Mrs Ninja's Secret Plan

A question about : Mrs Ninja's Secret Plan

Hi all,

Long time lurker on here, but only just posting. Looking to pay off our mortgage sooner, but no end date in sight as of yet. We are both early 30's and I would like to be mortgage free by the time I am 50.

Story so far: Got our house two years ago and have been happily paying off fixed rate deal with no overpayments. I have just sorted out a new 5 year fixed deal and so now the overpayments can begin. My DH is not a moneysaver like I am and is happy to leave things up to me. He doesn't waste money, but he sums his attitude up as 'I work hard and I'm not living on beans on toast all my life'. We have agreed to keep our mortgage payments the same even though our new fixed rate deal is slightly lower repayments and have also set up a savings account in which money left over from our joint account at the end of the month goes into.

My plan therefore is that the new payments will overpay anyway, but with the savings at the end of the month I am going to split half into the saving account and half on the mortgage.

Details are: 33 years left. Current balance Ј85000 with fixed 5 year deal at 3.04%. Payment due each month Ј339, we are paying Ј450 each month and whatever I can split from the joint account.

I thought posting it on here might make me do it, but any thoughts or ideas welcome. Does anyone else here do the finances for their house without the OH being fully on-board?

Mrs N.

Best answers:

• 12 years off your mortgage, and Ј19k less interest from one single financial decision. Result....
  Another hundred quid a month knocks a further 4 yrs off the mortgage..
• If you can afford to pay Ј450 a month, why do you have a 33 year term? Could you opt for something slightly shorter next time you remortgage?
• Hi mrs ninja, I have an dh who is not as interested as he could be (or at all really!) I do all the finances and he gets money by direct debit every month for him to spend , kind of like a 1950's housewife in reverse
  He doesn't have the time or inclination to sort it out and I enjoy doing it so it works for us. Best of luck with the new diary
• Thanks for the replies. In answer to your posts: Yep, I'm aiming to put another Ј100 a month in- more on good months. Our overpayments are limited to Ј8660 a year, but I don't think we'll get near that.
  We had a 35 year term to start off with as we were first time buyers so it's just carried on from there. I was going to shorten it to 25 years but the advice I read was that it was easier to shorten mortgage terms, but harder to lengthen them again?
  I'm glad I'm not the only one with a '1950's housewife' husband! I always feel like I'm badmouthing him when I say he doesn't do anything with the finances, but he doesn't really(!) We both have individual accounts and pay the same into a joint account each month. Out of the joint comes all of the bills and food. Then whatever we have in our individual accounts is our own.
• My husband doesn't touch the household finances at all - he doesn't even open bank statements and has no idea what money we have/ what we owe etc. He even passes me his CC bill each month to pay it - he has no online banking logins His view is that I can do it all and as long as we still go on holidays, eat good food and pay all the bills, I can do what I want!
• My hubby is exactly the same
• I am another with a 1950s housewife for a husband. At one time he couldn't even remember his PIN number ! I'll be honest though I quite like his disinterest because it gives me full control ....not that I am a control freak .....honest
• greent are you secretly married to my husband? You have just described him perfectly!
• From the replies, it's definitely not just me then! When we went to the bank to set up the saving account he couldn't name a single direct debit that came out of our account...doh. I'm happy though in that I would hate it to be the other way round.
  Anyway, I'm aiming to use this as a day to day list of what I am doing to save money and pay it towards the mortgage.
  Today I have planned meals/lunches for the week, so it should be a low spend week and even a no spend one.
  Sun- Roast beef dinner- leftover meat on sandwiches for work.
  Mon- slow cooker beef stew. It's my first day back at work and I know I'll just want to come home and collapse so this should help steer me away from a takeaway (!)
  Tues- Sausage/bean/beer casserole- a Jack Monroe recipe that is using sausages out of the freezer and a left over bottle of beer from new year.
  Weds- Chicken stir fry- got to be a quick meal as DH has to go back out for 7pm.
  Thurs- only need a meal for myself so that's something out of the freezer.
  Fri- Not sure yet, so left this one.
  Also today I joined Shoptize and earned my first Ј1 back off the shopping.
• It seems to be mainly the good ladies of this board that wear the financial trousers in there households so I must be breaking the mould
• Freddy- I'm slightly surprised as I thought I was the odd one out.
  Among our friends it seems a few do things jointly, but with others it's the husbands who sort the finances. As I said before I feel like I'm badmouthing my DH, when he really is wonderful. Honest!
• Update for the end of the first week, some glitches but hopefully still on track for an overpayment this month. It'll be tight, but hoping I can make it.
  We had to take our cats for yearly boosters and that was Ј140 for the boosters, and 6 months flea/worm stuff. It is out of the way now, but I need to remember to budget for that one next year. We have only been their 'staff' since last year, so it's a new payment hence why I forgot it. I also know we can get flea treatments cheaper online now that we have a prescription, so that will save money in six months time.
  I have meal planned again and using everything out of the freezer this week.
  Meals so far are:
  Lasanga
  Toad in the Hole
  Bacon and Brie Risotto
  Faggots and Mash
  Earned Ј3 cash back with my payg top last quarter so banked that to use on a gift voucher later in the year. Found 10p in roadkill too!
• Freddy I'm with you. My wife gets that glazed look when I talk about money to her! Every year I make her listen as I explain what we have, what we pay, what we overpay, what we save , what our plans are etc... I show her the spreadsheet and insist she needs to know where to find everything just in case. Her response is "I'll give the box to your dad to sort out its too confusing!".
  I found the best thing to make her take notice was the house on the fridge with colouring in each 1k square, the interest saved and even more the daily interest milestones!
  It works for us, especially when I say she can go part time when she's 45 (12yrs)!
• Oh and good luck Mrs ninja, I look forward to reading about your progress.
• Just a quick update. Hoping to make first overpayment on Tuesday 20th when this months money goes into the joint account and I can syphon off what is left of last month I'll also sort out my signature then with more detail on exact balance and overpayments.
  Meal planned again for this week and it's mainly a minced beef week! My friend always jokes that we were both brought up with the '100 ways with minced beef' school of cooking.
• Burritos
• Chilli
• Spag Bol
• Sausage Pasta Bake

I banked the Ј2 tubs (Ј60!) but also went sales shopping and got birthday presents and all the wrapping paper I'll need for the year.
A question while I am here though- I have seen a few posters saying how much interest they are charged each day. How have they worked this out?

• Hi there
  I would say the use the balance at the start of the month, multiply it by the interest rate they are being charged, then divide it by 365.
  Best of luck with your journey.
  Flower
• Quick post for now. Will work out daily interest later.
  First overpayment made! This months direct debit was Ј339.78 and I've just made an overpayment of Ј220.
  1st of Feb the Ј450 direct debit will start and I'll see what I can overpay on top of that when we get to the end of the month again.
  Edit: used the mortgage calculator on here and that one overpayment has knocked 2 months off the mortgage and saved Ј379 in interest.