Single gal balancing my way to mortgage freedom!

South_coast

Whoop, whoop - that's a start and a half 😂!

frankersBri

Thanks for the wishes everyone! It's feels good to start paying it off, and this big payment has come out a bonus from work I got at the start of the year. 

@Peaches113 Thanks for your comment! I'll have to look at the small print of my mortgage to check... Worth looking into for absolute worst case, but I think I'd like the comfort of easily accessible funds as well.

@Mortgagefreegonnabe I'm not expecting to be doing big OPs regularly! I earn a good salary, but I also am single and want to maintain a good balance with clearing this mortgage and maintaining things I enjoy like dining out and holidays. Travel is one area I'm really cutting back on, having been lucky enough to go on some incredible trips around the world, I'm trying to focus most of that spend into the mortgage. I'm hoping to OP £4k by the end of this year (including this big payment), with the rest likely to be regular smaller OPs. However, I do need to sit down and work out if I can pay off another lump out of my savings, whilst remaining liquid enough for an EF where I'd like it to be. 
Still haven't got my mobile app working.. For some reason the app won't recognise my mobile phone number to do the authentication to prove I am who I say I am. Gonna have to try and call them in the week... But Logged into online banking today and can see that OP on there and that is a GOOD feeling I could get hooked on!

frankersBri

Today I have tried to start a habit to ensure I keep the OPs ticking over. On Mondays I have a routine of updating my budget in YNAB, so as part of that I have decided to round down by current account balance to the nearest £50 and send that money to the mortgage. Another £19.43 OP today.
Hopefully it's a habit I can maintain, adjusting if I feel like the £50 round down value isn't doable (or my YNAB budget tells me it's not!). Could lead to another £80-150 OP a month I reckon. 

So alongside the OP goals, I'm also trying to do some work on the house. Having lived here for 4 years, balancing priorities and compromising with a friend on decor/what to spend money on was a challenge. But we did some good things! We installed a new boiler last summer, my Dad and I renovated the bathroom when we moved in and our spare room is painted and has nice new carpets. Which is good, as that's where I'm living at the moment!

I'm in the process of renovating my bedroom. Thought it would be a good thing to do during lockdown, plenty of time to brush up my DIY skills. Didn't factor in my lack of motivation though... I had a great time removing wallpaper, ripping out a built in cupboard, pulling up the carpet etc. Just finished sanding the walls (plaster is ok.. some filling and rebuilding of corners was needed) and most of the glosswork. Ready for a white wash to see where I missed and do another round of filling and sanding! I'm looking forward to getting onto the painting tbh!
One challenge is the floor. I pulled the carpet up to find mostly lovely floorboards. Not too many gaps, good condition and the original stone hearth from the fireplace that used to be up here; house is ~90 years old but not many features so this was a nice find! But there's a couple of bits that need fixing, namely in one corner where at some point someone just cut a @30cm piece of floorboard out. This was previously in the cupboard, and I didn't notice as they had put lino and carpet over the top, but there is a massive gap now. Hoping to be able to fix it with another floorboard, but I think I may need to pull the skirting board to get access to the joists.. Definitely pushing my DIY skills and one I shall be consulting my Dad on via the phone later this week! Hoping I can fix it and get the floorboards in a good state so potentially I don't have to get a carpet. We'll see..

Also working on the garden, but I'll update on that another time!

Mortgagefreegonnabe

Oh no that sounds a bit stressful! Can you 'pay' yourself to do the job as motivation? Then it could be another OP 😉

frankersBri

Mortgagefreegonnabe said:

Oh no that sounds a bit stressful! Can you 'pay' yourself to do the job as motivation? Then it could be another OP 😉

That's a good idea actually! One of my colleagues is doing that to get his chores done and I thought it was a little silly, but if I could do the same and make small OP's as a reward maybe that would work. I couldn't afford to pay myself a living wage though

Just signed up for Prolific as so many fellow people on here seem to use that to fund small OP's. I'm going to do the same, and earmark any future Quidco earnings in the same way too. Every little helps!

josephine82

Hello! Just thought I would say hi, I am in a similar position to you, single gal, with a similar value mortgage. I'm pretty savvy with my finances, have a reasonable salary and savings, live a fairly comfortable life but want to ring fence a proper emergency fund first (starting with £5k goal) and then start working on overpaying with the extra cash I have left over. Hoping to make my first OP in August or maybe September! 
Josephine x

frankersBri

Hey @josephine82 thanks for dropping by 🙂 We certainly are in very similar positions! EF is one of those things I've always imagined by savings are for, but have never really ringfenced it. I've decided £7k is the buffer I want to keep, and I should be able to hit that with what I have saved already and some from this month's pay. Good luck with your journey; I hope you get that first OP late summer as you have planned!

Speaking of which, I am due a bonus from work this month. Given the current economic climate I thought they may defer it but I had it confirmed yesterday it will be paid next Friday 👍 So next weekend I'll be jiggling things around and may be able to make another decent chunky OP.. well, I'd like to spend it on a holiday or something more fun, but an OP thrill may be the best I can get atm!

Sistergold

@frankersBri
Hey there. Just found your diary. I will be cheering you on
xx

frankersBri

Thanks for dropping by @Sistergold!

Yesterday I almost forgot I had come up with the plan to round down my current account balance and send it to the mortgage. 11.30pm in bed and it came to mind, so I sent that £38.93 right over 

I also had a box of old DVDs and books picked up that I've sold to Ziffit. Only £20.20, but when that comes in it's going straight to the mortgage. And has an added benefit of clearing clutter that has just existed gathering dust/in a box for a decade!

Today I had confirmation of my bonus from work; it's a chunky one so I'm hoping to make another decent lump sum payment when it arrives on Friday. It is addictive this OP malarkey isn't it! I'm not sure how much I will take home as I can't work out income tax, NI, pension, student loan repayment, but should be enough to add the missing bit to my EF, and make a decent OP of around £4k, which should take a half year off the term!

It will feel good to do this; I'm really enjoying being in control of my finances and this reward from work has been appreciated as there is lots of change/stress at the moment. 

I also had a good chat with Dad yesterday who has helped convince me I CAN fix the missing floorboard in my bedroom, so that will be a task for this weekend. I'd say one evening this week but I'm working long hours so I like to relax once I do finish for the day.

South_coast

Hi frankersBri, you probably won't have pension deductions taken from your bonus (although they will take student loan), so if you multiply your bonus amount by 0.59 (if you're a basic rate taxpayer) or 0.39 if you're higher rate that should let you know how much you'll get - I can never bear the suspense (although sadly bonuses are a distant memory) so I have to work it out 😀! 

6 months off in one hit will be amazing!