YOU could save yourself around '22,000 over the lifetime of your mortgage by putting aside the price of a pint of lager and a packet of crisps a day.

New research by Abbey suggests that the average borrower could also chop three and a half years off the term of their mortgage by saving just '3 a day.

Mortgage industry statistics suggest that more and more people are waking up to the fact that they can make considerable savings by clearing off their home loans early.

Lal Tawney, Abbey's head of mortgage marketing, says moderate overpayments on a lifetime offset tracker mortgage, such as Abbey's Flexible Plus, will make a real difference.

He bases his comparison on someone with a '180,000 repayment mortgage, paying interest at five per cent on a property worth '200,000 over 25 years.

The total interest saved, he says, would be '22,062.16 and the mortgage would be paid off in 21 years and six months rather than the full 25 years term.

Abbey says the average overpayment made by customers in any given month is almost '500, reaching a peak of '560 in November and dropping sharply to '215 in December.

Even if this average payment of '500 were spread over the period of a year, it would save '11,300 in interest and pay off the mortgage one year and nine months early.

Sense

Another option is a flexible mortgage that enables you to overpay, underpay or take a payment holiday without any financial penalties. With 80 per cent of the top 10 mortgage lenders offering flexible deals, it makes sense to overpay if you can.

Analysis by moneysupermarket.com shows that overpaying by just '75 a month means you can shave 57 months (4 years and 9 months) off your mortgage.

For example, on a '100,000 repayment mortgage with Alliance & Leicester's 4.39 per cent tracker rate you would initially pay '585.17 a month during the two-year term.

With the same lender, continually making overpayments of just '75 a month, you could shorten the length of your mortgage by nearly five years.

Not only that, but you could also save over '14,200 in interest.

Alternatively, overpaying by this amount for just eight months would enable you to take a one month payment holiday during the festive period without any hindrance.

Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at moneysupermarket.com, said: "If homeowners are in a position to make flexible payments, then they should plan ahead.

"Overpaying on your mortgage will not only mean you pay the debt off quicker, leaving you to enjoy a payment holiday should you wish, but it also means that you could pay less interest on your mortgage overall.

"It's widely expected that interest rates will fall in the coming months. Anyone on a variable flexible mortgage is likely to reap the rewards with a rate cut and could look to use any savings made towards overpaying their monthly repayments."