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The long and winding road...

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Good afternoon all!

Been a member for quite some time but don't tend to post a great deal as you can probably tell! I'm aiming to use this as a bit of a motivator to help us along in our quest.

We moved into our shiny new Barratt home right on the edge of the countryside at the beginning of May and so far absolutely loving it! We were in previously in a Victorian style terraced house with tons of character but on a main road in a less desirable area, so to say it's quite a change is an understatement. It's a great 4 bed detached at the end of a cul de sac, I feel very fortunate to be in a position of buying this house as honestly I never imagined I would be in a position to do so.

I'm not too unfamiliar with overpaying as I managed to overpay approx £2500 on my old mortgage over 2 or 3 years, which while not seeming to be loads, was good going considering we also got married last year and had our dream honeymoon.

So monetary figures...
We took out a mortgage of £203,995 (house value £240,000) over 25 years, with repayments coming in at £941 a month. The plan is both my wife and I will try to overpay £400 a month between us initially, but have no specific amount in mind or indeed a date to pay it all off. Ideally we'd like to bring our monthly payments down a bit ready for when we try for children hopefully within the next 12 months.

Not really sure what else to put on here but any questions etc. fire away!
MFW: Original May '16 £203,995
Current £200,837.58

Comments

  • shangaijimmy
    shangaijimmy Posts: 3,803 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    off and running! Deciding to OP and open a diary is an excellent approach. Our approach is throw 1/3 of monthly income at mortgage, which currently gives us a monthly OP of £530. We then add to this with bits and bobs here and there.

    Usual approach is to list your budget and let people find little ways of streamlining it!

    Welcome and good luck to your new obsession!
    MFW: Was: £136,000.......Now: £47,736.58......
  • Watty1
    Watty1 Posts: 6,770 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Making a start is great. My diary kept me going and still is keeping me on target
    Made it to mortgage free but what a muddle that became

    In the event the proverbial hits the fan then co-habitees are better stashing their cash than being mortgage free !!
  • Welcome and good luck :)
  • Busy_Mee1
    Busy_Mee1 Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    Welcome - a diary is a really good way to share your goals and focus on them. There are some fairly simple ways of saving money that most MFWers do when they start out:
    Go through all their outgoings to check if they are needed ? Or can be reduced
    Switch supermarket shopping to Lidl/ Aldi - big savings here (I save £30-£40 a week v Sainsbreeze)
    Start taking lunch to work (approx £5 a day saving)
    Set a budget for all spending and try and stick to it

    After that you can try and make extra money - selling stuff FB, music magpie, fleabay and getting cashback from cashback sites, rewards and extra interest from banks.

    You will find lots of great ideas on here to help
  • Kittenkirst
    Kittenkirst Posts: 2,468 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Welcome to the board :D
    First home- Oct’16 until June’21: £170.995- Overpayments made £13,784 (25% extra!).
    New forever home- Sep’21 £309,449 @ 2.05%. Plan to clear it before 30 years!!!!!!
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