770k reasons to be mortgage free

StrivingForSimple

We have a very large mortgage. We are also lucky enough to have much a larger than average household income but with my husband approaching 50, we want to put the work in to get mortgage free so that we have the freedom to spend our life doing more of the things we enjoy! 

Current approx balances Sep 2023

£526,800.00 repayment 
£243,250.00 interest only

Both at 1.19% - we fixed for 5 years in Feb 22 - yes really wish we’d gone for the 10 yr option!

That leaves us 40 months until our fixed period comes to an end. The first phase on my plan is to save up the balance of the interest only aspect so that we can pay this part off in full at this point. 

Currently it makes more sense for us to save and run our own little offset savings as we can easily outperform on savings interest rate v’s mortgage interest rate.

Worth also mentioning that this house is a renovation project that we are only part way through. We still have a long list of jobs to tackle, but we do have separate savings which should cover at least the bulk of these projects. 

StrivingForSimple

September starting position 

Mortgage offset savings   £4202.96

Current position
Mortgage offset savings   £7802.48

StrivingForSimple

How are we going to get there?

From October we have £3900 p/m allocated to this plan from our monthly budget. We also have potential for additional bonuses and commission that can go towards this goal. 

The possible variables are that could positively or negatively impact us in phase 1 are -

• Husband starts a new job soon, will mean some changes to income, pensions etc. but also possibly different travel / time away 
• We’ve two teens - one who likely will start uni during this time, the other who may or may not get in to a grammar school for 6th form- we need to explore alternatives as a back up. We do have savings to cover some of this stage of life so depending on what choices are made, this may give us an extra lump sum to throw at the mortgage instead
• Cars - we are looking to make changes with these so we have something suitable for our older teen to learn to drive in (only a few months away). We’re exploring also swapping out our larger car for an EV which DH could use for his commute- I’d then share smaller car with teen. We don’t buy new cars and we don’t borrow money for car buying. We would only do this double swap out of cars if we have enough value in both our current cars so we don’t touch our savings- it looks like we will be able to do this but I need to do some research on and cost up an electric charging point for our home as it’s not a straight forward install
• Work- I’m not currently working. Had to take an extended period of time off work due to an injury. Am now mostly recovered but would be unable to return to same type of role. Currently volunteering part time hours for a charity so between that, kids and house renovations I’m kept quite busy but having a second income again would certainly help move us towards our goals more quickly 
• House renovation - we have quite a bit saved for this but it’s rather an old property = money pit! 

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary 

savingholmes

Good luck on your journey. Hope you find a suitable job soon. That's a scary sounding mortgage but good if you have the income to sustain it. 

StrivingForSimple

Thank you beanielou and savingholmes for the encouragement

StrivingForSimple

I’m at that point in the month where whilst don’t want to wish life away, I am looking forward to payday! 

Current account still looking healthy atm which I’m pleased with. Our groceries costs had been increasing quite a bit between my lack of meal planning, a round of covid for the household and having the teens home constantly eating over summer break. 

Have really pulled this back this month and have gotten food costs back down to a much more reasonable level. 

I’m hoping that we’ll end the month with a surplus in the current account which I could send straight to the Mortgage savings account. We do still have one variable with this as have DH’s car having some work done at garage this week. Have some money put aside for this so hopefully they don’t find anything else wrong with it.

StrivingForSimple

I have made two small transfers today to the mortgage account. 

£1.19
£10

These are what I think of as ‘purchase savings’ where I’ve shopped online around for a better price/ used a discount code/ downgraded on something I’ve bought or sometimes I even choose to skip buying something to save the whole amount. I then transfer the extra straight to savings account so we can benefit from my extra ‘work’ on these small savings against our budget. 

StrivingForSimple

A bit of an unexpected quiet day at home today. Was due to go out for lunch but have my son home poorly so a very frugal lunch of homemade soup from the fridge instead. I’ve also cooked up some potatoes that wouldn’t have lasted much longer, which we’ll now use up in next couple of days.

Have tackled some tasks like giving the dog a bath, had some parcels collected and shredded some paperwork. 

Dog grooming dates have now been booked in until end of January - feeling quite organised with this one!

I’ve also listed some items to giveaway. We’ve been moving a lot of things around the house due to the current renovation task - a bathroom being replaced - which has led to a temporary loss of our main storage cupboards. If it’s not needed, it doesn’t have a home here! 

StrivingForSimple

Having a home based frugal weekend. Started the day off pulling apart our window vac for a deep clean. I’d been thinking it might need to be replaced as it was really grotty and playing up a bit but seems to be working better now and looks almost new again. Really pleased to have avoided both the waste of binning this one and the expense of a new one. 

Then had to nip to town to run a few errands and get sons haircut. Walked in to save on fuel/parking and to get a little exercise. 

Bought myself two items from a charity shop as I’m rather in need of a few warmer tops for autumn/winter. I buy most of my clothes second hand as I just hate the waste of the fashion industry. I don’t tend to buy a lot as I prefer to have a minimal wardrobe but I haven’t shopped much at all since prior to the pandemic and I’m started to feel I look a bit of a mess. I’m going to put a little effort into creating a capsule wardrobe over the next few weeks to smarten myself up a bit. 

Stopped in at the bank on my way home to swap out two old pound coins I found, for current ones. Transferred that plus £4.67 of interest from a savings account to the mortgage savings. 

Now having leftovers for lunch and catching up on the washing that I’ve not been able to do this week due to having the builders and plasterers in the way of the washing machine. 

Dinner will be another frugal one at home with the kids before my daughter heads out to some friends for the night. Doing a tomato and pasta dish to use up some rather wilted basil. Planning our first roast of the season tomorrow so have some bits defrosting for that. Also going to make an apple crumble (I’ll double this up and put one in the freezer) so I may prep that this afternoon to save myself a bit of a job tomorrow. 

Hoping to also list 5 clothing items for sale - mostly outgrown teen clothing, clean the main bathroom and wash some sheets - with the remainder to wash tomorrow. 

Current position
Mortgage offset savings   £7820.34

savingholmes

Operation declutter/giveaway sounds in full swing. Well done. I feel so much better having let stuff go this year. Plenty more left to let go of though.