The MF pipe dream

Youthgonewild
Youthgonewild Posts: 169
First Anniversary First Post
Forumite
edited 6 July 2018 at 9:56AM in Mortgage-free wannabe
Hi all.

I!!!8217;m new to the site, only just signed up. Have read a few MFW threads and yes, MF is definitely where I want to be!

A bit of background about me, I!!!8217;m 32 yo single parent with 2 young kids aged 5 and 2.5. I work p/t over 4 days a week and will probably look at f/t once youngest starts school.

I got my mortgage 2.5 years ago (how time flies) and the debt then was £99875 - just found my paperwork. When the two year fixed deal ended (last november) I simply took up a 5 year fix with the same lender for the simple reason that I was doing some home improvements and didn!!!8217;t think my house was in any sort of fit state to have a new valuation done so I just went with the house value that I bought the house at. I still ended up on a better rate though - 2.27% :p

I currently OP by £125 pm but recently I paid a lump sum of £500 towards the mortgage as well. The current figure stands at £95550 but interest usually gets added on to the balance around the 6th of every month :(

I have 32.5 years left to go :eek: but really want to decrease that. I hope to be MF by the time I!!!8217;m 50ish. It!!!8217;s feels like it will be one long slog!!

On top of this I have recently set up AVC!!!8217;s through my works pension scheme - only £30 extra pm. As the application hasn!!!8217;t been processed yet I have no idea what my wage slip will look like once it kicks in.

Anyway I!!!8217;m in this for the long haul. Thanks for reading. Wish me luck! ;)
Mortgage balance October 2015: £99875 Mortgage balance June 2023: £69999.40
«13456714

Comments

  • I’m not used to this site yet! I think I’ve just posted something which was meant to be an add-on to this thread, I hit submit and the post disappeared!:eek:

    Hope I’ve not just posted something completely irrelevant to someone else’s thread by accident :rotfl:

    What I meant to post was that in addition to the above, after reading the threads on here and taking inspiration from the forum I have recently started Tilly Tidying (I think that’s what it’s called). So far I have managed to put £22.20 into my isa.

    On top of this I had a clear out of my drawers this week and a handbag I rarely use. I found a load of change including an old round pound and a new plastic £5 note which had ripped in half!!!! I thought those things were meant to be indestructible!!!!!

    Anyway I took all of the coins including the old pound and two halves of a £5 note to my bank to cash in and they kindly did this for me. The total came to £32!! Not bad.

    So in all this week I have ‘gained’ £50+ for very little effort. Yayyyy :j

    I’m going to wait til I’ve built up the money a bit more then throw it at my mortgage in addition to my regular OP.
    Mortgage balance October 2015: £99875 Mortgage balance June 2023: £69999.40
  • beanielou
    beanielou Posts: 89,822
    Academoney Grad I'm a Volunteer Ambassador Mortgage-free Glee! Name Dropper
    Ambassador
    Happy shiny new diary :0
    I am a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Mortgage Free Wannabe & Local Money Saving Scotland & Disability Money Matters. If you need any help on those boards, do let me know.Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any post you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button , or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own & not the official line of Money Saving Expert.

    Lou~ Debt free Wanabe No 55 DF 03/14.**Credit card debt free 30/06/10~** MFW. Finally mortgage free O2/ 2021****
    "A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.

    ***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb.
    ***Keep plodding*** Out of debt, out of danger. ***Be the difference.***
    One debt remaining. Home improvement loan.
  • Thank you Beanielou
    Mortgage balance October 2015: £99875 Mortgage balance June 2023: £69999.40
  • shangaijimmy
    shangaijimmy Posts: 3,796
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    Welcome onboard and good luck.
    MFW: Was: £136,000.......Now: £61,892.24......
    Mortgage Neutral Deficit: £43,082.90... Mortgage Neutral Savings: £18,809.34

    MFiT-T6 #13 - £3,517 of £15,500 (22.69%)
    1% Mortgage Challenge 2022 - £157.59 of £650
  • greent
    greent Posts: 10,669
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Photogenic
    Forumite
    Hello and welcome to MFW-land! :) Great news on the extra money :)
    x
    I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul
    Repaid mtge early (orig 11/25) 01/09 £124616 01/11 £89873 01/13 £52546 01/15 £12133 07/15 £NIL
    Net sales 2024: £20
  • pennystretcher
    pennystretcher Posts: 458
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post Mortgage-free Glee!
    Forumite
    edited 22 April 2018 at 9:56AM
    Welcome to the MFW-board :)

    Sounds like you are already well on your way being MFW by starting OPs and well done on starting AVCs as well.

    Do the SOA - if not for the board, for yourself and see where you can save further. Re-consider doing the Tilly Tidying against your mortgage unless your interest rate in ISA is better than your mortgage. (As long as you have an emergency fund.) My smallest OP against my mortgage was 80p...yep. 80p. I used to round down my income and round up the bills in my budget and pay the difference to my mortgage...it all added up quicker than I expected.

    I felt like the journey was going to take ages too when I started it about a decade ago :eek:, but set yourself targets, like £95k, £92.5k etc by certain time and add these into your calendar, it'll keep you motivated and use the OP calculator in MSE to see what the difference is when you OP.
  • Wow thanks for the replies and thank you very much for the advice Pennystretcher.

    My ISA is absolutely diabolical as I set it up about 3 years ago so it wouldn!!!8217;t surprise me if the interest rate was 0.5% or thereabouts! I!!!8217;m putting the TT money in there until I get say £100 the I will put that towards the mortgage.

    Making overpayments isn!!!8217;t simple for me, I Bank with a building society but my mortgage lender is a high street bank. In order to make OP!!!8217;s as a non-general banking customer I have to phone them to transfer money from my BS. I have to make the call time (mostly spent on hold) worth my while. It!!!8217;s a pain!!

    Well it!!!8217;s been a veeeerrrrryy doesn!!!8217;t week for me. I spent £75 on Ama$on the other day. I had to buy replacement cartridges for my fish tank filter (6 for £11 so a bargain really) BUT.... I have started shopping for the kids Xmas presents! This is a first for me, I am usually such a last-minute Lilian!!! Is April a record?? I figured it!!!8217;s proably best to buy things throughout the year and hide them round the house than last minute buy (usually on 23rd Dec). So £75 inc. delivery and I used k!dstart to her cashback.

    I took the kids to a birthday party yesterday so I spent a tenner on a birthday present (the boy was 4). I also bought my sister some baby products as she!!!8217;s expecting her first-born in the summer. It!!!8217;s so exciting!

    After the birthday party yesterday I took the kids to the park as it was a scorcher! I then took them to my parents so I could clean my car out. It was full of cake crumbs plus 10 months worth of debris! I hardly ever find time to clean it !!!55357;!!!56882;

    Anyway I found a load of change in there. And I also found a load of change in my jewellery box. So this has been stowed temporarily til I can cash it in at the bank.

    Just spent £76 on the weekly shop !!!55357;!!!56881; but I did buy some new pillows for the kids in that. Next week I!!!8217;m off on a hen do so more spends there. Really need to tighten my purse strings. Every weekend seems to involve a birthday party or some kind of social event. I!!!8217;m not complaining but I find it doesn!!!8217;t do my bank balance any favours.

    Any road, I!!!8217;ve done another TT £3.38 and with the added shrapnel I found in the car and jewellery box it will slowly chip that mortgage away!
    Mortgage balance October 2015: £99875 Mortgage balance June 2023: £69999.40
  • Meant to put very SPENDY week* above. This forum and iPhones dont mix with the formatting it would appear.
    Mortgage balance October 2015: £99875 Mortgage balance June 2023: £69999.40
  • greent
    greent Posts: 10,669
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Photogenic
    Forumite
    Which high st bank is it? - some of them will give you the details to make the payment direct by online banking if you ask (depends on the person)(I've got the Ll0yds ones if it's Ll0yds - you then put your mtge account number as the ref no - you can find them quoted elsewhere online, I believe, if you wanted to check them)
    x
    I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul
    Repaid mtge early (orig 11/25) 01/09 £124616 01/11 £89873 01/13 £52546 01/15 £12133 07/15 £NIL
    Net sales 2024: £20
  • Its N*twest greent. I asked them about OP last July when I was on the hunt for a new mortgage deal. They showed me how to set up regular OPs but if I wish to do one-off lump sums I have to call them up infuriatingly. I went into the branch a couple of weeks ago and they basically said the same thing - one-offs can be done over the phone. Pah!

    Just had a very cheap meal, I made homemade carrot and coriander soup with fresh tiger loaf. The kids snubbed it (they dont know whats good for them!) so more for me and plenty leftover for lunch at work tomorrow !!!55358;!!!56599;

    NB: Im not too bad with grammar but when I use apostrophes on my iPhone, MSE has this annoying habit of outputting jibberish. Why is that?
    Mortgage balance October 2015: £99875 Mortgage balance June 2023: £69999.40
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.5K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.8K Life & Family
  • 247.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards