Time to get started...

Mr_Teacher

Hi everyone,

I've been browsing the MFW boards for a few weeks now, wondering whether to start my own posts... and this morning I've finally decided to go for it.

A bit about me... I'm a part-time teacher but I have some websites which provide additional income. From September, I will be reducing my teaching hours further to give me more time to work on the sites.

I am married to a lovely lady and we have a wonderful little boy (17 months). We've been living in our house since September 2006 and have been overpaying the mortgage every month since the start... with a total of £10,100 overpaid so far.

Original Balance - £142,530.00
Current Balance - £107,663.10

Original End Date - August 2031
Current End Date - May 2027

I'm 35 now, so I'd love to be able to pay off the mortgage by my early to mid-40s if possible, but I know that's going to be pushing it a bit.

I used to be quite naughty and buy things impulsively on a credit card but I've been trying really hard over the past six months and am now much more cautious. This year, I've been able to clear my overdrafts and credit card which is why I now want to start chipping away at the mortgage even more.

Any tips / help / encouragement that you can provide will be really appreciated!

Thanks,

Mr T :cool2:

cod3

Hi Mr T

Congratulations on clearing your unsecured debt and taking a big chunk off your mortgage.

My top tip would be to make sure you have an emergency fund (if you don't have one already)

Mr_Teacher

Thanks cod3... my emergency fund is slowly building. Now that I'm getting increasingly reliant on my (variable) income from the websites, I'm trying to put more into that, but it's still not as large as I'd like.

If I get a bit of extra money to put away, I never know whether to put it into savings, the emergency fund or pay off the mortgage, so I try to put a bit into each if possible, so they all grow slowly.

We got a dog at the weekend, which isn't very money-saving, but life is there to be enjoyed I suppose... and he's given us lots of happiness already. Our little boy loves him.

After an expensive weekend, I'm planning a 'no spend week' for this week. Not sure if I'll manage it though as I always seem to end up in Sainsbury's getting groceries. Need to plan ahead more I think!

iquit

Welcome and all the best on your MFW journey.

AlwaysOptimistic

Hi Mr T - Sounds like you are doing great! Do you plan to stay in your house 'forever' once its paid off?

Mr_Teacher

Thanks... we are hoping to be able to move at some point, to be closer to other members of our family but nothing is planned at this stage. But, the quicker we pay off this mortgage, the easier that move will (hopefully) be!

Mr_Teacher

Well, my planned 'no spend week' is going really badly so far as I've had to buy some gifts for various birthdays and other celebrations.

On a separate note, I have £1,725 saved in Premium Bonds, which have never won anything. I occasionally buy some more each month, but I'm wondering if it's worth cashing them in and overpaying the mortgage with them?

TheFactory

Of course it is! If the premium bonds arn't working out then put that money to good use.

Of course you could always see that as your emergency fund and now divert all the rest of your future monthly disposable at the mortgage?...

Mr_Teacher

Thanks to @TheFactory for the feedback about the premium bonds. I haven't made a decision yet, as there's always a (small) chance of a win which is putting me off cashing them in!

Our mortgage payment went out this week, with our regular overpayment of £125 and I've just made an additional £100 OP, so things are moving forward.

Two issues though...
1) I wish our mortgage provider had internet banking, so I could actually see the money making a difference, rather than having to wait for the annual printed statement.
2) My Excel spreadsheet is extremely slow with so many numbers to crunch. It's based on some of the suggestions on these boards, but maybe I've made it too complicated. Will have to spend some time simplifying it, I think.

Mr_Teacher

Made another £100 overpayment this week... this diary is really motivating me to keep sending money to the mortgage company!

I've also got a load of old DVDs out and have scanned them to sell on Music Magpie - they've valued the lot at £45 which I'll put towards the mortgage too... but first I need to get a box big enough to pack them all in!

Mr_Teacher

Last month was the first month that I've really made a big effort to send lots of extra overpayments to the mortgage. Here's what I did:

* The regular overpayment of £125 went out as usual.
* Got £53.57 from MusicMagpie so rounded that up to £60 and OPd the mortgage with it.
* Made other weekly overpayments coming to £260 in total.

So, that's an extra £450 sent, which (according to the MSE calculator) has saved £389 in interest and reduced the term by two months... and all because I've started recording things here to motivate myself more. Woohoo!

Other things I've done recently:
* Withdrawn my Premium Bonds after not winning anything again this month - going to use it to build up our emergency savings.
* Received a renewal for our house insurance (£850) so cancelled that and signed up with a new company (who are part of the one we previously used) for just over £200 - I really think that insurance companies just make these figures up as the policies are pretty similar. I've paid this as an annual payment which will reduce my monthly outgoings quite a bit over the next year.
* Just received a Quidco payment of £20ish so that's gone off to the mortgage company as my first OP in August.

Targets for August:
* More No Spend Days - I didn't have as many 'no spend days' as I wanted to last month, so I'm setting myself a target of 16 NSDs this month... and I've made a calendar that I'll be colouring in for every NSD that I have.
* I also want to start saving loose change in a piggy bank to use as mortgage overpayments... and am resisting the urge to buy a new piggy bank to do this as we already have quite a few!
* Have a boot fair - we have lots of stuff ready to sell at a boot fair (we packed it all up ages ago but couldn't go due to illness) so it would be nice to be able to get rid of it and use the extra money as an OP.
* Get a sig started on here as another way to track progress.