Mortgage Free by 55

VDOT47

Managed to make an overpayment of £350 today, so better than I had hoped for really due to some real squeezing of the budget over the last couple of weeks.


I think this will leave the balance around £239,890, but I will update signature when the usual monthly letter from lender comes through confirming the overpayment, new balance, new repayment date etc.


So, although we are still a few days short, that is the last payment I'll make before the 1st anniversary of this thread!


I have made a total level of overpayments of £16,134 in these 12 months, of which £10,800 was due to the money transfer 0% CC, and £5334 was through managing to make savings in our budget. The amount actually overpaid would have been much higher, if it were not for the change in plan part way through the year whereby I have started to push a lot more to savings rather than the mortgage so that the credit cards could be paid off if required as part of a mortgage application in the next couple of years. If the cards do not need to be paid off (or only need to be reduced) in order for us to borrow what we need, then of course these savings can be used to add to a deposit or to pay for moving costs.


The effect of these overpayments is to have brought forward the repayment date from February 2042 to April/May 2040 - almost 2 years - and to have reduced daily interest from over £15 to £13.79.


The plan will therefore remain the same for the next 12 months. I will be largely pushing spare cash each month into savings, but will still look to use budget savings and 'extra' income (switching fees, cashback, interest on savings accounts etc) to make small monthly overpayments. The minimum would be to average these out at £240 pcm, in order to reduce the balance by at least £1000 each month, but ideally I would hope to be closer to £300-400 pcm as I have managed this year.


Of course, plans will always be open to change (just look at how different my plan now is compared to 12 months ago!), but so long as we are moving in the right direction I feel satisfied.

greent

You can also get cashback (tcb/ Quidc0) for Z1ffit and MM too

VDOT47

Thanks greent - I'll look into that.


We did a first run through of our books, DVDs and CDs and have been offered a total pot of about £15 by Ziffit and MM lol Not going to change our lives, but if it is effectively money for little work and to de-clutter stuff we won't ever use again then it will be worth it. Need to check if there are any other things to add to the pile, and then get them sent off.


The heating finally came on this weekend (boo!). Getting to 27th October is pretty good though I think, and we only had it on for an hour or so each afternoon.

VDOT47

Beginning of year 2 of this diary - I do sometimes wonder whether it would be useful to create some mid-term targets, but then I realise that I am so indecisive, and circumstances change so much, that any plans or targets would likely need to be redrawn and reshaped very regularly!


Since my last update we have been doing pretty well at limiting spending, but at this time of the month it always feels like a bit of a slog and a long way from overpayment day! Must stay focussed!

VDOT47

Just lost a long post - damn!


Brief summary:
- signature updated - another month knocked off the mortgage. Balance is £3 better than my prediction, every little helps!


Updated stats (after 12 months of overpaying):
Balance down from c£264,000 to £239,887
Daily interest down from £15.84 to £14.39
LTV down from 70.59% to 64.14%
End date brought forward by 22 months


I will update these again at the end of 2018.


My next targets I would like to hit are, in order:
End date brought forward by 2 years (hopefully could achieve this by the end of 2018, and if not then definitely by Feb which is the 2nd anniversary of the mortgage)
Daily Interest below £14 (getting closer)
LTV below 60% (a longer term goal)

Mortgage_Minimiser

Hi VDOT47

Ive just subscribed to your diary. Great read!

Our figures are similar as well as the end game in terms of age to get rid of the mortgage as well - although i'm a lot older than you!

Hope you don't mind me coming along for the ride!

Great diary...…

MM
x

VDOT47

Hi MM - thanks for reading! Looks like our mortgage is now at the same sort of balance that you had when you started in 2015. If I could get ours down to £192k in 3.5 years I'd be happy! I think we'll have moved by then though, so the mortgage will have gone up again which doesn't bear thinking about just at the moment!!


Have been good so far this week and keeping well within budget. I'm currently in the process of streamlining our finances - too many different current accounts etc and money switches happening each month! It is hard work though, as a lot of the accounts still serve a purpose (linked regular savers etc).


Still need to send off the DVDs etc to Ziffit - must do that this weekend.

Mortgage_Minimiser

Hi!

If it makes you feel better I shall remind you I do have mortgage #2 at circa £74k as well Im just ignoring that for the moment :rotfl:


You are doing great, just keep going!

Roll on Monday for the remortgage….

MMx

VDOT47

Ziffit order completed and being posted to them (for free) today. £12.48 coming our way ...

VDOT47

No payment from Ziffit yet - I wonder how long they take?


We are just managing to stay under budget so far this month, with a week to go until payday. We've also got a relatively quiet weekend planned, so just need to keep on top of it and we should get the reward of a nice overpayment this time next week.


Used some Mr T vouchers for a meal out on Sunday which was very nice - 2 courses each, plus meal for DD and drinks all for £12.