Taking Control and Making It Happen

blocpartyfan

I think you're doing a fantastic job missLemon!

Jessy103

Happy New Year MissLemon and well done with the overpayments. Good luck with your target for 2018.

MissLemon

January and February reporting!

January OP = £804.21
February OP = £903.23

As we don't pay our council tax in February and March I've managed to put a little bit more towards the mortgage OP this month.

I'm no longer doing the MB, mainly because I didn't really put the time in to maximise the earnings from it. But I did manage to make over £100 from it which is either going towards a course or in my savings rather than the OP.

Ebaying hasn't started yet! I've got some time off over Easter so I think I'll be able to put some time into photographing and listing my stuff then. Between not and then I think I'll start getting together a 'to sell' pile.

This month I did something I have never done and planned our meals for the whole month. Which meant I spent less, went shopping less and had some really nice food. I've meal planned before but a week at a time. Doing 4 weeks has just freed up a lot of time wondering what to cook, going shopping for things I forgot and I'll be doing the same for March. Hopefully I can put any savings to the mortgage!

MissLemon

March update.

Still not put any of items on ebay, hopefully I'll get stuff online over the Easter weekend

The meal planning for March is still going well. I'm under the £300 monthly budget for groceries, which is great, and am planning to plan for April! I've also been making double quantities of some of the food so I have a good few meals in the freezer too!

Total March OP is £918.91

selloptape

Fantastic OPs

MissLemon

A very loooong time since I last posted an update. BUT I have been diligently overpaying each month and finished 2018 with an overall OP of £9123.35 :j

This makes my mortgage at the start of 2019 a grand total of £75,799.12.

My target for 2019 is an OP of £6,000. This is a bit lower than last year as we've made a change to our mortgage.

Our 2 year fix came to an end in November. After looking at the difference of fixing and keeping the term or fixing and lowering the term we went for lowering the term.

So now instead of 16 years left on our mortgage we have just under 10!:j

If we left the term the same we wouldn't be able to overpay as much without going over our allowance and paying a fee. By reducing our term we are paying a couple of pounds less each month than we were with our repayment and regular overpayment. And we can still make additional overpayments without being charged a fee! Wooo!

So now we are on a three year fix. And at the end of the three years the mortgage should be at a level where we could pay a large chunk of the balance off and pay the mortgage in full within a year.

:j:j:j

What I didn't realize when going through this process was that by changing the term you are classed as taking out a new mortgage! So even though we were staying with the same bank we had to go through the whole application process.

During our conversation discussing why we wanted to change the term I let slip that we wanted to pay off the mortgage in 4 years time. I was quickly told that the bank doesn't issue mortgages for less than 5 years and did I mean I was wishing I'd be able to pay off the mortgage rather than actually pay it off? Because everyone would wish to pay off the mortgage early... I quickly agreed. Yes, wishful thinking :rotfl:

But towards that wishful thinking I have started to list things on ebay and have made over £150 from fabric and sewing patterns that were just gathering dust!

Today's task is to find more stuff for ebay and hopefully make a little bit extra towards that wishful thinking!

Here's to a great 2019!

A_Frayed_Knot

Fantastic - almost the exact same as I did, when I went into a new deal :j took off 6 & half years, which left me with 8 - and competed it in 3 .

Quick thinking on your part re the paying off/payments remark.

One negative though , disappointed to see that .12p at the end of your mortgage :rotfl:

Good Luck with the eb@ying, I still have a few bits selling this month.

MissLemon

I know! That 12p needs to go!

:rotfl:

And I'm glad to be in the same situation as you were when you went to a new deal! The MFW will be a MF real deal too!

Couldsavemore

Just read your whole thread and now thinking I should be doung a lot better

What is this ynab, of which you speak?

EatingTheElephant

Well done on your new mortgage deal and fantastic OPs last year :T