A blissful home - mortgage_girl's MF diary

mortgage_girl

Thank ICTD, gallygirl and FloppyDisk (love the name btw).

Floppy - I'm surprised my ramblings didn't send you to sleep! Chickens are great, I highly recommend them. Very amusing to watch and easy to look after, not to mention the eggs which, in my opinion, are so much better than bought ones. Yes it does feel liberating to be a lone MF ranger - I've learnt so much along the way (decorating etc) and it has been nice not to have to 'convince' anyone else to follow my MF plan, but it has been quite scary/frustrating at times especially when I had to have the roof done. Ooh as for running my 10k is a week on Sunday :eek: I did my first 10k distance run a few weeks ago so know I can do it but still have the annoying pins and needles/numb feet issue which I'm having blood tests for. What runs are you doing?

It's payday today so I've been sat updating my accounts, transferring money into different pots etc. I've received another payment for my tutoring so that will be going straight towards the mortgage. Apart from that my op's this month will come from vouchers and things I sell on fb. I've got quite a bit of decluttering done this week and took my Mum to York yesterday as a belated mother's day treat. We had a lovely day, lunched at Betty's (yum) and the weather was kind which was a blessing. I has a small splurge and bought myself some Lush face soap, I love their products, they smell divine. I always find their staff so friendly and helpful too. I think I must have tired myself out yesterday as I slept for 11 hours, which isn't like me :eek: and I feel a bit dazed this morning, in fact i'm still in my pj's! I'm sure a day of laziness won't do me any harm though so i'm just going to relax and go with it.

MGx

icontinuetodream

Enjoy your lazy day....you certainly deserve it!!

mortgage_girl

I'm back! As always the last few weeks of term have been very busy and i've spent any spare time i've had working on the veg patch and trying to keep the garden weed free! Now the holidays are here and in my usual ocd/not wanting to waste a minute of it fashion, i've made a list as long as my arm of housey-things I want to do...although I think I need to add in big writing to the bottom of it - "RELAX" - as I do tend to get a bit carried away! So far i've done loads of decluttering, cut the mammoth hedge, tidied the decking and cleaned out the wormery (yuk). I'm planning on doing a carboot on Saturday if the rain holds off to rehome some of my decluttered things and clear a bit of space.

The mortgage has been ticking away nicely and i've been making op's whenever i've been able to. The good news is I make my final car payment next month so that will free up some spare pennies to add to the op pot.

Oh and i've just realised that I haven't posted since doing my 10k - I managed to complete it in 1 hour and 4 mins, which I was very pleased with, especially seen as it was a baking hot day and I felt like giving up after the first km. There were a group of us from work who ran and between us we managed to raise just under £1000 for charity.

Right, better get some sleep as i'm actually having a relaxing day tomorrow and going to Scarborough with my partner - it'll be an early start though as it's a long drive and I want to squeeze in a morning run!

Night all,

MGx

mortgage_girl

Well things seem to be coming together nicely at the moment. I'm slowly getting through my mammoth to-do list and spent the past 3 days painting the bedroom and kitchen ceiling. It's one of those jobs that i've been putting off so i'm pleased that i've finally got it done.

The carboot went well - it was only from 9.00-12.00 and we made £70 between us and still have loads of stuff left to sell at our next carboot, needless to say the money went straight into the op pot. My mortgage is now below £58k so i'm getting there slowly. The good news is that I make my final payment on my car tomorrow (yay), then I can start throwing some serious money at the mortgage. By my calculations I'll still need to find an extra £4k so that I can hit my £11k op target so i'll need to get my thinking cap on. I'm doing the usual stuff of sw@gbucking, ne0buxing, surveying and selling stuff on fb, as well as a bit of tutoring, which all helps. I've had to increase my food budget though as started to incorporate more juices into my diet. I went on a 5 day juice detox and felt brilliant by the end of it (the first day was very rough). As a result, it's kickstarted a new, much healthier eating regime for me, which I want to continue as I have loads more energy and feel so much better within myself. I seem to have more clarity and improved concentration, my skin is in a much better condition and my tastebuds have changed too - I can really taste saltiness or sweetness in foods (gravy made from granules is now far too overpowering - yuk). I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who is in need of a boost.

Right, time to go and chill. Have a great Thursday everyone.

MGx

mortgage_girl

Is it me or are the seasons starting to get later? I've been pottering round the greenhouse and veg patch this morning and I'm just starting to get runner beans, courgettes, peppers, aubergines and plums. I've had a glut of tomatoes - they were early and have nearly finished and I picked some rhubarb from the mammoth rhubarb plant and have knocked up a few rhubarb and ginger crumbles for the freezer this morning. But everything seems so late this year, and I seem to think last year was the same. I'm not complaining, it all just seems to be shifting further backwards.

I've had a few chilled out days (except for a very chilly and wet carboot sale yesterday - the less said about that the better), I've been reading, baking and not really doing much else and it has been bliss. I finally finished the Hunger Games trilogy which was absolutely fantastic and now will be scouring my bookshelves to find the next item on my hitlist. I'm consciously making an effort to have more 'me' time as I am guilty of running to endless to-do lists, so I'm putting them aside for a while, which is probably a good idea seen as I'm back at work next week and things may become slightly manic :eek:. How time flies!

So this afternoon, I'm going to wander round to my Nanna's and take her a crumble. It's lovely being able to exchange 'goodies' as I often come home with a freshly baked fruit loaf of apple pie. Apart from that I'm going to go with the flow. I've got some leftover mushroom and ale pie for tea so I'll probably do some honey roast veggies to go with that and use up some potatoes from the garden, yum!

Enjoy the sunshine

MGx

icontinuetodream

Nom nom!! All sounds lush!!:D It does seem like this has been a long fruit & veg season....for which I am very grateful!!

Hope your first week back goes well - and make the most of your last few days before the lunacy starts again!! :rotfl:

mortgage_girl

Thanks ICTD - the lunacy has certainly started again. I've taken on a new role at work and I'm trying to learn as I go, which really doesn't sit right with my inner control freak . But I will get there in the end and I've learnt quite a bit already. The weekends do go far too quickly though!

I've spent this weekend trying to declutter the back bedroom which seems to have exploded into chaos somehow. I've managed to shuffle some things around and have listed quite a few things on fb, a few of which have already sold, so i'm getting there slowly. I'll just need to keep chipping away at it.

I'm not used to this dull and chilly weather that we've been having recently. Our little coastal town was surrounded by fog for three days - yuk, but on the bright side (no pun intended ) the sun seems to be battling through today. I do feel in need of some stodgy, warming food though so I think I'll make some bacon and lentil soup for lunch - yum!

On the mortgage front I've op'd just over £700 this months. I still feel like I'm playing catchup as I'm nowhere near my £11k target for the year but I've not given up hope and I'm determined to get as close as I can. I'm 40 months ahead on my mortgage already and my aim is to be mortgage free in 2 years time. Fingers crossed!

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

MGx

CathT

mortgage_girl wrote: »

On the mortgage front I've op'd just over £700 this months. I still feel like I'm playing catchup as I'm nowhere near my £11k target for the year but I've not given up hope and I'm determined to get as close as I can. I'm 40 months ahead on my mortgage already and my aim is to be mortgage free in 2 years time. Fingers crossed!

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

MGx

They are fantastic OP's! To know you can be mortgage free in just 2 years must be an amazing feeling.

mortgage_girl

Thanks Cath. It'll be a bit of a tight squeeze to get there but I'm hoping to get as close as I can to my two year target - fingers crossed . As daft as it sounds, I don't think it's really hit me that I could be mortgage free in 2 years but give it another 12 months and I'm sure it will.

MGx

mortgage_girl

I've had a productive morning so far and have managed to get a load of washing done as well as my ironing and I've hoovered the car too, so I'm having a bit of 'me' time with a cuppa and catching up on the MFW world.

I had a bit of a splurge day yesterday, I've been a bit fed up with work recently and feel like it's all work and no play, so I decided to make the most of the weekend by heading into town for a spot of shopping. It was lovely to get out for a bit and wander, instead of constantly thinking about what I 'should' (well, could) be doing at home. Anyway, after much deliberating I decided to treat myself to a Wii U, which I've wanted for ages but saw as too much of an indulgence. Needless to say, I spent the rest of yesterday playing with it (after installing 2 hours worth of updates), it's fab!

I do think that us 'Mortgage Free Wannabees' can be too hard on ourselves if we're not careful, so occasional treats are important. I'm just about to hit the sub £55k milestone so my splurge was my treat to myself for working so hard on reducing my mortgage through the year. Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Right I'm off to play! Enjoy your Sunday everyone.

MGx