I have a spreadsheet and I have a plan!

Changemylife

Starting a mortgage free diary seemed utterly impossible 12 months ago. I was a broke single parent in a houseful of teens and animals, with too much month and too little salary.

A very bittersweet inheritance paid off my £30,000 debit and for the first time in my life I have savings accounts actually earning interest.

And I have a plan. A very fluid plan, with lots of ifs, buts and maybes thrown in, but I’d like to be mortgage free in seven years.

I’ve currently got a £83,000 mortgage with Nationwide on a 3.69% rate till 2027. I can pay off £18,000 a year till then.

November 1st is the start of a new year of overpayments and my goal is throwing as much ‘free money’ at the debt as I can, by October, with a view to topping up whatever I can pay to the full amount with savings.

I have a spreadsheet and I have a plan!

Changemylife

A bit more about the free money. I had a debt free diary many years ago and picked up loads of ways of making extra cash from those boards.

So the free money I will be throwing at the debt includes:

Chase cash back
Monzo round ups
Monzo cashback offers
Market research payments
Consumer Pulse vouchers
Interest from a holiday pot
Nectar points
Asda cash back
Tesco Clubcard
Boots points
Vinted sales
Quidco cashback

I’m also making a small overpayment each month to round up my mortgage payment to £700. I’m hoping to clear at least £200 a month with this lot so a target for the year of £2400.

Changemylife

And my last post for now – putting the challenge in context. I’ve been a solo single mum for ten years with no financial support from ex partner. So the last decade has been tight.

While I want to clear down the mortgage, save into my pension and generally invest in my future, after years of living on a shoestring  I have a long list of essential spends on the house. Plus I want to travel, I want to go to gigs  and I want to treat my lovely kids.

Plus Teen 2 and Teen 3 are soon likely to be off to university and thanks to my relatively low salary will get a chunk of the student loan, but I’ll need to top them both up. And there’ll be two years when they are both at uni so I’m expecting any savings in food/energy bills to go straight out of the bank into theirs.

So it’s about balance. And not knowing what the world is going to throw at you. And living life a bit now while preparing for a more comfortable future.

Plus I owe the people I inherited from a lot – to spend the money wisely, but to also spend it meaningfully.

Looking forward to the doing, now I’ve done the planning. Less keen on the spreadsheet!

Sugarplump

Welcome. 
I love a spreadsheet, I have one too and can't stop myself from playing with the numbers.

redofromstart

Happy new diary, and good luck with your journey

South_coast

We all love spreadsheets and plans here, so you will fit right in 😀😀😀

Good luck with making it happen x

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary!

Changemylife

Thank you all for the welcome. I still have slight impostor syndrome on this board but looking forward to reading about all your experiences!

It's a slighty spendy weekend as I'm off away with friends for the night tomorrow. It's only taken us 20 years to plan a trip!

I'm trying to hit £100 in my pot before I transfer it over each time. 
So far this is made up of an interest payment on the holiday pot, some round ups and a bit of tilly tallying. So halfway there.

I'm also a sucker for a beauty advent calendar so am selling some bits that I don't want. First £11.50 coming from Vinted this weekend. The other bits are being used rather than kept for best and Teen 3 is getting a bonus present of the things I think she'd like. 

Christmas shopping has started in earnest - I am the Queen of the Bargains - so looking for the best possible deals for the teens to treat them. So far so good!  

It is amazing the freedom to plan having money gives you. And to buy a bargain rather than having to wait until the cash comes in. Bear with me while I get over the shock!

Changemylife

First overpayment made of £100. A mixture of interest, Vinted sales and round ups so I've not really felt it! 

Plus another £30 in the pot as a friend gave me petrol money for our trip away I wasn't expecting. Lovely break too and didn't spend too much so I'm feeling refreshed and have had a fab catch up.

The round up payment on the mortgage has gone through as well so £146 in total. Another £55 and I've hit my goal for November. I may keep it lower for December but I don't need to pay the water so that's an £80 saving. So maybe I'll sneak that across. Very excited to be adding it to the spreadsheet. 

Had a long chat with my mate in the car about the 7 year plan. It still feels strange to talk about money in a positive way. 

Sarahwithlove

That's a great start to the overpayments. I always find December to be an expensive month. So maybe save the £80 and see if you need to dip into it over Christmas and if not then send it to Overpayment after. 

Changemylife

Thanks @Sarahwithlove I'm hoping for about £200 of market research payments for projects that are booked in so I may put half that aside too.

Luckily I have a back after pay increase in November's pay packet so that will help with Christmas- will be about £400 extra.

I'm upping my pension payments from 12-15% this month too - which takes up most of the increase.

I've got about £100 in Asda rewards and about £80 in others to help out with Christmas too. But it always ends up being a very spendy month.