Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

newgirly

Hi KK, just catching up with your diary, glad it’s all going well and Oscar is recovered

Kittenkirst

newgirly wrote: »

Hi KK, just catching up with your diary, glad it’s all going well and Oscar is recovered

Thanks NewGirly- it’s such a relief that he is on the mend and can see

On that note he seems to be showing off just how good his eyesight now is by bringing home a little snack every night (well between 3am-5am) and munching it leaving a lot of mess urgh!

NSD was going well today- big work meeting that went a lot better than I expected and my big big boss was there (again) and there was a lot of positive compliments about my work in the session from other parties (which surprised me) so not a bad day. There was catering but it wasn’t great so had two mini pastries (whoops), half a dodgy garlic cheddar sandwich (massively over-garliced which I thought was impossible!) and a banana. But at least I didn’t spend and drank the provided coffee and bottled water

Got to gym after work but gf want feeling great and vomited, so we’ve both been to Tesco to get supper and then come home. I’m now on the exercise bike watching the latest Riverdale to make sure I get some exercise in and smash my Apple Watch rings

Gf is feeling a little less queasy so is sat downstairs watching her tv and relaxing with Hugo- good for her to relax somewhat!

The man came round today whilst gf worked from home and started prepping the garden. He also hung up the new mirror in the hall (moved the lyrics canvas to upstairs), put up the mirror,shelf and beach sign in the downstairs loo, hung up one of those multi photo frames in the lounge and put up the LED bathroom mirror in the en-suite. The shed was then delivered so he’s half built it and dug out the edges in the garden. It’s all looking great so far. It’s fab to be ticking some things off the house ‘to do’ list :T

Game of thrones to look forward to tonight too so not too bad a Monday all in!

Kittenkirst

Happy bank holiday everyone!

It’s been a busy week and the shed is now up and we have a pathway! We had been saving a £50 garden centre voucher given by gfs brother & sister in law when we moved in for when we started the garden. So on Saturday morning we popped to the local garden centre and picked up some bags of gravel, two gorgeous lupin plants and some pots to put them in, some extra soil & lawn seed. And got £4 change!

In the spirit of trying to be frugal we also cashed in gfs subcard points she accrues when away with work (she doesn’t always want a big hotel meal so will get subways!) so we both had a free lunch on Saturday of subway sandwiches.

We then went to Lidl and did a big shop- £36! I’m always so shocked by how cheap Lidl & Aldi are as we bought loads including dishwasher tablets, tea towels and lots of chicken, sausages, fruit, veg, eggs etc!

I’m also trying our frozen broccoli as I’m a bit weird and love dark green veg with my dinner most nights and thought this might be a cheaper way to do it! We also bought frozen basa fillets for £1.89 for two huge ones (they were £1.99 fresh and much smaller fillets!) that we can do those Gousto recipes with like the Indian fish pie and rainbow chilli fish. Yum!

Yesterday we went to the Abingdon Air Show which was awesome. I grew up on that airbase so it was pretty nostalgic and I got to see some of the guys from air cadets from when I was a teen which was nice. I was hoping to see my dad there but he’s very elusive and no one saw him. Which was a shame. I don’t mention my parents much as they aren’t really involved in my life, but I had been looking forward to seeing him. The Airshow was a fab day out and the cost of the tickets goes out of our entertainment/charity budget as all proceeds go to the local air ambulance

I didn’t get much sleep last night as have a pretty sore back- so gf has nipped to the gym and I have been postering at home- neighbours are away for a few days so I’ve been over to feed and pet their two cats and have done some hoovering and washing. Now sat with a cuppa watching Scream queens!

In overpayment terms I have been re-jigging the budgets as we need to reduce the mortgage ops for the next few months and build the cat savings back up quickly. However, we had £40 cashback via Quidco from our gas & elec swap over come through as well as some Shopmium cashback and prolific surveys. So £49.80 was overpaid at the start of the month to get the May ball rolling

Need to be more on the ball with Prolific this month and keep on plugging away with Shoppix receipt scanning!

debtfreeoneday

Been a bit absent from here but you are doing awesome on the Op's - well done!

Downshifterella

Doing great on the OPs Karma , well done!!
You are so right re Lidl/Aldi I must remember how much cheaper they can be!
Hope your back feels better soon!
Ella x

Downshifterella

I meant you Kittenkirst Karma was on my mind to reply to! :rotfl: obvs still too tired to get up yet!

Kittenkirst

*Slinking back in & hoping no one notices my almost 8 week break*

It’s been a busy two months since I last posted- Oscar decided to go walkabouts for 5 days, I managed to get bitten badly whilst searching for him in the woods and cornfields which turned into cellulitis. Download festival has been and gone so has the Bon Jovi concert!

So much to update on but it’s very late tonight so I will try and do a proper post tomorrow; including some if the steps we have been taking & the current precarious work situation!

themadvix

Glad to see you back KK, and glad you found Oscar. Sorry to hear about the cellulitis though. Hope festival and Bon Jovi were good (Bon Jovi was the first concert I ever went to, so I'm sure it was great! )

Busy_Mee1

Nice to see you back KK. We all have little breaks but is great when people pop back in with updates

Kittenkirst

So a long overdue post, I will try and keep it short (ish) but can’t promise.

So, key highlights:
•Download festival was fantastic- had a great muddy time with friends and super glad we get lifts home every night so don’t have to camp in the mud! Highlights were Def Leppard, ELVANA, 3 Days Grace, Slipknot and most importantly Smashing Pumpkins (I actually cried!)
•Bon Jovi were good- not as great as I thought they’d be but good, and the Manic Street Preachers were awesome: I forgot just how much I loved them as a teen until I heard some random songs from the recesses of my memories!

Work is going through lots of redundancies at the moment- 2 of my friends are impacted and having to apply for new roles within our work: if they aren’t successful they will be redundant (sad as they want to stay).
Our department is being looked at to see what can be automated and we think we re next!

So with this in mind I’ve been looking at my (& the gfs) options. I’ve worked here a long time and think given the tax free payout will be between 15k-23k I think I will take it should it be offered in my department.

I’m then left with options to either find a similar role at another company, or I am looking at what it would take to be a travel planner for bespoke travel agents. This is just a thought at the moment but one I am exploring with interest

Mortgage overpayments have been okay- still repaying the cat savings after Oscars eye surgery- so we have managed
May- £49.80
June- £29.69
July - £182.70

Which is better than nothing! This month our interest was just under £200 for the firsts time ever. Hurrah!

We’ve sold the old printer & food processor via fb marketplace so that’s been put to the mortgage (in the above figures) and we’ve been using shopmium and Lidl a lot the past few months.

I’m focusing on packing my lunches (& breakfasts) for work too following getting a bit lazy/disorganised in June and have been consistent the past fortnight with packing everything. Yay