Mortgage freedom/FIRE diary

Poppycat1

Mortgage now stands at £72,900.  £97.31 paid off since the remortgage at the beginning of the month.  

My campervan went in for a service and new cambelt Friday, I'm now £560 poorer.  I have 'borrowed' some money from one pot which will be fully paid back in the new year.  It's only because of overtime that I have the money.

I have done really well with Olio this past week.  Last Sunday I went and collected a cream daybed with a trundle bed.  It took me a few hours to put it together, it looks really good.  It will be perfect for when my two boys come to stay.  I will need to buy another mattress because I only had one.  On the way back from collecting it I saw a wooden lamp table with 'free' on it and stopped to collect it.  It's in great condition and looks lovely in my lounge.  I collected from Tesco's last night, lots of use by items that I listed but some weren't requested, so I have several posh pizzas, stir fry mixes, wraps and pasta salads to eat up.  I will freeze the pizzas.

I have spent all my budget apart from £13.88 of my grocery budget.  What is left will go to the mortgage Thursday evening when I get paid.

Little wins,

I have started earning interest, 88p from my new savings account which I keep my sinking and emergency funds in.

Saved £12 on the cats food for December - actually this is quite a big win.

savingholmes

Lots of lovely wins there on the furniture and the food.

Poppycat1

A little update, it's been three years ! My mortgage now stands at £61,000.  I haven't made that many over-payments on the mortgage but I have just finished paying for the loan for my van, around 16 months early.

My son that moved abroad has been living back with me for 18 months.  He has a job so pays me a bit of rent to cover bills.

I'm 55 next June and really need to get rid of this mortgage.

I had an unexpected day at home today and no money spent.  I have made a batch of carrot and lentil soup in the slow cooker - this is my favourite MSE meal prep.  I have also managed to get two lots of washing dry on the line.  My bank switch happened today so should get £200 shortly.

I'll try and update a bit more than once every three years.

greent

Hey Poppycat, good to see you! And well done on the reductions

Poppycat1

I changed the date my mortgage is paid today.  I get paid on the 25th of each month and my mortgage goes out on the 5th of the month.  That means for 10 days I have a fair bit of money sitting in an account, that doesn't pay much interest.  They wasn't able to change it for this month so my next payment will go out on the 26th December.   I paid £500 I would have paid on the 5th December today.  The payment that comes out on the 26th December will be a 2026 payment.  Mortgage is now £60,000.

I received the £200 from moving my main bank account.  That has gone in to savings which now stand at £400.  All money earned and saved for the rest of the year will now go into this savings pot.  Hoping to have around £2,250.

My home needs a lot of work doing to it, most of it is too make it look nicer.  I keep changing my mind from getting the work done and paying off the mortgage.  If I only stuck with doing small things I could probably get rid of the mortgage by the time I'm 60 in 5 years and 6 months.  I would really like a new bathroom and kitchen though.

savingholmes

I would perhaps investigate the costs of the kitchen and bathroom - and write a list of what you are hoping will be different after the works. If you need to works to improve the flow of the space and it is getting you down daily that's one thing - but if you just want to change colours for example there may be other ways of achieving the same thing without as big an outlay.

Just painting my units grey and my tiles white and putting in a new counter at a previous house made a huge difference...

Poppycat1

Oh, it's been nearly a year since my last update 😮.

I have £56,300 left to pay on my mortgage and 11 years and 5 months.

I have set myself a mini target of getting the mortgage to £55,000 by the end of the year. Around £900 is my monthly payments so will need to pay off around an extra £400. If I manage it, it will take the mortgage term to 11 years exactly.

I then have one year left of my fixed rate. Not knowing what the rates will be in a year I would like to make more overpayments next year than I did this year. 10% would be £5,500 which is impossible but I can do my best.

My biggest problem is I can't stop buying food 😱. I have so much of it at home, especially in my cupboards. So strictly no buying M&S sandwiches at work.

I get paid tomorrow evening so will make an overpayment. I know the monthly salary but did some bank work last weekend and don't know how much I'll get from that. Hopefully around £220. Back tomorrow.

Poppycat1

I was paid both my wages and £100 got paid off the mortgage. It now stands at £56,200. The payment took a month off the term, so 11 years and 4 months. Normal mortgage payment goes out next week, after that I will pay some more off to make it end with 00. So should be £55,800.

I haven't bought anything for two days. I took my Aeropress to work so have made my own fresh coffee. I will try and do this each working day from now on.

Overtime tomorrow so, a few extra pennies next week.