Alcohol free in 2020, Mortgage free by 2030?

caeler

waterplate said:

Squirrelz92 said:

Wooooo congrats on your new diary! Best of luck in achieving your goal over the next 10 years!

Thank you!  I'm already obsessing about how much more quickly I can do it.  I am currently on hold to my mortgage company to ask if there is an option to offset with our existing mortgage.  My husband is going to love the New Year's Eve I have planned, where we look at The Spreadsheet!

Good luck! @waterplate
I find the MSE overpayment calculator makes me quite obsessive seeing how much time I can knock off by making overpayments! Not to mention all the saved interest! 

waterplate

OK got my statement after paying off 10 per cent of the mortgage. We now owe £118954.79 and got in there before 1st January so can pay another 10% this calendar year. Now pondering whether to do that or keep some as extra savings until the covid situation is resolved. Hmm.

newgirly

Hi waterplate, just wanted to say welcome and good luck with the new diary and overpayments. I gave up alcohol at the end of 2018, it’s a certainly a good way of saving money which helps towards overpaying the mortgage 😁

waterplate

newgirly said:

Hi waterplate, just wanted to say welcome and good luck with the new diary and overpayments. I gave up alcohol at the end of 2018, it’s a certainly a good way of saving money which helps towards overpaying the mortgage 😁

Going sober has saved me an absolute fortune, yes indeed. I spent the savings last year on treating myself to other things eg personal training sessions at the gym, new gardening gear...this year it's all about the mortgage OPs.  I have just made my first overpayment of 2021, £1500.  So total balance is now £116,927.17 if my calculations are correct.  I've also managed to sort out setting up an online payment to the mortgage over and above the monthly payment, so I don't have to ring up and hold for 20 minutes every time I make an OP.  That makes things an awful lot easier so I will probably make more regular smaller OPs now.

waterplate

So my bank finally sent me a statement after we made an OP of £1500 and my calculations weren't quite correct, and our balance owed is now £117,677.17.  I think they may not have taken off our regular monthly payment to produce that statement so I will need to check that but I currently can't because my mobile got wet on a walk today and is currently in a bag of rice drying out.  Hopefully it will recover else that will be some extra spending, unfortunately!

I'm close to an extra £50 courtesy of YouGov which is great, and I've had many many no spend days as I'm at work full time despite lockdown, taking my own lunch and snacks, and only buying petrol really.  I've kept up my free exercise regime by doing three weights sessions a week with two friends over WhatsApp video and going for walks and runs at the weekend. I need to get back to walking in the evenings like I did at the start of January, as that was really helping me keep moving.

My husband is also trying to get some more paid work as he only works a few hours a week, and with the tutoring that will be needed after schools reopen this is looking likely.  Fingers crossed!

waterplate

I've just spent the day researching and buying camping equipment as part of my big plan to get us camping regularly as a family.  So not much money saving going on, but I can still make an OP this month out of savings which are sitting in a 1% interest account luckily.  Starting to feel like spring is here, and my weight loss and exercise/healthy living plan are working out well.  Strangely one of the things I'm finding hardest is to drink enough water!