Finally! Planning a mortgage free future.

M4dsen

Excited to be sharing this and I've thoroughly enjoyed reading other people's journeys. Last year, I purchased my dream cottage and I'm now in a position to start planning a route to becoming mortgage free. Here's the current figures:

• Outstanding mortgage balance: £159,863
• Remaining term: 23 years 9 months
• Fixed rate: 2.19% expiring July 2027
• Current monthly payment: £718

I thought about making regular over payments, but a quick crunch of the numbers suggests I might be better off making regular savings into the highest interest account I can find and then throwing those savings at the mortgage when my current term expires (still figuring it out).

In an ideal world, I'd like to put an extra £500 a month towards the mortgage. I'm fortunate in that I have relatively low outgoings and a decent salary coming in. Could do with plugging a bit more into my emergency funds, so I'm also working at that. Some months, £500 could be tough and there's always the concern that my car may need replacing! Still, it's always helpful to have a bit of accountability and to share the journey - hence staring this thread.

Really looking forward to keeping up with other people's progress and learning from the experiences shared. Thank you for reading!

skint_spice

Good luck with your journey to MF!

LeighofMar

Congratulations on your dream home and sounds like you have a good plan for becoming mortgage-free.

Zerforax

Congrats and good luck!

With a mortgage at 2.19% and easy access saving accounts available at 4.5-5%+ you are right in thinking its better to save now and repay at the end of the current term rather than overpay immediately.

Also handy since you can see it as a safety fund in the meantime (if the car problems get worse) while earmarking it for the mortgage overpayment.

M4dsen

Thank you for the welcome and the encouragement! Zerforax, exactly what I thought on earmarking the funds for mortgage but having them accessible in event that urgently needed.

In process of opening regular savings accounts with Nationwide to take advantage of the 8% regular saver (and the £200 switch offer). Also got a few more months to go with my First Direct Regular saver (I had to take a break on paying the full monthly £300 as have had car service, cam-belt, home and car insurance, heating oil (phew!) to shell out for over last three months), so maybe I’ll do some catch-up payments where possible. 

Am really watching the day to day spending and that’s helping. Honestly used to haemorrhage funds with poor planning of meals and general disorganisation. I cancelled stuff like Audible and Netflix because I don’t really use them. This is the first month that I’ve set myself a budget for all groceries and fuel - I’m trying very hard to stay within these and I’m enjoying the challenge. Can’t say I’ll always keep up this level of dedication to being so mindful with my money, but if I can pave the way for putting aside the £500 a month then that would be awesome!

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary 

M4dsen

Bit of an update on the position. I got paid on 27th, so there is now £1,000 in the over-payment pot. I had hoped to add more to the emergency pot too this month, but my daughter will needed help with her uni rent payment this month. Bit of a pain, but on the flip side I'm glad to be able to help.

October's efforts to save broadly went really well. Here's what worked and what didn't:

What went well

• Noting 'no spend days' on my phone acted as motivation to do little things which added up (make my own lunch for work, eat leftovers etc.)
• Using a separate account for grocery spends so I had a clear picture of what was left.
• Getting a trial offer on some dog food (think it was 60% off), so that saved around £40 on the month's pet food
• Getting my partner on board with my efforts (we have very similar money mind-sets) so we were pretty disciplined about what we did

What didn't go so well

• Found myself running low on motivation towards the end of the month and I broke the groceries budget. I've set aside a bit of additional money as an injection at end of this month if needed.
• I gave myself absolutely no budget to do / get anything fun. I'm less likely to stick with the resolution to save thoughtfully if it's miserable, so I've set something aside for nice stuff now.

More soon! Hope everyone else's journeys are going well!

beanielou

You do need a wee fun budget 

M4dsen

Jumping in with a very quick end of year post to keep myself motivated and hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

There is now £2,000 in the over payment pot, so I'm very happy with that. There are a number of expenses coming up in the near future (cat needs a dental, car needs a service and possibly some minor work), but it's also work bonus time at end of February. I've earmarked any bonus towards some work which needs carrying out in the house, but I'm trying to see that as an investment. If there's anything left over - great!

One thing I'm definitely, definitely going to do is have another alcohol free year. I decided to have a booze free 2023 and have used an app called Nomo to track this. As a (ahem) conservative estimate, I reckoned I was spending about £20 per week on alcohol prior to quitting. As of today, it's almost £1,400 saved So, yes. That's almost three months' of mortgage over payments and when I think of it like that, I'm not even tempted to drink again.

Right. More soon! Happy New Year to you all and thank you for all of the inspiration for the journey!