99 weeks to go...

vivatifosi

It's now 99 weeks to go until the mortgage is fully paid off. I was going to start a thread at 100 weeks, but then it slipped me by.

When we moved here about 10 years ago we had an 18 year mortgage but have been consistently overpaying.

We always celebrate £10,000 increments off the mortgage, either with a trip somewhere nice, or a meal somewhere special. Now though, we can count down and the goal is in sight.

Every week we do our washing for work, every load of ironing, that's another 1% off the outstanding amount (well not exactly due to compounding, or the fact that it's paid monthly, but ykwim). Can't wait:D.

newgirly

Best of luck , we have a similar time frame

vivatifosi

Thanks newgirly. We are at the end of a fixed term, so can't pay off sooner, but it is so lovely being on the home stretch. We should have an additional two years at SVR after that, but we are saving our additional overpayments into an ISA.

Fancy counting down together?

newgirly

For sure count me in

What are your plans for the extra cash after becoming mf if you don't mind me being nosey?

vivatifosi

Mostly to do things to the house that we haven't had a chance to do yet - new kitchen, new bathroom, new windows... that type of thing. And to get rid of the horrid orange carpet in the living room that we've lived with for far too long and decorated around, sort of pretending it isn't there! If we really push the boat out, the artex will be on the way out too.

Both of us have had health scares in the last 10 years or so. We always wanted the house paid off well before retirement as this was something that my parents didn't do, and they found really tough as a result. However the health things made us want to accelerate this. We wanted it paid off in case one of us ended up being seriously ill, or we had to give up work for caring responsibilities etc.

Then to start saving for earlier retirement, plus to have more rainy day cash. If our work allows, we may take an extended holiday too, but we both work full time and neither of our employers are great at allowing extended holidays.

How about you?

newgirly

That sounds like a very good plan.

We need to spend money on our house, redecoration, new kitchen and flooring. Also I should imagine we will be shelling out lots for the kids as with 16year old twins that may start uni when our dd is studying still it could get very expensive.

In a the future though, when the kids hopefully stop costing us money - nice shoes, lots of holidays and plenty of expensive and unnecessary coffees

vivatifosi

Ah nice shoes... I remember those. Soon...

DesignNotDefault

All the best, your persistence has paid off - congrats to you :beer:

Can't wait to get to that stage myself, it must be so exciting and liberating

vivatifosi

Thanks DesignNotDefault. It has been a hard road at times, but it is so lovely having the light at the end of the tunnel not only visible but fast approaching.

Please don't quote this part, may delete:
Within a few months of moving here (second home, much larger mortgage) I had my health scare and couldn't find a job as I was being treated for melanoma. We have never been the sort of people who pushed for the biggest house with the largest mortgage, and have always been prudent thank goodness. Then DH fell ill too and missed the best part of a year from work. Between us we decided our future would be too fragile if we didn't pay off the mortgage, so we've really knuckled down.

The degree to which we feel we will soon be able to breathe out and feel a tangible relief is extremely high.

vivatifosi

Well, another set of washing done, which means: 98 weeks to go. Hoorah.

This week, thoughts have been focused on the new bathroom that we'll be able to afford once the mortgage has been paid off. It won't be too luxurious, as our bathroom is roughly the size of a broom cupboard.

We have to have a shower over the bath, due to size constraints. But I'd really like to have both a monsoon shower head and a flexible shower head. I'd also like to have more built in storage.

Our tiles have been up in the bathroom so long that, apart from the vile feature tiles, they've gone out of fashion and come back in again. So do we want to be frugal and make do and mend by taking the feature tiles out, or start over? It's soooo hard when you've scrimped for so long to start spending money on stuff again. I did buy a new car a couple of years back, but only because the old one (which I'd also had from new) was 17 years old and showing its age.

I have, I think, become a bit of a tightwad. I came to a realisation a few years ago that you can't spend money shopping if you don't go shopping (either physically or virtually).

vivatifosi

Another milestone. We are below £25k. We don't normally celebrate the 5ks, only the 10ks. But this one feels special. It's a good number that warrants a happy dance and a nice meal out.

95 weeks and counting.