining a banker's pension pot.:rolleyes:

Trying_to_be_good

I've been 'tidying up' my already tidy finances, and have paid off the two remaining 0% credit card balances because, as others have said, there isn't the savings interest rates to make them worthwhile any more.

I'm paying the max into regular savers with Halifax and Barclays, so that at least is fixed at 6% until the end of the year, then those lump sums will probably go to the mortgage, too.

I think simplifying will be my motto for 2009 - anyone else?

ailuro2

If anything, we're a little more complicated now than last year - we used to pay overpayments straight into the mortgage, but this year we will be hunting for other places to make a bit of extra money because we're on a tracker. We also want to go on holiday again this Christmas, so will be saving hard for that.

We never got round to stoozing on credit cards- it was a bit much organisation required, and now it's not worth our while really, so nothing complicated - on the downhill slope to being mortgage free now.:beer:

FlowerPower

ailuro2 wrote: »

something I just noticed - this is the most viewed thread in the mortgage free wannabe board, even more viewed than any of the stickies - I do hope our little band of MFi3s are inspiring just a small portion of the almost quarter of a million views this thread has had.

If everyone who looked at it paid an extra £10 or £20 a month extra off of their mortgage, I wonder how much interest that would cost the banks. Even better - if they carried on paying the same when their interest rate went down - how much would the country save and be able to spend it on something 'real' instead of lining a banker's pension pot.:rolleyes:

It's certainly inspired me! I've been watching this thread for about a year and finally decided to take the plunge and signed up this week to the MFi3 take 2 challenge. I can't wait till it starts!
Thanks everyone, I doubt it'd have ever occurred to me to overpay my mortgage if I hadn't come across this board. :T

TheBees

Thanks Ailuro 2 and anyone else offering TheBees advice!

The £180 month standing order to Barclays internet saver is our spare money we can afford after all the bills etc are paid. :mad: I keep a "Money Book" which is basically A5 notebook for recording all our banking. At the beginning of the month I show our wages going into the account then list all the direct debits for insurance, council tax, mortgage etc keeping a running total as we go. I also save £30 month for Christmas (as both children have birthdays in December too), £100 month for holidays (planning a big one in 2010 but just visiting relatives in 2009), £150 into a car account so there's always money available for car tax and insurance and finally £150 month for bills so when electric, gas or water bills are due there's money for that too! After all that I worked out we could manage £180 month for clearing the mortgage which will be £2k per year. Pathetic compared to some people on here but moneywise I think we're quite organised. We have absolutely no other debts.

I must admit I have been making a conscious effort to spend less - already a member of the grocery challenge every month and keeping away from other shops too. Our visa bill (which we pay off every month in full) is about £200 less this month so maybe I could squirrel away some of that.:T

We are also doing the sealed pot challenge and hope to get nearly £1000 from that over the year which could go towards the mortgage.

Anyway I will keep you all informed. Thank you for the advice.

ailuro2

TheBees wrote: »

finally £150 month for bills so when electric, gas or water bills are due.

you do mean for when the direct debits are due, don't you - paying quarterly for gas and leccy costs more than by direct debit. You sound really well organised, so I think I'm writing this needlessly.It's just that I'm always amazed at the people in my work who say they're off into town to pay their gas bill - they know it's cheaper (and easier imho) doing it by direct debit but they say it's jusy always the way they've done it.

pa2539

Hi there
I thought I'd give you an update on my challenge. I'm not as involved as you lot, sorry. My mortgage statement has arrived and my mortgage is just over £68k and I have 17 years left on it. So in 2 years I have knocked off 8 years and about £18K.
Thanks for this thread, I would never have even done this before