For Sunshine and a Sea View .... eventually!

Lexi-lu

July Update - Month 7
Mortgage Overpayments total £690
Savings for mortgage o/p £1,270
DH Overtime on July Payslip 96.5 hours
Grocery spends £291.03
Electricity used 260 units
Gas used 27 units
Clothes/Accessories/Haircuts etc for me £0
Pension fund extra contribution £0
S&S Isa £0

A very late update, it hasn't been a great month, I had lost focus somewhat since the Brexit decision, couldn't see us achieving the goal of disappearing off to live in Portugal or France. Lots of unnecessary spends during July and the beginning of August and have hardly logged in to MFW at all. I have spent some time today reading diaries and have been inspired again - thank you all. Will get everything paid off this month and then will hopefully be back on track.

LL

Lexi-lu

August Update - Month 8
Mortgage Overpayments total £690
Savings for mortgage o/p £1,270
DH Overtime on August Payslip 120 hours
Grocery spends no idea :eek:
Electricity used 228 units
Gas used 23 units
Clothes/Accessories/Haircuts etc for me £0
Pension fund extra contribution £0
S&S Isa £0

The updates are getting later, really must focus, thankfully still making progress even though not posting

LL

Lexi-lu

September Update - Month 9
Mortgage Overpayments total £690
Savings for mortgage o/p £1,270
DH Overtime on August Payslip 24 hours
Grocery spends ???:o
Electricity used 273 units
Gas used 30 units
Clothes/Accessories/Haircuts etc for me £150
Pension fund extra contribution £0
S&S Isa £0

DH overtime lower as on holiday for 2 weeks, first haircut and new clothes for me this year. Completely lost track of grocery spends as instead of using one card we have been using other cards and cash.

LL

Lexi-lu

Hello,

Due to my lack of motivation recently and the fall in interest rates I decided to reduce the term on the repayment part of our mortgage so that we are now committed to higher monthly payments from next month.

Bizarre that we had to wait for an underwriter to approve the changes because part of the mortgage is interest only, what if it hadn't been agreed? We couldn't have reduced the term on the repayment loan but we would still have had the interest only loan anyway- makes absolutely no sense to me.

As we are on a fixed rate product it cost £75 to make the changes

LL

SuperSecretSquirrel

Hi Lexi

When we reduced our term we paid a fee of around £60ish - it was absolutely 100% worth it as the interest savings from effectively increasing our overpayments were immense!

Lexi-lu

Hello SSS,

Thank you so much for stopping by. I am impressed that you have worked through when it would be the best time to incur an ERC for your mortgage if you decided to repay early. I haven’t really figured out the interest saved by reducing the term of ours but hoping that the Spanish bank will continue with the 1% cashback on the mortgage payment so that the difference between what we were paying monthly and the £1,000 limit will generate enough to cover most of the fee. Your diary is very inspiring and the progress that you have made is amazing.

LL

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thanks Lexi-lu, you're making me e-blush haha

Lexi-lu

October Update - Month 10
Mortgage Overpayments total £690
Savings for mortgage o/p £1,270
DH Overtime on October Payslip 27.5 hours
Grocery spends ???
Electricity used 244 units
Gas used 98 units
Clothes/Accessories/Haircuts etc for me £0
Pension fund extra contribution £0
S&S Isa £0

I still haven’t sorted out the grocery spends, will try to do better next month. I have successfully reduced the term on the repayment part of the mortgage to 3 years and 4 months although the first increased payment doesn’t go out until next December. A regular saver account has matured and I need to find a safe place for the money so that it doesn’t accidentally turn into a holiday.

LL

Lexi-lu

November Update - Month 11
Mortgage Overpayments total £690
Savings for mortgage o/p £1,270
DH Overtime on November Payslip 145 hours
Grocery spends ???
Electricity used 345 units
Gas used 231 units
Clothes/Accessories/Haircuts etc for me £0
Pension fund extra contribution £0
S&S Isa £0

Another very late update. No progress on the grocery spends, frustrated DH puts expenditure on any card to hand rather than the designated one, also DH has been withdrawing a lot of cash, no idea where it has gone. On the plus side, DH has managed to fit in a phenomenal amount of overtime this month which really helps.

15 sales on ebay during November, the cash will go towards Christmas presents for DD.


LL

Lexi-lu

December Update - Month 12
Mortgage Overpayments total £690
Savings for mortgage o/p £1,270
DH Overtime on December Payslip 54 hours
Grocery spends ???
Electricity used 303 units
Gas used 192 units
Clothes/Accessories/Haircuts etc for me £0
Pension fund extra contribution £0
S&S Isa £0

No progress on the grocery spends. 6 sales on ebay during December, £220 total from sales for November and December which went towards DD Christmas presents. £31 from TCB, £280 rewards cashed in, £125 from BT in the summer on a debit card, £55 refund voucher from House of Fraser all put towards Christmas expenses so that we were still able to make the overpayment and savings towards the mortgage this month

Happy New Year xx

LL