Plodding along my mortgage free journey

yukkibear

Hi everyone, Yukkibear returns! For those of you still around who remember me from a couple of years ago *waves*, and for everyone else a little background.

I started overpaying my mortgage a few years ago when our balance stood at around £85k. Life, loans, etc all popped up from time to time and I did quite well at plodding along overpaying small amounts. I found the diary really helped me to focus, as since last year I can tell I have let go of the finances, and I don't work nearly as hard to find the savings and make a little extra along the way.

Today our mortgage stands at £73k, however we are looking to add an extra 10-20k in the next few months for home improvements.

At the beginning of this year we decided to move to a bigger house, but after looking around at what we could comfortably afford, we wouldn't have gotten a lot more house for our money, so the decision was to stay put and put some money into the house to make it what we want it to be.

On the cards will be a new bathroom, carpets, front door, and potentially a shed and car depending on what we decide to do.

Also since my last diary, we are in a better position financially, with savings in the bank for a change.

We would like the mortgage gone by my 45th birthday which is in 8.5 years time. To achieve this on the balance of £73k we will need to OP by around £400 per month. One thing we're not going to do is to put too much pressure on ourselves to achieve this figure as who knows what life will throw at us, and we want to be able to live a little as well.

The plan will be for any extra earned will be halved between savings and overpayments. This way we still have emergency funds, and allowances for holidays / treats etc but will also be able to see the balance coming down.

yukkibear

I've managed to get £9 today from local selling group, and also shopped in Morrisons and got a week 1 payday voucher, so will keep that safe and shop there for the next couple of weeks to get my £10 off.

In the paper there were tokens to collect for Legoland tickets so hubby said he'll do that as we all want to go, but don't want to pay the high admission price.

Also just done a TCB offer for travel ins I saw on the £10 a day thread, hope that tracks as that'll be a nice profit.

What I have to do this week (in between working) is to sort through the finances and work out all the DD's again and get on top of them and see what (if anything) I can reduce down. Will also be working a couple of extra hours tomorrow so that'll be a few pounds extra.

sweetdaisy

Just wanted to wish you well on your MFW journey .

CathT

Hi Yukkibear, I remember you and used to follow your diary. Weren't you building an extension?

We too have the 'move v improve' dilemma over and over again but are resisting buying a lovely newbuild and adding a ridiculous amount of money to our mortgage!

yukkibear

Hi Cath. No we weren't going to do an extension, must have been someone else around my time before. I remember you though when you were on mat leave with your little boy.


Todays efforts has been

- free coffee sample in the post with a £1.50 voucher. Usually I would leave the voucher on the side or pin it on the noticeboard and forget about it. This time it's in my bag ready for a Mr S trip.
- cashback tracked for an offer I did yesterday leaving me £2 odd in profit.
- a £5 Debenhams voucher landed in my email (that'll get school shirts, or help towards)
- it's been a NSD
-just found £8.59 in CHow acc so have requested that.

CathT

Think it must have been someone else I'm thinking of. Your diaries seemed to run at the sametime. My little boy is 19 months old now, how time flies. Lovely of you to remember.

Sounds like all the smaller efforts are really adding up.

debtfreesomeday

Hi YB Just stumbled across your MFD and have subscribed.
About to start one of my own shortly as we have now cleared the card & loan debt and also now have a £66K mortgage on our new house.

Onwards & upwards eh?!

Good luck xx

yukkibear

Hi dfsd. Great to see you over on these boards, I have popped into your new diary and subscribed.

Today has been a stressful day at work so am having a glass of vino tonight, but apart from that haven't spent anything today.

£5.83 arrived from TCB today so I split that in half between the OP pot and the savings pot.
I have just had a free face mask which i received when buying dd a birthday present at the weekend, so that was a nice treat.

When looking around all my old sites last night, I saw I had points about to expire in DY so I have started writing there to avoid losing the points and get to cash out. I can decide whether to carry on or not when I get to payout.

Off to have a scout around the boards to see if I can "borrow" any money making ideas.

yukkibear

I've managed to put £5 in the pot today from the local selling group. A few small pieces left my house which will help (she says)

Bit of a spendy day for me today as I had my hair done (with colour) not something I normally splash out on, but I have been working hard so treated myself.

Off to catch up on diaries

yukkibear

£30 added to the pot from some extra work I did. That with the rest this week makes almost £25 in each pot so may well send an OP next week

newgirly

Hi yukkibear :hello: great to see you back.

Sounds like a good idea to stay put and make the house exactly what you want, we have decided to do that too. With all the fees and stamp duty it goes a good way to the cost of the renovations anyway.

Best of luck