Joining the mortgage free journey :-)

ian1246

Hey Guys.
I ve been inspired by a lot of threads on this part of the forum - so I figured now is the time to start a thread/diary for myself and my wife's quest to become mortgage free!

We married in August 2018 and have since returned from our honeymoon - the wedding and honeymoon were paid outright, but its left our finances a little worse for wear. Still, it was worth every penny and we've just had the photographs back from the photographer :T:T:)

So with that in mind, now that the wedding is behind us, the first objective is to rebuild our emergency/essential fund back up, before commencing with the mortgage overpayments :-) I also have a £7000 loan (kindly from mum & dad), since my car decided to die a month before the wedding, which I am in the process of paying back over the next 2 years.

So, couple of "short" term targets to work towards before being in a position to really drive down the mortgage:

Car Loan Repayment: Target: £7000 - £500 repaid. £6500 remaining.
Emergency/Car Maintainence/Holiday Fund: Target £12,000 - £4,100 saved, £7,900 remaining.

Current Mortgage as of the 04/10/2018: £113,695.00.
Monthly Repayments: £577.45.
Current LTV Rate: 57%
Remaining Term: 22years 1month (fixed at 2.84% until November 2020)

I m 29, my partner's 26, haven't got any kids yet - but we would like to start a family in the next couple of years :-)

Mortgage Free/Neutral Objective: April 2028 - just before I turn 39. No idea if we ll achieve it, but thats the target! Wish us luck :-)

Ryan_Debt

Ian, I wish I had started as young as you when I started my mortgage free journey! You are definitely on the right path and it seems you are quite ambitious. I have no doubt you will achieve your goal! Make sure you stick to your budget

the_cross_rabbit

will cheerlead from the sidelines
CRx

bexster1975

Hello and welcome

As previously mentioned, an excellent idea to get on top of this before you are even 30.

Life will certainly get in the way, but imagine how far you will have got with this plan. Any overpayment is money you never again pay interest on so you can't lose from that point of view.

Best of luck

Bexster

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

ian1246

Thanks Guys for the welcome :-)

To help with the target, in the last month I ve recently taken out a Natwest Reward Card (Paid back in full each month!) to pay for all fuel/food/all disposable expenses - which alongside the Natwest Reward Account we ve had for the last 24months, paying all of our utility bills through, means we get a decent amount of cashback :-)

At the start of the month we put the following into the Natwest Account (to cover Credit Card expenses). The amount actually spent does fluctuate though, but never exceeds the maximum. Any leftover unspent money either goes on treats (Takeaway!) or gets put into the emergency/essential fund :-)

Flexible Spending:
£250.00 (Maximum) Monthly Food Budget (1% cashback on spending)
£205.00 (Maximum) Monthly Fuel Costs (0.5% Cashback on spending)

Maximum "flexible" Cashback: £3.52

Fixed Spending:
£40.25 Sky a Month (2% Cashback on spending)
£39.00 BT a month (2% Cashback on spending)
£40.50 Water a month (2% Cashback on spending)
£51.00 Gas/Electricity (2% Cashback on spending)
£130.00 Council Tax (2% Cashback on spending)

Monthly "Fixed" Cashback: £6.01 - we either bank the cashback or "tradeup" to get a voucher for a cheap meal out :-)

Aside from the above - our only other "fixed" costs come to £93.74 a month (contact lenses, personal mobile phones, Amazon Prime, Window Cleaning & Pet Insurance for 2 Dogs)

Total Budgetted Expenses: £849.49 - plus the mortgage at £577.45. Total: £1,426.94. On top of this I pay back £250.00 a month for car loan - so total of £1,676.94.

Fortunately our combined take home income at the moment is £2,675.96. Hence the ambitious target to pay off the mortgage! :j:j

ian1246

Its been 2months since my original post. Had a few unexpected costs in the last 2months - our water pipe developed a leak, which we could hear from the hissing noise whilst in the bathroom. Turned out it was a leak just underneath the stop tap - thankfully we were able to get a plumber in to fix it :-) Had it been the supply line itself, they'd have had to dig up the front garden! We ve also done a bit of DIY - new blind in the kitchen and new curtains & rail up in the hall :-) House is a lot warmer as a result!

As of the 06/12/2018:

Debts:
Car Loan Repayment: Target: £7000 - £1000 repaid. £6000 remaining (- £500 Paid off since 04/10/2018)
Current Mortgage as of the 06/12/2018: £113,095.00 (£600 Paid Off since 04/10/2018)
Monthly Repayments: £577.45.
Current LTV Rate: 56% (1% change)
Remaining Term: 21years 11months (fixed at 2.84% until November 2020)

Savings:
Emergency/Car Maintenance/Holiday Fund: Target £13,000 - £4,800 saved (+£700 extra saved since 04/10/2018), £8,200 remaining.

Overall Change (Debt Paid Off + Extra Savings): +£1800 vs. 04/10/2018.

Pretty much all of the Christmas Shopping has been done - so hopefully our savings will remain untouched :-) Although come January/February time, we ll likely have to fork out for when we book our yearly holiday in the Sun :beer:

I ve also done a bit of trimming on our monthly bills - we ve cancelled Sky and gone for Now TV instead during the Black Friday deals. £106.00 for 12months of Entertainment & movies - £8.83 per month vs. the £40.25 Sky, so a saving of £31.42 a month :-) I ve also switched my phone contract to a Sim Only - savings of £11.70 per month. When the Internet's contract expires Mid-Summer, that will be getting switched also!

Its still small steps currently - but I m hoping as we go into the new year, things will pick up :-) Onwards and upwards!

ian1246

Had a few unplanned expenses in the last month - had to put one of our Chinchilla's to sleep We ve also brought a New Curtain Pole, Curtains, Super-King Sized Duvet & Duvet Cover for the master bedroom, coming to around £160 - Room looks a lot better though! Just got to actually get around to decorating the house sometime (we never did decorate when we moved in in 2015, since the house is perfectly "liveable" as it is!). Plus on top of that had the (planned) insurance renewal for my partners car - another £100!

That said, we ve managed to stay on target for finishing with our planned savings for December 2018 :-)

Debts:
Car Loan Repayment: Target: £7000 - £1250 repaid. £5750 remaining (- £250 Paid off since 06/12/2018)
Current Mortgage as of the 03/01/2019: £112,762.04 (£332.96 Paid Off since 04/10/2018)
Monthly Repayments: £577.45.
Current LTV Rate: 56% (0% change)
Remaining Term: 21years 10months (fixed at 2.84% until November 2020)

Savings:
Emergency/Car Maintenance/Holiday Fund: Target £11,500 - £5,578 saved as of the 03/01/2019 (+£778 extra saved since 06/12/2018), £5,922 remaining.

Overall Change (Debt Paid Off + Extra Savings): +£1,360.96 vs. 06/12/2018 :j

However, in the coming 6 weeks we ve got some hefty bills coming up - Gas Boiler & Fire Service booked in to be serviced in the next week & our 2 Collie's are due for their innoculations at the start of February :eek: Its also the Wife's, Brothers & his partners Birthday in January... so more pressies to buy! Plus we really could do with buying a decent ladder so that we can gain access to the attic (we have to currently borrow one from mum & dad whenever we want to get into the attic), having the ladder will then also mean come the summer I can get onto the Garage roof to re-seal between the Asbestos-Cement tiles (or whatever they are called) since we have sprung a small leak/drip! (the house & garage was built in 1975, so think the sealant probably just needs reapplying).

ian1246

Its been 6months since my last update - since then we've brought and fully paid for our holiday later this year & done a few bits of DIY, as well as paying for the normal household costs (Car & House Insurance, Boiler service etc...).

So, a reasonable bit of progress all things considered :-)

Debts:
Car Loan Repayment: Target: £7000 - £2750 repaid. £4250 remaining (£1500 Paid off since 03/01/2019)
Current Mortgage as of the 03/07/2019: £110,545.76 (£2216.28 Paid Off since 03/01/2019)
Monthly Repayments: £577.41.
Current LTV Rate: 54% (2% change)
Remaining Term: 21years 4months (fixed at 2.84% until November 2020)

Savings:
Emergency/Car Maintenance/Holiday Fund: Target £9,500 - £6,883 saved as of the 03/07/2019 (+£1305 extra saved since 03/01/2019), £2,817 remaining

The Savings target changes depending on what easy-access bank accounts are available which pay decentish interest - loosing the Nationwide Regular Savers (5% Interest) means its no longer as beneficial to hold quite as much cash in our emergency savings vs. using some of it to overpay the mortgage!

Overall Change (Debt Paid Off + Extra Savings): +£5,021.28 vs. 03/01/2019 :beer: