I wanna be mortgage freeeee!

Flossymuldoo

Loan now stands at £16652.81 🎉

I need to have a think about how I track mortgage @savingholmes . It would be nice to see the total going down rather than just seeing the piddly amount I'm overpaying at the moment. And I’ll probably track from when I became a MWF.  When I’ve figured out to add a signature! 😂

Flossymuldoo

£5 Amazon voucher cashed out from surveys. Added to my Amazon account then then £5 paid off CC. Paid the interest from chip so Just £40 left on it now.
I’ve got £30 in Amazon vouchers to cash out from another site but my account is “under review” as it’s the first time I’ve cashed out from this one. It’s been 4 days so far. Was hoping to add Amazon account before my subscription pet food delivery (and then pay £30 off the card from spending account) but it’s gonna be tight as I think it ships in 3 or 4 days.

This weekend I plan to trip to Lidl to get the bits that are cheaper there to shave a few quid off my groceries. Just have to hold my nose and turn my head the other way as I walk bast the bakery 😬

savingholmes

Well done on the free money 

Flossymuldoo

Thanks @savingholmes.

Managed to cash out the £30 so that means my pet food will be free this month.  However, my budget is looking a bit iffy. I’m also £40 down in my bank account versus my budget so will spend some time tracking that down tomorrow.

I have also decide to pay private for a consultant appointment rather than wait. It’s been 3 months since the referral and I know that’s not too long, but the Dr marked it as urgent after a recent untrasound and things are just getting worse. I was told to expect a long wait because of covid backlog but I really can’t carry on as I am. It’s really starting to impact my quality of life now. The downside is that I also probably need surgery and that costs about 8k. But, as my husband keeps saying….. one step at a time.  

So I’m a bit mopey at the moment as things don’t seem to be going to plan. But I think it’s just the pain and discomfort talking.

savingholmes

I think you should always prioritise your health and quality of life. Living in pain and worry - when the delays could be shortened by paying private - doesn't makes sense. It's frustrating though I'm sure

Flossymuldoo

Thanks @savingholmes, I totally agree.

The cost of the inevitable surgery will hamper my financial plans a little bit, but I’m planning on getting a 0% purchases card to pay for it so I can keep my money on the bank and earn some interest. I think the surgery will be around 8k so 4% interest for 24 months is not to be sniffed at.  Saw one on Experian and it’s pre-approved, just just need to figure out the timing and I’ll know that more once I’ve seen the consultant mid July.

Other than that, spending budget has been going so-so. Still needs a bit of tweaking as it’s still a bit tight for my liking, so will increase it by £100 per month. Then I think it should be almost there.

I’ve also had good fun with a spreadsheet (oh how I love a spreadsheet!!!!) calculating my mortgage payments based on a few possible interest rates when my deal runs out. It will help me figure out what I should reduce the term to match the monthly payment that’s manageable.  I want to get the balance right between reducing the term to allow me to pay as much as I can, but not tie myself down too tightly incase my financial situation changes.  I can then still overpay up to my yearly allowance.

Payday in a week where I can pay my next chunk off the loan 🎉

savingholmes

Sounds like a lot of juggling. Health is worth it though.

Flossymuldoo

I can’t quite believe it’s been so long since I was last here.  I’d like to say that time
flies when you’re having fun, but unfortunately there’s hasn’t been as much fun as I’d like!

The not so great stuff is that I had my op last October, took some time
to recover, was straight into surgical menopause which was hell on earth, my teenage son went feral and has been determined to self destruct, then hubby needed spinal surgery.  Our mortgage deal ended in Dec so took out a new fixed deal so unfortunately my mortgage payments have gone up by £250.

The plus side is that both our jobs are going well, we’ve both had a couple of decent pay rises, I have been really diligent with my budgets and with some good financial jiggery pokery (despite spending 9k for my surgery!) we’re probably in the best financial shape we’ve ever been in. 

I managed to get 0% finance for my surgery which is now finished. All other debts are paid. A monthly budget that is working really well. So I will now be in a position to start paying decent mortgage overpayments.

My first plan is to get my deep savings back up to 20k so it’s approx 6 months of bills - should we ever need it. I used some to get the last of the loan paid off so that we could start 2025 debt free. It stands at 15k at the moment so I need £5k to top it up.

After all bills are paid and money allotted for food/fuel/personal spends we are left with around £2.5k per month. It will be distributed as follows:

£900 holiday fund (this is probably over generous so some may be used
for other leisure activities such as gigs or for the house etc. I may use some of this for
mortgage overpayments)
£500 house/car repair fund
£1100 deep savings/mortgage overpayments.

Hubby will be getting a bonus in March so that will help get the savings topped up. 

I will also scrape anything left at the end of the month into savings. So I estimate that probably  April will be the first mortgage overpayment. 

So in a nutshell, my target for 2025 is to save £5k in deep savings and overpayy
mortgage by £10k. Wish me
luck!!

Flossymuldoo

As of today:
Deep savings: £14,492.28
Mortgage balance: £157,183.78

twinklie

Oooh I’m in a pretty similar financial position. 

Mortgage is approx £168,389 - but that’s the start of December figure. So will be £167 something now. 

Savings are similar too. 

I’ll be aiming for a similar amount in savings but much less in terms of OPs in the mortgage. I’m aiming for about 1K. 

I dream of a massive OP though.