LJ's Mortgage free road to early retirement

Cazzdevil

Hi Louise, I just noticed your thread here and it seems I'm (hopefully) attempting almost the exact same thing as you! Our mortgage currently stands at £47.5K and I'm hoping to get it paid off by about 2015, I'll be 35, OH will be 44. I'll need to make overpayments of around £300 a month to make this happen.

The only thing standing in my way is the boyfriend. He's as keen as I am to get it overpaid, but he thinks we can't afford it this year with holidays and home improvements to pay for, but I want to convince him otherwise.

I'll be following your progress with interest and hopefully be tagging alongside in the progress ranks too

Carrie x

LouiseJ

Thanks for that Cazzdevil. Im sure you will find a way to convince you OH. We are desperate for a new bathroom as it is still the original 1940's one and is very ugly! But we are just going to re decorate and put some new flooring down for now as I cant stand the thought of spending £2000 ish on a new suite when we can be paying that off the mortgage.

I suppose we could all have lots of things if we didnt spend it clearing debts couldnt we? Its all about your own priorities. The £350 I intend to overpay on the mortgage could easily be spent each month on other things.

New car loan £200
Top Sky package £50
Keeping in the latest fashion clothes £100 = £350 easily, its just not for me! These things are nice but for me I prefer to know that I am securing my families future and paying as least interest as possible to the mortgage company.

Cazzdevil

Likewise. We're just about to buy a new car (someone smashed into our old one just before christmas) but we've saved up to buy one with cash, I don't see the point in taking out credit for one when we're paying enough interest on the mortgage as is!

I'm hoping that once we can start making the overpayments and the money is allocated that we won't miss it. It should work out very well, my wages go into one account which covers all bills + the £300 overpayment, which leaves the boyfriend's wages in another account for everything else

I'll be sure to post back if I manage to get going with it xxx

Cazzdevil

Ideally, the mortgage will be paid off mostly/completely by the time we get round to having kids. Fingers crossed.

LouiseJ

OK I have seen that I was really overbudget on the spending front for last month.

So my budget for February is:

£200 Food Following Grocery Challenge again and lots of home baking!
£23 Work (I will take a flask in for the days I need to buy tea & DS can take £1 instead of £2 on the day hes at college, he only buys junk anyway! OH wont take a flask or stuff to make his own coffee as he says by 3pm the coffee is cold and discuisting and if he makes his own he will have to make for everyone in the office. So he will be taking £1 a day for 5 cups of coffee.
£200 Petrol I really dont know how to get this down but will try to drive more efficiently.
£15 Takeaways Can we allow ourselves One??
£100 Meals/nights out/drinks in house We are already going for an Indian meal after the Moz gig and OH will still be going out once a fortnignt, will have to cut down on drinks in the house. Cant seem to find any really good deals on lager at the moment.
£8 Lottery I know, but youv'e got to be in it to win it!
£68 Bottled Gas This is for our central heating and is the cheapest supplier.
£24 Guitar tutor He visits once a fortnight and our son is progressing really well.
£24 kids pocket money They will only get this if they remember to ask for it and they are definately going to have to help around the home more!
Total Spend £662 If I can get it down to this I will be happy!

Cazzdevil

To skim a bit off your meals & nights out budget have you checked out the freebies/discount vouchers/grabbit boards on here? There's loads of restaurant vouchers on there and the freebies board always has free cinema tickets going begging. Might be worth a try, my boyfriend and I quite often get free trips to the cinema from it, not always the big blockbuster films but free entertainment is never a bad thing!

Jorgan_2

Hi Louise, do you really need to spend £115 on takeaways,nights out/drinks in the house? I thought I did, but since OH has been unable to work due to health reasons, we've surprised ourselves with what we can go without. I stopped drinking in the house back in October, I told OH I was trying to loose weight (very plausible) but in reality it was down to cost.

As for takeaways, try something from your supermarket, if its Indian/Chinese/Fried Chicken takeaways. They aren't as good as the 'real' thing, but they are half the price.

PS. Morrisons are doing deals on lager this week and some of Aldi's stuff is very good.

taxi73

You are doing really well and this is a very interesting diary.It must feel so good knowing that you are chipping away at the mortgage and I can't wait to be doing the same myself from April. So I've been reading these diaries with great interest.

financialbliss

LouiseJ wrote: »

I have shocked myself when I have analysed our January Spending

Hi LouiseJ, Good stuff on the analysis. You beat me, probably by some way... I'm currently working through bills to give a breakdown. I use Microsoft money, but while this can be a useful tool, it's only as good as the info you put in.

For example, mrs bliss went to asda the other day and spent 96.95. Previously, I'd have tagged the whole amount as "food - groceries", but for bills since the 1st Jan, I've been going through them with a fine tooth comb to analyse the spend areas. Unfortunately, this also takes longer.

So, what was actually spent was: magazine 1.00, clothes for #1 child 9.00, clothes for #2 child 2.00, clothes for mrs bliss 14,50, wine 6.98, wet wipes 21.00 (on offer - not a typical weekly spend), nappies 3.97 and food was a mere 38.50.

So, I'd say, analyse the spend, try and keep to a budget, try to reign in the high spend areas, but also be aware we're in it for the long haul. Many of us here are wanting to clear our mortgages in 4, 5, 6 or more years, so the odd treat such as a meal out or take away every so often isn't such a problem - well all in my humble opinion anyway.

Thanks again for sharing that with us,
FB.

setmefree2

Hi all,

It's really interesting seeing other peoples spending figures (sick or what:rotfl:)...

I have a massive spread sheet in Excel which I've been working on for 5 years in May. I have just spent the last half hour updating it as it's the end of the month. I have yearly variances which show how I have beat down the spend of the previous year (hopefully), So my shopping bill is down from a whopping £508 per month to £397 per month. This is everything food, cleaning, toiliteries, booze etc. If nothing else, these days, it highlights that there is no more slack in some places:p but it also serves as a sort of confessional - there is no hiding from the figures...Confess all
....there was a lady on spendaholics who was spending about £4k on coffees per year, so I'm sure you are doing ok;)