Washing Away My Mortgage & Debt by 2035

Squirrelz92

Well, first day back at work after a week of and boy do I regret taking the last week off before month end. That plus we are in budget season for the new fiscal year so I have that much work on the go I probably shouldn't have taken a week off. On the plus side it allowed me to all of the Christmas shopping/wrapping and storing so that's one less big job to worry about. Aside from work I can essentially 'chill' once home. This naturally included the usual cooking/cleaning up/walking and feeding of the dogs and studying before bed time 😂 Yep, plenty of chill time rammed in there!

Eldest squirrel is attending his second training session this evening at a new football club after his most recent ream sadly having to fold due to lack of players. Its apparently normal for the under 13's category to struggle with finding players due to their age and them working out what sports they want to partake in long term. Such a shame as it was a great squad with so much potential! Hopefully after a few weeks, he may get signed up to play for this new team and then we are back to our Sunday's being swallowed up with to-ing and fro-ing to matches.

Pooch 1's joint medication arrived today alongside a litre bottle of salmon oil for him and pooch two. He is starting to struggle out on walks after 30 minutes or so. No pain, just persistent limping because of his arthritis. He is 11 now and hoping to have a few more years with him so I shall do what I can to keep him comfortable and on the move. Vet says regular works to keep him active so both dogs are taken out for a 40 minute walk at 6am and then a slightly shorter walk after tea. Definitely not having a problem getting those 10,000 steps in.

Debt wise, my monthly DD of £409.09 came out today leaving me with an up to date balance on the MBNA loan of £7,079.22 after £52.22 of interest was added back on. Booooooo! No spend day today as I took soup and an orange to work. As per usual, I ate the orange but didnt take a lunch break so the soup has stayed in the office until tomorrow.

Squirrelzz x

Squirrelz92

Well, an unplanned £51.05 has been spent on Am@zon over the last 24 hours on essential winter cycling gear for the two mini squirrels. 2 sets of mudguards to prevent the never ending surge of filth from being splattered all over their school coats and uniforms, two bells and two sets of rechargeable front and back lights.

Work is becoming slightly less stressful now month end is almost wrapped up. However, it shall be back to getting draft 2 of the budget ready for submission and further costings for development opportunities with existing customers.

Two lots of school Xmas fayres tomorrow and Friday. Not a huge fan but may have to go just so the kids don't miss out. Not that they require me in order for them to attend ... shall probably cramp their style if they plan to meet up with their friends anyhow.

Squirrelzz x

[Deleted User]

Informative and interesting thread. I love the detail ! Your mortgage payment seems very reasonable. What is the outstanding mortgage compared to the current value of the house? Do you have any savings apart from the emergency fund?
Best wishes.

Squirrelz92

[Deleted User] said:

Informative and interesting thread. I love the detail ! Your mortgage payment seems very reasonable. What is the outstanding mortgage compared to the current value of the house? Do you have any savings apart from the emergency fund?
Best wishes.

Afternoon @[Deleted User]! 

Thanks very much for reading Yes I was lucky to tie in for 5 years in Oct 2022 at 3.56%. My outstanding mortgage balance is currently £87,953.77. My house is currently valued at £147,500.

Savings wise I have my S&S ISA with £2,712 in there. Contribute every month to this but this shall not be used until early retirement plans kick in. Once debt is paid off by July next year (fingers crossed) all spare funds shall be thrown at adding to emergency fund  

Squirrelz92

Well today has been productive! Dogs for their long weekend walk early hours followed by a bit of winter cleaning. Ended up scrubbing my stairs skirting and the bannisters of god only knows how much filth since I last felt motivated to do it 😂

With my eldest taking a trip with our local Army Cadets for a weekend of rifle shooting and stake out's in the woods, me and my youngest spontaneously decided to do some baking. It has been so long and it was very much needed. I opted to make my Terry's chocolate orange cheesecake and Squirrel 2 decided on chocolate Christmas biscuits. They came out beautifully and also opted for decorating with piped icing and festive sugar sprinkles. Looking forward to trying it all later after our venture to the corner takeaway for a cheesy chips each as a treat


Studying for APM is going as planned. Surprisingly enjoying the syllabus so far (I know I will be taking that back very soon) as it is all so very relevant to my current role at work and it is relatively easy to apply a lot of this to scenarios I have already come across in the job. Exam is booked for the 5th March. 12 weeks and counting. They sure do fly by so quickly when you are trying to prepare for an exam! 

Everything looking moderately healthy on the finances front and should definitely be able to make my minimum target overpayment to the loan of £250 this month as things stand at present.

Squirrelzz x

Sarahwithlove

Good news about being able to make the Overpayment, keep my fingers crossed you are still able to. 

Squirrelz92

Happy New Year! 🎉

Normally I am one for coming up with these 'reasonable' resolutions to kick start the year, but not this time. Sure I would love to start eating clean or join a gym and promise myself I will go three times a week, but it will dry up come week 3 in January and it will leave me feeling more deflated. So, instead I have decided to continue my streak of 1-2 daily dog walks totalling 10,000 steps minimum and to also try and post on my diary every day. I have been feeling alone for a while and I think writing on here even if it is just for my own reading and benefit, will make me feel less so. My other reasonable resolution for this year is to get 2 more ACCA exams out the way and under my belt. With only 4 to go until I am fully qualified, I am getting tired and want to be done with them. Currently studying for APM and sitting this in March. Hopefully shall bag myself a first time pass even though it has the lowest pass rates out of them all After this I shall have to sit the next in September with me being on a family holiday at the next exam week sitting in June. 

Ok, so a jiggle about with the finances for this period (22nd Dec - 21st Jan) and I have the following outlook for the month:

Income - £3,174
Expenditure - £1,851
Residual funds - £1,323
Spent so far since 22nd - £222
Remaining balance until 21st - £1,101

May have to do my monthly finance reset on pay day here as otherwise it will get a tad confusing. Pay is 22nd of each month. All bills/DD's/SO's are sucked out of this and into their own pots. The only funds that are left in my account are for me to do what I want with for the remainder of the month. This includes reno work, adding to EF, overpaying my debt and my mortgage. Lucky for me, I am stingy when it comes to spending anything other than what I need to. Without a question in my mind, all I think about all day every day is saving as much of my money as possible until payday eve so I can then have the enormous pleasure of divvying it up to wherever I want it to go. 

Before Christmas I decided I wanted to free up as much money as I could (being the holiday at £200 a month and my loan DD of £409 a month). I decided to make the most of my 0% interest money transfer deal and pay off my MBNA loan in full, saving me £38ish a month in interest. This balance is now on my Tesco CC. Only have to pay back 1% of the balance each month (roughly £75) which frees me up a good few hundred pounds. With this being 0% interest my goal has now shifted to smashing the crap out of my mortgage. I also paid off the remaining £400 left to pay on the holiday using my leftover disposable income from the 21st Dec (payday eve). This has now freed me up another £200 a month both this and next month. 

I have joined the 2025 Mortgage Free Wannabes thread and set myself a goal of overpaying this year by £4,000. That equates to £333.33 a month consistently. I definitely know I can do this and it gives me excitement just being able to plug in these payments to my spreadsheet and seeing where it will get me to by the time I have to find a new deal in Oct 2027. 

My son's monthly mobile sim has been cancelled due to his behaviour so that £15 has already been reallocated to my mortgage payment pot each month going forwards. With working from home over the Xmas period, I have yet to spend any of my £160 budgeted allowed for fuel so I have transferred the first weeks allowance across to the mortgage pot too. Ontop of this, my own mobile bill for this month is a £2 credit due to me finishing my 3 year contract and requesting a sim only deal for much cheaper to pinch the pennies, so the £15 it would have cost me this month will not be needed. This too has been reallocated to the mortgage pot So far so good.

Squirrelz92

Just cashed out £12.11 from Prolific which has been placed into my mortgage overpayment pot  

Mini squirrels are begging me to take them to McDonalds for their tea as it is not very often that we get a takeaway treat with me always holding the reins tight. I feel there is enough movement in the leftover disposable income to treat them to one so we shall have that for tea.

I made a big batch of stew yesterday and had a bowl last night. 6 further portions divided up into tupperware for us to have over the next few days for lunch or tea. Naturally the mini squirrels aren't too thrilled as it 'contains excessive vegetables' ... typical! Either way, my eldest had some with me last night and said it was lovely so I shall only have to persuade DD to eat it at some point!

Squirrelz92

Back to work yesterday after New Years Day off. We didn't do much. Went for a long woodland walk with the dogs early morning to beat the people (and dog) rush. I enjoy the peace and quiet outdoors, so if getting up earlier beats the countryside rush then its well worth the hour lost in bed.

Work is also lovely and quiet this time of year. Everyone on annual leave and left no projects for me to complete over the holidays. Have been trying to keep myself busy up until now. Had a mountain of costings land on my lap that I have been waiting for so its finally time to get stuck in to something!

Midget squirrels are still making the most of their time off and somehow sleeping in until past lunch time! I wish I could do that! It's almost a talent! I can barely make it past 8am without needing to get up and start the day!

Still waiting for my DD mortgage payment and my first overpayment of the year to hit my account. Must be playing catch up still!

In other news, my partner has finally decided after much continuous poking and prodding that he can not afford to go on holiday with me and the mini squirrels this May after all. Ruddy annoying as I have paid off my 2/3rds of the holiday already so the £1300 balance is all his. I shall now have to pay this off myself on a CC as I naturally didnt budget for it and try and get my Mum or my sister to go with me. Truth be told, it is almost a relief that he cannot come as we no longer live together and the idea of then having to live with eachother 24/7 for a week in a foreign country would drive me mad. Blessing in disguise? I shall be booking our 2026 holiday for just me and my children I think as I would rather not have the worry or stress looming again for another 18 months. 

Squirrelz92

Well God just seems to want to give me one hell of a ride in 2025! After attempting multiple times to try and make my relationship work, unfortunately it has been decided that its time to give up the ghost. Me and my partner have drifted very much apart over the last few years in pretty much every aspect and an incident occurred yesterday which allowed me to put the final nail in the coffin for me and what I need in my life going forwards. Luckily for me, I feel as though no emotional damage has been incurred and nothing will change around the house as 95% of his things had already been removed from when we decided to live apart. Financially nothing will change. Only annoying thing is having to fork out an extra £1300 for the holiday place that will now no longer be used. Hoping I can rope my mother into coming with us, although I can already hear the speech now about how expensive it is ...

Living alone again these last few months with the kids has made me realise how much I missed being the sole adult in the household and how much I have missed being able to have full control again over everything that goes on in my life. I need control and find it very difficult to let go of the reins and share. I have done very well the last 5 years but the last 18 months it had become especially difficult. I definitely feel as though I will be much happier by myself and will probably never voluntarily go looking again for a relationship.

We have been having persistent black outs on our street thanks to Electricity North West. My next door neighbours delightful ancient burglar alarm would not stop screaming for hours because of the cut off, and then some more once the power came back on and needed resetting. Nightmare when your bedroom is right next to the blasted thing outside and its 1am Must say though, I enjoyed the complete silence and darkening of the street! Almost wish that we could have one blackout day a week where nobody can use their TV's/phones/internet and you can all light candles and transport back into the olden days.

Work is going well. My costings projects finally came in so I have had my teeth sunk into those the last 2 days. Another month end complete and power-point put together ready to present to the SLT next week. Studying is dragging a tad, but with working late and dealing with personal matters, I am not being too hard on myself. Luckily I am enjoying this module and so far its not too difficult to understand. It all lies in the application of knowledge to the scenarios given in the exam.

On the list for today: 
- Walk the dogs
- Get another quote from joiner for kitchen skirting boards and folding doors
- Hoover and mop (really need to find a mop that collect dog hairs, not smearing them about the house after hoovering)
- Get another load of washing done
- Do I fancy washing a window and sill?
- Study
- Cook tea (sausage and halloumi wraps)
- Create list for weekly food shop tomorrow