Where to start?

Gillybean

Thing is, even if you don't have a specific MFW date in mind, paying ANYTHING off is better than nothing.

We are not in our 'forever' house and will have to remortgage when we are ready and when we find that house. But if in the meantime we canpay off as much of our existing mortgage as poss then it leaves us in a far better position than if we did nothing at all.

I'm soon to be a SAHM again so back down to one salary and I am determined that I can find at least £50 a mth without trying too hard.

You'll never know how much you can achieve unless you try. Best of luck.

tro127

StuartGMC wrote: »

Tro127
As noted above, do sit down and review your expenditure. I bet most of your regular outgoings are by direct debit, so you know your monthly commitments.

Keep you petrol receipts, supermarket etc receipts for 3 months to start getting clear spend picture.

Then look at annual costs like buildings & contents insurance, car insurance, road tax, car service (add allowance for tyres every 2 years), allowance for decorating costs spread over a few years etc. Add on your holiday (good for body & soul) including the costs to/from airport, parking and cash when away. Remember to include allowance for clothes and shoes and similar. Total and divide to give monthly equivalent.

Look at your items that need replacing every few years:
PC - every three years?
TV - every 8-10yrs
New furniture, washing machine....
Replacement car
Decorating costs
Garden costs

Do you have / expect to have work done on the house; windows, soffits & guttering, need a new bathroom etc. and plan for when you'll need the cash. You need to save for these not put the money in the mortgage then not have it when required.
Again put on a monthly basis.

You can now add up - true monthly costs and those for annual costs, and add your "savings requirement" to determine what residual cash you have. This is your baseline for your overpayments. Of course, make the "savings requirement" amount work for you either in offset or put it in a Cash ISA.

If you put this in a spreadsheet you can update against net income, so watching that residual sum, you will see it perhaps increase by £10 per month as annual car insurance is cheaper. Immediately, you'll see you can increase your OP.

I have a note under my thread here to strip out personal data from the spreadsheet I use, so will make a start soon as these are just the items I pulled together to get a handle on the basic financial position.

We have overpaid since 1994, but, only in 2005/6 did I really start to get a handle on costs and relevant position via a spreadsheet I have expanded and optimised regularly since then. I think if you start now, you'll really make a good early start and the earlier you start the quicker you'll clear the mortgage debt bit by bit.

Good luck

Thanks StuartGMC, hopefully there wont be too many outgoings on top of the usual bills. Since moving in a couple of years ago we have fitted central heating, new bathroom and decorated pretty much every room. Just had the last 3 carpets done as well so fingers crossed that we are done for the next couple of years and can reduce the mortgage.

Also have a company car and pay 9p for private mileage, so at least I don't have to worry about insurance and servicing etc.

skoda38

hi, try http://www.askcab.co.uk/money_site/cintcalc.asp
i find it really encouraging to play around with some figures and
see the effect of my overpayments. with a large mortgage over a long term even a small overpayment has quite a big result. good luck