2015 mfw

Lomcevak

Apologies again for my absence, travelling an awful lot for work at the moment (four countries in four days to look forward to next week before finally a break for easter ) so my MSE time is very limited - i'm catching up as and when I can, but should be a temporary thing and will get better soon

Well done everyone for some great OPs this month, great to see :beer::j

mortgage_destroyer - sorry for missing your update, think it's correct now

shangaijimmy - added the update but the spreadsheet doesn't quite match your signature, could you let me know what i've missed?

Cream_Tea

#7 I have set up an OP of £400 which will go out April 1st.

Lomcevak thank you so much for all that you do.

CT

Wombatchops

Number 47 here. I can only overpay £500 at a time, so I'm working on building up my next £500 overpayment. My overpayments have hit a setback, though, as we are now replacing all of our external doors and all of our windows as they all need doing, but the cost is eye-watering, and we will be paying it off for at least two years.

I have to say how impressed I am with the amounts some of you are able to pay off on a monthly basis. I have just caught up on the last three weeks of updates (with a five year old, a nearly two year old, and a 10 week old, I'm struggling to find time to get online). I just wondered how people are managing to pay off the amounts that they are paying. Is it money left over from the end of the month which you would otherwise save? Are you cutting down on outgoings, or upping your incomes to make these overpayments? I would love to know, because as well as overpaying the mortgage, I now have these windows and doors to pay for. If people don't think it is appropriate to share their methods here, would you point me to another thread where you can share, or send me a PM?

I hope people don't mind me asking this. And well done everyone on your overpayments. You are all doing amazingly :T

beanielou

Yes, I have to say I am in awe of some of the repayments.
One of the reasons I stopped posting as I felt my very small OP's were of so little significance.

Wombatchops

beanielou wrote: »

Yes, I have to say I am in awe of some of the repayments.
One of the reasons I stopped posting as I felt my very small OP's were of so little significance.

Oh no. Don't stop posting. To quote you, a "very small OP" now still makes for a very big saving off the end of your mortgage, both in terms of time and money. And I personally enjoy reading about everyone's overpayments, big or small.

cookie9

No 91 here. March OP total £200.

Lomcevak

Wombatchops wrote: »

I just wondered how people are managing to pay off the amounts that they are paying. Is it money left over from the end of the month which you would otherwise save? Are you cutting down on outgoings, or upping your incomes to make these overpayments?

'all of the above' for me.

We reached a point a couple of years ago where we have enough cash available to cover likely emergencies (12 months of income, emergency funds, rainy day funds, etc.), and since then savings are split between mortgage overpayment and pension contributions with a view to getting to a place where we can quit the rat-race in 10-15 years on our terms - if we decide to. At the moment the balance is tilted more towards pension savings, but there's still enough for some fairly steady OPs too

The major mechanism has been to focus on increasing incomes - in our main professions, in both of our cases, rather than growing a side income - while keeping outgoings at the level of a few years ago. It's taken a while to really show the effects, but we are making steady progress now.

edit: i've also become a die-hard budgeter (YNAB in my case) so we plan expenses very carefully (both monthly and longer-term), and allocate any excess each month to savings first. The focus on not spending what's not in the budget is great for cutting down on impulse buys, and if we decide we do want it then it goes in the budget for next month. Probably 80% of the time then with a pause for thought we decide that we don't want it

One of the reasons I stopped posting as I felt my very small OP's were of so little significance.

Please don't think that One of the things about a site like this is that it attracts all incomes and expenditures, and it's very easy to end up comparing yourself to people who earn much more than you do - or, equally, have a similar income but far lower outgoings. They'll always be able to put more aside in threads like this or the 'save £12k' thread, but it's important to not get downhearted by that. We can only do what we can do, and what I find helps is to look at the difference my efforts make to me in the long run - the great thing about mortgage OPs is that over time even small steps can have a big difference, so they're well worth doing even if it feels like a drop in the ocean (heaven knows that my OPs feel like that at the moment). Long term though they're making a much bigger difference

Wombatchops

Thanks Lomcevak. I really appreciate hearing how people manage what they do. Right now, we can only manage small OPs on a mortgage of over £146k, but I want to be mortgage free in 2028, as that is the year my DS1 finishes school, so hearing people's successes and methods really inspire me. I know I won't achieve my goal if I only manage to make OPs of £1,500 per year, which is this year's goal. But I hope that as time goes by, when I am back at work and the kids are older, we can make massive dents in the mortgage and make my MFW deadline.

In the meantime I will keep doing what I can.

greent

When I started my MFW diary my regular OP was less than £35/ month. The main reason my monthly OPs may now seem relatively large compared to some is because my required monthly payment is actually less than £200. We're also having a last minute push to see if we can bring our end date forward by a couple more months


All OPs, whatever size they are, are a positive move towards early repayment - and should therefore be celebrated!:beer:

ajmoney

Some of the larger OPs that I see on here make me more determined to keep OPing my smaller contributions. I use a calculator to see how my OPs benefit me when I get a little disheartened. We all earn different amounts and have different circumstances so try and ignore what others OP, focus on your own journey and take inspiration from the people who manage to pay down their mortgage on a tight budget.