Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Hi GreenT & Streethack- Nice to see you on here :hello:

Yes 2016 was a very exciting year for us, I think 2017 will be just as exciting with getting the house exactly as we want it and focussing on our financial goals.

Today was a fun day out shopping with the family and for a nice meal out together however the urge to spend was awful- we had to keep reminding ourselves 'want or need?, want or need?'

With this in mind we bought a kitchen bin finally (£18 instead of the one we'd both liked but agreed was far too expensive for waste at £89!!), salt & pepper grinders for the kitchen/table at £19 (were £40 reduced to £24. And I had a £5 off debenhams sale voucher). Used gift card for the salt & pepper pots so no actual ££ spent, which is always nice!

We also bought some tops for work from dotty P's in the sale and I bought some slipper boots (£12.60) also for in the house

Also ordered a new dressing gown from M&S online as they didn't have it in store- £11.50 with some cashback tracked too! I will get rid of my old ratty dressing gown once this ones delivered to store & sizing checked.

Fairly spendy day but that should be us spent for a little while now. Also lots of snugly things bought to keep warm at home.

Family lunch was just yummy (& was an unexpected treat from the parents in law) and now the Christmas Day leftovers are eying me suspiciously from the fridge as I'm stuffed at the moment! May have to have turkey pie tomorrow for dinner when I get back from visiting my brother.

Wore my new diamond (gasp) earrings from the in-laws which where my birthday and Christmas presents combined- massively generous and lovely of them.
Now at home with Harry Potter & the prisoner of Azkaban is on the tv, gf is quietly snoozing away on the sofa. What a lovely day! :smileyhea

Morning morning!
Early morning workout completed (5km run, 10 minute row & 10 min cross trainer -:eek: ) and back home to start work.

Whilst toiling away on the cross trainer I had a notification from Quidco that John Lewis cashback for home insurance had confirmed! £40 requested and should be on their BACS run tomorrow! :money:
That will be £75 cashback received this month wooop! Am transferring it across to the mortgage shortly, making my totals now £258.98

Pretty pleased with that amount for our first few months!

Working from home today and toiling away at year end performance review..why is it so hard to cover what you've achieved in a year? If it was personal it would be so easy (saved for house, got house, put flooring in, overpayments on mortgage, happiness :heartpuls )

I've started reading the Marie Kondo book that I won when we first moved in- it's pretty inspiring and so far I've sorted one big pile of paperwork and the Christmas/presents/cards box out so it's nice and tidy and sparks joy (!).
Not sure how the rest of the house will go, but I'm planning on doing shoes and coats in the next few weeks and sorting through. Hopefully can put things on Eb*y and get some extra pennies too.....fingers crossed!

Time to make the next cuppa and crack on!

Morning all, as work laptop is kaput I'm going into the office this morning to see our IT guys to see if it can be fixed so will be home for the afternoon.
Good news is the tree and all decorations are now all packed away but the room looks a bit empty.

Nipped to dunelm to collect the rug we reserved and saw it displayed- we hated it, so didn't get it we did however get a duvet cover set and sheet/pillows in the sale as we need a second set for our bed

Fingers crossed the rug from the Next sale is the right colour/size when it arrives in January.

Overpayment of cashback made yesterday, just waiting for the funds to appear in the account now- I'm really pleased with our small OP's so far this year

We'be been discussing our goals for 2017 and we have quite a few, some are amendments to my earlier goals in December as some of them we are on way to smashing already! Will jot them down tonight I think- not all of them are frugal as it's the ladies 40th next year and we'd like to do something special together to mark the occasion

It's beautiful and frosty outside again today which is lovely when you're indoors but not so nice when you have to de ice your car (or even worse for those without warm homes!), hi ho hi hi it's off to work I go.....