Mortgage free by 2021?!

EatingTheElephant

Fantastic news :T

Watty1

Such exciting times. And what a great opportunity to declutter

hiddenshadow

£6.20 interest from T3sc0, bringing the mortgage balance to £125,307.27.

Declutter sort of begun, sorted through most of my clothes over the weekend. Found a few for charity and packed away a bag of warm weather clothes that won't be needed for the next 6 months.

Hoping this weekend 1) the weather cooperates 2) DH and I are both not plagued with colds. Then we can organise/clear out the garage and use our pre-paid HippoBag to get rid of lots of stuff in the house/garage. Once that's done there should be room in the garage for storing packed boxes and items to give away, so that should speed up the decluttering.

Looks like both our mums will be visiting in the next couple of months so that's some incentive to get the house tidied. Three years seems a bit long for a completely chaotic/unfinished house...:o

hiddenshadow

Few other misc bits coming in from sh0pitize, cash back, etc, bringing the mortgage to £125,282.30. Edges us just over 38% on the MFit-T4 progress.

Waiting on withdrawals from MB to come through, then should be able to make an OP that takes us out of the 125s! Tomorrow is also pay day for me (think Thurs will be DH), so that's nice.

Pension stuff is almost sorted out - need to get one contribution tweaked so that I get tax relief on it, and then inform HMRC about my contributions so they adjust my tax code for the rest of the year. That should bump my pay up a bit, so more room for OPs.

Made a bit of progress on the house at the weekend, though it's left me ill/sore today. Filled the HippoBag, so the garage looks a lot roomier now. Also ran various errands in town, including donating more things to the charity shop. Finished up with a nice lunch courtesy of SB/T3sc0 vouchers.

Tentatively beginning to job hunt. Not desperate to change jobs (though two coworkers have left in the last few weeks), but I don't think mine will be amenable (or workable, even if open to it) to working from home (especially if "home" is hundreds of miles from the rest of the office). I've got 6+ months to look, so may as well see what's out there that looks interesting, rather than just going for whatever's available in desperation next spring. (Don't think it would actually come to that, as we could manage off DH's salary for quite some time, but I've learned I don't like to be idle.)

Not much else to report. The cold weather is much preferable to the heat, but it does make me just want to curl up on the couch 24/7 with books/knitting.

debtfreeoneday

All exciting stuff in here Hidden, good luck with the job hunt

hiddenshadow

Thanks DFOD.

hiddenshadow

£271.61 OPed to the mortgage from MB amounts, bringing the balance to...drumroll please...£124,999.99 :j

DH and I have both been paid and his included quarterly bonus. Will likely split that across OPs and savings pots, but should make a decent amount for November OPs.

Have started spending for our next holiday...going to California and Hawaii next spring for my dad's wedding. Not really looking forward to the Hawaii/wedding bit (not a fan of heat/sun or forced sociaising ) but he did help pay for our wedding, so there you go. At least the California side will mean we can visit with friends, and hopefully go see Galway Downs International Horse Trials while we're there. Purchased the UK set of airfare, still need to do the Hawaii one but hoping to use some miles for that as well to help with the cost. UK side was surprisingly cheap (£620.96), though it does involve a stop in Reykjavik.

Also getting quotes this week for landscaping the garden (it's trying to turn back into a jungle) and finishing off carpentry bits in the house. Would be good to get both of those projects taken care of before it gets too cold.

debtfreeoneday

Rather you than me for the wedding abroad!!! I'd look like monica out of friends - hair wise with the humidity!

hiddenshadow

I know, I don't really understand why they're doing a "destination" wedding. They already live in a picturesque place (with loads of other nice places close-ish by so even if they wanted to get out of their neighbourhood they could. I suppose they figure if most of their small guestlist is already paying to fly some distance, they may as well pay double (or more) to fly double the distance to a touristy-only type of place (so airfare is never really on sale). Sigh. They're also honeymooning in Hawaii, but on a different island, so they still have to fly there, so I really don't understand the point - they could have just flown from the mainland.

For added fun, Dad's fiancee is buying me clothes. The only other thing she's bought me is lingerie as a wedding gift (a few sizes too large - thanks! - and when she'd been dating my dad for about 6 weeks. Creepy...). I was just going to pack a sundress and a lace shawl, but she's buying me a bridesmaid-style dress (though I don't know that they're really doing a wedding party, nor has being in one been mentioned to me), as well as two Indian-style dresses for the day before the wedding (because the one I already own is apparently insufficient). I suppose as long as she's paying for all of it (I'm certainly not!), fine, but it still seems wasteful.

atypicalblonde

Morning Hawaii may take you by surprise, we went there as part of our honeymoon and I was very pleasantly surprised by it - very stunning in parts and it was overcast which we loved - kept the heat away and the sea breeze was wonderful. If you can spend some time doing the non-touristy things there are some fantastic places to explore xx