Mortgage free by 2030!

griffinsaver26

End of the month and made my final payment. Total overpayment for July was £547.91 which was exactly (to the penny!) £10 less than last month. I’ve paid £10 to make it the same! Bit spooky really, I make weekly TT’s, survey cashouts and any other pennies here and there and the overpayment was the same. Weird. That’s being a bit less obsessed than I was in June and with less payments in total so I will continue along those lines next month. Payday tomorrow but it’s £800 less than last month due to no mileage, no OOH payments or weekend enhancements and my additional AVCs coming out. So we’ll see how August goes. 

frankersBri

Great progress; well done!

griffinsaver26

Slow start this month. Got less in my salary so haven’t been able to start with a big OP, but as usual, we don’t have much planned so should be able to make some OPs throughout the month. 

It’s been a strange couple of weeks. Should have been going to Japan but instead have been at home self isolating! Feel a bit low about it but what can you do?! Out of isolation now and finally got a haircut, it was desperate! Feeling very guilty though because I’ve never tipped when getting a haircut and only just realised that this is a total faux pas on my part! I’m cringing about it - will have to make up for it next time but how embarrassing! Especially when I was so pleased with the result. My stylist must think I’m terrible! 

Beautiful day today so time in the garden to enjoy the last 2 days before going back to work.  Can’t say I’m looking forward to that! 

griffinsaver26

Wow, I haven’t updated this in such a long time but happy to say I’m still overpaying and making some good progress. I aim to bring the balance down by £1000 per month and have done that every month since I started apart from December, when I think I just forgot to overpay with everything else going on! 

Total overpayment to date £5155.32! 

Very pleased with that and will try to up my target a bit to get the mortgage balance to £110k when my deal is up for renewal in 2023. 

remote_control

I've just read your diary and your op plans sound similar to me, a mixture of selling, surveys etc, money saving. I gave up with swagbucks, I just don't get it!

I wanted to pay regularly so I have a standing order every Monday for £125. It might sound silly but I really like it.

I set myself a target to get one part of our mortgage below £100k by 31st Dec which involves OPing a little more than £500 a month. 

griffinsaver26

Well I’ve been pretty useless at updating this thread but I’m pleased to say it’s not because I’ve given up, more that I just have a regular overpayment and don’t really think much about it! I think in hindsight I probably could’ve paid a bit more with PADs and surveys and whatnot but since I started I’ve overpaid £12,733 which has knocked 18 months off the term already. 

That’s the good news. The bad is that my 2.14% fixed rate ends in April 2023 and the best offer I’ve had for a fix is 5.14% over 5 years. It’s affordable so I’ve locked it in for now but can change my mind between now and April if I want. It does mean £170 more a month which is hurting because that could’ve been an overpayment without the rate increase. If only the fix renewal had come up earlier in the year! 

Going to try and pay as much extra as I can between now and April and also save £999 for the product transfer fee. 

Tiredbutdetermined

My 2.19% fix ends in Feb 2024 and it is so miserable looking at the current offers isn’t it? If things don’t improve then I am tempted to use a 2 year fix in the hope of locking something better in at the end of that period.
Much like you, overpaying now is great financially but also mentally as I know I can afford minimum payments but it is depressing knowing the difference is your overpayment. 

griffinsaver26

I’m really unsure what to do @Tiredbutdetermined. Spoke to a couple of brokers but they don’t give advice and to be honest they just found exactly the same deals as I did with a quick search. Part of me thinks it would be best to do a tracker as interest rates would need to go up another 2.5% to then be the same as the fixed deal but then I’m scared things go crazy and I like to know what’s going out. 

I seem to have always had a bit of bad luck with fixing my mortgage. Things went really low just after I fixed for 5 years last time. Glad I’ve got a rate locked in and I can wait and see what happens over the next few months. 

griffinsaver26

Made a few more overpayments this month. I’d like to get it down to £118k for when I remortgage, which means an average £330 overpayment for the next 5 months. Should be doable although obviously there’s Christmas in there! 

Restarted the Prolific surveys and have sold a few bits on eBay. Think I need to be more focussed on that though

Still dithering on what to do at remortgage time - fix or not and for how long. 

griffinsaver26

Well the remortgage is due at the end of the month and I’ve managed to hit my target above and get the balance down to £117,300! So since deciding to tackle the mortgage and starting this diary,  that’s £14,700 overpayments I’ve made. Really happy with that! 

I’m now dithering on whether to fix for 2 or 5 years and whether to reduce the term or just continue as I am now and overpay. If I want to get it paid off by 2030 I really need to up my overpayments though, so far I’m on track for a 2035 end date which is 4 years earlier than when I first bought this house. Happy days.