Mortgage freedom/FIRE diary

Poppycat1

£110,106.15 left to pay
17 years and 3 months left to pay it off
19 years and 2 months - if no overpayment had been made
£6.03 daily interest

I have paid some more overpayments over the last week totalling £850. To reach my 10% target for the first year of the mortgage I need to pay off another £2,400. I may be able to pay another £100 on Friday but I will wait to see how much my wages are first.

Really pleased that in 10 months I have taken an extra 1 year and 11 months off the term.

On Sunday I bent down to pick up a newspaper and since then I have had problems with my back. I wasn't able to work yesterday so lost 12 hours pay. One of the problems with only working bank is no sickness pay. I am hoping to be able to do my shift Friday. but I am still very uncomfortable.

I failed in only spending £20 on groceries until the end of the month. Although I did earn the £20 (cashed out) on Prolific with another £5 ish outstanding. Because I'm not able to stand in the kitchen to do much cooking I ordered some quick and easy to cook food from Sainsbury. £43 spent including delivery of £2. I don't feel too bad about failing. It made us all think about not wasting food more. I also baked a loaf of bread each day which was lovely and used some of my large stock of strong bread flour.

pinknsparkly

Wow, reducing your term by 23 months in just 10 months is incredible!!! I have a sneaking suspicion that when I get to a position of having a mortgage that I can OP, I may become slightly addicted to seeing the numbers increase like that!! I really like the idea of keeping score of the daily interest charges, I think I'd find that pretty motivating (annual, or even monthly, interest seems a bit too big to be able to easily do something about!)

Hope your back stops giving you grief soon. Is it a recurrent back issue, or a new one? And don't beat yourself up about the grocery challenge - your health comes first ALWAYS. If it makes you feel any better, we're on about the fifth or sixth attempt at "eating up the freezer and cupboards" in the last couple of months and this is the first time we've actually managed to vaguely stick to it! I can actually see the bottom of more than one of my freezer drawers for the first time in a long time.... And as you say, it's made you all think a bit more about reducing your food waste which can only be a good thing!!

Poppycat1

I paid off another £150 off the mortgage on pay day last Friday. I now have to find £2,250 to hit my 10% target. I can't make anymore overpayments now until 6th December which is the day after my normal payment goes out. It should be £350. I'm getting better at estimating tax/NI conts but still can be out a bit. Also the departments I work for have to confirm that I worked there and 'lock' the shift down. I've had problems with some departments not locking my shifts down and having to wait another week or two for it to be paid. OK if it just one shift but sometime it could be 36-38 hours worth.

Pinksparkly luckly my back is just a one-off and it is much better now. I went back to work Friday on painkillers and didn't do any lifting. Worked Monday and Tuesday with little problems.

I used to have a chest freezer so could keep much more in the freezer, only three drawers now. I hope to get a small chest freezer again, maybe next summer to store the allotment produce in.

I spent £26 in Waitrose Saturday and £12.50 (half price) on a lovely solar powered lantern at a local garden centre. We went to Waitrose to buy some of their essential mince pies that are suitable for vegans. We were both so hungry that we both spent lots of rubbish. I did get eight boxes of the mince pies and between us managed to eat 4 boxes since Saturday!!!! BF spent £23. MSE basic - DO NOT GO SHOPPING WHEN HUNGRY.:(

One of the things I liked about this house was that it was a large car port that isn't really suitable for a car, can't be bother to open large gates each time I want to use the car. So I have put a washing line from corner to corner under it. So I can still hang washing out in all weathers. So washing put outside, in this weather it doesn't dry completely but I finish it off in the airing cupboard or radiators.

pinknsparkly

Glad you're "back" in action Poppycat :rotfl: And your carport sounds like an amazing idea!! I'm not sure that would have occurred to me if I had one. we do something vaguely similar in that we use clothes horses in the conservatory with the window open so it doesn't get too damp in there. At night we turn on a dehumidifier (and small fan heater if necessary). I've no idea if it's more MSE than a tumble drier but as we don't have a drier, we don't have a choice! We're not very good at hanging clothes outside in the summer though :eek: Definitely need to improve on that next year!!

Do you think you're going to make your OP target? I'm mega impressed with how well you've done so far and even if you fall a little bit short you should still feel very proud of yourself!

Poppycat1

I have just placed an order with Who gives a cr%p. I had been meaning to for a while but normally get my loo roll from Suma, they didn't have any when I ordered last time.

I don't want to make money from any of you but if you were going to order you can use this code to get £5 off - https://www.talkable.com/x/jBFbHr - I also get £5 off my next order if it's used.

I will let you know how I get on with it. DS11 gets through loads of the stuff and used to block the toilet with the Te*co stuff. The recycled Suma loo roll doesn't seem to block it. So not a NSD today. But we are down to three rolls :eek:

Poppycat1

£109,260.35 left to pay
17 years and 1 month left to pay it off
19 years and 1 months - if no overpayment had been made
£6.11 daily interest

£250 paid to the mortgage today. I have decided after a lot of thought that I am not going to make my target of paying 10%. Although partly due to my need for round figures but mainly because I have transferred my Stocks & Shares ISA to Vang&&rd and now know how/what to invest in.

My target is to get the mortgage to £108,000 by the end of this year. The extra money will be put in my T*B account which will earn 5%.

As this is a FIRE diary as well I want to start saving and investing. I have had a Stocks & Shares ISA with only a small amount of cash in. I have transferred to Vang&&rd and will aim to invest £5,000 next year.

Targets for 2019
Get the mortgage to £100,000 - only small overpayment
Keep £1,500 with T*B earning 5%
Save to invest £5,000
Save £5,000 as a emergency fund.

This is much closer to what I have wanted to do for a while but have been too scared to commit. Plus I found investing far too confusing. I am going to find it difficult to not overpay, I love seeing the mortgage go down. I have found a few more UK based FIRE sites so that will hopefully keep me from overpaying the mortgage.

I worked lots of extra hours last week and got paid for it today. But I have spent £4 on rubbish food whilst at work this week. I also spent nearly £60 on cat food today which should see me to the end of the year. Five cats eat a lot. Toilet roll arrived, really pleased with it.

Christmas is not going to cause any problems. Every year for the past 10 years or so I have cut back. I will give both the boys £50 each, my nephew £25 and have bought my bf a scarf. The boys are away for 10 days or so with their father. So I will spend Christmas/boxing day at the bf's and working most the other days.

Poppycat1

Pay day today so overpaid £200. When I went online I had been charged around £45 extra interest so need to ring next week and find out why. Also my five year fixed seems to run out five years after the offer of the mortgage and not five years after it started. Will ask the mortgage company why. Has this happened to anyone else?

I have managed to book shifts at my favourite place until the middle of February. It means I will work 12 hour shifts so get most of my hours done on 2-3 days. Part of the retire early plan to have more days away from work.

I hope to make my first investment of £500 in January.

The new home only has a shower and no bath and I am really missing it. More so in the cold weather. Considering getting a couple of quotes to see how much it would cost to put one in. The room is very small and it may not be possible. In that case I will wait until the mortgage is paid and save to have it moved somewhere else in the bungalow.

greent

Re your 5 year fix, your mortgage paperwork from 5 years ago should tell you of the end date for the fix. We've had ones before which have been for X years but lasted X years + 2 months - presumably the date was set by the product, so am wondering if you had something similar but the reverse? If your paperwork does not show the date which the fix has 'fallen off' then I would query it asap, as errors do happen at 'their' end.... x

Poppycat1

Thanks greent, I will call them this week. I have three issues to speak with them now.

The ex paid me some money he owed from a few months ago today, I wasn't sure I was going to receive it. Rounded it up and paid it off the mortgage. Mortgage is now £108,960.35. I have one regular payment to come before the end of the year, I will make an extra payment on Wednesday (£400, I think) and one last one to get it down to £108,000.00.

My parents came with the boys Christmas presents today. Some that will save me some money, ie toiletries and sweets. Made an easy Chinese curry in the slow cooker which meant I could spend most the time with them. Although we have a no present rule they bought me a new cutlery set which is much needed. DS1 takes some to school and it doesn't always come home.

I told my Dad today that in one year I have overpaid my 20 year mortgage enough to bring it down by two extra years and one month. Also that I hope to have it paid off in 6-7 years. He seemed very impressed. Said he was nearly retired by the time he had paid theirs off.

pinknsparkly

It's funny having those sort of conversations with people about mortgage overpayments. I think it's so deeply ingrained in us (particularly in the UK) that you basically have a mortgage for your entire working life that even the concept of not having a mortgage whilst still working is something that many people have never even considered!

Amazingly well done on your mortgage OPs - they're incredible and very inspiring!