Mortgage Free in the slow lane

longestgame

Hi all, 

I have been enjoying reading the diaries so much, I thought to start one for 2026. We are a family of two parents and our kid. We bought our forever home and now have a mortgage of 220,130, with 24 years left to go. We have offset 4500 in an investment account.

Our financial goals are the following (in order of priority):
- College fund/house deposit for our kid: we set something aside each month for this purpose. This really matters to me as I only got on the housing ladder post-40. We save 200 a month for this. 

- Retire earlier: we are both maxing out our S&S LISAs to cover the gap before our DB pensions kick in (only at 68). We are direct-debiting 333 a month each for this. I also make some additional contributions separately out of my pay to plug a pension gap. 

- Be mortgage free: offset an additional 6-7k every year, to knock around 10 years off the 25 yr term. We achieved our yearly goal in 2025, which offset a full year and hope to do so again in 2026. 

- Build our emergency fund up to 10,000 (in first instance). We got to 6500 this year, also thanks to an inheritance. I hope to add 3500 more in 2026, 

With the exception of the emergency fund, all this is part of a 15-year plan, where by the end of 2039, we hope to have paid off our house, got kid sufficiently set up for the future, and have made enough investments to facilitate early retirement. We are 1 year in now and thus far on track. 

Although neither of us are big spenders, we don't want to deprive ourselves now we are still young-ish and kid is young. We want to make memories, go on holidays, enjoy hobbies, eat good food, support charities we care about, etc. It helps I have family on the continent, where we can spend most of our holidays. 

I invest our OPs, and we have selected a fund that is more sustainable and cuts some more harmful companies out. However, especially in the last year, that led to lower performance. So, we are taking our time with everything. 

Ms_Potato_Head

Fellow slow-laner here 👋 Good luck on your journey! 

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary. 

longestgame

Thanks so much, Beanielou! Potato Head, I hope your slow lane journey is going well? 

We are on holiday! As far as going away with a child doesn't just transport the same jobs to a different setting . It is lovely to be spending time with my family, filling our days with walks, drinking cups of coffee and hot chocolate, playing with cousins (for Kid), baking, reading books, etc. Kid's skills in my language have come on hugely and it was great to see Mr LR put in a big effort to chat in the local language, too. 

On holiday, we found a great shop with 50-70% discounts on Christmas decorations, so we stocked up to make Christmas at home next year a little more magical. I got a few smaller things for the tree (gorgeous little musical instrument decorations), but especially big impact items, like a big, basic wreath, which we can change up and decorate for Easter, Halloween, Christmas, etc. We also bought a Christmas lights to hang in the window, as we did not have any sort of window display yet, but a couple of windows that would look great with some lights. 

It was probably the first shopping spree we went on after our house purchase, as we saved/OP'ed hard for 15 months and had thrown everything and the kitchen sink at our deposit. It was weird to be walking around again without carefully considering each purchase first. 'Do we like it? In the cart it goes!' Our box with the nicest Christmas ornaments was dropped during the house move last year , so I used that as justification .

longestgame

The first month of the year has passed, so time to tally up the numbers:

1st Jan:

• MFW OPs 2026: 0/6000
• emergency fund addition 2026: 0/3500
• penny challenge: 0/668
• holiday fund: 0/3000

1st of Feb:

• MFW OP: 0/6000
• emergency fund addition: 0/3500
• penny challenge: 22/668
• holiday fund: 4/3000

The grand total of £26. Oh well. It was a spendy month with my car insurance renewal, and another big (unexpected) bill. One of those 'we can do it now and it will be £££, or later and it will be ££££' situations. I am a sucker for such arguments and, well, they saw me (and my credit card) coming. There was also still a £400 annual membership to pay for by March, which I set aside. And finally Kid's birthday party to pay a deposit for.

MFW OPs looked therefore more and more unlikely as the month progressed, so I decided to leave OPs at £0, taking care of the above. Luckily, the separate monthly LISA payments and general savings for Kid are standing orders, so there was at least some progress in these long-term areas. Otherwise, I should probably rename this diary 'MFW: stuck on the hard shoulder'.

Meanwhile, I am taking little wins where I can. As every week, we have meal-planned. Mainly because I dread the '5PM, what do we eat?! Oh no, I did not defrost that' stress. We live a 15 mins drive from the nearest proper supermarket, meaning nipping out for a forgotten item is not an option.

Mr also always conveniently has terribly timed work emergencies when asked to do any dinner prep. He swears it is not on purpose, and I have to take him at his word as I still don't know how the new vacuum cleaner works and we have had it for months. Glass houses, etc. Basically, we run a household based on the threat of mutual destruction through weaponised incompetence.

Also, food plays an unreasonably oversized role in our general happiness. I can feel discouraged by the considerable shortcomings in my housekeeping skills or a frustrating stint at work, only to save the day last minute by putting a half-decent meal on the table.

Our dinners the past week:

• Curry (marinade/sauce package with no nasties) with paneer with sides of roasted carrots, naan, rice.
• Traybake of chicken legs with lentils, leftover roasted carrots, leftover rice and rose harissa paste.
• Leek and potato soup with leftover naan bread.
• Pulled pork (slowcooker) with a gochujang/lime dressed cole slaw and rolls.
• Pulled pork with mash and roasted carrots.
• Garlicky tomatoes and mushrooms with home-made bread.

longestgame

The second month of the year has passed, so time to tally up the numbers:

1st of Feb:

• MFW OP: 0/6000
• emergency fund addition: 0/3500
• penny challenge: 22/668
• holiday fund: 4/3000

1st of March:

• MFW OP: 0/6000
• emergency fund addition: 0/3500
• penny challenge: 44/668
• holiday fund: 5/3000

It felt a bit strange doing the update this weekend, only to then see all the news from the Middle East come in. Who knows what the next few weeks will look like. Hope everyone and their loved ones are safe.

However, to return to the spirit of the MSE forum: £23 progress, as this month again was focussed on covering other upcoming bills (£900+ anticipated car repair). We also visited our Swedish furniture friends to buy some appliances and supplies for the house. Rationality went out of the window. We bought among others a big roasting pan 'for the turkey' after having decided that we feel turkey is overrated and we should definitely start doing something else for Christmas. 😂

Funny thing is that since making our living room just a bit nicer (what a difference a rug makes!) we have used that room more than we did the whole year before that. So I guess in terms of investments vs actual returns in enjoyment, it was a good visit.

We had the usual progress this month with our LISA payments though, so not all is lost. The coming month will be similarly lacklustre (two trips planned this month, where we want to enjoy ourselves), but hopefully we can then start making some inroads on the mortgage in late April.

In the meantime, I will try to do some budget cooking when at home, using freezer supplies, etc. Yesterday was mushrooms Stroganoff. Today, Mr LG is cooking parmigiana and pudding. We need to get some bread baked, too. Then tomorrow, we will likely have some fish from the freezer.