Thanks. I was a bit overwhelmed by the big goals, so I'm trying to break it down into more manageable chunks that are easier to focus on. Think they still need tweaking, but it's a process.

I need to wander around the house and KM/de-clutter again. I have a feeling we still have a LOT of things that could go (besides the things that we've already ear-marked but done nothing with yet...).

I have been really good about using KM on things (...yarn...) I'd like to buy. If my first instinct is "ooh, pretty, I'd like that" then I wait a while and come back to see if that's still my reaction. Then I evaluate price and see if I'm still happy about it. This has resulted in me not buying anything since Feb 8, even though I've thought about quite a few things.

(Of course, part disclaimer there is that I plan to buy a fair bit in the US where it's cheaper and I can use my US bank account which I don't track in the budget. So that does help with resisting the urge to buy things here pre-holiday....)

Small victories, anyway.

Been too quiet on here - not much financial action going on. Did manage a £40 OP from budget shuffling, but then remembered that we've budgeted for the dog sitting during our upcoming holiday, but not the cat sitting, so no more OPs after that. Only £112 so not too bad, will likely steal from the home improvements pot.

We leave on Friday for holiday. Should be a fun, relaxed trip - planning a drive down to the Los Angeles area to watch part of a 3* horse event, lots of eating Mexican food, and not much else. Won't be going to my dad's wedding due to my health issues, but will meet up with him after they get back.

Ireland move has been pushed back a month due to a work project that's starting next week and going through early July. Bit disappointing, but may as well take advantage of the fact that we're not set to any specific timetable (other than wanting to move before school starts up again, so that finding a place to live ourselves and renting out our house are both easier). Tentative plan is still to go over sometime in May/June to investigate specific properties/areas - hopefully we can manage this on a weekend so I don't have to request holiday during the final weeks of this project. On the plus side this gives us another month to pack/sort out the house.

I've been learning spinning, and been fairly MSE if I do say so myself. Bought a drop spindle for £15 locally, and then went to the local spinner's guild meeting and found someone wanting to sell their wheel. They've lent it to me indefinitely for me to learn on, and obviously I have the option to buy it if I like it. I've only tried it for a day, but I like it so far. Guild membership is £20/year so even if that turns into just 2-3 months of free use of this wheel, that seems like a decent deal.

March Goals

Personal

1. Move to Ireland Boxes packed 5/5 - DH did really well and packed more books/DVDs, plus all our board games, so we can de-clutter the shelf they've been sitting on
2. Move to Ireland Items de-cluttered 5/5 - found 5 things to de-clutter (aforementioned shelf, sofa, clothes, yarn), haven't actually done it yet
3. House Start hardwood flooring on stairs Started - figured out our method, still need to actually cut everything down and install it (won't happen until April)

Financial

1. Mortgage OP £1,500 £1,540/£1,500

Career

1. Learn Tech book chapters read 1/3 - work's been mental so I've had no spare time or mental energy, but hoping to look into this on holiday as well

Not too bad, progress-wise.

I'm very envious of your wheel! There was someone up here selling an Ashford Elizabeth for £150, but despite messaging the seller as soon as I saw it, she already had someone coming to see it and of course they bought it. Enjoy

Nice progress. Enjoy your hols :-)

Oh, bummer! I keep seeing wheels pop up on Ravelry, roughly in the £150 range, so hopefully something else pops up in your area soon. (There was a post today from someone with half a dozen wheels for sale, incl an Elizabeth, but for £250 and in Milton Keynes, so less useful.)

I'll definitely need more practice with the wheel - my spinning today was entirely fits and starts as once the wheel was going I could draft OK, but then something would get tangled or confused (or both) and I'd have to stop and fix it, so I only managed in about 4-6" bits. Called it a day after about an hour as my hands and feet were tired, but it was enjoyable, and my yarn looks much better than on the drop spindle.

March OPs: £1,540.00
March Offset: £0.00

Current (offset) balance: £111,283.08
Month we’d be in to get to our current balance without OPs: October 2026 (+3 months)

2017 Overpayments: £5,838.39
2017 Offset Savings: -£749.07
2017 Interest Saved: £3,542.77

Total Overpayments/Offsets: £65,601.69
Total Interest Saved: £57,010.53

Daily Interest: £7.86 (down £0.20) <-- below £8.00!
Monthly Interest: £218.38 (down £29.89)
March 2016 Interest: £309.63 (down £91.25)
March 2016 Daily Interest: £9.99 (down £2.13)

House Bricks: +2

Mortgage reduction: £8,385/£20,000 (41%) (Average: £2,795.26/mo)

Managed a few extra OPs.

Net worth increase: £28,394.26/£80,000 (35%)

Stock market again.

MFIT-4: £48,216.92/£90,000 (53%)

Still 12% ahead of schedule.

Goals

Personal

1. Move to Ireland Boxes packed 5/5
2. Move to Ireland Items de-cluttered 5/5
3. House Start hardwood flooring on stairs Started

Financial

1. Mortgage OP £1,500 £1,540/£1,500

Career

1. Learn Tech book chapters read 1/3 - haven’t done this on holiday at all, though I have done other tech-y things on holiday

Great figures holidays are for switching off from work, I can never read tech books while on holiday!

Great figures Hidden.

Hope the break wasn't all work and that you found plenty of time for fun too.

In case you wanted, here is the recipe I mentioned

BW

Just popped in to say hello. Hope all ok with you Hidden

Thanks BW. Work's been a bit crazy, with health/DIY stuff filling up the weekends. Still making good progress, though.

The highlights I remember -
- convincing DH to phone up car insurance to ask for a price reduction for renewal. Got the price down from £640+ to £537!
- DH got paid for unused holiday last year so that boosted his pay quite a bit for April
- spent under £185 on groceries in April, helped in part by being on holiday for the first week

Had a lovely holiday, though now it feels like forever ago. Work is getting more busy than usual due to a major project due in July.

Not much else to report, really. Finances are primarily on auto-pilot now that nothing's earning interest so there's limited money shuffling going around. This actually bit us in the butt this month as I forgot to transfer money into an account to pay the CC direct debit. I know before they've texted me to remind me, but they didn't this time (perhaps thanks to the bank holiday), so had to pay £5 fee for that. Will probably try to phone up and get that waived but not a crisis if not.

April OPs: £1,658.61
April Offset: -£104.89 (just to bring it to a round £6,000 )

Current (offset) balance: £108,597.74
Month we’d be in to get to our current balance without OPs: February 2027 (+4 months)

2017 Overpayments: £7,497.00
2017 Offset Savings: -£853.96
2017 Interest Saved: £4,414.37

Total Overpayments/Offsets: £68,506.13
Total Interest Saved: £57,884.16

Daily Interest: £7.69 (down £0.17)
Monthly Interest: £237.17 (up £18.79)
April 2016 Interest: £293.59 (down £56.42)
April 2016 Daily Interest: £9.79 (down £2.10)

House Bricks: +3

Mortgage reduction: £11,176/£20,000 (55%) (Average: £2,794.00/mo)

Made some extra OPs this month from budget savings.

Lifetime ISA: £0/£8,000 (0%)

Not sure when we’ll start funding this, probably once we’re settled in Ireland.

Net worth increase: £37,091.27/£80,000 (46%)

DH got paid for unused holiday.

MFIT-4: £51,007.00/£90,000 (56%)

Still doing well.

Goals

Personal

1. Move to Ireland Boxes packed 4/4 - also ordered more boxes for free with nectar points
2. Move to Ireland Items de-cluttered 4/4 probably more!
3. House Start hardwood flooring on stairs Started - also made a plan for execution, will aim to do half at the late May bank holiday weekend and the other half in June when we visit Ireland to house-hunt

Financial

1. Mortgage OP £1,500 £1,658.61/£1,500

Career

1. Learn Tech book chapters read 0/2 - still 0, but I’ve learned a ton of other stuff in the last month so I’m giving myself a pass

Just popping in to catch up and say hi and thanks for your support on my diary. Fab progress being made chez Hidden and exciting adventures to come. It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how hard we try, the de-cluttering never seems to end

Oh gosh - does acquiring boxes for packing count as re-cluttering? Probably. Sigh.

Personal
Move to Ireland Boxes packed 0/5 - time to start kicking this up a notch
Move to Ireland Items de-cluttered 0/5 - have loads of things to put on freecycle/gumtree/wherever, just need to do it!
House Finish half the hardwood flooring on stairs
House Get at least 2 quotes for re-instating the bedroom wall

Health
Chase up appointment with consultant A - scheduled for June but will check for early cancellations
Chase up appointment with consultant B - scheduled for July but will check for early cancellations
Chase up re-test for nerves - consultant B mentioned this would be in May but I haven't heard anything

Financial
Mortgage OP £2,500 £0/£2,500 - may be a bit of a stretch

Career
Pass probation officially - should have already met the 3-months, and no one's said anything to give me pause, but would be good to have this done and dusted

Going to try and make a point of checking in here more than once/month. Seems like very little excitement is going on financially (and not much room/time/energy for doing extra little bits there), and there's not much else to report life-wise at the moment.

DH got paid for unused holiday from 2016-17, so that's an extra £1k to the mortgage. Might be able to squeak another £100+ in there by the end of the month.

MIL may move to Ireland as well at some point...she was quite surprised at DH's comments about how tricky things may get post-Brexit, and I have a feeling she would like it there anyway, plus we can provide more support for her financially/lifestyle-wise. We're fine either way, just another thing to consider.

Goals

Personal
Move to Ireland Boxes packed 3/5 - got some packing done today
Move to Ireland Items de-cluttered 0/5 - have loads of things to put on freecycle/gumtree/wherever, just need to do it!
House Finish half the hardwood flooring on stairs Planned - need to order supplies and prep things for the bank holiday weekend to execute
House Get at least 2 quotes for re-instating the bedroom wall 0/2 - will try and call around for these this week

Health
Chase up appointment with consultant A - scheduled for June but will check for early cancellations
Chase up appointment with consultant B - scheduled for July but will check for early cancellations
Chase up re-test for nerves - consultant B mentioned this would be in May but I haven't heard anything

Financial
Mortgage OP £2,500 £2,400/£2,500

Career
Pass probation officially - should have already met the 3-months, and no one's said anything to give me pause, but would be good to have this done and dusted

Goals

Personal
Move to Ireland Boxes packed 4/5 - packed another box
Move to Ireland Items de-cluttered 2/5 - still need to put items on freecycle/etc
House Finish half the hardwood flooring on stairs Planned - (still) need to order supplies and prep things for the bank holiday weekend to execute
House Get at least 2 quotes for re-instating the bedroom wall 1/2 - waiting on the quote from one person, should look into another quote next week

Health
Chase up appointment with consultant A - Still checking for early cancellations, nothing yet
Chase up appointment with consultant B - scheduled for July but will check for early cancellations (waiting on appointment date below)
Chase up re-test for nerves - chased up with consultant B, waiting on appointment

Financial
Mortgage OP £2,500 £2,400/£2,500

Career
Pass probation officially - All done and dusted

Not much to report from the last week, really. Work's busy, but officially passed probation so that's good. Also confirmed with work the Ireland plans so we can book a trip in June to house-hunt and then plan to move either late July or early August.

Estate agent's come to take photos of the house to go onto social media, the plan is to do an open house/arrange all the viewings for whenever we're in Ireland as the house will be empty and the dogs will be away. Fingers crossed it's easy to get a tenant in and go from there.

Super close to £105k on the mortgage...should be on track to break through that this month.

Great progress. Sounds like a dream plan to me. Would love to move to Ireland and rent out this house. Good news about probation at work

Great news about getting through the probationary period. Good luck breaking through £105s.