Mortgage freedom/FIRE diary

caeler

I love to know what the mortgage term would have been without overpayments, its so powerful the difference they make! What plants/seeds are you going for? @Poppycat1 I'm addicted to the different kinds of nasturtiums at the moment! 

Poppycat1

@caeler - I'm going to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, runner beans, some sort of squash, cucamelons, sweet peas, sunflowers and marigolds.  I will also buy a few bedding plants May/June time, geraniums, lobelia and I love the Winston Churchill fuchsias.  I sometimes can plant more than I can deal with so keeping it simple these year.  As a kid my Dad gave me and my sister about a meter long piece of border in the back garden.  Amongst other things we grew nasturtiums and I used to spend ages drizzling water on the leaves to see the silver beads appear on them.

Frugal things done in the last few days are, bleached my dishclothes which saved buying new ones.  PA has been fairly quiet but surveys earning £3.33 completed.  Remembered a had a 10% discount code for the cat food so £4.27 off.  Also worked out that the reason I was in so much credit with fuel company was I had been given £133.33 credit from the Warm Home grant I forgot I applied for last year.  Went out for a lovely snowy walk with my two sons which was so nice.  Carrot and lentil soup was extra yummy and have lots left over.  Made Chinese curry (slow cooker) and rice for dinner yesterday so put some homemade ready meals together, one for today and two for the freezer.  I'm have been using the slow cooker for most main meals recently.  

Tomorrow is one of my paydays so £500 will be going over to mortgage leaving £5,500 left to find this year and will take another month off the term.

I bought two very large bargain tins of gooseberries last summer so going to open one and make some crumbles later.  If I've got the energy I also want to batch cook some fruit scones and cook a batch of sausage rolls.  

Poppycat1

£89,159.23 left to pay
13 years and 7 months left to pay it off
16 years and 10 months - if no overpayment had been made
£4.86 daily interest (approx.)

Paid off the £500 I talked about yesterday which took off another month.  My mortgage provider has a great little tool where you can put the amount you are considering overpaying. It works out the interest saved and if it will take any months (whole) off the mortgage.  I love playing around with it.  

Some crumbles were made yesterday but no sausage rolls or scones.  I did put a vegan beef stew in the slow cooker so need to make some dumplings to go with that today.

I have £5.45 ready to pay out on PA but will leave it until I have just over £10.

DS2 birthday tomorrow and I haven't done anything to prepare for it, not even a card.  Hoping the snow melts a bit so I can get the car out and get to a supermarket to get him some cookies, he isn't that keen on cake.

Poppycat1

£88,909.23 left to pay
13 years and 6 months left to pay it off
16 years and 10 months - if no overpayment had been made
£4.85 daily interest (approx.)

I had a little surprise that meant I was around £20 better off each month therefore £200 for the year.  I added £50 and paid £250 off the mortgage.  It also took another month off the term.  

I have a few other things to check to see if I'm due refunds, council tax for after my son turn 18 but was in full-time education, water bill for when I had a leak and student loan but will have to wait until around Sept when previous tax year's tax is sorted.  I think it's around £|1,600.  Student loan is around £530.

Last night I done something that I said I would do for ages, I produced a table of squares and printed it off.  Each square represents £50 paid off the mortgage up to £9,400.  This is the overpayment allowance for this year.  I have a great half hour last night colouring the squares different colours for the first £4,150 I have paid off.  It is now in my bedroom reminding me to save.  A couple of years ago I was going to do a cross stich for each £50, I never got around to it.

It was DS2 birthday yesterday so a few little spends on some treats but all in budget.  He got sent 9 really cute cupcakes from his Dad.  They were really good.  I picked DS1 up from uni (within the same city and in our bubble) and had a lovely day.

Looking forward to next year I think my overpayment allowance will be £7,866.  Which is £655.50 per month.  If things go well I am hoping to save some of it in a savings account and pay some of it on the first day of the new year.

Porridgecat

I keep telling myself I should print off some squares for the same thing, especially as I like being able to see progress in a visual way. I might do a multisegment caterpillar and colour in a segment a payment creatively.

Poppycat1

@Porridgecat I like the idea of a caterpillar much more creative than my block of boxes, maybe next year.

No more overpayment will be made until at least the 25/02/21 unless I get a windfall.

Some frugal things that I have done:
*  I went to M&S on the way home from collecting DS1 from uni last week and got 3 packets of heart shaped crumpets reduced to 45p a packet, 2 loaves of oaty bread reduced to 44p each, and 4 bagels reduced to 56p.
*  I collected a Too Good To Go box from Morrison's on Sunday with guess what?  4 loaves of bread!  3 Hovis wholemeal and a Hovis 50/50.  It also had some Polish dumplings and 4 small tubs of brazil nuts.
* I downloaded the My Waitrose app and saw an offer for 13 editions of Spectator for free and it included a £10 Waitrose voucher.  Must remember to cancel when the 13 weeks are up.  I will buy Waitrose basic range with the £10 voucher which I find good value.
*  At the end of last week I noticed that one of the arms from my new sofa is broken, it should be straight but is now leaning to the right.  Also the fabric has become bobbly.  I went online today and sent some pictures to the company I bought it from and asked for my money back.  It wasn't an expensive one, around £400 but I still expect it to last more than 5 months.
*  PA surveys - £4.79.

I made a vegan 'meat' stew last week and eventually we got around to eating it today.  Made dumplings to go with it.  My son thought it was Christmas, raved about them and tried to steal mine, lol.  I have left overs so have promised to make dumplings again tomorrow.  He didn't really like the vegan 'meat' part of it so next time I make it it will just be vegetable stew.

Porridgecat

I think I'm going to go for a caterpillar and make each segment a £1000 so 26 segments so 1 for 1 month and then 2 the next, but it might motivate me to find the interests well to overpay each month so I can colour in two. 
I think you're on a big winner if you have a child who likes vegetable stew. 

Poppycat1

Yes @Porridgecat I suppose I am.  He likes a lot of root vegetables that I'm not keen on.  I made more dumplings to go with the left overs from yesterday and we had that tonight.  I have one portion left and I have made two dumplings to go with it.  I offered to put it in the freezer for another time but he wants it again tomorrow.  I have taken a Chinese curry and rice out of the freezer for tomorrow for me.  We still haven't had our pancakes, just waiting for him to get off the phone to his father.

I'm a little worried that I may be included in the extra that need to shield.  I have a lot of food in but will run out of some things.  I will wait to see if I get a letter.

Apart from eating frugally and earning 88p on PA I haven't done much towards my mortgage overpayment today.  I'm only doing 1 wash a week at the moment and that was done today.  May have to postpone the Smol delivery which will save a bit.  I bought the Lidl's own teabags last time I went because I thought I was running out, I had a unopened box of 160!  I tried the Lidl's today and although I can taste the difference I like the Lidl's own make, so 91p saved each time I have to buy teabags and also wont need to go to Sainsbury's to buy them.

I still have some gooseberries to use up so more crumbles to make tomorrow.  

Off to make the pancakes, lemon and sultanas for us.

Porridgecat

I also like the Lidl teabags. They come onto the weekend specials quite regularly and I buy six boxes to keep me going. 

L9XSS

Well done on your overpayments, your making fantastic progress!