Quest for (mortgage) freedom

eat_that_frog

8 NSDs in March so far.
I spent some money getting things for the garden, including some nice hedging for privacy. Quite short at the moment but in a few years it'll be a decent height hedge giving us the privacy we need in the garden. Plus needed some bits and bobs for home that I'd been putting off.

Not overpaid mortgage yet, waiting for payday. But looking forward to chipping away at it a bit more!

eat_that_frog

I made a £2500 OP on mortgage this month, which partly makes up for the unforeseen missed OP last month. Takes my total up to £4000 so far overpaid this year since 1st Jan, I'm delighted. Ideally I should be at around £5k at this point in the year if I want to hit my £20k OP target at the end of the year, but that was always a stretch target anyway.

Elsewhere I am on 10 NSDs so far this month, hopefully can squeeze a few more in before the end of the month.

caeler

Fantastic overpayment! I’m on or around 10 NSDs too, still plenty of opportunity I’m sure! 

rugbymadfamily

Great work on the OPs! And the NSDs looking good for the month to date, I'm on 9 for the month not sure I'm going to hit my 15 by payday (25th) as rarely have NSDs at the weekend lol

caeler

Hey @eat_that_frog! The Aldi egg chair is back, pretty sure I saw it goes live early tomorrow morning!! (4 April)  Good luck this time! 

eat_that_frog

Thanks for the heads up, they'd already sold out when I got online at 7.30    ... I can't believe how hard it's proving to get a damn egg chair haha! I think I need to set my alarm clock for 6am next time!!!

eat_that_frog

Well I set myself a target of 15 NSDs in April and so far am on 8, so over halfway there now and not halfway through the month yet, result!

No mortgage OPs yet this month, but payday's not for another week. My mortgage is just over £220k now, so close to being in the £210s, can't wait to see that number go from a 2 to a 1!

Things ease up a bit for us in Wales tomorrow - we're allowed to go over into England again, first time since Xmas I believe, maybe earlier in fact. So I am looking forward to seeing our English friends again. I suspect our petrol bill will rocket for the next few months as we make up for lost time and get out and about and see people. But I can't wait!

SandyShores

Hi Eat that Frog

So close to the £100s, must be amazing.  We've just re-started the mortgage journey last year and we started in the £300's.  We are just  about to hit the £200's and I'm feeling motivated to get down to the £100's too, although it will be a a few years (hopefully four if it all goes to plan).  Love the NSDs too, we just started this week (more because I was too busy to go shopping than anything) and they've had a great effect on the food budget - might even have some left to overpay the mortgage a bit more this week.

Best Wishes, Sandy

eat_that_frog

Thanks @SandyShores yeah I love NSDs! It's such a motivating mini-target to hit each month - which I think is important for the likes of us with big mortgages which will take a time to pay off even with regular overpayments. Otherwise I think I'd possibly become a bit unmotivated. So it's important to keep motivated I think in any way you can.

Big mortgages aren't great, I started with 250k which I needed just to get up the next step of the ladder in our desired location, near good schools etc. It's a pain but I guess that's the future of mortgages now, low interest rates but high amount of debt in order to get on the ladder.

eat_that_frog

In solidarity with @caeler becoming mortgage free today, I've made an OP today of £1500.

That brings my total left down to £218k. I am so happy to have gone from the 220s into the 210s, it feels like a big milestone. And honestly 215k doesn't feel far away now either, which is so motivating.

So yesterday I was reading @SandyShores thread and I've pinched an idea, which is that I've drawn a picture of a house with a grid of 100 squares, which represents each overpayment I have left to pay until I'm mortgage free. Depending on the mortgage calculator I use online the exact figure changes, but it's around 100 overpayments anyway! I love the idea of tracking my progress visually. And I'm excited to shade off a square tonight!