ATB's £171k quest begins.... NOW!

atypicalblonde

Hello fellow MFW’ers,

Well this is my first “proper” post on this board, I flitted onto it many years ago but then life, two children and two businesses managed to take over!

My title says it all really! I have been inspired by many of the wonderful posters on this board, and am applying my philosophy of “reaching for the moon, if I fail I will land amongst the stars” to my mortgage. A little about me and my aims:

I am 29 years old, married for 5 years to DH, with two small children (DD is 2 and DS is nearly 1). DH and I are both self-employed – myself in the legal sector and himself is an engineer. There are massive peaks and some major troughs to us both being self-employed, but on the whole we love it and wouldn’t swap it for “regular” employment.

We moved to our current house 2 years ago to accommodate our growing needs, and it suits us down to the ground. We had to take our mortgage over 30 years due to us both only having been self-employed for a short period of time at that point with limited evidence of income. Clearly there is NO WAY we are paying this off until we are nearly 60!

So, our plans are ambitious, but we both love a challenge and if you don’t try you will only ever fail, right?!

Current figures are: Total outstanding on mortgage as at today’s date: £171,064.24 with 28 years left to run.

The Grand Plan – pay this off by in 5 years just before my 35th birthday.

I know it sounds bonkers, and many may scorn our plans which is why we are not telling anyone in Real Life what we are doing. I have spent a long time reading diaries on here (big thanks to Watty and LauraJo who have inspired me without knowing it!), so please pop on here and support me if you can.

How do we plan to do this? It is simple. By living as frugally as we can, whilst still retaining some semblance of a life. I have also applied for a 0% card so I can be a stoozer which will help a little of the way.

Back later with more information, the littlies need lunch xx

kitjos

Welcome to MFW!

We're quite similar in more ways than one. Im 27, two children (well nearly - bump growing!), had £155k on mortgage and its running for another 30 years.

Our mortgage is now at £127k so I can say chipping away certainly makes a difference! . We're hoping to be mortgage free in 5 years too.

All the best with your journey xx

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Very good luck to you. I wish you lots of fun along the way x

happydays_70

I have a rather large mortgage too..started making overpayments last month and I am keen to continue to do so.
Take a look at the overpayment calculator on here it shows you how many years you can knock off.
It does take commitment but reducing food bill, checking utility suppliers, need not want debate in your head before you buy something all helps .. good luck x

debtfreeoneday

Wow! Will subscribe and follow you!

atypicalblonde

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for the kind comments and welcomes. I am so excited about this challenge and have set myself off the starting blocks today by making an overpayment via online banking of £64.64 – random I know but it will temporarily make our mortgage a nice round figure haha!

My February aim is to make OPs of £2,500. This will be made up of (hopefully) my income (DH’s wage covers all the direct debit bills), and some money that we lent to a friend which they will be repaying to us shortly. I tinker around with the overpayment calculators all the time, it is definitely my new obsession!

My DH is also working away a lot this month, which means that the food bill drops *A LOT*. I reckon we will save around £100 on food as a consequence of him working away, so this will go onto the mortgage.

All the small bits of “income” will also be applied to the mortgage as Ops, for example I have two small things to return to Next tomorrow, which will refund £16 to our current account which will go straight to the mortgage.

So as you can see there is nothing grand or dynamic about our plans, just some good old-fashioned budgeting, common sense and supreme organisation xx

Rambosmum

You've really inspired me. I plan to get my credit card paid off this pay cheque (£300) get £2k savings (4 months of essential bills) - that's £500 still to go and then it's mortgage time. £112k to go - I'm already overpaying by £30, not much, but it's a start. I'm going to start saving the pennies in a pot and then paying them off the mortgage each year. Here we go!

laura_hoggle

Hi ATB!

I'm going to subscribe to your diary, as our balances and time left are pretty much the same on our mortgages, although our circumstances are different (at the moment it's just me and DH, although we are hoping this will change in the next few years...) I'm intrigued to see how you get on, and if we can follow suit!! We are currently looking at making minimum monthly OPs of £500, with the hope of being paid off in 14 years (14 years earlier than planned).

The 0% balance transfer card you've applied for, does it come with benefits such as points? I know a lot of people use the Tesco one for points which they then exchange for restaurant vouchers, therefore giving little treats as well as saving money!

Have you looked at your energy supplier and if they are the cheapest at the moment? We are in the process of switching, we used the MSE cheap energy club site to compare, and should save £320 a year, which will go into overpayments!

Have you switched your bank accounts recently? Last year DH and I both switched our accounts to Halifax, and got £100 each, which went off the mortgage. I also switched an old, unused account to M&S just before Christmas to get a £125 voucher (think it's now reduced to £100) which helped with Christmas costs, and I've still got about £50 left on it.

I'm an avid user of cashback websites, and any cashback I earn goes straight into the mortgage account. Our bank account also offers cashback with certain retailers, so all that goes in too!

Recently, I've been cheekily emailing companies and asking for free samples, or vouchers to use on their products. I've been successful with a couple of tea companies, a couple of cosmetics and a cleaning product company! I was shocked, and think I'll keep doing it-it's nice to be able to try new things, or have a little treat, and even better when you don't have to pay for it!,

Good luck on your journey-I'll be reading with interest!

atypicalblonde

Good Evening everyone,

We bank with First Direct, they are fantastic so I have no plans to switch. The monthly budget has been done, and we have been repaid by our friend so £1,050 has been paid off the mortgage (the extra £50 was simply to make it sub £170k hehe!)

So I need to find another £1400 to meet this month's overpayment target. I am hopeful that my income will make up £1k of this, I will have a better idea by the end of this week.

DH is working away so its just me and the tiddlers at home this week x


ETA - Laura thank you for your message. I have been accepted for an M&S card so will accrue loyalty points, and I also get a £30 gift voucher immediately. I don't use Tesco as I dislike their business principles and ethics - I'm Ocado through and through x

laura_hoggle

That's a fantastic overpayment!

That's great you are moving to a card with points and a bonus voucher! I personally don't have a Tesco card but use a John Lewis/Waitrose Partnership card in order to claim points towards vouchers, but I am aware that a lot of MSEers go for Tesco as it has the option to 'double up' for treats. Trying to persuade DH to do something similar to earn points, as he makes a lot of big purchases on his credit card & pays in full, is however rather difficult!

If you have good customer service at your bank that's brilliant, it can make such a difference! DH & I both banked with HSBC before, and were shocked at how much better we have since found the customer service with Halifax. It wasn't that HSBC were bad-just that we found Halifax to be noticeably more customer focused in our local branch.

Good luck making up the rest of the overpayment!

atypicalblonde

Good Evening All,


How is everyone doing? I have been tinkering around with the payment calculators again, and to reach my MF target we need to overpay £2,500 per month. Good job I love I challenge! x