Mortgage free by 2021?!

EatingTheElephant

What a bargain your boiler repair was! I thought our repair was a bargain, but you've topped it!

Great news that you've got an earlier appointment and good luck with the job. A lot of companies are still against remote working even with the advances in technology now. It will be their loss when you find a company that embraces it.

hiddenshadow

Thanks DFOD and ETE.

If it makes you feel better, ETE, it wasn't the boiler but the warm air. No idea how much boilers cost to repair and I'm hoping to remain in blissful ignorance while we own the house. Think it's a pretty new boiler, so fingers crossed it keeps doing its job...granted, it only heats the kitchen/bathroom sinks as the shower is electric, so even if it went it wouldn't be an immediate crisis.

Re: working remotely, it really does baffle me. There's evidence that people are more productive/happier being able to work flexibly, and for the sort of thing I do there's almost no reason not to allow it (with perhaps the odd day on-site for in-person meetings). The annoying thing is that there's a policy to allow 2-4 days per month of working remotely, it just doesn't apply to me because I can't come in to the office the other days. I don't understand it, but so be it.

debtfreeoneday

Makes no sense does it! Likewise out boiler only does out hot water, well we never have hot water in the taps and we only use it to heat water for baths but they are few for us anyway, mostly the kids!

hiddenshadow

Payout from p@nelbase and swagbucks, plus a few other odds and ends. Current balance: £119,706.14

Might shuffle the budget around a tiny bit to get that sub-£119,700 by the end of the year.

Not much else to report. Massive tidy in the kitchen has it looking good but was also exhausting. Still need to tidy the lounge a bit before MIL comes. Luckily the spare bedroom is still tidy from my mom's visit.

Also need to wrap presents, but at least there are only a handful.

Roll on Christmas/2017. 2016 can die in a fire.

atypicalblonde

I agree, 2016 can take a long walk off a short plank as far as I'm concerned!

Your figures are truly extraordinary HS, you'll be at five figures in no time!

hiddenshadow

Thanks ATB. I'm hoping we can get there before we move, we'll have to see.

Few more pounds in from surveys, current balance at £119,685.63. Tempted to count our January OP as part of December to get to the £43k goal but that would be cheating. We've gone £10,000+ more than ideally planned this year so that's fabulous.

That said, we've managed a lot recently:
- £1,600 to repair the car
- £500 unexpectedly invested in ISA
- £434.75 emergency vet bill for older dog

So that's not bad, especially at Christmas.

Full reduction at £41,983.23, which forced me to find a bit extra in the budget to bring the total reduction for 2016 to an even £42,000 (crazy to even type that!!). Think I'll count that as a wrap for 2016.

A_Frayed_Knot

Well done, that is absolutely fantastic. You must be so pleased with that reduction.

Hope you had a lovely Christmas and A Happy New Year when it comes. Roll on MFW 2017.

debtfreeoneday

Well done, awesome figures!!! You overpaid more than we even earnt this year!!

hiddenshadow

A_Frayed_Knot wrote: »

Well done, that is absolutely fantastic. You must be so pleased with that reduction.

Hope you had a lovely Christmas and A Happy New Year when it comes. Roll on MFW 2017.

Thanks! Christmas was nice and quiet, and I got a lovely mix of presents. Lots of practical things from in-laws (warm socks, warm hat, storage containers for dog treats, etc) and some less practical things from DH/friends (yarn, board game, ebooks). DH liked the gifts I got him as well (funny t-shirt, funny socks, geeky blu-ray).

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

Well done, awesome figures!!! You overpaid more than we even earnt this year!!

Thanks DFOD.

That prompted me to look at our non-work income this year, and I was really surprised by the numbers...

Surveys: £929.07
Betting: £412.87
Phone sale: £63.00
Solar: £486.04
Bank: £1,229.91
DVDs: £77.39
cash back: £545.34

£3,743.62 total

That's a pretty good sum for mostly "free" money (solar not so much as we paid to install them, and surveys take time, but I don't mind). Especially pleased by the DVDs as that's DH de-cluttering his massive collection a bit.

Shame the bank interest will be close to £0 for 2017, but that just means more OPs.

selloptape

Wow - brill amounts on the non-earned money! Something I definitely need to increase in 2017