2008 MFW newbies

violetblue

That's just it SPL, so many people I know aren't bothered about getting a good deal on things they buy - it's a case of "seen it, want it, bought it"!

Part of the fun of shopping for me is in saving a few quid and feeling like I got a really good bargain. I've saved quite a few people money by finding them a better deal online, then finding a discount code for even more money off. And I've tried introducing them to the joys of Quidco, but the reply is usually "it's too much hassle" - don't think they believe me when tell them I've made almost £400 this year from Quidco alone! Hmmm, maybe I should start charging for my services as a bargain finder, and take a percentage of the money saved as my commission. Ooh, then I could also offer to make the purchase for them... go through Quidco... buy it on my cashback credit card... hey, this is starting to sound like a very good scheme to me! More money for mortgage-busting! :rotfl:

Dithering_Dad

our buildig society lets us have any overpayments back whenever we have a need for them. With this in mind i am putting all money onto the mortgage except for isa money as having it in the mortgage has a bigger impact than any of the savings acounts i have found.

Although I'm sure everyone knows this already, it doesn't hurt to repeat it. It's always worth keeping a couple of hundred quid in an easy to access account for those little cash flow problems. While you can get money back from mortgage overpayments and ISAs it can sometimes take upto 3 workings days (or more). Even my offset account takes 3 days for the money to come out.

It's a pain because you want all of your money working against your mortgage provider, but better to do this than start using credit cards.

Daft_Pegasus

violetblue wrote: »

. No-one I know can understand why I am so excited to be overpaying my mortgage!!

You've come to the right place here to find people as excited as you. Equally a lot of them/us seem to be as excited for you to pay off your mortgage early as they are for themselves.

Saying that I know exactly what you mean. My friends all think I'm weird wanting to pay it off ASAP, refusing to buy a nice car (with car loan) because I'd rather have a cheap one that I can afford and own it outright, etc.

However when I tell them my dream of buying myself a holiday home once my mortgage is paid off then they're already inviting themselves out for a free holiday:D

Good Luck to everyone taking up this challenge.

Di-Dough

Hi Bells Bells - just seen your post (sorry dont know how to do the quote thingy yet:o ) yes please put me down for £75 in January - also planning on paying off another £100 tomorrow :T - this is so addictive - Keep up the good work everybody

Di-Dough

belfastgirl23

HI bells bells I think I may as well sign up 'officially' as well. On a £230k mortgage with 23 years to go. I'm signing up for £210 per month (around £2500 pa) mainly because this would knock off five years from the mortgage if we could keep it up. I was able to free up £100 per month from our joint account by doing Grocery Challenges and cutting back on insurances etc so only the other £110 comes from 'me'.

I'm having the same dilemma as other people re savings vs mortgage repayments so my compromise is to also put £150 into an ISA. I could draw down overpayments from the mortgage though if (god forbid) the roof fell in or anything so I am trying to view these as potential savings as well if needed.

In the end we might be able to pay some more off, DH tends to be paid in lump sums and if a big lump were to come in then we would probably also put some of that in. Fingers crossed but I'm def going to do £2500 if at all possible.

Good luck to everyone.

bellsbells

Welcome belfast girl and thanks everyone else for updating me. These last few posts have made me chuckle as well - there are so many people who don't get it at all! I have one or two friends who understand the concept of paying off the mortgage quicker, but most are in the mindset that a mortgage is not a debt just a fact of life and that you pay it off at your lenders pace not your own. No matter how small the overpayment it is making a difference. Like a couple of others on the thread we are planning on another baby in the near future so next year I doubt I will be overpaying very much, but I will always try to do what I can.

elantan

i just wish i could get hubby to understand the need to pay it off early i talk to him about it and he is very negative...saying we would need to pay 500 a month we cant afford that he doesnt want to go without inorder to pay a mortgage off we thinks its a pipe dream that is why i am not managing to put as much as i would like by i am planning on doing this for the next few years then showing him how much i have paid off and how much i am saving us in interest and hopefully he will get on board with it then ...funny thing is though he is desperate for us to get savings ...i can understand the need for savings but i think it is important to pay the mortgage off as well his health aint that good and i would love him to change jobs in the next wee while ..oh ignore me i'm moaning ..i'm still loving paying this off though in a way it feels totally different to paying off debt maybe because debt was for something we had where as the mortgage is for something we will have a home that belongs to us

LouiseJ

Hello there everyone

I would love to join.

I have a £56000 mortgage and have set myself a target of overpaying £310 a month to reduce the end date from 15 years to 7.5 years giving me a mortgage free date of 14/07/14.

I will be overpaying by £3720 a year - Overpayment for January will be paid at the end of the month so will update then.

Daft_Pegasus

bellsbells - just had a look at post 1 and you've put me down as paying £75 off already. I don't think I've put that in any post therefore I'm concerned that somebody else has got £75 towards their target but you've put that against me and not them.

I'll update you on how I'm doing at the end of the month when I know how much I've got left to over pay

belfastgirl23

Oh I didn't realise you were also doing a 'progress towards target' bellsbells this is great.

Jan is a bit down for me since I got paid earlier in December and hadn't done my new year finance plan at this stage. In the end up it's £150 by DD plus £31.42 left over from quidco plus £4.55 interest from my current account = £186. Probably unlikely to add any more this month but can up Feb's a bit to make up since it's a shorter month ...

Cheers for updating it - it does give me a much better sense of purpose