Auntiemicmic's MFW Journey

auntiemicmic

Hello! I'm new around here!

This month, something has gone off in my head. I have decided I want to retire at 60, if not earlier if possible and I certainly don't want a mortgage after I'm 50. I've watched my parents struggle most of my life. My dad just turned 60 and can't afford to retire for another few years albeit he is now mortgage free. My mum will be working well into her 70s. I don't want that for them or me.

Mortgage value as of today £168461. Current MF Date is Jan 2055. My plan is bring this down to 2037 -  whole 18 years early. I want to be MF for my 50th birthday!

I have 7K in savings which is my emergency fund. Until last week I had nearly 1K on a credit card which I was being stupid with and not paying off in full and I was just adding interest so that is now paid and the account cancelled. 

I will be looking into how I can get more for my savings going forward.

I have spoken to my mortgage company and swapped my direct debit which was going out monthly to weekly standing orders and added a little more to each payment but essentially chipping away more often to help reduce the money that can have interest added to it. On top of this I get regular bonuses at work, of which I will be assigning 50% to my mortgage.

My partner is fully on board with getting rid of this mortgage as quickly as we can and living a little more frugally for a few years if we can. His earnings are far lower than mine so he will continue to pay day to day living expenses whilst I concentrate on bashing this mortgage. 

I am writing this to keep my accountable!!

Zerforax

Best of luck!

redofromstart

Good luck with your plans, those early overpayments give such a positive return. 

auntiemicmic

Bit more of an intro into me and my (our) current position. I am 36 (37 in March), DP is 34. I am an audiologist, he is currently 2/3 of the way through training to be a driving instructor. We have 2 kitties, 6 and 12 months old and his son (DS) who comes over every other weekend and 1/2 of school holidays. We have been in our house for exactly 1 year now. When I met my DP I had my own flat mortgaged, when we decided to move in together we found our house. Flat was not suitable for having DS in due to the size so we ported my mortgage over and got a second part to the mortgage and DP put down a chunk of his savings into it so that it wasn't all my money in it. 

2 months after moving into the house my DP damaged his ankle so his income went down considerably but mine went up as I had a big payrise so it evened us out. The decision was taken for him to learn to be a driving instructor as it was what he always wanted to do and the damage to his ankle meant he wouldn't be able to continue working in the hospital as he had been. 

Fast forward to this month and I have started to really begin to understand finances a lot more and see the mortgage as a debt and not as just another outgoing so it is now being treated as such. The interest is horrifying!! As is the lack of interest on my savings account. 

This past week I have been trying to work out the best ways to reduce my mortgage as much as possible. So today I spoke to the mortgage company to better understand my position and what I can OP which is 10% on both parts of the mortgage. Mortgage part 2 deal expires in November and is currently at 4.54% ... hoping to bring this down in November to a better % rate and lock in for longer. 

I have spent the past few hours researching how to be more frugal essentially.

I currently have a strict diet due to my gallbladder being a twonk and needing to be removed, I've been spending a fortune on slimming world ready meals because they're delicious and exceptionally low in fat which is perfect for me right now. I have now found the recipes for all the meals online (and apparently on the packaging) so shopping list made so that I can batch cook some of these meals and save myself a small fortune. 

My cats are pampered to within an inch of their lives and are on expensive food (I won't feed them rubbish food), pets at home (PAH) currently have an offer on when you buy huge boxes of the pouches so I've just bought 6 boxes to keep them going for a fair while (needed buying this week anyway) and saved myself the price of a full box

I've been trying to figure out new formulas for spreadsheets (I love a good spreadsheet) to be able to really see the effect my OPs are making ... little bit more reading on this front is needed but I will get there. 

Reading lots of your fabulous diaries has really helped me today!! 

Thanks all

debtfreewannabe321

Good luck @auntiemicmic with your plans. I also had a bit of a lightbulb moment at the beginning of January. Can't actually believe how much money I wasted last year when we could have been paying our mortgage down. I'd like to have ours paid off by the time DP is 55 and I am 52 (8 years or so...it might be a bit longer but it is what I am aiming for!) DFW 321

LadyWithAPlan

I used to cook for my cats - cheaper and healthier and they love it .. - kidneys, liver (not too much) and hearts -  in water with some cabbage or greens  ... mix with biscuits and they love it.. Off bits fish etc when you see reduced...
Good to mix it up with pouches and no additives ...  I would go to the butcher and get the meat (often pigs hearts ) and  batch freeze it. 

Great you have your eye on it all. I am a recent convert to YNAB despite many years as a virtual pot, budgeter and s/sheet lady ... but ynab has taken my accountantability , ease of transactions and reporting to the next level - Watch Nick True on YT on YNAB and you can see how it works - even if you dont use it it may give you some ideas..

auntiemicmic

LadyWithAPlan said:

I used to cook for my cats - cheaper and healthier and they love it .. - kidneys, liver (not too much) and hearts -  in water with some cabbage or greens  ... mix with biscuits and they love it.. Off bits fish etc when you see reduced...
Good to mix it up with pouches and no additives ...  I would go to the butcher and get the meat (often pigs hearts ) and  batch freeze it. 

Great you have your eye on it all. I am a recent convert to YNAB despite many years as a virtual pot, budgeter and s/sheet lady ... but ynab has taken my accountantability , ease of transactions and reporting to the next level - Watch Nick True on YT on YNAB and you can see how it works - even if you dont use it it may give you some ideas..

Hello! Thank you I will pop along to youtube for a watch. I have always budgeted month to month but if I can make this easier then I will do Appreciate your comment.

In terms of cooking for the cats, I actually never considered this, certainly something I will look into because their food costs a blummin fortune because I refuse to feed them rubbish food. (Vets have always commented on them and their coats) so I know I'm doing the right thing here. 

Thank you

auntiemicmic

Thank you for all your responses, they are so appreciated!!

So it's been 6 days since I started this. I have spreadsheets galore going on, I have really looked at our finances this weekend as I've been paid so done the budget for the month ahead.

My spotify student account is now done ( I miss the savings you get as a student!!) so my partner and I have now combined our accounts saving £6.99 per month. Not much but it all adds up.

More reading into investing has been done and I am seriously considering gold and silver over stocks and shares. Much less volatile and over a 25 year period both metals have increased in value. I'm not a huge risk taker and dipping my toe is where I can start. 

Looking at my bank accounts next. Currently with halifax and nationwide, my local halifax is closing down so I want to close this account down but unsure whether to migrate everything over to nationwide or not yet. It has worked incredibly well having 2 very seperate accounts for about 15 years. 

We have invested in a bigger fridge/freezer to allow more room for batch cooking so I will be doing far more of this to keep the cost down on groceries and making it easier to have quicker meals. 

I have overpaid my mortgage by £370 today which has made me very happy. 

I have opened some survey accounts have have approx £10 across 2-3 of them now so I will keep chipping away at them when I am just watching TV or similar. 

Hope you're all doing well!

South_coast

If you like having two accounts and you're looking to close one anyway, why not see if one with a switching bonus tickles your fancy?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts/

It's really easy (I've done it loads of times) and the take care of all the paperwork and direct debits etc for you

auntiemicmic

South_coast said:

If you like having two accounts and you're looking to close one anyway, why not see if one with a switching bonus tickles your fancy?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts/

It's really easy (I've done it loads of times) and the take care of all the paperwork and direct debits etc for you

Thank you, this is what I was contemplating earlier. I don't have any direct debits going out of it though so unsure I'd be able to take advantage of the switching bonus? 

South_coast

You could always just move a couple across? More of a faff, as you need to make sure they're funded every month, but the free money might take the edge off the hassle?