Simple, sustainable and slow: Glenda's MF marathon

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I've been lurking about the mortgage and debt-free boards on here for a while, so decided it was time to start my own diary
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Background: after a few rocky years due to kids and illness, I'm now in possession of my own home (finally, in my mid 40s) and a shiny year-old mortgage with a 25 year term. As I'd prefer to be without mortgage payments into my late 60s, I've started OPs. I'm the main wage earner for my little family, the mortgage is in my name only (DH covers part of the household bills), and I don't have a huge amount of cash to spare. Hence the theme of simple, sustainable and slow (much like my RL exercise routines :rotfl:).
Simple: I started with a regular £37 monthly OP (rounding my monthly DD to £800), and after a year I have now upped this to £850. I'm topping it up with weekly TT, aiming for around a tenner a week. If I can find more spare in my monthly budget I will up this again.
Sustainable : rather than throwing everything at the mortgage (much as I'd like to), I'm also building up my emergency fund and have savings pots for home maintenance, holiday spending, Xmas and birthdays. I've also cleared my CC and overdraft and do not intend to get into any more debt if I can possibly help it!
Slow: One year on, and if I carry on with the current OPs my mortgage term reduces by about 3 years. I'm not going to be able to pay it off quickly without some major windfalls. So the aim of this diary is to keep me focused and accountable as I slowly chip away at the total.
Will be back later to update my plans for the rest of the month
.

Background: after a few rocky years due to kids and illness, I'm now in possession of my own home (finally, in my mid 40s) and a shiny year-old mortgage with a 25 year term. As I'd prefer to be without mortgage payments into my late 60s, I've started OPs. I'm the main wage earner for my little family, the mortgage is in my name only (DH covers part of the household bills), and I don't have a huge amount of cash to spare. Hence the theme of simple, sustainable and slow (much like my RL exercise routines :rotfl:).
Simple: I started with a regular £37 monthly OP (rounding my monthly DD to £800), and after a year I have now upped this to £850. I'm topping it up with weekly TT, aiming for around a tenner a week. If I can find more spare in my monthly budget I will up this again.
Sustainable : rather than throwing everything at the mortgage (much as I'd like to), I'm also building up my emergency fund and have savings pots for home maintenance, holiday spending, Xmas and birthdays. I've also cleared my CC and overdraft and do not intend to get into any more debt if I can possibly help it!
Slow: One year on, and if I carry on with the current OPs my mortgage term reduces by about 3 years. I'm not going to be able to pay it off quickly without some major windfalls. So the aim of this diary is to keep me focused and accountable as I slowly chip away at the total.
Will be back later to update my plans for the rest of the month

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Trip hazards: impulse spending, especially on requests from the kids. I work full-time, so it's tempting to spend on fun activities at the weekends. We have loads of free entertainment options, so I need to make better use of them.
Status report:
Mortgage £166,037.20 / £171,000
Emergency fund £1620 / £5000
to 8% (which my employer matches), so next year I'll think about splitting it - good plan
Kat: it feels like very slow progress! Bit if I can find an extra £50 a month, I'll be OPing 1% of my mortgage over the next year. It's s start!
Next pay day will show my increased mortgage DD but the pension changes don't kick in until the month after, so no idea what my take home pay will look like (maths, not my strong point).
Now at £46.20 OP so far this month
Will think of cheap and cheerful party ideas for the weekend as we are hosting Eurovision :beer:.
I hate the week before payday. The less spare cash I have, the more I want to spend.
Every time I op'd, I thought to myself, "I'll not be paying interest on that - ever again" :j
Confession time: budget has had to be tweaked due to a slight overspend ... on our Eurovision party :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: