Quest for (mortgage) freedom

eat_that_frog

It's been a while since I last posted on here!

We've had an interesting few weeks. My OH got wind of a potential job vacancy with an external company working with a former boss of his...and then this week it was confirmed that his current job is safe! So there was a massive sigh of the relief in the Frog household this week.

With the redundancy scare over, we're well and truly back on the mortgage OP train again. I made an £9k OP today, using the money we'd been putting to the side in a 'mortgage OP' savings pot whilst the redundancy scare was hanging over our heads. The outstanding mortgage now stands at about £40k. We are so close to seeing the number drop into the 30s...

Frugal wins this week:
1. I genuinely can't remember the last time I bought a takeaway coffee whilst out and about.
2. Can't remember if I've talked about this before but I've really got into jigsaw puzzles since the start of the year, and I picked up 2 for £5 this week on sale.
3. Frugal meals this week: sausage casserole, meatball pasta bake, chicken green bean and pesto tray bake, piri piri rice, and yellow sticker frozen pizzas from the supermarket.

285 days to go!!!

dawnybabes

I do jigsaws every night - I collect them from charity shops! Our village has a jigsaw library too so I donate them to there after I’ve done them 

South_coast

Great news on DH's job - and a cracking OP to celebrate! Now 284 days to go 🥳!

eat_that_frog

It feels a bit unreal to be typing this. But as of the end of March 2025, 4 years 8 months and 18 days after beginning our quest for mortgage freedom...we are mortgage free!

I can't believe we are here. I can't believe we've done it. 

This has happened much much quicker than we thought/were planning. We found out towards the end of March that our bonuses at work were much better than expected, and coupled with our usual montly salaries and OP savings we were able to make a £25k OP, leaving around £15k outstanding on the mortgage.

At that point we had two options: keep plugging along and get the mortgage paid off some time around June/July. Or use money from other cash savings pots and dip into our emergency fund in order to just get the damn thing paid off, and top up the emergency fund over the coming couple of months. We decided on the latter...so we moved money around, called the building society, and boom. Gone. Just like that.

I'd love to tell you how I feel about it, but 2 nearly 3 days on and it's still not sunk in. It's not an anti-climax as such, it's just more that I haven't grasped that we've got to this point yet. It's the second time in our lives that we are mortgage free - it was different last time as we were always intending to 'move up the ladder' and knew we'd need to take on a new mortgage to afford it. It's different this time and it feels different too.

As I one day hope to share this diary with my kids when it's age appropriate to do so, I wanted to mark this milestone with a summary of how exactly we got here.

So...before I started this MFW diary:
1. Bought our first house with my OH in late 2012 and with a mortgage of £55k. We got married shortly after and renovated the property.
2. Paid off that mortgage in 2017.
3. Sold that house and bought this house in early 2019. Moved to our forever home and took on a mortgage of £250k to do so. 
4. We then welcomed our first amazing child after moving house.
5. Didn't make any mortgage overpayments for the first year or so of owning the house as we had a new baby and we were enjoying life/maternity leave/being a family of 3!
6. Then Covid happened.

And then...since starting the MFW diary:
7. Started overpaying our mortgage in the summer of 2020, around the time I finished Maternity Leave. At the time our outstanding mortgage was £240k. Covid made us realise how important it was to us personally to be mortgage free and have that financial security, and we decided to really knuckle down and get on with it. With the benefit of nearly 5 years' hindsight, this was the best financial decision we've ever made.
8. In late 2023 we welcomed our second amazing child.
9. At the end of March 2025, at the age of 36, and after living in our house for just over 6 years, and after overpaying the mortgage for just under 5 years....we became mortgage free!

I want to thank everyone who's read my diary or posted on it along the way, for the support. I also want to thank everyone who themselves write their own MF diaries. I don't often post on other diaries but I read a lot of them (even before starting our own MF diary) and have found them to be so inspirational. This is such a friendly and motivating community to be a part of, I feel so grateful for it...

KajiKita

It looks like I might be the first person to read this? So very, very pleased for you! 🥳🎉🎊 Well done! A fantastic achievement 👏 and now you have scope for new plans 😊

KK

dawnybabes

Wow, that’s amazing - well done you all 😁😁😁

debtfreewannabe321

Congratulations 🎉 how amazing! Enjoy the peace it brings to you all 😌 😊

South_coast

OMG, what amazing news!!! You really don't do things by halves once you set your minds to it, I am so fantastically pleased for you 😀😀😀! So much for the 12-month countdown 🤣! 

What are your plans now, or are you waiting for the shock to wear off first? 

RedLipstick

Haha yes, so much for the countdown! Very well done, what a great achievement!! Enjoy the peace and all the extra money! 

Mrs_Money_Penny

Huge congratulations 🥂