Mortgage free by my own merit

OhtobeMortgageFree

I cashed £35 out from Prolific today and overpaid the mortgage with it straight away. That's a total of £1335 in overpayments I've made since June now!

OhtobeMortgageFree

I've seen lots of posts from people in Facebook groups lately about the rewards they receive as part of their life insurance plans. Is life insurance something I need? I'm 34, and my wages are spent pretty much solely on 'luxuries' for our family and overpayments to the mortgage. Am I being really naive thinking that I do not need life insurance or a pension? (I have a few years from my teaching pension stored away somewhere - no idea how to access it, I assume they contact me when I hit my 70s?!) but withdrew from the scheme when it changed to reflect the number of years worked in recent years in the profession.) My husband has always paid into his pension and we made the joint decision a long while back that he would pay into a pension and my money would go towards paying off the house and towards a second property to rent out.
Smart move/dumb move? Open to all comments. I honestly haven't really looked into either. My Dad recently lost a lot of money when my Mum died by having paid into a joint protection policy in recent years. He was under the impression that he would still have access to the money when my Mum was no longer here, but he lost over £35,000 when my Mum died. Handing over money 'just in case something happens' isn't really a decision I would take lightly, even more so now.

OhtobeMortgageFree

Sat down with the husband last night and had a proper long chat about our finances. After his car died earlier in the year and he started using mine for work we had planned to maybe look for a second car again in September, but with my car also dying a few weeks back (currently at the point of clapping out at any minute!) We are now on a panicked search for just the one car again. My son and I will make do without a car for a bit longer. Frustratingly it's also now football season so we also won't have a car on the weekends as my husband will head to the Midlands for the football.
We had hoped to get something for £1000-£1500 as we always have before in the past but after three weeks of looking and having been messed around by several dealers now we're going to have to widen our search to £2500 as my car is sounding worse and worse.
I've agreed to work an extra night shift each week from now until Christmas to try and cover the cost but I am so tired!!! The last few years have been so tough.

OhtobeMortgageFree

So we found a car finally! We paid £2400 in the end and it's probably one of the nicest cars we've ever owned so hopefully it will last for a few years.
Obviously we can no longer afford a second car for me which is what we'd been putting money aside for so looks like we will be remaining a one-car family for the foreseeable future. This, along with a couple of other items breaking and needing replacing all within a few weeks of each other has meant that our entire emergency savings pot has been eaten up. I don't know what this means for our overpayment journey for the remainder of the year. We've been making massive cutbacks (managed to get our shopping bill down to £9 last week!) and I've taken on extra work (an extra nightshift each week and an extra day's worth of freelance work). No idea how I'm going to fit it all in yet though. I've not exercised at all this week (usually a five days a week kinda person) and I got up a little before 3am yesterday to meet a freelance deadline.
I'm sure things will get easier though...

OhtobeMortgageFree

So, I managed to overpay by a grand total of £40 in September. But, that's probably an extra £30ish saved in interest so I'm counting it as a win still!
September was a tough month with having to fork out on a new car but I have made a start with the Christmas shopping now too so that should spread the cost out a bit. It looks like it will just be me and my three year old at home for Christmas this year as my husband has to work away, all our family live at least 100 miles away and we only have the one car (which my husband will have), so I doubt I'll bother with Christmas dinner and all the trimmings as my son won't know the difference and we won't be forking out on 200 miles of petrol either.

Moneyfordreams

Do you have mortgage cover? When you are young life insurance policies are usually very cheap. Mine aren't tied to the mortgage as they are more costly. But I would want to ensure my OH had a roof over his head as I am the bread winner. Me insuring him is ensuring that heaven forbid something happens. I can pay the albatross off alone. He's 60 now, the age both his parents died. He's insured until he's 69

I do understand the views though if you've had a bad experience . My mum was furious after my dad died to receive < £500. she started saving her own funeral fund after that.

OhtobeMortgageFree

Moneyfordreams wrote: »

Do you have mortgage cover? When you are young life insurance policies are usually very cheap. Mine aren't tied to the mortgage as they are more costly. But I would want to ensure my OH had a roof over his head as I am the bread winner. Me insuring him is ensuring that heaven forbid something happens. I can pay the albatross off alone. He's 60 now, the age both his parents died. He's insured until he's 69

I do understand the views though if you've had a bad experience . My mum was furious after my dad died to receive < £500. she started saving her own funeral fund after that.

No, we don't have mortgage cover, but if something were to happen to my husband, or his job (he's the main bread winner), we have enough equity in this house (£165,000ish) that we would be able to sell and move somewhere smaller to accommodate just my son and I. It would be an inconvenience but we would get through it.
Your Mum received less than £500?! That's awful! It wouldn't even cover funeral costs. I've heard so many bad stories that it doesn't fill me with faith in the system.

OhtobeMortgageFree

Somebody I worked for last weekend gave me an extra £40 in my pay for good work. I'm going to throw it straight into the mortgage obviously!
Is put a shout out on my town Facebook page yesterday asking if any local businesses required any branding or design work. One person has been in touch so far to ask for a quote. Fingers crossed they want work doing and some more people get in touch.

OhtobeMortgageFree

Not a very money saving day today. £4.70 spent on the bus fare back from my son's swimming lesson, 88p spent on some lunch for me and £36 spent on Christmas/birthday presents. But, that's 9 presents bought. We only buy for children at Christmas now. We have nine nieces and nephews and buy for the theww toddlers of my husband's closest friends. The Works is always great for gifts I think.

OhtobeMortgageFree

Following a meter reading I've had a £104.29 refund on the amount of electric paid this year. We were definitely due some good luck! I'll give it until Friday to check that we don't also get dished out some bad luck and then make another mortgage overpayment.