FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

jfox22

Good luck Ali007 and thank you FB.

Yeah at the moment i live ina two bedroom apartment with my girlfriend so no doubt if things go well we will move to our first home in the next couple of years. So much to think about it all gets very confusing. Thank you for your advice, i guess a couple of hundred pounds per year is no comparison to the "feel good" factor everyone on this board is receiving for every over payment they make. So what i will probably do is save up enough for my "estimated deposit" for my next property in a savings account and then start the over payments. I don't think im far off.
Keep us with the updates, its been good reading this 14 page thread.

financialbliss

Just a quick mortgage interest update as it's the end of the month.

Been one of those days at work where you've been running around like a headless chicken and you don't seem to have achieved anything. Throwing in the towel shortly.

Anyway, mortgage interest. Today it's: 1,060.17

This can be broken down as follows:

• January 279.86 – 9.03 per day
• February 249.23 – 8.90 per day
• March 271.85 – 8.77 per day
• April 259.23 - 8.64 per day

Hoping to do my "normal" overpayment tomorrow with it being the first of the month - overpay as soon as possible (I'm on daily interest).

Then, when the normal and overpayments clear, numbers and graph update again.

Note: If you're kind of following this interest stuff, but may have missed earlier posts - Nationwide only show the interest as one lump sum, ie 1,060.17 - it's my own logging of interest at the end of each month that enables me to break it down monthly.

Regards,
Financial Bliss

Little_Mama

financialbliss wrote: »

@ anyone else who is over paying rather than saving:

What tipped the balance to make you overpay and what benefits do you feel you’re getting from overpaying?

May start an interesting post or two!

FB.

Hi FB,

Well reading the MFi3 post and diaries like your own last August when I first logged on here got OH & me started.

We'd paid small regular amounts over our mortgage but when we took a further advance the lenders lumped it all together and bang went small overpayment. When we finished the extension the money we'd borrowed but not spent was paid back in....not a great deal but there you go.

We made a few one off overpayments, annoyingly we can only make overpayments to reduce term of a minimum of £500 at a time, but this year we made a resolution to try to pay a minimum of £500 every month off the mortgage.

We've started doing online grocery shopping, have joined Topcashback, I've realised I don't neeeeeeeed a new top everytime I go for a night out and paying the difference into our mortgage pot when we make a saving on house insurance etc. in comparison to last year but we're not going overboard as we still want to live a little and have some fun...:D

So far we've managed it and if we hit target by the end of the year when we'll be looking for a new deal then we'll be happy chappies......although we may have to save for some of those arrangement fees.....have you seen them:eek:

The benefit being, once it's paid off it's all ours no matter what happens and the freedom it will give on a work/life balance, be it in this country or selling up to fulfil other dreams.

Best wishes LM

p.s. should say we do have an emergency fund as I wouldn't feel comfortable without savings behind us.

JonnyBravo

financialbliss wrote: »

@ anyone else who is over paying rather than saving:

What tipped the balance to make you overpay and what benefits do you feel you’re getting from overpaying?

Well, to be honest I do both, but am more interested in the overpaying. It's just seeing the amount of interest I pay each month that motivates me. Can't wait til that monthly payment doesn't need to go to them and then that payment can be used on more frivolity!

We could be MF now if we moved back to our old house but we're in our "forever house" (well prob 10-15 years tbh) but one equal in value to anything we'd move to. It's worth the extra even if it is depressing owing as much as we do.

setmefree2

JonnyBravo wrote: »

Well, to be honest I do both, but am more interested in the overpaying. It's just seeing the amount of interest I pay each month that motivates me. Can't wait til that monthly payment doesn't need to go to them and then that payment can be used on more frivolity!

We could be MF now if we moved back to our old house but we're in our "forever house" (well prob 10-15 years tbh) but one equal in value to anything we'd move to. It's worth the extra even if it is depressing owing as much as we do.

Hi Jonny,

Agree with everything you've said there:D:money:

abouttimetoo

financialbliss wrote: »

@ anyone else who is over paying rather than saving:

What tipped the balance to make you overpay and what benefits do you feel you’re getting from overpaying?

May start an interesting post or two!

FB.

Well, it's something I've wanted to do for some years but not been able to do before, as well gaining a sense of achievement and taking control.

I've also worked away from home for 6 years whereby I'm only home at weekends and it's a tough life living out of a suitcase and I know I can't sustain it for ever so OP'ing will hopefully give me more choices if I ever want to take a different job with a lower salary and spend more time at home.

Finally - but by no means least! - I've got a 'big' birthday coming up next year and I find it scarey how the years fly by so I want to make sure that I'm not working for ever just to pay the mortgage.:rolleyes:

MinBlack

Hi,
Not a MFI3 myself, I'm selling ups and clearing debt. Will end up with a good amount of savings so I can start life afresh. We should be exchanging contracts this week and i'm on edge praying it all goes thru ok!

Anyhow, re your trip to Chester Zoo, some of the kelloggs cereals have a voucher for free admission with each adult ticket to several zoos including Chester. As it costs nearly £11 for each child over 3 this is a big saving. Its on the packets advertising the Zookeeper competition. Hope this helps.

Min x

financialbliss

Been a few days since I’ve posted…

Friday. Work night out. Italian and copious drinks.

Saturday. Was looking at a computer as a favour. Windows auto updates were failing, had ad ware and spy ware, internet explorer wasn’t working any more and that was only the things I noticed. After a good while attempting to fix this, a clean re-install of Windows was done. Then had to patch the OS, install anti virus and firewall, Firefox and other software. After I’d done all of that, wasn’t in the mood to get in front of a computer again.

Sunday. Had 3 extra for Sunday dinner. Once kids were down and they’d left we just chilled in front of tv.

Monday: Bought #2 a new pair of shoes. She is now a size 4 ½. We all went for a short bike ride too.

A few things of interest to report.

Water bill. We’re on a water meter. The house had it installed at the point it was build. I’d mentally noted that we were in arrears with this bill – it gets reviewed annually each May. Was paying 25.00 per month and now this is going up to 42.00 per month from June. I was never expecting it to jump that much :eek:

Mortgage payments. These have now hit my mortgage account and as of Sunday, it dropped under 65k for the first time – 64,847. I’ve already done a graph update and uploaded to photobucket.

I’ve now got theoretically 55 payment remaining before 12/12/12. If I divide the oustanding balance up, I’d need 1,327.58 per month to guarantee achieving the goal. This is up from the previous month of 1,326.12

Hoover. Was having a moan the other week about the lack of suction on the telescopic wand when cleaning the car – Dyson DC01. Was moaning again on Sunday and on taking a closer look, the wand has split. I’ve earlier this evening ordered a replacement wand from the Dyson web site, plus some long life washable filters and a flexible crevice tool. Total order 42.00, but I should get 10% off via quidco – remembered to check this time.

Chester zoo. A big thanks here to MinBlack. As well as getting some extra veg for the Sunday dinner, we slipped in a box of Kelloggs frosties. So, we’ve hopefully got a ‘free’ zoo ticket. Need to read te T&Cs when I get some time to make sure there’s no clauses in that excludes using it.

I’ll post this first, then update post #1 numbers and signature.

Thanks,
Financial Bliss.

setmefree2

financialbliss wrote: »

Mortgage payments. These have now hit my mortgage account and as of Sunday, it dropped under 65k for the first time – 64,847.

Well Done Fb:T:T:T

financialbliss

Just a quick note, I’m at work and on lunch.

Got our car insurance renewal yesterday. It’s 357, which I think is quite a bit. That said, we’ve a 2.2 diesel – 05 plate, so I’m sure that’s not helping!

It’s not due until the end of May, but I’ll probably start looking at this shortly instead of last minute, so I may be quiet for a few days.

Anyone else get annoyed at car insurance compaies “to protect you, we reserve the right to renew your insurance automatically.” I specifically requested that they do not auto renew. :mad:

That said, the credit card they've got has expired - replacement card / number. If I beat the above quote, do I call the 0870 number and cancel the renewal or do I let it lapse? Are there any legal issues if I let it lapse with them if I secure another insurer, eg they may think I'm not insured?

FB.