MCG's Mortgage Free Mission 30 March 2016 at 8:32PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 53 replies 6.1K views

Madcatgirl

Hi all:):)

This is the beginning of my MF mission, so I thought I'd start a diary...

We've been umming and aahing about whether to stay in our current house or move over the past year. We think we're going to stay for now, at least for a couple more years, so now is the time to start hammering down the mortgage.

I've checked our balance and we owe £178,914 and we have exactly 27.5 years to go on the mortgage and 2.5 on the fixed deal we have. We took out a 30 year mortgage when we bought the property as we were about to have a baby and wanted a more comfortable level of payment whilst I was on maternity leave. However 2.5 years later, I'm back at work nearly full time and our finances are in a much better position than when we took out the mortgage.

I've got about £300 spare each month that I'm going to chuck at the mortgage. In the next couple of months I'll have finished paying off my student loan so will have about £125 back each month which will also go to the mortgage. I'm also in the process of inheriting part of a joint btl which will give net about £200 a month net so that'll also be for the mortgage when probate is finalised.

We also have another btl and owe approx £70k but make a reasonable amount each month from this. The profit from this and my OH are going to clear this mortgage as it makes a good profit but it won't be very good once the mortgage tax relief is scrapped. Once this is paid off, the profits will go on the main house mortgage.

I've got some money saved up to buy a new car, as mine is getting pretty temperamental now, although I've just spent £200 to get it through the mot. I've also got a small contingency fund and some money set aside for a few things I'm planning to get in the next year. Once I did my sums I realised I had a little money spare.

So today, I've made a payment of £389.01 off the mortgage! Yippee, it should knock one month off!

I'm hopefully going to keep this diary up to date to keep me motivated. We think that we could pay off both in about ten years, so that's the loose plan!

Moneyfordreams

Good luck with your plans
I have a similar size mortgage and will watch you on your way with interest

Kittenkirst

Woop on your first overpayment- that's a fab chunk of cash too so really well done

Madcatgirl

Thanks for your comments

Was scratching around for something mfw to do today, so decided to forego Friday lunchtime chips in the pub and made a salad instead for tomorrow's lunch.

I also think there may be some items with a bit of value in my charity shop pile so may try to sell them on fb instead. Not much else to report!

Madcatgirl

Well I've not done much today towards the mortgage, but it was a nsd apart from petrol which was budgeted for. And hair dye, whoops just remembered that!

Madcatgirl

Well, it's been a reasonably expensive month so far, but I've stuck to my budgets.

I've just found out today that not only have I finished paying my student loan, but I've overpaid by £250! I do think the SLC are a bunch of money grabbing ****s! They apparently just keep on taking the money until you tell them otherwise, and now I have to instigate a refund.

This isn't my first dealing with the SLC, I had one of the original student loans from an earlier attempt at university, though thankfully I only took out one year so I only owed them about £1,000. Just before I went to university the second time I decided to pay off the balance. In a he period between them telling me how much it would be and them receiving my cheque I managed to accrue 8p interest which they persued me relentlessly for. I don't have a high opinion of them!

Anyway my refund and the money I now won't have to pay to the SLC will mostly go to the mortgage, yippee!

We've also been tempted by a flat for sale just round the corner from our existing btl which, despite all the costs, would still be a great investment. I don't think we're in a financial position to do it though, but not far off it, so food for thought.

Madcatgirl

I've managed another £10.22 off the mortgage today- it all helps!

Madcatgirl

I've just realised our mortgage isn't supposed to finish until September 2043! That's shocking and spurring me on!

katep23

Love the user name! Our mortgage is due to finish in 2044 which is both depressing and motivating.

Good luck!

Madcatgirl

We've been relandscaping our garden ourself today, after getting a quote for nearly £1.5k! It isn't level and has turned into a bog over winter so we're digging drainage and levelling it at the same time. Will probably cost us a couple of hundred quid and graft. OH extended the patio today and it looks much better. It's quite hard to get anything done with a toddler though - he was so excited to help us dig, but after 30 secs he was bored!

Most of my money is going towards B&q at the moment!

Lotti1982

I think I should have shares in b and q we spend that much in there. Good luck on your journey, small ops really do add up, we've averaged at about 150-200 op per month and have knocked 3yrs 8 m off ours in the 6 1/2 years we've been in the house, like you we went with a 30 year mortgage to make it easier when we had our two boys