Goodbye Mortgage - the beginning of the end!

Beckyy

Shuffle done from the TSBaccounts and OPd £27.48. So 1.49% of this years total so far!

I've been looking into batch cooking recipes this month as I want to be well prepared for starting my new job and being stocked up on meals. Some nice ideas so far but nothing massively new compared to what we already do.

Made a 2nd batch of soup - leek and potato, but we ate all but 2 portions over the weekend. That's lunch today sorted though.

lilmissmup

Have you got a slow cooker? I am becoming addicted to mine! Love it, can cook nearly anything in it!

Beckyy

I don't! I have been eyeing one up for a while though, will maybe invest if I see enough recipes. Hope all is well for you and baby lilmiss!

Goldiegirl

I bought my slow cooker this time last year, and have been very pleased with it.


It came with recipe ideas to start me off, and I'm still using those recipes as I've been so pleased with the results.


Although I will be trying some other recipes over the coming months


PS, Happy new year!:)

Watty1

Another slow cooker fan here. I think I would use mine even more if I worked outside the house - or - were better organised

Beckyy

Thank you, I think I might finally get one on payday - I hear such good feedback on them and for such a reasonable price I'm quite excited about having a go.

We watched a documentary called 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead'. It's about a guy who was very overweight with health problems who turned to juicing. He lost an amazing amount of weight and his health improved ten fold. It was a really interesting watch and highlights just how much processed food is around and being eaten now.

The nutribullet we bought with vouchers is on the way so we'll be experimenting with juicing. Intending to increase our veg intake a lot and hopefully see some health benefits from it, particularly energy levels and skin.

We've already started eating a lot 'cleaner' with lots of fresh fruit and veg, organic when possible, but it's costing a fortune. I've spent 3-figures already this month so I'm going to have to be careful for the next couple of weeks. I do feel much healthier for it though so is maybe worth the extra cost if we can manage it.

Beckyy

A really lovely house came up for sale near us this week, it's probably the closest to being spot on with what our 'next step' would be however even with the equity have in this house I'm not sure if in a banks eyes we would earn enough to be able to borrow the amount needed.

It's made me think a bit more about the future, part of me would be happy to carry on living here and only move if/when we grow out of the house. The other half of me would like to buy a bigger house sooner rather than later as I would be concerned that if we started a family our income would likely drop and moving would probably become a lot harder.

I'm hoping that come May we will be able to remortgage with a lower interest rate and a product with no early repayments fees so that if we did decide to move we weren't fixed by a hefty ERC like we are now.

We also have the option of remortgaging our current house with a BTL mortgage and purchasing our next house using savings as a deposit, however after the trouble we're having with out current BTL I'm thinking twice about another right now. It would also mean we would be tying the equity we have in this house instead of being able to put it towards our next.

On that basis I think I will continue to OP and save until our fix is up in May and then I will reassess the plan and consider saving more rather than OPing so that we are in a better position if/when we decide to move next.

Remortgage wise we're currently potentially looking at 1.44% tracker fixed for 2 years or 2.19% fixed for 2 years, at a quick glance. As we're currently on 3.29% it's a massive difference and means we would be between £150-200 a month better off!

Beckyy

Managed to do a shuffle around and OP £128 so we're 6% into this years target!

Also aiming to save £5K this year. Didn't make our target last year so fingers crossed we will this time!

StrugglingYouth

All good progress!

On the fruit and vegetables costing a lot note. Do you have a local farmers shop around? Theres one two minutes away from me and its astoundingly cheap.

Yesterday I bought:
1x Cauliflower
10x Carrots
3x Pink Lady Apples
6x Large Eggs
1x Courgette
8x Mushrooms

Total: £4.60!

Beckyy

That's quite an impressive list for £4.60 StrugglingYouth!

We do but it's a little drive away and what they have can vary alot, although I haven't been for quite a while. I might make a point to drop in soon, thanks for reminding me