£70k - 2 years and counting - NOW PAID 08/04/22!!!!! 14 November 2019 at 11:28PM edited 9 April 2022 at 2:45PM in Mortgage-free wannabe 127 replies 12K views

MrsLovely

Well, our final 2 and a bit years is in sight. After being a member on this site since the financial crash in 2008, and subsequently forgetting old logging in details, feel the need to document the next couple of years. Every day I read and read stories of mortgage free wannabes and relish the day my turn arrives! So, with new log in name and password saved, I can't wait to see those numbers go down.

A quick summary of figures to start me off:

Outstanding as of today - £70, 793
Nationwide mortgage, 5 year fixed rate 2.09%, due to end Feb 2022.

So that for me folks is the date my mortgage free life shall start!! Feb 2022. I really can't wait. Whilst I should not grumble at all, work is tough and every day feel exhausted. So the day I own every brick in my gorgeous (to me any way!) home, will be the day I can, if I so wish, get a job which I skip off to, part time of course.

Anyway, I will return over the weekend with a fuller post about life as it stands now, financial goals and everything else which drives me and my husband to get rid of this debt!! until then..... :j

Hettyhound

Best of luck, you are so close. Glad I’m not the only one fantasising about how my life may change with all that extra money I’m currently handing over to the big corporation (although I am very grateful they lent me it in the first place to get a home )

MrsLovely

Thanks Hettyhound for the well wishes! You are most certainly not the only person fantasising!!

MrsLovely

So bit of background.

We moved into our forever home in December 2010 with a mortgage of £160k. A huge sum for us and our incomes back then, and tbh had we have applied for this sum 6 months later, would not have been able to borrow that much. For the first few years we did not make any overpayment at all, but whenbre-mortgaging we would always reduce term and increase monthly payments to as much as we could afford. That decision has certainly helped get have here we are now. But it was not easy. With 2 small children, husband working nights and out 7 days a week with kids activities and working, it was all a bit manic.

At one point, about 3 years ago our debt, on top of our mortgage, reached £30k. At the time was relaxed about it, but we were constantly in our overdrafts. Never really told husband how much , but he knew we had 'bits and bobs' to pay off!!

In the last 3-4 years we have unfortunately had a couple of deaths in the family, but with the legacy money left to us, cleared every penny of the debt and threw every other penny at the mortgage. We are not fussed about fancy cars on finance. Making such big overpayments now means over time the mortgage was coming down loads each month.

Daily interest is £4.05 and I am able to make another £10k overpayment on 2nd December, bringing outstanding balance to about £59k. To say I am excited about making that transfer in onlune banking is and understatement!!

I'm a spreadsheet fanatic too, so track how future payments go down. Sooo addictive!!!

LeighofMar

It is so addictive, you're right about that. I know you must be so excited to see those numbers come down. I will be dreaming along with you until it's my turn

MrsLovely

Thanks LeighofMar. It becomes an obsession for most I expect as it means a significant change in lifestyle. For me it's the possibility of quiting full time exhausting jobs. I see you are from the states, not sure if working life is the same as the UK, but here the relentless pace of workplaces, even in goid companies, is pretty demanding.

[Deleted User]

Wow I will be cheering you on! We have £86k to go, and will be receiving some inheritance soon. Our goal is to be MF within a year, using both the inheritance and some extremely frugal living.

I will be following your journey with interest, good luck xx

MrsLovely

Thanks asparklyblonde! In total we've probably put about £25- £30k of legacy money as overpayment between this and last year. the daily interest we have saved has gone down from about £6 per day to now £4.05. Seeing each month it coming down faster is so motivating. when we first moved into this house it took 3 months just to go down to the 'next £1k' , it seemed sooooo slow to shift.

Between 2008 and 20016 i was only reading diaries in the debt free wannabee forums. there i learnt i was not the only one struggling with debt. Back then, I could have only dreamt of being where we are now.

This year, work issues came to a head. Made me really poorly indeed and I just could not continue. I kept going though, battled through it, and with some clever moves, left with a bit of financial help!!
That also helped us on our mortgage and debt free journey.

Now, we have no debt, savings for a rainy day, plans to be mortgage free in 2022, and last year was the first time in donkeys year we had 2 abroad holidays (an extra year for a couple of pants years!!).

Don't get me wrong, while finances seems so much better now, i still now remember the money shuffling, debt, all monthly wages being allocated to paying off debt, and 2 weeks into the month having nothing left.

Well will never go back to those days.

MrsLovely

Sitting here, sunday evening, dreaming of our next pay dates. Husband gets paid on 20th Nov, on 2nd December I can make part of my 10% overpayment this year, then on 9th December I get paid. Can't wait to shift money about and see the overpayment hit the account. With My mortgage provider it's great as I can daily log in.

My overpayment year starts on 2nd December I can actually overpay £15,280. But for now will just pay £10k of that. The rest of the years overpayments will come from frugal living, monthly savings, and drip feeding the mortgage account. If I can make a further £5280.00 overpayment before the end of the 12 months I will be so pleased.

We have 2 DS's. One (DS18) is at uni, so expensive in his first year, and other DS15 and like a his food, clothes etc etc ��!!! I am 44, DH is 52.

I should stop dreaming, but husband is also as focused as me now, so we chat every day about being mortgage free!! sooo glad others are here on this thread. We don't chat about it with friends as they'd think we're obsessed!!

Happy working week all...
Here's to Friday!
Mrs Lovely x

LeighofMar

"For me it's the possibility of quiting full time exhausting jobs. I see you are from the states, not sure if working life is the same as the UK, but here the relentless pace of workplaces, even in goid companies, is pretty demanding."

Oh definitely. For us, it's a little different as we are self-employed but yes, you are spot on. My DH is 15 years older and wants to semi retire doing what we love, restoring old houses. But the recession set us back so much. Now we are finally doing our first flip venture and hope it goes well. So a paid off mortgage is an integral part of our future plans. Like you said, quitting the exhausting bits and getting to the good stuff

Now to just handle the obsession in the meantime

MrsLovely

Well had quite a spend weekend unfortunately. Visited DS at uni, and as expected took DS1 and DS2 plus DS 1's uni flat mate for drinks and dinner out. Dinner out was courtesy of Mr T's cl#vcard vouchers, so had £112 meal for 5 for just the cost of our drinks, so only £22 spent!! love a bargain!!

Unfortunately the rest if the weekend ended up trawling shops ensuring our poor student son had all the bits he needed. He's having an amazing time but still miss him so much �� whilst he's away. DH does too. Well, we go8ng do it often and boys were able to go in all the stores they love. So 2 happy teenagers. Not looking forward to my bank account text message in the morning with all the debits going out!! Will reign it in for next couple of weeks to rest the bank balance.

Got 1 week to go until the 1st December!! Next mortgage payment goes in, by the 2nd the balance is updated and then my £10k overpayment is going in on the 2nd too!! I have worked out daily interest goes down from £4.05 per day to £3.37 per day!!! Amazing!!! Just to see the balance show £59k will be so lovely. I have worked out that by Aug 2020, by just making normal payments I will be down to about £54k, and so if I can find £4k, by Aug should be down to .......SUB £50K ....OMG!!!�� Woop woop!!

Anyway, can't get too ahead of myself as need to remember that I'm at almost £59k. Just over one week to go. Will jyst busy myself by reafing all your diaries instead and count down the days!!!