Mortgage Free by 01/01/11...so goes the plan

babyb06

Congratulations!!!! You must be walking on cloud 9! Hope you had a good shopping spree today! I am sure it will be an amazing Christmas in your household

RosieTiger

wynnvegas wrote: »

So, I need an idea for my new MFW board diary title. With a view to us eventually building our own house and a multitude of wee projects to hit as milestones inbetween times, it will need to reflect the upcoming journey but maybe with a small nod to being mortgage free. Any suggestions?

Cheers,

Billy

"The First Time Was Just Practicing" ??:rotfl:

ztan

Amazing... I am not at all jealous!

Well done and congratulations!

wynnvegas

Morning All,

Well, it's been a whirlwind of a few days so a we bit to catch up on and more than a few mentions of thanks to those who have been regular commentators on my efforts (note M gets no credit here!) and those who have kindly popped in to add their congratulations.

Rosie Tiger - I remember being similarly keen for PoppyOscar to pay off her mortgage a wee while back. It's great when you can vicariously celebrate someone else's success but it's a nightmare waiting for the confirmations and subsequent comments from the diary holder - a trap I've also fallen into! I'll definitely get a nod to your suggestion in the finished title!

Gally and XSpender - we had a great night and a few good nights since so thank you for the thought. Only last night did we have even just a wee bit of time to ourselves as it has been hectic.

Someday Soon, Bungrefurb, AnnaBeth, babyb and ztan - thanks for the comments. The plans are slowly but surely materialising and I'll get a big clarifying opening to the next diary - our rough interpretation of what we want is going to architect 1 today to start sizing things up to identify the amount of land we'll be wanting.

wantabetterlife - I'm with you on the Vegas return piece! Next year will be Vegas 6 for us but we're really looking forward to showing it off to a first timer in M's little sister. Only a couple of months until we book as I'm waiting to see if there's any benefit to be derived from the Virgin Christmas sale. At the moment, £2,900 for flights is the best I can do!

FroggyG - It's somewhat surprising that I've managed not to be the star of my own diary and more so that I don't mind even a wee bit. Thank you so much for all your witticisms, sage advice, rubbish restaurant menu picks, encouragement and now diary title. I'll play around a wee bit with the suggestion but you'll certainly see the spirit of your idea in my eventual second effort!

So.....

When last I posted in any great detail, we had just become mortgage free and were beginning to kick off the great planning phase. I had, on the basis of putting on about 4lbs in the good eating fortnight prior, decided that going out wasn't the best option. M had taken that to heart and, in a burst of activity, had prepared a menu (literally, a "mortgage-free dinner", folded A5 menu by the way) of things we hadn't previously tried. We had 2-day Dave's insanaity hot sauce marinated chicken skewers which nearly killed me, a goan stuffed chicken breast with curry and rice and then, with a nod to my workplace celebration for the Friday, a wee bit of carrot cake, a truffle, some millionaire shortbread and I had mint choc chip ice cream (a long-time favourite) for the first time in years to wrap it all up. Neither of us are big drinkers but we did toast our mortgage freedom with a beer (me) and milk (M) and she finished off the meal by presenting me with a couple of new jigsaws - A Bellagian's view by day - http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/DSCN4162.jpg and A Bellagian's view by night - http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/wynnvegas/DSCN4062.jpg. Can't wait to get them started!

We met friends on Friday and Saturday and had a Hallowe'en party on Sunday. The discussion on Friday was particularly interesting as it may lead to us and another couple of friends buying a big enough piece of land to put both our and their intended final properties on. The cost is nothing like pro-rated so buying 1 acre at c.£130-150,000 is as viable as buying 3.5 acres at £180-200,000 but, assuming you partner with the right people and never fall out, the possibility of sharing the cost of land and utilities etc whilst picking your neighbours and getting the whole thing moving a damn site sooner than anticipated may work out very well. We took a couple of friends out for a meal on the Saturday to help us celebrate which was very nice and then I managed to scare all the kids witless at my nephew's first birthday / hallowe'en party. I'll see if I can get a picture up of my Freddy Kreuger costume!

I'll now investigate getting the signature updated and commencing the new diary. Come what may, I'm also off to get my iphone today as life has so far gotten in the way of that plan!!

Cheers,

Billy

taxi73

The shared land sounds like a great plan and very exciting.I'm really looking forward to reading the next installment of your life changing plans.
Sounds like you've had a fab weekend since and have fun with your new toy..well deserved.

reformedEffortmaker

wow!.....I've spent nearly two hours of a day taken off work to write an essay reading this thread......what a fantastic read

CONGRATULATIONS TO BILLY and M

You sound like a great couple and I admire your efforts...I'm really really pleased for you-what an absolute inspiration

wynnvegas

Thanks Taxi - other than the party yesterday being inhabited by all the smokers of the day and me waking up this morning with a sore throat, the weekend was great - too short as ever!!

Thanks REM - apologies for eating into your day off! I hope diary number 2 lives up to the hype! Best of luck with the essay.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Many thanks again to all those who have been with me for the ride. This post is intended to close this diary off and, as such, will be my last entry here. Please join me as we take the next big step in our lives in the new, improved mortgage free wannabe diary - Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice - Wynnvegas aiming for the big house!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2831200

Cheers,

Billy

setmefree2