Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Kittenkirst

Thanks TheMadVix- it certainly was lovely

Heard from brother this afternoon- his gf is still in the hospital but has called him and he is going to go and visit. I’ve asked him to keep me in the loop and let me know if we can help in any way.

As I’ve been off work I haven’t updated my banking s/sheets but have been religiously using my app on my phone. I therefore called Clydesdale today to check the interest applied on 1st December £401.26 ouch which is £13.38 per day :eek:

I then number crunches and realised we are £14.52 away from £2600 overpayment- I therefore swiftly overpaid it. :dance: :dance:

:snow_laug :snow_laug :snow_laug :snow_laug

Overpayments now at £2600 for 2017! yayyyyy! :dance: :dance:

VelvetFreak

Yay Kitten! Congrats on your overpayments. That is so awesome.

Kittenkirst

Thanks VelvetFreak- we are really pleased, but trying not to look at how much capital we’ve paid off this year. As it was our first full year our interest is so high so we’ve cleared 3.6% of the capital this year. Hmph. It will all be good as it will start to snowball I have to keep reminding us of that!

Lovely evening last night- took a friend to see Pitch Perfect 3- lovely and cheesy and heart warming. We had food at a restaurant before but the first three we tried (which had the best online discount codes :money: ) had waits of over an hour which is unheard of. Ended up with a lovely pizza place and using 25% discount code it was £13 each. Cinema tickets were a benefit from gfs bank account so was free

I had to go into city centre yesterday for some shopping gifts- I managed to keep it under 2 hours so I only paid £3 parking (my free spots were already full) and got lots of the bits needed in the sales so was able to get a bit more than we could in December (always amazes me!).

Managed to successfully use the money mantras and walk out of body shop (we got loads of nice smellies as gifts so didn’t ‘need’ the pina colada shower gel for me or the vanilla chai shower gel for gf (we also bought radox ones before chrimbo for 95p a bottle!!), resisted the lure of the gift sets in Boots other than two ready for my brother and his gf for little add-ones for birthday gifts. I also avoided buying lunch or drinks in town- took my new starbs mug in with homemade coffee and made a mozzarella, ham & cranberry toastie at home as we have it all from Christmas. (I got home at 2.30pm starving so was very proud of myself for that part!)

Got a pork loin out of the freezer on Wednesday night to defrost in the fridge. It was originally reduced in Aldi earlier in the year, it’s a small joint and we’re going to try making slow roasted pulled pork and a homemade barbecue sauce. We have one burger bun left from Christmas Eve which gf will have and I will have potato wedges. Am excited already, will probably do a homemade coleslaw too- treat food!

We’re having Three couples over for New Years, so I have cleaned out the last cupboard this morning and pulled out all of the booze we have. We barely drink at home so it stock piles a bit- turns out we have 6 full bottles of amaretto, 5 different rums, 3 different gins etc.
We’ve sent the list out to the friends so they know what we have and if they want something additional they can bring. We also bought some beer early in December when the one we like was on offer.

Food wise gf is planning to make akni (similar to biryani) I’m making a cinnamon tea ring, we’ve already got loads of those chicken nuggets frozen after Halloween (13p a box!), some frozen cocktail sausages. We will sort out a list for other nibbles shortly so we can do a scout around for the best offers. Thinking a few oven pizzas would be good to do as well as garlic breads

Kittenkirst

On a more somber note, brothers gf is in a pretty bad way. She is on the mental health ward at the hospital still and we saw a Facebook live video last night where she is, essentially, delusional. Really harrowing to watch as she’s obviously in some distress, just hoping the docs/nurses etc can help support her and get her back to her normal state.

Brothers doing okay, we’ve made sure we’re checking in on him and may go visit Saturday to make sure he’s all okay. There’s not a lot we can do really but want to make sure brother feels supported.

It brings back some horrid memories for me of when my brother was in a similar state and I had him committed at the same hospital for a while. It was many many years ago but still a very hard time and difficult memories. Have chatted lots with gf and we’re focussing on supporting him and ensuring we keep everything else going.

We’ll all get through it I’m sure

VelvetFreak

Sorry to hear your brother's gf is having a tough time. I can totally relate as my sister, (while not quite at a point where she needs hospitalisation), is going through a similar thing. We had an 'incident' on christmas night that almost involved a trip to the hospital. It's so hard to sit by not knowing what to do to help. I try to stay out of it with my sister as she has a lot of jealousy and resentment towards me and my involvement tends to make her mental state even worse. Anyways, all this to say that you are not alone. I hope she gets better soon

Busy_Mee1

Hi KK glad you had such a nice Christmas and so sorry to hear about your brother’s girlfriend. I hope her condition stabilises soon. How lovely that your brother has the support of you and your lovely GF ( and her lovely family) Wishing you a very Happy New Year x

themadvix

Sorry to hear about your brother's GF - hope she makes a recovery soon and has the help she needs. I'm sure your support is much appreciated by your brother.

Well done on resisting the urge for lunch out - I know how hard it is and what an achievement it feels like to make it home!

Watty1

Lunch at home sounded delish Sorry about the brothers gf. I know how hard that can be. Your supporting him is lovely and exactly what is needed I am sure of that.

michelle09

Eek, hope your brother's gf gets the help she needs soon.

I enjoyed Pitch Perfect 3. Silly, but entertaining. (We followed it with Jumanji. All the serious films in the this family).

Kittenkirst

Thanks for all the thoughts and love guys, it’s good to know that we’re not alone with this.

We headed down to my brother yesterday to help him out- the nurses had advised his gf needs some trainers and jeans ASAP as she had ruined her trainers and only had one pair of jeans. Spent the morning ringing trainer stores in Leicester and Oxford (they never answer the phone). Had to get her men’s trainers as she is a large size and she was insistent that she had to have Nikes (!) & brother got her some jeans in the next sale. We then had to go back and exchange the shoes for a bigger size but unfortunately she had managed to trample them so it took some persuading.

She’s in a very bad way and made some alarming claims which gf and I can understand is just her mania talking (she believes it to be true but it’s not) but brother is thinking there must be some truth in them (one story is that she’s miley cyrus but some of the stories are harrowing). We took my brother a pasta dinner with us (home cooked) so we know he’s eating okay after the hospital etc

At times his Gf is being very demanding though- demanding expensive boots, bulk cigarettes, clothing vouchers etc so it’s hard to understand whether it’s all illness related. Trying to think kindly but it’s hard to hear at times as she was using emotional blackmail a lot, worries me that my brother may be manipulated (I hope not though and trying to think kindly of her).

On a more cheery note we have spent the day today (it was planned to be yesterday) cleaning and getting ready for tonight. We think we are all done, the roulette table is up, the akni is cooked and ready to be warmed, pizzas, chicken pieces, garlic breads ready to be cooked when people arrive.

The cinnamon tea ring hasn’t happened as there hasn’t been enough time for baking unfortunately. We still have mince pies and Christmas cake though so hoping that’s enough Home baking for my friends

We’ve also made sugar syrup, squeezed loads of lemons and chopped lemons & limes for the drinks. Gf is having an hours nap as it’s neen a long weekend with the hospital trip and running around yesterday.

Have wonderful New Years whatever you are doing- looking forward to 2018.