ATB's £171k quest begins.... NOW!

atypicalblonde

Hi crunchy

I don't mind at all! When I was working I would OP as soon as I was paid, then we had to live off what was left. Now I'm not working finances are much tighter as I explained above so the OPs are smaller. The £600 OP made at the weekend was partly from savings, partly money from eBay sales.

Our budget is strict. After all bills are paid we have £900 left for food, fuel etc. To meet our target we need to OP £750 a month leaving £150. So I concentrate on generating more income with eBay sales, clever food shopping, meal planning & being thrifty. Our children are small so their wants are few - baking, the park and reading are favourites! Neither DH or I are materialistic, shopping doesn't interest us. Good food, a glass of wine and relaxing at home is all fairly inexpensive. We don't go abroad, that will be something we do when the mortgage is gone. For us it's just all about priorities - we want to pay the house off whilst the kids are young so whatever the future holds see always have our home x

hiddenshadow

atypicalblonde wrote: »

I have a question and a shameless request for some of our MF pals to help me out - how did you keep motivated? When MF-dom seemed such a long way off, how did you keep going? On days like this, when all I can do is a £9 Tilly-tidy, and I am staring at 6 figures on my online banking, I wonder how on earth we will ever get there. Any wise words greatly appreciated xx

I try and find mini-milestones along the way. Having an amortisation spreadsheet really helps me with that - even if my extra £9 doesn't do anything significant this month, I could look ahead 2-3 months and see that we'd break into a new thousands barrier then. For example, this month we broke into the 132s (yay), but I can already see that October will be £530.30 away from breaking out of the 130s altogether. Every pound (or penny) I can scrounge up this month makes that goal more attainable next month (and if I miss it, it's something to work on for November).

There are lots of other things to track/shoot for as well - daily interest, monthly interest, annual interest, % paid off, etc. I can usually find something to get excited about in a given month, even if the 6-figure number itself remains depressingly high.

atypicalblonde

hiddenshadow wrote: »

I try and find mini-milestones along the way. Having an amortisation spreadsheet really helps me with that - even if my extra £9 doesn't do anything significant this month, I could look ahead 2-3 months and see that we'd break into a new thousands barrier then. For example, this month we broke into the 132s (yay), but I can already see that October will be £530.30 away from breaking out of the 130s altogether. Every pound (or penny) I can scrounge up this month makes that goal more attainable next month (and if I miss it, it's something to work on for November).

There are lots of other things to track/shoot for as well - daily interest, monthly interest, annual interest, % paid off, etc. I can usually find something to get excited about in a given month, even if the 6-figure number itself remains depressingly high.

Hiddenshadow - such a spreadsheet sounds like a wonderful motivator, did you download one from the Internet to use?

hiddenshadow

I think I found a basic one online initially but have since expanded on it to provide more number-staring fodder. Happy to PM you a copy if you want.

gallygirl

hiddenshadow wrote: »

I try and find mini-milestones along the way. Having an amortisation spreadsheet really helps me with that - even if my extra £9 doesn't do anything significant this month, I could look ahead 2-3 months and see that we'd break into a new thousands barrier then. For example, this month we broke into the 132s (yay), but I can already see that October will be £530.30 away from breaking out of the 130s altogether. Every pound (or penny) I can scrounge up this month makes that goal more attainable next month (and if I miss it, it's something to work on for November).

There are lots of other things to track/shoot for as well - daily interest, monthly interest, annual interest, % paid off, etc. I can usually find something to get excited about in a given month, even if the 6-figure number itself remains depressingly high.

Yup, I agree, there's always something. % of house owned (and in a rising market that % will rise even faster!). Months till interest drops below next pound, but probably rises again during the month - how much to keep it below etc. Do you have a target date in mind? If so, how many days to go, how much do you need to pay per day? Now make an OP and see how many days or amount it drops by etc.

atypicalblonde

hiddenshadow wrote: »

I think I found a basic one online initially but have since expanded on it to provide more number-staring fodder. Happy to PM you a copy if you want.

Yes please poppet that would be awesome xx

atypicalblonde

gallygirl wrote: »

Yup, I agree, there's always something. % of house owned (and in a rising market that % will rise even faster!). Months till interest drops below next pound, but probably rises again during the month - how much to keep it below etc. Do you have a target date in mind? If so, how many days to go, how much do you need to pay per day? Now make an OP and see how many days or amount it drops by etc.

Thanks GG I need a spreadsheet to tell me all these clever things also as soon as the mortgage is gone we can finally visit our friend in Bedar again - what more motivation do I need x

hiddenshadow

atypicalblonde wrote: »

Yes please poppet that would be awesome xx

Sent. Hope it's not too overwhelming.

A_Frayed_Knot

atypicalblonde wrote: »

I have a question and a shameless request for some of our MF pals to help me out - how did you keep motivated? When MF-dom seemed such a long way off, how did you keep going? On days like this, when all I can do is a £9 Tilly-tidy, and I am staring at 6 figures on my online banking, I wonder how on earth we will ever get there. Any wise words greatly appreciated xx

I have a simple method to keep me motivated, only thing is to explain I make it sound complicated :eek: and only works if you have a sub account as well, but you could adjust to suit yourself.

• "Always have 0.00 at the end of your mortgage"
• This way the least/most you will pay is 9p or 9.99
• On flush days you could go for 00.00 at the end or even 000.00 :eek:

Today I o/p £20.39 as my mortgage plus sub account ended xx,720.39, next I will look at mortgage figure only which will be xx,279.61.

so I have the option of o/p 1p (don't laugh, a pennys, a penny), 61p, £9.61 or if very flush £79.61
next time I look at my mortgage plus sub account, and so it goes on. At the end of the month I usually aim for a nice round figure, maybe aiming for the xx,500.00 or xx,000.00 This has certainly kept me "interested" :Dshall we say:rotfl::D


I know, I know, I need to get out more :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Good Luck whatever you decide.

QB_Wolf

A_Frayed_Knot wrote: »

I have a simple method to keep me motivated, only thing is to explain I make it sound complicated :eek: and only works if you have a sub account as well, but you could adjust to suit yourself.

• "Always have 0.00 at the end of your mortgage"
• This way the least/most you will pay is 9p or 9.99
• On flush days you could go for 00.00 at the end or even 000.00 :eek:

Today I o/p £20.39 as my mortgage plus sub account ended xx,720.39, next I will look at mortgage figure only which will be xx,279.61.

so I have the option of o/p 1p (don't laugh, a pennys, a penny), 61p, £9.61 or if very flush £79.61
next time I look at my mortgage plus sub account, and so it goes on. At the end of the month I usually aim for a nice round figure, maybe aiming for the xx,500.00 or xx,000.00 This has certainly kept me "interested" :Dshall we say:rotfl::D


I know, I know, I need to get out more :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Good Luck whatever you decide.

I love this, I haven't been able to OP for ages, but I'm about to OP £17.55 to get to the nearest hundred.:j