Mortgage free by 40-wishful thinking?!

caeler

I’ve paid a couple of ERCs as like you I wanted the mortgage gone (eek past tense!). For a long time I didn’t want to over pay, just build up the savings but by doing that I could choose the best time to overpay a chunk being clear on the ERC owed. I was with Nationwide so could do 10% OP each year and I was on a 5 year fix so it started at 5% ERC reducing to 1% in the last year. 

family355

Brilliant plan if you could get it paid by the time your eldest is 7. From my experience by the time they are in juniors, is when they start asking to go to activities, days out, toys they really want etc 

I agree swimming is a life skill however at such a young age, taking them to the swimming pool yourself and getting used to the water/water safety is just as useful! You will also be amazed how quickly they will pick it up on a weeks holiday! 

£1k this month is fantastic! Well done 🙂

eternal_sunshine

family355 said:

Brilliant plan if you could get it paid by the time your eldest is 7. From my experience by the time they are in juniors, is when they start asking to go to activities, days out, toys they really want etc 

I agree swimming is a life skill however at such a young age, taking them to the swimming pool yourself and getting used to the water/water safety is just as useful! You will also be amazed how quickly they will pick it up on a weeks holiday! 

£1k this month is fantastic! Well done 🙂

Yes this is what I’m thinking,at the minute my two year old is very content playing with her toys and going to the park etc(just as well as options are limited with covid lol) but it would be good to have the extra money for when they are older and are making all sorts of demands!

eternal_sunshine

Signature updated as the 900 finally went through! I have started obsessively checking my banking app to see if overpayments have gone through-there seems to be no pattern in how quickly they are updated-first OP took five days,second took two and this one took six-frustrating! 

My husband is paid four weekly in each of his jobs but the way it falls means he is paid every two weeks-I like a payment as close to the end of the month as possible because then it’s easier to keep the money safe for all the direct debits coming out on the 1st of the month. We were doing really well this month but then in the last few days there were lots of spends(some nice food treats as things had opened up,electricity,food shopping etc) so now we are very tight for money and will probably have to dip into my wages (which is currently statutory maternity pay). 

I always feel like a failure when I can’t stick to my goals,I don’t want to dip into that money because it means I have less money to go towards my emergency fund/overpayments etc and that frustrates me,but needs must I guess.

my virgin bill has gone way up as I am out of the offer period-last year I phone them up and was able to get a new offer that was only a few pound extra. This time they would only discount a few pounds so it has gone up by around 15 pounds a month and comes out at the end of the month so I forgot about it until I saw the direct debit-currently using some form of text bot to change the date to the 1st but I’ve been trying since yesterday and still not getting too far!

I have my pregnancy anomaly scan today so very anxious about that,thankfully it’s this morning and not this afternoon but I am going alone as we have no childcare (I had to do this with my last baby too) but I’m just really scared of getting bad news and then having to drive home by myself :-(

eternal_sunshine

Anomaly scan went well thank goodness so that’s one less thing to stress about.

another 100 off the mortgage today (well technically 106.09 as I was trying to cover the ERC which in hindsight I think I have overcalculated but I will class it as 100 anyway). 

A lot of outgoings/unknown expenses in the next few weeks so don’t want to overpay too much too soon this month and leave myself short. Hopefully able to use my whole wage at the end of the month to overpay which would make it around 700 for May but if I can push it on as close to 1000 as possible then I would be really happy.

eternal_sunshine

Tuesday is my 35th birthday which means that from then I have exactly 5 years to clear my mortgage and hit my goal. I have to say it feels so far off in some ways and so soon in others. I definitely think i have bitten off more than I can chew but I would rather have a tight target that I don’t reach than a really easy target that makes me complacent.

as a family we just really need to try and cut down our food bills. Lack of organisation,pregnancy cravings and my husband working shifts some days leading to late night takeaways is definitely not helping that! 

FtbDreaming

I’m glad the scan went well. And Happy Birthday!!!

I agree with you in every way. I work shifts which means takeaways inbetween and sometimes after depending on how tired I am and if DP has fed the kids a proper meal. Everything opening up has cost me a fortune too, I just hope we get used to the new old life lol. I’ve adjusted to lockdown spending so all these normal spends have seriously depleted both my banks. (I was keeping £300 float in each and now they’re almost gone) and it makes me anxious too if I’m not meeting my targets. 

5 years is doable... you’ll have so many people rooting for you on here and even if things change and you have to extend your target then every little overpayment helps xx

eternal_sunshine

Thanks @FtbDreaming -I actually just got all caught up with your diary yesterday,you’ve been through so much lately and are doing great-good for you! (And I’m not at all jealous of your lovely kitchen plans,honest! )

yes I can feel myself getting anxious about normal spends starting again-not so much for me as mine won’t change too much but for the kids. I obviously don’t mind as it will be good to get them back to classes etc but I have been used to living on a lot less money for the past year and so having to dip into it is definitely going to be an adjustment!

FtbDreaming

Aww thanks @eternal_sunshine! 

Yes the school spends are back. That’s reminded me I have 2 trips and a bus fare to pay for 🙄. It’s weird because now everything is opening up I’m in the house more than I was before lol. X