The Pixi Mortgage Free Diary

The_Pixi

Well, this month has had more surprises than I thought. After thinking Christmas month would not yield much by way of bonus saving we have had a couple of wins.

My partner did his self assessment tax return and has received £169 back in overpayments.

I also have got another 1 day freelance job so thats another £200.

Also looking at the spreadsheet today, we have reduced our monthly payment by £24.64 per month since the start, which is amazing when you think about it, as that means we have reduced the ongoing interest by £7244.16 but only overpaid in £5213.16 so we are £2031.00 ahead in just 6 MONTHS!

The_Pixi

It has been quite busy for me around here over Christmas and the New Year.

Managed to get the painting done in the hallway, which now means we just need to wallpaper the stair wall

We have been saving up on the side for carpets and were going to place the order last Saturday, but a couple of drinks later on the Friday before and we didn't manage to go to the carpet shop.

This turned out to be quite fortunate as a mini storm arrived on Saturday afternoon about 4pm and happily tore the entire garden fence down :mad:

We were going to have it all replaced, but we wanted carpets first, so it looks like its going to cost us about £2000 for a new fence - I'm going with concrete posts with wooden panels, I don't want this thing coming down so easily again

Anyway the mortgage bonus account is going well, we managed another £68 on top of out normal £700 odd over payment and the hope is that February will be quite good for a big bonus payment.

Still cant believe we have done over 6months so far and we started house hunting this time last year!!

The_Pixi

January and February have been chaotic months. We had the new fence installed which cost £1900.00 :cool:

So back to saving for the carpets again, such a pain having to wait so long because the rooms have been finished decorating wise for months, and I want to see them all finished and ready to live in.

Didn't have any additional bonus savings this month but March has got off well as we used £40 of Tesco vouchers at Caf! Rouge and we bulk bought some wines from Sainsbury which netted a £8 saving 6 bottles all for £5 each

I also started buying things for the house that I should really wait for, until carpets are down, but I couldn't help myself, I bought a huuuge mirror for the hall, all gold antique effect and it only cost £130!! Couldn't believe it when I saw it online so took a punt on it and the company delivered promptly and the mirror was in great condition.

Also bought shoe rack for the other halfs boats, clotting up my hallway.

And bought a Victorian hall stand for coats, being delivered on friday, can't wait.

Hope everyone else is doing well, we're paying off loads on the mortgage to reach the golden 50% LTV in 2018.

fiffio

hey,

Notice your sig states your mortgage payment is down £32 pm now.

As your doing loads of overpayments and trying to get the mortgage down I just wandered why you havent chosen to keep the normal payment the same and use overpayment to reduce the term as opposed to the payment going down and the term staying the same?

Keeping the normal payment the same would not only be easier to budget with but would pay off an additional £32 pm (at this point) more if you made sure your Overpayments were to be used to reduce the overall term of the mortgage.

The_Pixi

fiffio wrote: »

hey,

Notice your sig states your mortgage payment is down £32 pm now.

As your doing loads of overpayments and trying to get the mortgage down I just wandered why you havent chosen to keep the normal payment the same and use overpayment to reduce the term as opposed to the payment going down and the term staying the same?

Keeping the normal payment the same would not only be easier to budget with but would pay off an additional £32 pm (at this point) more if you made sure your Overpayments were to be used to reduce the overall term of the mortgage.

Hi Thanks for your comment.

We do just that, we pay £2000pm every month regardless of the amount the mortgage company take - the original min payment was £1335 ish, or something like that and now its £1330 ish the sig is just showing how much we have shaved off the required mortgage payment.

With our overpaying it goes down about £3 or £4 a month its not a lot but if we continue to our 5 year fix end the min payment will have dropped to just over £1k so in the final two years we would be paying about £800-£900 a month overpayment :T

The_Pixi

March was a better month for Mortgage free savings. We managed an additional £100 bonus to add to the regular overpayment :T

Also spent a little bit of money on the carpets... £1500! to do the Hall & Stairs, 2x Bedrooms & Living room, which was about £700 less than a big shed quoted (Thieving newts). Really looking forward to having carpet down it has been almost a year since moving, which its self is quite strange to think about.

April, I think, will be a quiet month with us just saving for a bed and some additional furniture. May and June we will be going all out for the garden, I am hoping to get decking out the back and the front garden fence replaced. Then I will be ready to get the garden into shape and begin to grow some of my own veg...

jj1981dd

nice progress. the key to overpaying success is consistency. stick at it!

The_Pixi

Been a while since I last posted. Things have been going well, finally got the carpet down and the runner and rods on the stairs. Looks really great and I am delighted with it.

Also ordered a bed & mattress, which will be delivered tomorrow! so excited to finally say goodbye to the air bed. almost 1 year of that..

Really nice to be living int he house in a normal way now, planted some basil and thyme yesterday in pots. The other half and I gave the garden a nice tidy up ready for the Summer.

Mortgage overpaying is going well, so far manged £40 of additional bonus payment on top of our regular over payment, Tesco meal vouchers

Also been getting the nectar points rolling in managed 400 points on the mattress purchase and so far have £33 pounds of rewards to put towards the Christmas shop and then convert into a mortgage payment.

Also been running the numbers and with all our payments in now we are 11 months in but in the position of month 17 :T

The_Pixi

The time has flown by and the 1st year is over and I am really pleased that we have managed to keep to our overpaying target of paying £2000.00 per month rather than the average £1342.00.

We have even managed to make frequent bonus over payments to the pot as well.

The numbers breakdown like this

Outstanding loan total 05/13 £259,250.00

Actual minimum payments to the Mortgage Company £16,186.40
Actual interest paid £10,046.86
Actual capital reduction £6,139.54

Loan Sub Total £253,110.46 (2.4% down)

Actual basic overpayment total £7,813.60
Actual bonus overpayment total £960

Actual overpayment £8,773.60

Total capital paid £14,913.14

Outstanding loan total 05/14 £244,336.86 (5.8% down)

The aim for next year will be to get the total to sub £230k.

Little bit of a celebration on Saturday and then back to the over payments :beer:

gallygirl

Well done on your progress so far :T. Remember, every month a little bit more of your payment comes off the capital and less off the mortgage so even if you pay exactly the same next year you'll still make a larger capital payment :j.