Mortgage freedom/FIRE diary

Poppycat1 · 31 October 2018 at 2:30PM

After several years of reading diaries on here I have decided to write my own.

I bought my forever home in January this year. I got a fixed rate mortgage at 1.99% for 5 years. I am allowed to overpay by 10% each year in this period. It was £124,499 at the start.

I am a single Mum to two lovely boys aged 16 and 11. I have a great boyfriend of two years but we don't live together. I also have five gorgeous cats.

I do bank shifts for the NHS which I enjoy but would also love to retire a bit earlier. I have nearly 20 years until normal retirement age.

I would like to invest a bit and have opened a Stock and Shares ISA, I have paid a few £££ in but haven't actually invested it yet.

That's the basics, I will do another post on what I have achieved so far.

Poppycat1 · 31 October 2018 at 2:48PM

So 10% overpayment target is £12,449.90 this year. I have so far paid off £7,949.90 which is 64% of my target. To be honest I didn't think I would get anywhere near this amount but thought I would aim high. It's not a certainty but I will be very close.

I took the mortgage out in January this year for 20 years, because of the overpayments and my normal payments I only have 17 years and 9 months left. I decided to keep my payments the same so I could overpay as much as possible.

I have been living frugally for a long time. It is the reason I managed to overpay my mortgage whilst only on benefits when the children where small. I eat a vegan diet and so do the boys at home. DS1 eats anything out and DS2 is mainly vegan with the occasional non vegan sweet, pizza or macaroni cheese whilst out or staying with family or friends.

I have an allotment which is a bit neglected and a large garden with green house, veg patch and apple tree. Despite that we spend a lot of money on food and drink.

I'm not sure why but I find frugal living much easier during autumn/winter/spring than Summer. So you may not see many posts in the Summer. As you can see in my signature, overpayments dropped off May - September.

I hope I haven't bored you, I will try and post my little achievements when I have them. 2 for 1 cinema date with boyfriend tonight, he's paying.

bexster1975 · 31 October 2018 at 3:17PM

Happy new diary.

Looks like a great plan. So what causes payments to " drop off" in summer? ( I would say they appear to vanish!)

Two for one cinema is a fave of mine too. A certain furry animal website perchance? Even better when OH pays for the only ticket needed! :beer:

I look forward to following your journey.

Bexster

Poppycat1 · 31 October 2018 at 4:48PM

Thank you Bexster. Yes, re the cinema. BF got new insurance a couple of weeks ago and it's the first time we have used the offer. Going to see Bohemian Rhapsody.

I think overpayments are much better during the colder months because I am happy to sit at home going online, reading and pottering about. When it warms up I like to be in the garden (and buying things for it) and going out much more. I need to find a place in between.

DS2 has just come home from school and has gone out to a friends house for tea and trick or treating so one less to feed tonight. I will have to take his sweets from him and ration them over some time. Otherwise he will eat them all in a night.

bexster1975 · 31 October 2018 at 6:00PM

Enjoy the film. I'm hoping to go on the same deal to see it next week!

It may be a little late this year, but I can recommend buying seeds, compost etc at the end of summer. Got loads of seeds for next year for 10 or 30 p a pack at wilkos about 6 weeks ago. Also, if you can grow stuff you will all eat, it's potentially money/health saving.

Bexster

pinknsparkly · 31 October 2018 at 6:31PM

Hi PoppyCat, I've subscribed to your diary as I'd also love to aim for F.I.R.E. and would like to follow your story.

However, I'm several steps behind you as I'm not even a mortgage-free wannabe yet - we're currently mortgagee-wannabes instead

We're in the process of getting our first mortgage and once that is up and running, I'm intending to start splitting our excess money between mortgage overpayments (OPing just enough to shorten our mortgage term to be paid off by my 50th birthday) and start investing.

Edited to add: I would also strongly suggest that even if you reduce your OPs significantly in the summer months, still try and OP *something* at the start of the month/on payday. Personally, I find that just the act of OPing (or in my case - adding something to my house deposit savings) seems to help make me a little more thoughtful about my money that month, if for no other reason than I'm a little more conscious about possibly running out of money by the end of the month!

Poppycat1 · 1 November 2018 at 8:46PM

I've read several people saying they go to Wilko's for gardening things, I never think of going there. I did get about 20 packets of 50p seeds from Wyvale sale. I've dried some runner beans seeds to either eat of plant next year.

Didn't get to see the film, went to bf's and decided to watch Strictly. I haven't had a TV licence for several years now. He records Strictly and Gardeners World for me. So going to see film next week.

Exciting Pink, when do you think you will move in? I agree, I should overpay even small amounts during the summer. Will you start a diary?

I think I am lucky that I am weekly paid and I also have several other pay days throughout the month, maintenance for boys, child benefit and tax credits. So I can make several overpayments during the month. My mortgage company say that I can't make overpayments in the week up to my normal payment date. So have to wait until 6th November.

I had to go to work for some training today and will be paid for an hour. Unfortunately I went to Sainsbugs and spent about £30 on groceries and £35 on petrol.

I have a lot of food in and have decided only to spend £20 on groceries for the rest of November.

pinknsparkly · 3 November 2018 at 12:00AM

I know exactly what you mean about not thinking about Wilkos - whenever I go there I end up buying lots of stuff but never actually think about going there in advance (though with the amount of stuff I end up buying from there, that's probably not a bad thing!!)

I have a diary on the "How Much Have You Saved" section of the forum and haven't really thought about what I'll do with it when we complete on the sale. I'll probably either move it over here (if that's possible?) or start a new one. We're in an odd situation in that we're already living in the house we're buying - we're buying it from my parents who currently own it as a BTL and we rent from them. So no packing and moving for us which is always a bonus. The last time I completed a DBS check for the NHS I had to provide 9 addresses to cover the previous 5 years of my life - I'd happily never move again if I could avoid it!