ATB's £171k quest begins.... NOW!

atypicalblonde

Okey dokey. so my balance this morning when I set myself the hairbrained challenge was £163,485.03.
I have just made an OP of £85.03 to take it down to a nice round number (I'm sad, I know). Which leaves me with £3,400 to find by the end of April - seriously, did I put Baileys rather than milk on my Shreddies this morning?!
The rough plan is:

• £400 sale of garden items already agreed
• £650 from work next week (w/c 6th)
• £400 from work w/c 13th
• £300 from work w/c 20th
• £400 from austere cuts to the household budget for the month
• £400 from eBay sales, carboot sale etc
• £900 from....... TBC

This is likely to chop and change as the month progresses, apart from next week's figure the work totals are aims only.Clearly £900 is a vast TBC figure, but I'm sure something will come up....?! x

Dalradian

Wow, really impressed by your commitment to paying things off :-) One thing i have seen people do before in your situation (tied in to 10% annual overpayments) is think of being mortgage neutral rather than paid off.

So you can pay into an isa or bank acount and count that as going towards your repayments, but you do have the option of drawing it back down if really needed. I have taken out a lloyds account and santander account as they pay good interest, not quite as good after tax, but allows me to manage any emergency or change in circumstances.

Good luck!

atypicalblonde

Thank you Dalradian, yes once we reach the 10% cap we will pay into a savings account instead.
Made a £50 OP this morning to keep momentum flowing. Had trouble sleeping last night - read a lot of blogs about financial independence in bed on the iPad and wondering lots about that. I have a very very small pension pot, DH has none. We do have a BTL already (accidental rather than planned due to the market crash in 2009), but I found myself on Rightmove last night looking at potentials.... must focus the mind on the mortgage rather than getting too carried away to try and do it all at once.
Mr Money Moustache made for a very interesting read and challenges perceptions on what is considered normal in our society when it comes to money, i.e. money is earnt to be spent, whereas it should be earnt to invest.
Very thoughtful for Good Friday morning, I need a cuppa x

debtfreeoneday

Whoa on your plans for April!!! Good luck!

shangaijimmy

Great read and I've subscribed! You can really tell the enthusiasm come out and equally the turmoil of how much, how often, too much, where next etc...

We started properly on our MF journey in jan after making small overpayments for a few years as we settled into house with little uns and a wedding to pay for. We're aiming for 10 years knocking 10 off initial loan amount and I have the relatively modest turmoil of finding an extra £100 a month to our standard £423 overpayment to hit target!

I'll follow with interest and watch your tactics!

atypicalblonde

Thanks for popping in debtfreeoneday & shangaljimmy

I am wondering whether or not to use a bit more of our savings to pay down the mortgage. Our savings are £3k, I.e. 3 months of bills. Oh the temptation to use £1k of that to help us make the target! X

shangaijimmy

Rather than using savings I use all the interest off savings instead. We have 1 nationwide, 2 tsb current accounts all at 5% plus 3 Halifax rewards. That gives us a bonus £30 or so a month overpayment. As savings grow I'll open more current accounts and do the same. Just waiting for HSBC save together to kick on which will be another £20 per month for little effort.

debtfreeoneday

Interested shanghai Jimmy in your approach to using savings account.. must check this out!

shangaijimmy

It works for us as the interst on savings is so minimal but I feel it's used to its best as overpayments. I always view it that its "3 days on interest accounted for" etc...

lippy1923

A great read. I will be lurking with interest

Lippy