When I grow up - my mortgage free journey

Yorkielass

Well we made it through October without really missing the extra £650 we're overpaying so that's fantastic, I'm really pleased.

A summary of October:

• Overpayment of £642.54 dd paid
• Tilly Tidied every day (if applicable, even when on holiday) and paid an extra £10.48 off the mortgage this morning - that has saved £31 of interest alone.
• £85.87 made through selling stuff, coins found etc - added to my fund for next 'house improvement'.
• Been doing Swagbucks, got £10 payout which also went in house improvements fund and requested £5 at the end of last week
• Energy supplier change has gone through will only save a few £ a month but is fixed for the year and I'm hopeful they won't keep changing dd amount like last one did with no reason.
• Decluttered 500 things out of the house, 300 were old cards/postcards etc and getting on for 100 was packaging materials, cardboard boxes etc but it's still all out of the house
• had a week's holiday - all budgeted for and a lovely relaxing break.

My targets for November:

• Continue with Swagbucks - aiming to make £25 this month
• Continue Tilly Tidying
• Join a couple of other earning sites & get into a routine with them
• Declutter 300 items
• Make £300 towards house improvements fund by selling stuff or on survey/earning sites etc.
• House Insurance is the next thing that needs looking at as it runs out at the end of the month so hoping to make a saving on that.
• Plan my Christmas shopping (don't have much to do) & if I'm going to make stuff start now
• Claim back the money I'm owed from buying stuff for Brownies & Guides, been really bad at doing this this term, partly because I've lost a receipt which is really unlike me.

So targets set, hope I have another good month.

Yorkielass

Ever since I was little I've always loved counting my parents penny jar, I used to count it up each summer, we'd take it to the bank and then my brother & I would get half each for holiday money.

I carried on saving it up through Uni and when I met my OH he had piles of change around so did the same with his and when we had our first holiday together we used the money we had for meals out, ice creams etc.

We've carried on his habit, banking it a few times a year, even though we now budget for holidays each month so the penny jar money was fairly insignificant.

My mum still gives me her penny jar money a couple of times a year too which is very kind.

So today I took the latest batch to the bank and decided that rather than transferring to the holiday fund I'd make an overpayment - and keep doing that.

£17 overpayment - will save £51 interest alone roughly from that.

After I've made my dd & tilly tidy overpayments on Monday I will have made 4 'months of overpayments so I'm going to see how far I've got in terms of mortgage free date then.

Yorkielass

Just rung up for our balance and to overpay my TTs.

After dd overpayment and TTs of £8.44 our balance now is:

£ 157,524.79

We've paid more off between 31st July 2013 and today than we did between 16th August 2012 and 31st July 2013 which is good.

Our daily interest is still over £20 a day though so not so good but November was 11p less a day than October and I've got to remember that we took the decision to have a higher rate but with the knowledge it won't change until August 2022. Not everyone's cup of tea but it works for us.

Looking at November's goals:

• Continue with Swagbucks - aiming to make £25 this month Cashed out £20 and by the end of the month had another £5 waiting for cash out
• Continue Tilly Tidying Did this & overpaid £8.44 today
• Join a couple of other earning sites & get into a routine with them Joined one but didn't get any further with this one
• Declutter 300 items 164 items out of the house then 168 crochet squares finally joined together and 18 balls of yarn used up , not leaving the house but counting that as decluttering as turned into something useful rather than clogging up shelves.
• Make £300 towards house improvements fund by selling stuff or on survey/earning sites etc. Only managed £132.44 but £101 was on Gumtree doing a good spot of decluttering and I've done so much volunteering
• House Insurance is the next thing that needs looking at as it runs out at the end of the month so hoping to make a saving on that. Rang up current supplier after quote was £60 more than we paid last year & they more or less matched new customer quote on web which was £115 cheaper than new quote £55 cheaper than last year. Could have shopped round more but it was the 29th November by the time I got to it and comes in under £20 a month & under budget so I'm happy.
• Plan my Christmas shopping (don't have much to do) & if I'm going to make stuff start now Haven't really started thinking about Christmas yet
• Claim back the money I'm owed from buying stuff for Brownies & Guides, been really bad at doing this this term, partly because I've lost a receipt which is really unlike me. failed at this, well gave one receipt to person who does Brownie accounts but no cheque yet - must do in December

So list for December is:

• Make £25 on Swagbucks
• Make £310 selling stuff/picking up coins/surveys etc
• Tilly Tidy every day when appropriate
• It's the turn of car insurance this month so try and be a bit more organised with this than home insurance and also try to reduce amount spent too
• Keep on it with Christmas budgets

Realistically with stuff at work, volunteering commitments and Christmas I'm not going to have time to achieve much more. But if we can keep within the money we've got left after overpaying to ensure we can keep overpaying each month that's got to be good.

Watty1

Just reading and wanted to say hi

Yorkielass

Thanks Watty1 I'm reading your diary too

Yorkielass

Looking at our current account & the little savings accounts pots tied to it and one has £106.27 in it - I think it's left over money made by selling things from when we moved house, hasn't been touched since then. So will call up to pay this off the mortgage today. Better to be paid off than sitting there not doing anything. Should save over £300 of interest.

I've joined the MFW 2014 challenge too with a target of £13710.48 to overpay.

This number combined with our regular mortgage payments comes to £24000 paid off the mortgage in 2014.

Our regular overpayment will make up about £7700 of this so that's £6000 to find from other places, or £500 a month whilst also being able to continue to keep up regular overpayments. Going to have to get creative to do that but I think it's worth a try.

Habibiboo

Yorkielass wrote: »

I've joined the MFW 2014 challenge too with a target of £13710.48 to overpay.

This number combined with our regular mortgage payments comes to £24000 paid off the mortgage in 2014.

Our regular overpayment will make up about £7700 of this so that's £6000 to find from other places, or £500 a month whilst also being able to continue to keep up regular overpayments. Going to have to get creative to do that but I think it's worth a try.

:wave:
Hi, thanks for visiting me ... love your diary, it's very detailed, including that impressive target there. I worked out that I need a similar (£500 a month extra as a regular overpayment) target really, so I shall watch with interest and keep fingers crossed for lucky breaks for you as well!
*toddles off to subscribe*

Yorkielass

Habibiboo wrote: »

:wave:
Hi, thanks for visiting me ... love your diary, it's very detailed, including that impressive target there. I worked out that I need a similar (£500 a month extra as a regular overpayment) target really, so I shall watch with interest and keep fingers crossed for lucky breaks for you as well!
*toddles off to subscribe*

Thanks Habibiboo - I know I've written more than some people but want a record for me of what I've achieved.

Yes short of an unexpected windfall it's going to be a challenge. My pay will go up a spine point in July and OH will have his review at work then too, so we may have a bit more cash from then onwards which if we do will go straight on the mortgage.

Crumpets

Hi yorkielass, I've just read your diary and it is very motivational! You seem to be doing really well and your target for next year is very impressive.

I like your decluttering targets, that something that I should do, I always seem to be decluttering but I don't count what goes and when I look around the house it seems as if nothing has gone so keeping count would be a great way of having a sense of achievement for my efforts:D

Crumpets x

Yorkielass

Thanks Crumpet - yes targets definitely help me.

We've got a 1% payrise at work, August to November will be backdated and in January's pay after tax, NI, pension and student loan it'll be about £15 a month and planning on adding that to the mortgage, with the backdating should give me about £250 to overpay between now and the end of 2014.

Going to continue with the philosophy I try to do with pay increases is that if we're managing ok before the payrise I'll put the overpayment into savings/onto mortgage.