julicorn's journey

Completely forgot to say that because of my bonus this month, I've managed to make a huge overpayment of £1700, bringing our total overpayments this month to £2200, and meaning that our remaining balance now starts with 195 :j :shocked: :j

Hi IAAM! Thank you - weirdly, I wasn't all that tempted to put the bonus towards anything other than some savings goals and the mortgage. We are now actively saving towards several big holidays though, so I think in some weird way that's helping as well. I've just made a savings plan, and we might even be able to go on two holidays next year. Japan is definitely still on the cards, but we might also be able to go on a shorter trip in spring to New England as well. We'd love to visit New York again, but would also really like to head to Boston and Salem (and flights to Boston are really quite cheap, which is of course a bonus!).
Before we bought our flat, we had quite a big declutter (over the course of a year or so), and that has made me a lot more wary of impulse buys in some strange way. I've not really found myself as drawn to clothes shopping for example as I was beforehand, and generally I think we're hoping to put more of our money towards experiences and generally things that last longer.

It sure is expensive down here, and I try to forget quite how expensive our flat was. Luckily it's still a nicer flat (and therefore feels like a step up) from the place we were renting previously. I'm still thinking we'll probably move again in 5 years or so, to get a bigger place - quite how much bigger we'll have to find out, but I reckon that's probably the driving force behind us putting so much into the overpayments at the moment. Seeing the we amount we owe go down, and the amount we OWN increase is hugely motivating to me. Also, we were literally at the top of what they would lend us based on our income, but we find ourselves being able to put away much more than just our standard mortgage payment each month (I guess the low interest rates also work in our favour in that respect), so I'd like to make the most of that while we can.

Best of luck with the envelopes, I think that sort of 0-based budgeting is just amazing! I reckon it's already saved us a lot of money this month, and looking at my overview, I think we'll be able to make another overpayment tomorrow. Exciting times! I also came up with a bit of a silly idea: I really like crafts, and I'm going to start a cross stitch that shows our mortgage being paid off, so just a cross for each £100 in reduced balance (with each month being a different colour, so we can kind of visualise the progress). Sounds a bit mad, but visual representations like that oddly really motivate me.

Thanks beanielou! It's actually super motivating to get cheered on by you all (it's not exactly like I go around telling people about our mortgage overpayments, so it's nice to be able to get that support here in this forum instead :heart2: ).

I've just made our first July overpayment of £600. The aim at the moment is to overpay at least £1,200 per month (sounds mad actually, considering our regular payments of around £800 were at the top of our 'affordability', but I suppose they take rising interest rates into account). I figured it's best to pay as early as possible to save that teeny tiny bit more interest, and with the budget app and all that I'm pretty confident we won't need those £600 before payday.

In other news: it's too hot! My brain pretty much melted away at work. I think this is the hottest temperature I've experienced in Brighton. I should be cooking dinner right now, but can't face it - anything more than lying by the window in my underwear seems impossible right now :rotfl: