Countdown to Freedom

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

I'm off for a few days with a girlfriend on Thursday. Back Saturday night & DH is cooking dinner. Sunday will be freezer and larder inventory. Monday will be menu planning for November. I can't believe how quickly the year has whizzed by. Hope everyone on their MF journeys are thinking of the monetary value of the freezer, larder, fridge 👍

VintageHistorian

Lovely to see you back Tilly! I followed you on here when we were still saving for our house, and like others have posted I continue with the Tilly Tidies. Can't wait to hear more about Portugal.

rtandon27

How absolutely lovely to hear from you Tilly!

I have several entries in YNAB that simply say 'tilly tidy' to account for shifting the pennies around! My OH laughs about my obsessive desire to have 00 at the end of all the accounts bar 1!

CathT

How lovely to hear from you Tilly. Your children are super grown up now - how time flies! 

BookWorm

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS said:

BookWorm said:

Hi Tilly! Really lovely to hear from you and so glad to hear things are good.

Best wishes BW x

Hi Bookworm, lovely to 'see' people I know. I've struggled today with access and searching

Both of our 'children' are getting married next year, with one of them having their wedding party in Portugal. Once that's done, it's full steam ahead as we have bought a piece of land to build on

I won't go through it now as I need to clear my head but it's exciting & scary in equal measures

Hope all is well with you x

All good thanks Tilly. Still plugging away with the mortgage but I'm a darn sight  closer than I would have been without MFW

LadyWithAPlan

OH  you are back, I have read your diary and I also now have an account called my TillyTidy OP cash ISA  as I trying to increase my house deposit and focus on saving more, so any extras including surveys, cash back go in.
I use YNAB so daily sweeping does not work as well, might have to think what is more workable to TT.
 I will be a late first time solo buyer  so the huge mortgage scares me a bit and I do like my security blanket of my deposit.

I will no doubt go back and re-read your diary, I need a kick to get actually buying...
Look forward to your updates Are you saving for the new build of the land?

savingholmes

Welcome back 

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning, it's bedlam here at the moment. 3 dogs, all rescues, 2 from Portugal & 1 from a girls break with Gally in Seville - they're all barking, as after 23 years of owning the house, the track is being tarmacked & the guys are working by the gate. Very exciting but driving the dogs mad

A bit more about why I've reappeared. We bought a lovely plot of land, adjacent to where we live. Under Portuguese law if a plot is for sale, if anyone wants to buy it, adjacent neighbours are asked if they want to buy it. We hadn't realised it was for sale until shortly before we were notified officially. It's about 40% of the land we have today. 

I had thought we'd start the process as soon as we bought it but since we became MF we've totally renovated our house here. It's gone from old fashioned & dark to modern & light

I remember talking with Gally about whether to knock it down, drawing rough plans on paper napkins when we met for lunch or dinner 🤣  We didn't knock it down but there were only 2 internal walls left. New internal walls were built to the design on those paper napkins. What a journey!

DH decided after having the house for so long, he wanted to appreciate it & have a rest 🤣 before starting more madness.

Once we have the wedding party for DD here next year, we will start the process of approvals, then the next phase begins

The reason for the diary is cost containment. When we renovated here, we made sensible choices. Still very tightly MSE focused. We want the same focus when we build. Tiles, kitchen, bathrooms, appliances etc. It's all money & the money has to be used wisely. 

If it's OK, I'll pop in & out then start posting about € mngt as things kick off. We've already got a bank account with 20 savings pots! My MSE days, I guess, are still with me. Vacations, vehicle maintenance, wood purchasing (for the fire), annual insurances, animal vaccinations etc. It does help the focus as the money comes in then moves to the various pots. 

I'll be starting some pots for building work, internal fixtures and fittings etc

I've sold quite a lot of stuff on Ebay & Marketplace in the UK & Marketplace in Portugal. The money went into saving pots straight away. We want a very clear budget when building, landscaping & want to minimise any overspend. The scope of work needs to be detailed to ensure we know exactly what we're doing & controlling the spend.

More to follow but my brain feels a bit overwhelmed.  Opening up my diary has made our plans real in an odd way. It never mattered where I was travelling with work when we were clearing the M, I posted, Tilly tidied every day. Surveys whenever they came in. Opening my diary again has made this next phase of our adventures real.

Hope it's OK that I'm not clearing a M but managing spend. It is house related & we will be borrowing from ourselves to build. As we want/need that money back, we must manage the spend, then sell our current house.

Scary, exciting & mad

Greying_Pilgrim

Tilly - we're 'mortgaging in reverse' - saving up for new windows, followed by carpets, followed by hard landscaping........ etc etc.   They ain't kicked me out of here.........yet ........

Welcome back.

Greying X

themadvix

There are quite a few of us without mortgages still hanging around Tilly - and it definitely helps focus the mind/keep you on track. And you, like GP, are doing the mortgage in reverse!

Your plans sound very exciting - I will be reading along with interest!