£1+ a day Mortgage OP challenge for May

mortgage_girl

Just a quick update. I've calculated the monthly interest that i've saved on my mortgage by overpaying (I have 2 spreadsheets, one showing my overpayments and a 'normal', non-op one), it's £12.09 so i've added that amount to my mortgage overpayment for the month. I've also managed to save £7.29 on food and groceries so that brings my total this month to £39.84 :j
Keep going everyone, we're almost at the end of the month!

fairyclicks

mortgage_girl wrote: »

Just a quick update. I've calculated the monthly interest that i've saved on my mortgage by overpaying (I have 2 spreadsheets, one showing my overpayments and a 'normal', non-op one), it's £12.09 so i've added that amount to my mortgage overpayment for the month. I've also managed to save £7.29 on food and groceries so that brings my total this month to £39.84 :j
Keep going everyone, we're almost at the end of the month!

Ooooh thats clever do you mind sharing how you set up your spreadsheets to calculate the interest saved? thats beyond my wee brain to figure out :rotfl:

TheWebDev

mortgage_girl wrote: »

Just a quick update. I've calculated the monthly interest that i've saved on my mortgage by overpaying (I have 2 spreadsheets, one showing my overpayments and a 'normal', non-op one), it's £12.09 so i've added that amount to my mortgage overpayment for the month. I've also managed to save £7.29 on food and groceries so that brings my total this month to £39.84 :j
Keep going everyone, we're almost at the end of the month!

I've done the same thing, although I'm only calculating interest saved per day and keeping a running total.

fairyclicks wrote: »

Ooooh thats clever do you mind sharing how you set up your spreadsheets to calculate the interest saved? thats beyond my wee brain to figure out :rotfl:

It helps if you can get all the information about your mortgage back to when you took it out (or at least when you started overpaying). That way you know how much your original payments should have been, and can calculate the other figures you need.

You need to be able to calculate what the balance should've been if you hadn't made the overpayments. From that you can calculate the interest charged per day/month/etc, and most importantly the difference between that and what you are now paying.

If you are going to create a spreadsheet, remember KISS (keep it simple, stupid) - use lots of columns to make small calculations, and then combine them. Extra columns can always be hidden if you don't want/need to see them.

If you want more details, let me know. I might even send you a copy of mine (after I've sanitized it).

mortgage_girl

fairyclicks wrote: »

Ooooh thats clever do you mind sharing how you set up your spreadsheets to calculate the interest saved? thats beyond my wee brain to figure out :rotfl:

Hi fairyclicks
I actually downloaded it off this forum. I'll see if I can find the post and add a link to it here. I've found it really useful. All I did was use the template to set up two spreadsheets - one without op's and one with op's.

...Found it. Here's the link to the Financial Bliss's post: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/14965035#Comment_14965035 and the instructions for setting up your spreadsheet are on post 534.

Hope that helps!

fairyclicks

mortgage_girl wrote: »

Hi fairyclicks
I actually downloaded it off this forum. I'll see if I can find the post and add a link to it here. I've found it really useful. All I did was use the template to set up two spreadsheets - one without op's and one with op's.

...Found it. Here's the link to the Financial Bliss's post: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/14965035#Comment_14965035 and the instructions for setting up your spreadsheet are on post 534.

Hope that helps!

Brilliant thanks for that

Slowdown

Thanks Fairyclicks for the £20 idea on the 20p pot. I am going to follow your advice and do exactly that. I should have about£70 to overpay this month if I do that along with my eBay earnings. I have also pledged to double my pot next month if I can stay alcohol free in June with the exception of DH birthday.
I would definitely have squandered this money instead so I am very grateful to you all.
Kind regards
Slowdown:)

mortgage_girl

Another £4.80 saved on grocery shopping bringing this months total up to £44.28. :j

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Update so far. I`m sorry to say that my pot has been squeezed and now there isn`t much of this left.:(
I still have a little left from my pot, but with the kids being off this week, i`ve had to dip in a couple of times.:eek:
Never mind, i`ve been reading up on some of the MF diaries on here and might give that a go. It might keep my motivation going, but we`ll see.

iquit

I managed to resist the urge for takeaway meals - not easy as I'm a lazy cook, but well worth it. For the month of May I met my intended target of GBP50.00. Looking forward to the June challenge.

Slowdown

Well things never seem to work out the way you want them to.
I have £36 in my day jar and £20 in 20p but I have put my ebay earnings towards some new clothes for myself so wont be adding that on.

Bit of a tight budget this month. Several hundred over drawn at before payday so nothing to save next month and if I can stick to my budget then we should scrape through with only a small OD at the end of June. We are meant to be saving money for a big holiday to Florida in July. My mum gave us some money last year and we booked 2 week Disney holiday. Always wanted to go there with the kids and now they are 20/17/14 we decided to do it as we are unlikely to have another family holiday together. They are tremendously excited, especially my 20 year old DD who is currently sitting some v.difficult physics exams at York Uni. Her rent and odd expenses are paid for by us and its quite a chunk out of the pot. We earn good salaries but with 3 kids, uni, massive mortgage etc it just seems to disappear!

Still £56 is £56 pounds and many a mickle makes a muckle, so the saying goes. Off to make my first OP! Hooray.

I am in for £1 per day for June too.

Kind regards
Slowdown:)