julicorn's journey

julicorn

Just a quick update. Went a bit crazy with the shopping this morning because I got a bigger Christmas bonus than I was expecting. :beer: Bought an evening dress for an awards ceremony on Thursday, a pair of Irregular Choice shoes and also some jewellery.
Because of said bonus, we're not too far off those savings goals either. The mortgage overpayment amount is currently still sitting in the Marcus account, but I'll make that final £5,000 overpayment sometime in December, once we've got the rest of the money together (if all goes according to plan, that is!).

Either way, I hope you're all well. This time of the year is always a tricky one for saving and budgeting!

Center Parcs: £1,000/£1,000
Maintenance fees: £500/£500
Home improvements: £1,000/£1,000
Mortgage OP: £4,347.55/£5,000

julicorn

Another update (and coincidentally my 400th post on this forum!):

I couldn't wait any longer, haven't made any overpayments in months! So I transferred £4k out of what we have saved over to our mortgage account, with the aim to make one final OP of £1,000 this year.

The payment I just made takes our account below £185k, yay! But the additional £1k, if we manage to pull it off, would mean hitting the following milestones this month as well:
- £20k paid off the initial mortgage amount
- 10% of original balance paid off
- 2 years ahead of where we would be without overpayments.

Gonna go celebrate with some breakfast now. :j

beanielou

Go you :j :j

julicorn

Thanks beanie! :heart2:

julicorn

I also updated my cross stitch earlier, and have finished the first round already!
Each stitch is £100 off the mortgage balance. Each month has a different colour. Once the square is filled, our flat will be paid off. Still quite a way to go, as you can see!

Kittenkirst

julicorn wrote: »

I also updated my cross stitch earlier, and have finished the first round already!
Each stitch is £100 off the mortgage balance. Each month has a different colour. Once the square is filled, our flat will be paid off. Still quite a way to go, as you can see!

Love this, such a different way to mark it off and commemorate your efforts. It looks great!

julicorn

Thank you Kittenkirst! I really enjoy updating it every month, even when it's just a few stitches sometimes.

beanielou

Kittenkirst wrote: »

Love this, such a different way to mark it off and commemorate your efforts. It looks great!

Agree with this

Betterthanever

Great progress! When I was on my debt free journey, I used to colour in squares for every £50 I repaid....it was a great motivator!

julicorn

Thanks beanielou & Betterthanever! There's something weird but also quite nice about turning such a mammoth task into a teeny tiny cross stitch.