£1+ a day Mortgage OP challenge for April

kmcld2

fairyclicks wrote: »

Wow that is brilliant well done!!! I think we all waste money at times but especially when not in debt or without stretched finances - i am ashamed at the amount of money i wasted when i had a good income simply because i took it for granted. I could have had my mortgage paid!!!

Anyway, glad you are enjoying the challenge - for me it makes it a lot easier to just have the thought in my head "would i prefer to use that money to pay off my mortgage" and knowing that every little £1 makes a big difference has really stopped me in my tracks when spending - yesterday i wanted to buy some things from Holland & Barrett and had stuff in my basket when i thought "hold on, if i buy this online i can earn about 200 points on swagbucks as well as get the points on my loyalty card so i put the stuff back and did just that - roughly £1.80 worth of points banked

I am the same as you now. I've not spent anything using my debit card since I got paid at the end of last month. Only my direct debits have come out of my account. If I see something now I think do I just want it or do I really need it. I don't think I'm going to have a good an OP as what I thought this month but I will have my £1 a day challenge met. Whatever I OP will be better than nothing at all. I've found it easier than I thought using cash in Aldi's. I don't fritter as much. I ordered myself a nectar card too so will start collecting points on that. Hopefully next month should be a bit better wage wise so I should be able to put a little more away. It's great to see everyone doing so well. :T

mavvymoo

Hi Fairy
Just having a snoop on MFW and came across your challenge.
I already over pay my mortgage by £450 a month but think I can up that by £100 so will ring up later and find out exactly where I am with it.
Will report back later. Thanks for the inspiration and good luck to all of you :T

fairyclicks

lol ello mavs sure i'm everywhere!! hehehehe lovely to have you join us and massive WOW to OP of £450 - thats very impressive!!

I managed a few wee ebay sales yesterday and a whole 4p win on free bingo lol! Am putting £4 of that into my OP pot today which takes me to £15 in there so far

I have a wee interest question for anyone in the know about these things - i have a savings account paying 2.5% and am thinking of moving my OP pot into that for the month before paying off my mortgage. My question is does the savings account need to have interest calculated daily for this to actually be of any benefit?

Lois_E

Savings accounts are almost all something like "interest calculated daily and added to the account monthly/quarterly/annually". If so, then yes, it's worth putting money in there even for a short while.

HTH

mortgage_girl

fairyclicks wrote: »

yesterday i wanted to buy some things from Holland & Barrett and had stuff in my basket when i thought "hold on, if i buy this online i can earn about 200 points on swagbucks as well as get the points on my loyalty card so i put the stuff back and did just that - roughly £1.80 worth of points banked

Yes it's amazing the savings we can make when we put our minds to it isn't it. Mortgage day today so i've just sent my little bit extra towards my mortgage

TheWebDev

elantan wrote: »

Have just been on the phone with the n@tionwide, it appears that any money I make as overpayments to my mortgage comes off the capital and the interest reduces the very next day, they also run on calendar months as opposed to the day my mortgage comes out ( ie 15th)

I'm more confused than ever but will slowly work through it

Loving this challenge though Keep it up everyone

I'm with nationwide too. If you read the section on their website about overpayments carefully it states that if a capital repayment reduces the balance, it'll reduce the interest that is charged from the following day.

This wording is probably there to add confusion, but essentially means that overpayments have to cover the interest accrued before reducing the balance. Therefore it can very easily be more worthwhile putting your overpayment funds into a savings account for a few days and transferring into the mortgage on regular payment day. It all depends on how much you are (over)paying and how much interest you've accrued.

fairyclicks

While out today my OH needed the loo and called into william hill to go, he gave me £2 to play on a machine while he went so he wasn't told off as loos for customers only and i won £8 (i never play those machines - didn't even know how to get the thing to play and had to ask someone lol) so am adding the £8 to the OP pot

That takes me up to £23 so far and its only the 9th LOL!

fairyclicks

Lois_E wrote: »

Savings accounts are almost all something like "interest calculated daily and added to the account monthly/quarterly/annually". If so, then yes, it's worth putting money in there even for a short while.

HTH

Thanks for that i will check interest calculated daily which i'm pretty sure it is and add the pot to that account until payment day I will also put my mortgage payments into that account for the few weeks i have it until it is due considering its higher interest than my mortgage

mortgage_girl

fairyclicks wrote: »

While out today my OH needed the loo and called into william hill to go, he gave me £2 to play on a machine while he went so he wasn't told off as loos for customers only and i won £8 (i never play those machines - didn't even know how to get the thing to play and had to ask someone lol) so am adding the £8 to the OP pot

That takes me up to £23 so far and its only the 9th LOL!

Well done fairyclicks, that's fab! I've paid myself £5 for washing the car so that brings this months total up to £39.70 so far. :cool:

This is getting quite addictive!

mavvymoo

Hi All update phoned for final balance and its as my sig Under £20k now so going in the right direction.
Going to carry on with the £450 over payment and do as you are doing fairy and save in my savings account and overpay what I have saved at the end of each month as I get more interest doing that than upping my overpayments if that makes sense
Good luck to everyone :T