Lolu's Mortgage Free odyssey

misslolu

They weren't delayed @killerpeaty I was just being impatient haha. Unfortunately, my sofa arrived on Saturday with a small tear on the arm. I called for a replacement but I felt a bit weird getting a replacement for such a small tear and thinking about all the packaging that I was going to receive (again) made me cringe. I decided to just get a partial refund and put a bit of tape over the tear so it doesn't ger worse.

I've now moved all big things from my parents' and probably have just about 1 big suitcase's worth of clothes left that i'll take in about 2 batches, then that's me fully moved out 😦. The house is really coming together nicely though. The cleaner cleaned my fridge out so I was able to buy more food. I've stocked up on the heavier things from the shops too so I only need to get fresh veg/bread as and when I need it. I've only got 1 box left to unpack, plus a room I need to tidy before everywhere is spotless.

Then finally I need to choose a dining set, receive my TV stand and paint the second bedroom!!! After that, i'll be having a small housewarming with my family which i'm looking forward to! I'm so exhausted from doing DIY for the past few weeks, my body is absolutely not liking it one bit. If I can get everything else done this week (except for the dining set & painting) then I'm done for the year haha!!

misslolu

Just one week left of the 0% purchases on the credit card and i've overspent by about £1000, that includes a dining table and chairs i've selected but not quite ordered yet!! I'm waiting for the refund on the sofa to come through which i'll pay straight off, as well as some other small refunds. I just realised that to pay off the card before the end of the interest free period, i'd have to pay at least £270 a month in repayments (ouch) whereas i thought i'd be at only £200. I might just stick to a comfortable amount and hope there's a good balance transfer card when it ends. I can definitely see how easy it is go into debt if you're not disciplined, i'd like to think that my purchases have been reasonable (except my dyson oops) and i'm £5000 in the hole in just 2 months.

But, i've finally kinda got myself together enough to make my first overpayment, wich will be the grand total of.....£23.96! I read on someone's diary how they used to do tilly tidies into their mortgage account every day, it seems like a tiny amount but if you're putting £1-9 a day into the mortgage you can easily shave off £££s a month with relatively no pain. Unfortunately, my mortgage provider, which is supposed to be tech forward, doesn't do automatic overpayments so to save myself the hassle, I'll be doing tilly tidies every week and paying that into the mortgage. 

So after my first mortgage payment, with interest of £900 😭 , I have a £192,040.09 remaining on the mortgage, then with the payment it will be £192,016.13, so i've almost dropped down my first £1000 barrier.  Woooo! The journey seems long, but looking at other people's diaries has given me inspiration. A lot of them aimed to be mortgage free in X years and managed it in X-5 or even X/2 years. I just need to keep plodding along!

misslolu

For some reason I’m super excited that my monthly payment has dropped by the massive sun of 8p! It’s minuscule in the grand scheme of things but I’m just thinking about how that’s 8p more going into the principal payment every month and how every new overpayment I make is going to increase it even more.

misslolu

Another Friday another overpayment (Fully aware that it's now Saturday. I've got a bit carried away yesterday since I went out and forgot that I was supposed to overpay). I managed to squirrel away £47.32 in surveys from prolific and onepoll, onepoll takes a while so that's not going to happen again for a while. So in the meantime i have to hope yougov or some of the others I do come through. Obviously I still do my tilly tidies so the minimum overpayment is 1p but ideally i'd just take a tenner in that situation so the mortgage person isn't laughing at me when they're reconciling their accounts.

That overpayment brings me down to 191,992.77!! So i'm down my first thousand already, just 191 to go hahaha. I opted to reduce my monthly payments again so I'm down to £862.42. I always make sure that when I over pay, I add the reduced monthly payment to it to make sure i'm not reducing the payments at all. At the moment I prefer reducing the monthly payments to reducing the term because my monthly payments are actually quite high and I'm very wary that if I did lose my job, any benefits I received wouldn't cover it. If i can get it so my mortgage and bills are £1k i'd be a lot more secure in myself.

Chiglepig

misslolu said:

That overpayment brings me down to 191,992.77!! So i'm down my first thousand already, just 191 to go hahaha. I opted to reduce my monthly payments again so I'm down to £862.42. I always make sure that when I over pay, I add the reduced monthly payment to it to make sure i'm not reducing the payments at all. At the moment I prefer reducing the monthly payments to reducing the term because my monthly payments are actually quite high and I'm very wary that if I did lose my job, any benefits I received wouldn't cover it. If i can get it so my mortgage and bills are £1k i'd be a lot more secure in myself.

That's my rationale too, @misslolu. Our monthly payment is currently £715 with out the regular monthly payment, down from £782 originally, and an extra OP next month will mean another recalc. It will still finish early, but the lower the monthly cost the easier it is to ride out changes in income.

misslolu

@Chiglepig looking at some diaries over lockdown really brought this home for me. I'm single and know for a fact i'd have no family help available to me if I did lose my job. I also did a worst case scenario check on benefits i'd be entitled to and it only came to £800 😭. I have 2 months (essential) expenses saved so far, but i'd really be screwed if I was out for more than 4/5 months. 

I haven't quite worked out how much I need to overpay to get me down to £800 a month but I have a feeling it's probably in the £15,000 range. Only £14,930 to go!

South_coast

£800 a month seems high for a benefit payment? I was on Jobseeker's Allowance for 3 months last year after I got made redundant and I was only receiving £74.30 per week (also a single-person household, so no-one else's income was taken into account)

powerspowers

Oh gosh Lolu, nearly unpacked! Well done you and keep going on n the OPs, I think bringing down the payment is a good idea 💡 

LadyWithAPlan

That OP idea of reducing your monthly payments is very wise. When I finally get my mortgage then I think as a single woman who will have a monster mortgage I will follow you even though the term dropping looks more motivational. 

I guess one can then just change the term on a refi once you feel comfortable. 

killerpeaty

Have you purchased the dining room set? Just thinking that if you are worried then you could put it off for a year to get into a more comfortable position.

It's very scary to be owing so much, I'm not that far from you in that department. I am however exceedingly lucky to have family who has come to my aid when my car broke. Unfortunately things break all at the same time!