Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

newgirly

Best wishes for 2019 KK

Kittenkirst

newgirly wrote: »

Best wishes for 2019 KK

Thanks NG and the same to you!

Kittenkirst

Happy 2019 everyone!

Started this morning as I mean to continue with an overpayment of £140 to the mortgage :money:

Our target for this year is to repeat 2018’s figures of £4500, so 3.1% of the way there already

I’ve been to a New Year’s Day yoga session and got all sweaty & cream crackered I really enjoy the yoga sessions and feel better (mentally & physically) when I go regularly, so my intention is to ensure I’m going three times a week again as I’ve struggled to be consistent since returning from Australia in October.

We’ve then had lunch of using up pantry/fridge items so I whipped up a Spanish egg (white) omelette with some tinned new potatoes left over from Sunday’s curry with a slice of ys seeded loaf bought yesterday.

Now relaxing on the sofa with Oscar watching Netflix as the gf lightly snoozes.

Managed to post out 8 of the parcels from my metalsmithing destash yesterday as well as the dismantled workbench (took 1.5brs to dismantle and a lot of sweat!). However the other 6 were going to be astronomic to post Royal Mail so I’m going to use Hermes for them tomorrow when I can print out the labels. I have two more items that sold today so will pack them tomorrow morning. I’m pretty pleased with the sales made so far and I have £50 left for postage which should more than cover it.

From the metalsmithing sales I have made (after postage costs) approx £640. £100 already sent to my barclaycard and £140 overpaid on mortgage. That leaves £400 in my savings account which contemplating what to do with.

Kittenkirst

Afternoon all,
Just on lunch, having knocked up a curried parsnip soup with cheese toasts. Plenty of soup left for tomorrow and another portion for the freezer

Trying to use up as much as possible rather than buying new- eg instead of buying new stir fry veg we used shredded Brussels, carrots and corn that’s been hanging around since Christmas

Posted off all but one parcel today from the selling of my tools- managed to make £590 after all postal costs have been deducted. £140 was OP’d on mortgage, £100 went to the barclaycard. The remaining £350 is sat in savings.

In other news I’ve been back to yoga 3x this week and feeing a bit better about myself- hot yoga really helps me build up a stress and release any stresses/anxiety as you zone out and just focus on the postures and breathing. I do love it!

I have put three Hard Rock Cafe pin badges up on eBay as a buy it now to try and get that ball rolling. We have some other bits that need popping on eBay/gumtree so now the majority of the metalwork parcels have gone I can focus on

I’ve been looking into getting a bike for the past few months, I’ve been regularly checking freecycle and gumtree but none in my size have come up. I have found one for £99 in Halfords and am tempted to buy. After 15th I’ll have enough on my gift voucher card to buy it outright, or I could use the metalsmithing funds.

The main reason for this is that for yoga I have to drive into town (under 3 miles) and if it’s mon-sat 7am-6pm I have to pay £3 for parking. I am thinking that I could cycle in and lock my bike at the studio on days where I’m going to yoga from home and get some exercise in...something I’ll continue to think about over the next few days.

themadvix

Might be worth checking at the local dump for a bike? One near us seems to retrieve them, service them and sell them for a few quid.

We only ever have 'fridge-bottom' stir frys - sometimes they're amazing, sometimes not so much!

Kittenkirst

themadvix wrote: »

Might be worth checking at the local dump for a bike? One near us seems to retrieve them, service them and sell them for a few quid.

We only ever have 'fridge-bottom' stir frys - sometimes they're amazing, sometimes not so much!

Good shout I will check it out tomorrow after yoga

I have been to Halfords today and looked at actual bikes to work out what size I need and what the weights mean (in real life) and to make it seem a bit more realistic.

We do fridge bottoms stir fry’s but we’re tempted by a stir fry veg pack yellow stickered to 80p before we chatted and reminded ourselves of the stuff we already had. Only 80p saved but it all helps!

A_Frayed_Knot

Does your employer have a cycle to work scheme , we have and can save between 25-39%on a bike , never taken advantage of it as yet.

Still walk home,in my mind telling me that's another £6.50 per week saved to o/p :eek: just need to tell myself now for my savings pot.

Kittenkirst

A Frayed Knot- we suddenly remembered when wandering around Halfords yesterday so checked it out when I got home.

With the bike I think is suitable (basic model to see how I get on but comfortable to ride), helmet, lock and lights I think I save 34% and can pay £16 a month for the year. That sounds too good to be true so going to log into work laptop this afternoon and read all the small print to understand it.

Cycling to yoga will save money on some days but also make life easier- this morning gf has dropped me for yoga class and will go to the gym, however the class takes 1hr 15 and I like to be here 15 minutes before to get ready and relaxed before class starts. That means she ends up having to spend 1hr 45 at the gym (which is a long time when you’re tired/hungry). If I cycled I could just cycle in and cycle home. We could drive in separately but the yoga studio and gym are pretty close to each other (28 min walk, 8 min drive) so would be wasting petrol/environmentally naughty.

Still mulling it over somewhat- gf is a bit concerned about safety but okay with that. I have though in the past struggles with coccyx pain after spinning classes so stopped taking them. May need to see if I can ride am upright bike at the gym and not have pain after before I take the plunge and purchase.

In other news, gf has been presented with a great opportunity. It would mean massive changes for us if it happens and it’s still just a possibility so I won’t go into much more, but needless to say we are spending time working out what the change would mean to us and whether it will work out. Keep all your fingers crossed for her- I’m so proud of her for just pursuing the opportunity to see where it leads

A_Frayed_Knot

Great news about the cycle to work scheme, and will be keeping my fingers and toes crossed re gf's opportunity.

Look forward to hearing all about it.

Kittenkirst

Collected an order from Asda today of yoga/gym clothes. I was gifted £100 from a few people (brother, gfs parents etc) to get some new yoga clothes so ordered earlier in the week.

Tried it all on and am keeping a pair of full length leggings, 3 loose style tees and a thin zip trough jacket for after classes. All for £38.

I’m in the office tomorrow so can return the rest on my lunch break.

I’ve also ordered one pair of sweaty Betty leggings in the sale with an additional 20% off so £33.60 :money: my last pair of sweaty Betty leggings are cut off ones but wash very well and fit perfectly (even after 2 Years & a lot of wearing!) so I’m hoping these fit well and last. Fingers crossed.

Yoga this morning was fab- very sweaty and challenging. I do love how yoga makes you focus on the amazing things your body can do rather than focusing on the bits of my body I don’t like

Weekly shop done whilst at Asda- £21 spent and lots of tasty healthy stuffs bought. Planning sweetcorn fritters tonight with added grated courgette, alongside bacon & poached eggs. Yum. Trying out a body coach fritter recipe tonight which uses less flour to see if we can reduce the carb content a little to fit our macros a bit better.

Photos have arrived from FreePrints that I ordered at the end of December and I’m pretty impressed for £2.50. They do 45 free prints a month and you just pay postage which was £2.50 instead of the usual £3.99. They refresh the offer on the 1st so am going through our Singapore/Australia photos on gfs iPad to see which ones to print. I applied a Matt finish on the pics and they look ace. We have two large paperchade scrapbooks (one I bought to start collating pics after our America trip in 2016) & one the gf got for her 40th from her brother & family in 2017. We’re planning on doing some pages in one of them so printing a selection of our favourite bits from the holiday which is proving hard as we went to a lot of beautiful places

Right off to order this batch of photos and start planning a few pages of the scrapbook- will be nice to have the photos of our adventures stored somewhere to look at periodically and reminisce :heartpuls: