Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

A_Frayed_Knot

Excellent news, well done you :T

Every big step is scary, but you will manage, enterprising as you are. And I hope
once the dust settles, you will wish you had done it sooner and that what was all
the worry about

I have just taken the plunge with my next step, too, and although scary, I am one
day in and wish I had done this a whole lot sooner.

So looks like we are both on a new journey, and I wish you all the best. x

VelvetFreak

Well done on submitting the request! Fingers crossed

Kittenkirst

Another busy week this week- halloween was fab- we carved three pumpkins including one with our house number and an arrow on it to pop at the toP of the private road to encourage people to ours. We ended up giving out three big bowls of treats to the Trick or Treaters :heartpuls

We went to a big firework display last night- planning to just turn up on the night and pay at the entrance but a friend was unwell so gave us her two tickets. She didn’t want payment for the tickets and just said pay it forward so we wrapped up and headed over. This saved us £18! Managed to find free parking too so we only paid £6 for two hot chicks with marshmallows & cream. We’ve never been to a bonfire/fireworks night together so it was lovely to do, despite my lurgy I came down with late on Halloween.

On the job front senior boss was in Wednesday so took me to one side to ask what had led to my decision to put in for voluntary redundancy so I was pretty honest and said I do enjoy my job, like my boss, enjoy the subject matter and have a lot of great friends at work but the redundancy would be the push to try a career change with a safety net.

He asked me to quantify how disappointed I’d be if they declined my request- I sat on the fence and said happy either way (Because if declined I still have a good job to pay the bills and it’s flexible for working from home etc) but if accepted I would be excited & scared to try something new.

He then told me not to read anything into the conversations but my line manager was also in on Wednesday and made lots of statements about they could reject the requests if they wanted. If I’m honest it irked me quite a bit as they’ve offered out voluntary redundancy to people but they may not have any intention of accepting it begging the question of what the point of it was.....so will have a to wait another few weeks to see what the verdict is

In other news I have applied for the job on Wednesday after filling out the humongous online application and have started researching continents that I know little about and making notes on key areas and facts to build my knowledge- I figure if I do an hour or so every two days that will help ensure that I have at least a little knowledge should I be accepted to interview etc as I’ll be up against people potentially already working in travel either extensive knowledge.

Oscar decided to go missing from Tuesday night, probably in a grump that we locked the car flap over Diwali due to fireworks. He finally wandered home in the early hours of the morning and has been a little snuggle bug all morning since! It’s obviously in his character to go on little adventures but it doesn’t half worry us especially over fireworks weekend!

Gujarati potato curry made for lunch today - perfect for me being under the weather- and making hotdogs and homemade coleslaw tonight and playing some of the games together which should be lovely and stops us just watching the tv constantly.

Made a nominal mortgage OP of £20 on the first to increase our yearly total up- need to establish what will happen with work before we overpay any more as would rather pop any extra money into savings in case one of both of us are redundant and then go from there.

VelvetFreak

How annoying for you. What's the point of offering it if they aren't going to give it to anyone?

Kittenkirst

My thoughts exactly Velvet, they keep saying ‘it won’t necessarily be accepted’ like they are hinting so now it’s anxiety stations as could mean they do compulsory redundancy which the gf doesn’t want!!

ch4rly2002

Try not to be too disheartened KK, the same happened with my husband and his manager told him she'd rejected it because he is one of the best in her team and doesn't want to lose him (he also sat on the fence in case it was rejected)/ I think in DH's case they were looking to get rid of people who either weren't very good / productive or who didn't want to be in the company any more as bad morale can spread. Might not be the case in your company, but it sounds like your boss was maybe putting out the feelers to see how you feel because they don't want to lose you so were seeing how much you actually wanted to leave. Fingers crossed you get it though if you end up with a good payout and new career you enjoy more x

Kittenkirst

Hi all, so no update on the work front other than them confirming the numbers- in my pool 16 have volunteered so they will reject 6, we just don’t know which 6 (it’s hard to guess as it’s across a three sites and several teams I’ve not had anything to do with so don’t know the people).

We thought we would be told on Wednesday afternoon according to the packs they have shared but no word yet. My line manager is being vocal she doesn’t want me to go and has been telling the senior manager this, which is nice to hear in one sense but a bit frustrating as think I actually do want to go now.

On the job application front, my application was successful so I had to do a mental agility test which they’ve confirmed I have passed so have invited me for a phone interview.....super exciting as I thought they might disregard my application due to lack of work experience in the industry.

My moods been a little low the past few days and I can’t face yoga or the gym. So tomorrow I am going to go to yoga in the morning, try to get my regular routine back in and shake off this fog.

Kittenkirst

ch4rly2002 wrote: »

Try not to be too disheartened KK, the same happened with my husband and his manager told him she'd rejected it because he is one of the best in her team and doesn't want to lose him (he also sat on the fence in case it was rejected)/ I think in DH's case they were looking to get rid of people who either weren't very good / productive or who didn't want to be in the company any more as bad morale can spread. Might not be the case in your company, but it sounds like your boss was maybe putting out the feelers to see how you feel because they don't want to lose you so were seeing how much you actually wanted to leave. Fingers crossed you get it though if you end up with a good payout and new career you enjoy more x

Thanks for this Charley, it does help. I think I’m just a little disheartened as it feels like I’ve made a decision to gain some control in this situation which may not get to be kept. But, it will mean I have a job for longer and can work out next steps etc.:j

Doing a Gousto meal today (we didn’t end up making it out of our last super cheap box so had the dry ingredients still in the cupboard) so chicken katsu curry using up some yellowstickered chicken thighs from the freezer

Managed to get some good cat food deals on Shopmium last week and have managed not to go food shopping this week as we had so much in stores so saved £25-£30 from the food budget which is good going.

I also managed to get two small gifts for Christmas for the gf- used the Argos toys voucher code and got a friends board game & a monopoly cheaters edition for us to play and do games nights together-£20 all in and will collect on the way home from yoga tomorrow!

tattycath

Fingers crossed you get the voluntary redundancy KK. Good luck for the phone interview.

chumpy45

Exciting/frustrating times. Good luck with the job application. Your posts always make me feel hungry with the descriptions of lovely food. Am off to start dinner now !