What are you doing without to overpay your mortgage?

[coodawoodashooda]

Not a stealth boast. Expecting cms contribution to stop imminently and trying to get rid of as much debt as possible before then. We have enough but it's hard going. Anyone else in the same boat? Please don't be offended. I'm not trying to antagonise anyone. Just looking for moral support.

I have always overpaid the mortgage, even by very small amounts like £40/month which I 'locked' myself into via direct debit so that I wouldn't be tempted not to pay it. I have made random overpayments too. For me, even when interest rates were lower, being mortgage free provides a safety and security that I'm seeking, especially as a single parent.

Things I've done include cutting back in other areas, especially social things and taking an extra part time job on top of my full time job and diverting all that income (after paying tax on it) to the mortgage. For a period of a year I was able to overpay by about £550 pcm which was incredible to see the impact and amount come down monthly. Made such a difference.

My mortgage should have been 30 years but as of right now I have just under 7 years left. This has been through many lean years with very small overpayments (£20 etc) the majority of that time. My hope is that with some continued overpayments I can get it done in 4 years. Which means I will have gone from a 30 year mortgage to having it paid off in 15 years. Right now I'm trying to overpay as much as I can. In January and February other costs spiralled making that impossible. I'm hopeful for March.

It doesn't. He's self employed and adjusts the books to lower his income.

Any extra money that came in went to paying off mortgage (for example, PPI pay outs!). We also holidayed every other year, rather than every year before kids, and then post kids we did super cheap holidays. We had an account that every penny went into that was left at end of month and then used that for over payments too. Means we don't have huge savings now, as we focussed on over paying mortgage rather than saving. We were lucky that our mortgage was relatively small as we we've always bought smaller / cheaper than the max we could afford, and also stayed in a property for longer than most people would have in order to max the gains from the market, and then moved from pretty central zone 2 to a zone 5 suburb to we didn't need to increase mortgage.

Musica lessons for dd1 are delayed. Hoping to hear off work this month if we’re getting a pay rise from 1st April to get her started otherwise guess she won’t be learning any instrument! Seems a shame but at the same time a bit of a luxury!
We have to overpay as we’re on a low rate for next 4 years, we need to get the debt down before we remortgage and also get used to paying a higher repayment! :s

Wouldn't you be better saving your money in a higher interest rate account and then pay what you've accumulated just before you have to remortgage?

Surely you should try and overpay now because when your deal ends you'll be paying more anyway on interest. If you did it now it would be against the capital? :/

No, it’s not in disrepair. That’s not what I said. We’ve just chosen not to add a conservatory or convert the loft etc that would have meant adding to our mortgage. We look after the house & do essential repairs.

Fair enough!

I use the Sprive app which allows you to repay through the app, and also gives a forecast of when you will pay it off, how much you've reduced the term by, and how much you've saved on interest by making overpayments. It removes a barrier to making overpayments as I can do it through the app rather than having to go through my mortgage provider on the phone.

If you want to try it and use my code you will get £5 credit in your account to pay your mortgage provider 5O9ZDA97

We are getting a much higher rate of interest on savings at the moment though. When our rate ends we will see where rates are and if we feel like it's a sensible thing to do we can pay off a lump sum at this point

We looked into that but given the amount we’re overpaying there wasn’t much in it tbh. Also it’s better if we don’t have access to the money and it goes straight to paying off the mortgage or I think we could be tempted to spend it in next 4 years.

Same here. No conservatory but the house has lots of scruffy parts to it. I see a small hole in the seam on the front of the couch. Frustrating but every penny counts...

Surely your priority is to feed your kids meals (not toasties) before overpaying the mortgage?
Can you not agree a figure with your ex that he is happier with and then maybe he won't fiddle his books to give nothing? Or is he just an arse?

Arsenal. Definitely an arse.

We overpay our mortgage significantly by about £1250 extra each month taking the total amount we currently pay to £3250 each month. We are an FT working couple with kids 7 and 3, with younger in FT nursery.

Reason: We are rapidly increasing equity in our current house for a specific upsize we wish to make in 2-3 years from now.

In order to do this we go without - 1) haircuts/beauty treatments; 2) too many meals out 3) new clothes for anyone (charity shops all the way!) 4) new cars/shoes/adult hobbies

We prioritise - 1) high quality foods for us as a family of foodies - so good quality protein, oily fish, wide variety of fruit and veg; 2) kids activities and clubs and 3) a proper holiday each year.

We realise we can only do this with a certain amount of household income and are grateful for that.