Financial Freedom through Mortgage Freedom!

Grogged

Personally, all things being equal I'd always pay off the higher rate part first.
However, if one of the parts is small and can be paid off quickly, then pay that one and then you can focus all your efforts on the remaining part.
Good luck on your new home, OPs and your long term goal of warmer climes!

financialfreedomxo

The higher interest part is the part with the larger amount. However, the smaller interest part we can probably pay off within a few months if we really focus. I think I'm going to focus on the higher interest part (but still overpay on the smaller part too) because I really dislike looking at my mortgage account and seeing that they have taken out interest LOL. That's the worst thing about a mortgage for me. 

financialfreedomxo

We have now set up a regular monthly overpayment on our mortgage of about £400. According to the NatWest Mortgage Overpayment Calculator this gives us a potential mortgage reduction (time to pay of) by 6 years and 3 months and saves us £9,072 in interest.

I really can't wait to be mortgage free. I keep imagining how it's going to feel. How free we are going to be after. How much time I'll be able to spend with my kids and husband. Mortgage freedom here we come! 

financialfreedomxo

Just a little update:

Went grocery shopping yesterday and saved £6. I decided that anything I budget for like food, gas & electricity, takeaway etc, if I make a saving on it, it's going towards the mortgage.

So £25 (my weekly overpayment) and the £6 saving have all gone towards my OP and to round off my account I added an extra £2.57. Here's to £33.57 to the OP. It's not a lot but every penny literally counts. 

I've also joined the 1% MF Challenge. I don't have a solid strategy for it yet but I think any savings made, any side hustle profits made, will go towards this 1% MF Challenge. 

When we bought our first house, I started using the cash envelope system for day to day stuff and it reduced my expenditure greatly. There's something about taking cash out of your wallet that makes you think twice about spending the money. As such, from 1 April, I'm going back to using the cash envelope system because it has helped me make savings and not buy things unnecessarily.  I'm also going to be using my "home binder" a lot more (I'm making a new one for my new house). 

Nurse2047

well done it all adds up, i got Quidco cashback today of £30 so that went into Mortgage overpayment. Our mortgages are very similar ours is 89k currently. 

Grabs39

Well done, sounds like you’re making some great progress!

financialfreedomxo

MFW2026 said:

well done it all adds up, i got Quidco cashback today of £30 so that went into Mortgage overpayment. Our mortgages are very similar ours is 89k currently. 

It does add up. How long have you used Quidco for? I’ve never used cash back websites before but I’m going to start as I need to purchase quite a few things as soon as our renovation is done 

financialfreedomxo

Ko Grabs39 said:

Well done, sounds like you’re making some great progress!

Thank you. Some progress is better than no progress I guess lol. 

financialfreedomxo

MFW2026 said:

well done it all adds up, i got Quidco cashback today of £30 so that went into Mortgage overpayment. Our mortgages are very similar ours is 89k currently. 

I forgot to say, our number are quite similar for sure. What is your MFW strategy? Have you got any tips?

Grogged

I've only recently started using cashback sites, and whilst they are paying out, it has taken between 3-6 months to be paid.
For OPs, I round down my bank balance to the nearest £5 every Monday and save for bigger OPs. The main reason for this is because of the uncertainty during the pandemic.
Every £1 OP saves multiples of that over the lifetime of a mortgage, so it really does add up over time.