Mortgage free by 2023 (!)

Karmacat

Congratulations!  All those lovely green ticks, that's great.

And totally agree about the flasks - when I was still working in London on a Friday night, I bought a little half litre flask from Asda, £2 or so.  Just for the train journey home, leaving London at 10pm and getting home at midnight - it was pretty crap, but as I was leaving to go home, I made my tea, and it was still hot when I drank it on the train.  Paid for itself with the first use, it was brilliant.

Merlin's_Beard

Congratulations on hitting all your targets! Super impressive year.

debtfreeoneday

Starting to think about next year targets, well actually they are already drafted and unlikely to change much. 

We receive a small amount of tax credits and UC is looking in the not so far distance. Any household savings over £6k affect it so we need to look to ‘redistribute’ these as it were. To that end I think we are going to OP to our yearly maximum on the mortgage to keep the savings around £6k.  I obviously can’t park it in a different account or in the kids accounts as they all have to be included. 

Wondered if anyone else had been in this situation. 

In other news I’m within 310 points of reaching the nectar Christmas deal. 

greent

Well done on smashing those goals!!

My eldest son has applied for UC whilst job hunting after finishing uni. He has around 7k in savings - which will drop if he buys a car when he gets a job - but which is fully taken into account for his UC application  - grrrr. And he only has that amount because my mum gave him 5k from an inheritance.

Karmacat

Debtfree, sorry to hear you're needing UC - but overpaying the mortgage to avoid deductions sounds really sensible.  Do they check bank accounts to see if you've done that sort of thing, and penalise you if you have?  That's the concern I have for you.

Suffolk_lass

Well done for achieving those targets in full. That is really amazing in the context of everything rising this year. I can't help with UC I'm afraid. It was incredibly helpful for our DS during lockdown when his flexible hours job disappeared in an instant and he lived on his savings and us for several months before I insisted he claim. I think the level of scrutiny was much lower then and his advisor at the Job Centre was really good; helpful, sympathetic and with some really good advice.

debtfreeoneday

It is really frustrating. I do get it but equally we allocate every Penny, we scrimp and save and only have savings as we are so careful.  

I think we will OP up to the maximum to clear £2600. We are also hoping to some home improvements next year. So it shouldn’t be too tricky to manage it. Might end up with some stashed in the house maybe. 

Apart from a few tiny bits, I can say we are done for Christmas.  Need to sit and plan out the food and start buying a few extra bits but not intending to go overboard at all  

debtfreeoneday

Felt like hard work this year but I finished the nectar Christmas challenge yesterday. Still need to make sure I nab the December boost points though. 

Karmacat

Well done you!

South_coast

Well done 👍! I agree, this year definitely felt like hard work!