Quest for (mortgage) freedom

Moneyfordreams

I've enjoyed reading your diary this morning - good luck with your goals- no doubt you will continue to smash them

SandyShores

Great goals!

eat_that_frog

We've had a horrific electricity bill through, which works out at just over £120 per month for Oct - Dec . We're on oil so no gas, but oil isn't exactly cheap right now either.

I'm going to give myself a separate challenge for the first quarter of this year, to get my electricity bill down  I know where it's come from, we're using the tumble dryer too much (we're toilet training a toddler so there's a lot of laundry currently) and using the dishwasher more often than we should be too.

I think we could also look at how often we're using the cooker and the stove. We light the woodburner at 6pm to keep us warm in the evenings, so we could always bake potatoes in there and do other simple dishes.

We're already good at things like turning lights off when leaving a room, not boiling full kettles etc. But I could also probably be a bit more disciplined about switching things off at the wall.

We're midway through Jan so it won't make a huge impact on Jan's usage figures, but it hopefully will for Feb and March. If we can get it down to £100 per month and save that £20 per month or so, I would be very happy with that.

eat_that_frog

Well we had a good January. I made a £16k overpayment on the mortgage, maxing out our 10% yearly overpayment allowance. The £16k was money we'd saved over the course of last year plus £2k taken from our savings. This has taken our outstanding mortgage balance down to around £155k, which I am delighted with. By the end of the year through our normal monthly payments, it should be down to £150k or so. I need to calculate the savings I've made on interest by making the overpayments...

We also decluttered 65 items from the house, mainly old cables and chargers from our spare electrics drawer. 

We also tried to be a bit more efficient with our electric usage, but won't see what impact we've made until our bill comes through for the first quarter of the year. Hopefully by using the tumble drier and dishwasher less, we'll have shaved a bit off our typical usage.

Now I've met our mortgage OP goal for the year, I'm now turning my attention to my savings goal - £30k by the end of 2023. It's extremely ambitious but the closer we can get to it, the better for when we remortgage at the end of the year.

eat_that_frog

Ok I've done the interest calculations...

In December 2022 the outstanding mortgage balance was around £171k. We were paying £299 per month interest, or £9.65 per day. By making the £16k overpayment in January 2023, we brought the outstanding balance down to £155k. We're now paying £271 per month interest, or £8.75 per day. So on a daily basis we're saving just shy of £1 a day on interest, or £365 over the year. So it's absolutely worth making the overpayment.

And because I'm a numbers geek...

When we bought this house 4 years ago, we had a mortgage of £250k, we were paying £437 per month in interest or just over £14 per day. So by making the overpayments and bringing the mortgage down to £155k, and bringing the daily interest down to £8.75 per day, we're saving nearly £6 a day in interest, or £2190 per year.

Calculating and writing it down like this makes me realise just what an impact the OPs are having. In the moment it doesn't feel like a big deal, but actually it is.

~FlowerPot~

wow! Ive enjoyed reading a few pages of your diary. You really are very inspiring. WHat a difference those overpayments have made. Really fantastic. Literally saving £1000's. I am going to get DH to do a SOA and see what we can come up with, we are already overpaying by £300, but i think we could do more!!

Flowers

x

SandyShores

Amazing overpayments eat_that_frog!!  It just shows you what can be done - and the difference it makes.  I'm feeling very motivated now

try_harder

Brilliant overpayment ..Looking forward to seeing you smash that £30,000 savings target

eat_that_frog

Hi all

I've put away £2k in savings this month. My £30k savings target for the year is super ambitious but I'm just trying to get as close to it as I can. 

Otherwise, I've not lost any weight and I've not done any decluttering but do need to have a good sort through my kitchen cupboards, a job for the weekend I think!

Hope everyone is having a good February.

savingholmes

Wow - you are doing amazing on the overpayments and the savings.