Oh how to be mortgage free...

LadyWithAPlan

You are doing so well, loving all your pots even for your car final fee in 3 years. Plus all your focus on your wedding.. What kind of puppy is it? 

Yes those pesky £700 or odd pennies ruining the 00 balance are great motivation for getting even more focused.

becomingbetter

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. 

The ‘pots’ for different things have really helped us to save and budget. There are some that we never touch unless it’s for the specific reason that it’s set up for, car insurance, final payments, wedding etc. 

Others seem to get abused (like joint savings) but we’re working on that!

so the pup is a Boston Terrier- far more work than I could have ever imagined but lots of fun and keeps us on our toes. He’s 10 months now, not sure how much longer he will hold his puppy status for. 

becomingbetter

Managed another £100 overpayment this morning. 

I switched bank account to HSBC a few weeks ago and have been checking my account frantically ever since, hoping the £140 switching bonus would be there. This morning it was! 

After a bit of debating (with myself) sent £100 to the mortgage and have kept £40 aside.
We have some annual leave next week and a wedding to attend, so thought the £40 will come in handy for the inevitable coffees and treats when we go out for the day. (A guilt free coffee and cake is the best kind!) 

current balance - £158600

powerspowers

Well done on the overpayments BB and good luck for your wedding ☺️ I got married this year and bought a house- I empathise with all the pots! We were constantly going back and forth in whether we put money to the wedding or to the house fund or to OPs. It didn’t help that wedding planning was so difficult due to covid! Have things gone smoothly for you or have you had to change plans? 

mirko

becomingbetter said:

Trying to get rid of the £700 as it looks much nicer with a load of 0’s at the end! 

It will look better with a few 0s at the start

Well done on your MF journey!

becomingbetter

powerspowers said:

Well done on the overpayments BB and good luck for your wedding ☺️ I got married this year and bought a house- I empathise with all the pots! We were constantly going back and forth in whether we put money to the wedding or to the house fund or to OPs. It didn’t help that wedding planning was so difficult due to covid! Have things gone smoothly for you or have you had to change plans? 

Covid wedding planning has been tough- congratulations on your wedding! Amazing you have managed to organise and have your wedding!

We’ve been lucky and have only had 1 date (early next year) When we booked, we were hoping that 2022 would be a safe bet, I can’t even imagine having to arrange everything several times. 

But it’s been difficult not being able to visit/meet with suppliers. Just having to go off phone conversation and hope we’ve made the right decision. 

Sounds like you’ve had a busy and very exciting year so far 😀

becomingbetter

Another payday, another overpayment! 

£482 sent to the mortgage after the usual £900 monthly payment. 
Brings us to £157500.

We’ve had a bank switching spree, receiving £100 today as an incentive and have two other accounts due to switch next week. I believe one of those incentives should be paid within a few days, the other said up to 90 days! 

Irrespective it’ll be an extra £255 when they both come through.
I have one more account to potentially switch if I can get a couple of DD’s moved over. Making the most of the free money while it’s being offered! 

kaycastle

Wow well done on your progress!

When we were saying for wedding, I just kept thinking about how much more I could overpay mortgage after wedding. When is the big day?

I've found fb marketplace really useful when decluttering as well. As long as its not specialised stuff, it's great not having to package and post.

becomingbetter

@kaycastle our wedding is Feb 22, so not long to go. 

Feeling quite organised and chilled about it at the moment - everything is booked and last things to organise are the small stuff, like table plans (but can’t finish that until we get all our replies)

I actually used fb marketplace for the first time a few weeks ago and my initial experience was a good one. Much less hassle than ebay, no fees and as you said, didn’t have to make a trip to the post office. 

On the mortgage side of things, just sent £500 op to bring us to £157000.
Now that I’ve got back to 0’s at the end, I can stop obsessing about how to make it look nicer in our account! Will go back to my plan of making OP’s each month to take £1000 off the balance and keep it a nice round number. 

becomingbetter

November’s mortgage payment and OP made. £900 payment plus £389.78 OP.
Balance is now £156000.

We’ve managed to get on top of our savings the last few months too, and so far, avoided anymore large purchases. We’re torn about our house at the moment- there are some things that we’d like to do, such as main bathroom to install a shower (either over bath or possibly a separate cubicle if we can rearrange the layout) and a door into the garage from house. 

BUT! I’ve always felt this house is on the smaller side of comfortable, mostly the living space downstairs and there is currently planning permission submitted for 2 developments in the same area that we are in at the moment…. The plans submitted are for a big development, 600+ houses, so if it’s granted there will be construction for years. It would give us time to save.
On the flip side, there’s currently just the two of us in a 4 bed house that we can very comfortably pay the mortgage on…. 
It’ll probably be a waiting game to see if the applications are approved and then, ultimately, how much the new houses are marketed for before we can make any informed decisions. I’m too impatient for my own good though!