Halving our income and still aiming for mortgage free!

FatJock

Sorry for your loss but following with interest. Keep up the god efforts. 

smetf

Popping back in after a few weeks break.
Been a spendy few weeks with entertainment for my niece (had a great time with her so definitely worth it) and a couple of days in London with friends of 23 years.
Been busy with surveys so that helped fund both of those a little - signed up to Swagbucks via MSE so got extra SB, £30 pending into Paypal.

Next big payout is the exam fees for first two iGCSEs for my youngest!

Worked on spreadsheet and based it on my income being 0 in the short term (as I don't know what it will be yet) and we are planning to split our excess between overpaying/ long term saving/ short term saving.
Then anything I can earn can be split the same way.
Our short term saving pays for annual costs (insurances, car bills, holidays).
Two months of not being able to overpay will boost the overpayment coffers for the next 12 months where we will probably struggle to make the full 10% overpayment.

smetf

Had another few weeks break, feels odd not doing any overpaying for now. Am just spending lots of money!

Our bathroom is halfway to being refurbished, feels very exciting after putting up with it for the last 11 years and has been super tatty for the last 6 since our construction work impacted it. We are using money specifically saved for house refurbishment but I am finding it a bit weird to be spending so much money, I don't know if anyone else finds their moneysaving habits make actually spending feel very out of character 🤣

Have secured another small job so hopefully that will help with overpayments once I can start again in mid October.

FtbDreaming

 I have been in the same position since May must have spent £5000 doing the bathroom and kitchen and finally getting to the finishing touches which is probably the most spendy part that I can’t come to terms with! It is so worth it though and I’ve got my eye on Next payday when I can start reaping the money back into my accounts again.  

As long as we acknowledge the overpayment journey is fluid we’ll be ok x

powerspowers

Good luck with the OP journey smetf! Have you checked the tax situation with reducing your earnings?  Married tax allowance might be one to look at, it’s not masses but money in your pocket if one of you is earning less than their personal allowance
https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

smetf

powerspowers said:

Good luck with the OP journey smetf! Have you checked the tax situation with reducing your earnings?  Married tax allowance might be one to look at, it’s not masses but money in your pocket if one of you is earning less than their personal allowance
https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

Thanks powers, good shout! Just had a look and not relevant for this year as I was still earning a good wage till August but looks like it might be worth it next financial year.

smetf

Happy October!
Last month of no overpayments this year (I hope) and it coincides with a very lean month as my new job won't pay my September hours till the end of October. I'm using a small chunk of the emergency funds to pay for the next two iGCSEs for our youngest but am feeling ok about that as I should be able to replace it next month and it's a good use of the money. I will wait till after the PB draw to do that though.
On the plus side it's reassuring that's all we need, as I have also got a £200 Credit card bill from last month's purchase of a new retainer for my eldest.
Need to do some work today, and update my signature as the bathroom is all done and paid for.

smetf

No PB wins here, we have a chunk of our emergency fund in PBs as we were limited in how much we could put in the credit union account we started and I always end up dreaming of a win at draw time!

Have managed, with a bit of help from another diary to work out our daily and monthly interest on the mortgage, we are currently paying £5.40 a day interest and £164.16 a month. Next month when the overpayments can start my plan is to increase the monthly payment by 164.16 and then anything over and above feels like it's attacking what we owe and gives me a bit of a boost psychologically. Looking forward to hitting the 80s as soon as possible next year!

FatJock

Great effort - We have a similar approach. Pay the monthly mortgage amount, overpay the interest (plus a bit extra) and then it feels that my actual monthly mortgage payment goes off the principle itself. 

smetf

FatJock said:

Great effort - We have a similar approach. Pay the monthly mortgage amount, overpay the interest (plus a bit extra) and then it feels that my actual monthly mortgage payment goes off the principle itself. 

Thanks, it made sense to me but wasn't sure it would to others!

Think with the much tighter budgeting this year knowing that even if we just clear off that much extra it will reduce the overall mortgage quicker, and I should be able to add more.

My September earnings have been claimed for so will get those at the end of October and my thought is to split them into 1/3 mortgage overpayment, 1/3 long term saving and 1/3 short term savings buffer, because I won't earn the same every month with sessional work this buffer can be drawn on and keep the emergency fund for real emergencies (I hope)!