Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Kittenkirst

That post was meant to go on yesterday evening, but i found it open on the ipad this afternoon.
We’ve been for our house choices today and have gone for

-Extra plug sockets in the family area of the kitchen/diner,
-extra plug socket in our room (both so that we can have the TV up on the wall),
-half height tiles in the bathroom and en-suite, just standard in the downstairs toilet,
-loo roll holders in all bathrooms 
-extra cupboard in the utility room, 
-upgraded kitchen cupboards to be shaker style

This little lot will cost just under £3k on top of the house price.
We have also had our flooring quotes back from our flooring guy- with the most expensive of the amtico style flooring in most of the house, with carpet on the stairs and lounge, and underfloor heating in the kitchen it will come to max £8400, however he is going to show us samples of other vinyl flooring similar to Amtico which is much cheaper (we know Amtico as its what we have in the lounge, hall and bedrooms in the current house and like it for clean ability, warmth and style) so we can have cheaper options too. Really pleased with this as we will be able to have the wooden style flooring in the bedrooms and have the same flooring through the hall, kitchen/diner, utility and downstairs loo so it all flows through.

The costs sure do mount up with getting a new home, I’m very glad this will be our forever home!

We’ve been getting quotes for removal companies and storage also to look after our furniture whilst we move back in with the girlfriends parents; We need to start understanding what from our list of options our buyers want to keep e.g. whether they want our wardrobes, shelving units, dining table, curtains/poles etc before we can understand what our real needs for storage are.

In great news though, with the new timelines for exiting the lockdowns for the pandemic, it looks like we should be on track for our Parisian getaway in July, which means I can pop the exciting question! The ring is hidden away waiting until then, I honestly cannot wait. It does feel that after such a horrible year last year that this is the year of change for us; new home, new job for me, parents retiring and us getting engaged (hopefully she will say yes!) 🤩

debtfreeoneday

Pet drugs online. And you can get cashback if you use top cash back.  Great progress on the house fittings and floorings!

Kittenkirst

Thanks so much Debtfreeoneday- Ive favourited that website for the next time we purchase. We should have some arriving this week for him as he’s about to run out of the (non-prescription) urinary health pouches I got him when I first chatted with the vets.

We’ve been doing a lot of researching about our kitchen, and think we have changed our mind about the colour of our worktop! We were going for a dark grey silestone, as worried that we cook a lot, and especially a lot of food that could stain (turmeric, beetroots etc) that white isn’t ideal (we have a white worktop at the moment- its a laminate/plasticky one, not sure what it’s called but its got indentations all over in a pattern which were lovely brand new, but after several years of high usage can look grubby unless you scrub constantly), however we’ve been googling silestone and its smooth, and non-porous so shouldn’t have the same issue. Plus a lot of places I have read state that its pretty good at stain resistance, so we are now wanting a lighter option now we’ve thought about it some more.

Similarly we are going to change the bathroom tile choice we went for- We went for a very pale white with a white grout, but actually now think we want a slightly darker with grey- will be calling the sales office today to book a slot to pop in and re-choose. They are very used to this apparently, so fingers crossed they will be able to swap it out already (we only chose yesterday so I can’t see it being an issue!)

Its the girlfriends parents 50th wedding anniversary today- so we ordered them a cake from a local small business. Its just arrived and looks fantastic, we also ordered a flower delivery for yesterday to try and make it a special day for them (as much as possible in lockdown) and hoping to have a family and friends party later in the year to celebrate their retirement (when the shop sale finally completes), their Golden wedding anniversary and her mums 70th which are all this year- hopefully something for us all to look forward to!

Kittenkirst

Good news- I called Redrow this afternoon and after a quick drive to the sales office we have changed both the kitchen counter and the bathroom tiles! So now we have the darker tiles in the three bathrooms (en-suite, bathroom & cloakroom) and we have a light silestone countertop now for the kitchen and utility

We are both happy with our choices now; now its time to focus on getting this house sale all sorted and packing all our things!

This week will be a use-up mission of the freezers and cupboards as we have a plentiful larder, which we should be able to make a good dent in before we move in with the in-laws!

Kittenkirst

This year is the first year Ive really paid much attention to the Budget announced today. I assumed the Stamp Duty holiday would be extended by 3 months but hadn’t envisaged the tapering that has been announced.

This tapering means for our new house we should exchange on for 24th August will be as follows- If Ive understood it correctly:
Purchase price: £394,950
Stamp duty on first £250,000= £0
Stamp duty on £250,001 to £394,950 = (£144,949 eligible for the Stamp Duty) @ 5%= £7,247.45

This is £2499 less than what we were expecting should the stamp duty be the BAU rates, so we are pretty pleased with that!

Olio was great last night- we ended up with a full roasted chicken which we had for lunch today and are having again for dinner, a little natural yogurt i had for my brekkie and some fiery beetroot which was my 3pm snack this afternoon. Great to feel we are reducing food waste, and also helping keep our food spends low.

Thinking of making either a Nasi Goreng style dish, buffalo chicken and coleslaw or fajitas for dinner tonight. Will need to decide soon as the tummy is starting to rumble!

Oscar is definitely back to normal now as we had a “gift” at 2am last night, unfortunately it was already dead, so i had to just pop it outside and the little monster followed to eat it! (I guess I should be pleased he wasn’t wasting it )

New job is going well from what i can tell. New boss is very open and honest with things and easy to talk to, and the time is going quickly and I feel that I’m learning loads! 

Payday feels like a lifetime away, as I’m moving from being paid on the 15th at my old work to the 28th at the new job....Ive put double into our house bills account this month (which is what the girlfriend did when she changed pay dates the same) and have not put into savings this month to ensure there is a balance. Anything left on payday will go straight to savings and hopefully for April (Marchs’ pay) I can stash even more into the house savings.

My savings are sat at £7600 for the house (£650 for the holiday), Girlfriend has £8000 already in savings so we are in good standing already, but with our predicted costs we really need to stash the cash and reduce our outgoings. This shouldn’t be too hard with lockdowns as we aren’t going anywhere- our main spends have been online shopping and food deliveries!

Kittenkirst

Our week has been pretty quiet; made a lovely falafel and beetroot purée salad flatbread for dinner on Thursday using the beets from Olio, falafel a few weeks back from olio and frozen plus two lovely flatbreads from the freezer

We popped to an outdoor fruit and veg stall in a local pub yesterday and got lots of lovely fruit and veg for the week, and then Olio collection last night that our food waste hero did was huge- we managed to collect a big bunch of finest flowers (they smell amazing as I’m sat next to them in the front room), basil, pineapple, fruit salad, cucumber, baking potatoes, standard potatoes, garlic focaccia salad (for freezer if not eaten tonight), hotdog rolls, spring onions, crumpets, Caesar salad kit, lemons, casserole veg pack, Cavolo Nero (which I adore so is a real treat!) and some loaves of bread.

We’re heading to the girlfriends parents shop this afternoon (once closed) to help out with the sale, and are taking lots of the food over to share with her mum. Her mum will also share some out with their neighbour across the road (as they are always cooking food for each other and sharing any excesses- socially distanced of course), so the food is helping three households from one collection. Our food waste hero is literally five minutes walk from our house so feels great to be reducing food waste without adding any extra travel pollution etc.

Oscars special cat food hasn’t yet arrived (or been dispatched yet) so I chased it up yesterday as we’re starting to run low on his wet food, they are getting it out to us in the next 48 hours which is a relief as he’s got a bit used to having the wet food every night alongside biscuits in the day. He’s a right princess though- we took him to mum and dads with us when we worked from there (WiFi issues still at ours) and he seemed to be a bit more comfortable, ventured out a bit more and slept on the sofa this time, however when we got home off he went to the farm, coming back more than 24 hours later at 3am last night He is such a cheeky cat, obviously trying to make sure we didn’t take him yesterday too

No housing updates this week- other than searches for the new house will be completed 12/4. We’re hoping no news is good news, so now just a waiting game!

Kittenkirst

In mortgage overpayment news, I managed to score a few small prolific surveys this week so made a token overpayment of £6.04 to the mortgage. Ive since had a few more surveys so my balance is at £3.63 so hoping to get another £5 next week and keep just drip-feeding against the current mortgage.

Saving is going fairly well- we haven’t done a weekly food shop for over a month now (we have had Olio, that free HelloFresh box, and takeaways so we have had new food in the house, just not bought out of the grocery budget). I have however ordered some boots from Monsoon for £21 that I had my eye on for a long time that had sold out but one pair came back in stock (assume return) so ordered them alongside a work blouse I had in my basket for months but refused to pay £49 for; its now £10 so I included it so that I would get free delivery (rather than spend £4 for postage!).

Our energy switch over to Shell is now complete so I need to submit our readings today. We’ve done lots of cleaning up today and the kitchen is looking sparkling and smells lovely. We’ve been trying to use up lots of old cleaning products that we have as we have switched to refillable ones that are bought as tablets (Ocean drops) which you add water to. I bought a starter pack some time ago (well over a year) but we had so many different bottles of different chemicals that its taken an age to work through them. I’m wanting to use those up naturally, and then switch each product out to the refillable/eco version, so we’re already using the ocean drops floor cleaner, anti bac, kitchen and bathroom sprays.

I’m starting to run low on shampoo and conditioner (my brother got me the TIGI Tween bottles for Christmas the year before last and because they are salon sized they last forever), so Ive ordered the plastic beach bar shampoo and conditioner, as well as some mat things for under each bar so they don’t get wasted. Looking forward to trying those out; they’ve been recommended by a friend with similar hair type to me so I have high hopes!🤩

Payday is moving to the 28th with the new job, so I haven’t put anything into savings yet since 15th Feb as I’m conscious I need to eek out two more weeks out of my pay. Which should be more than do-able as with lockdown our spending is minimal, however I want to be cautious. Already wishing away the next 3 weeks until payday so I can see the savings growing.

My current plan for savings (as we save separately in our house as we manage our money differently!) is as follows:

Current: £7573.00
March 27th: +£800
April 28th:  +£1300
May 28th: +£1500
June 28th: +£1500
July 28th: +£1500

During this time though, money will come out to pay the estate agents & solicitors when our current home sells (hopefully 12/5/21) then again for storage/removal costs to put our furniture and home into stores, then towards August time the solicitor costs, stamp duty, flooring costs. We also have our additional extras to pay for which is £2975 but they haven’t been clear when this needs to be paid) Ive advised I’m not prepared to pay for these until we have exchanged contracts at least. Ive read online that if you pay for upgrades/ extras and then something goes wrong and you haven’t exchanged, you would just lose that money. We’re not prepared to lose £3k!

Well, after a busy old morning cleaning, girlfriend dropping olio goodies to her parents, her and Oscar are on a sofa each snoozing softly. So Ive made a cuppa and popped on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and I’m going to get busy pinning house ideas on Pinterest for decor on a budget and organisation! 

Have a happy Saturday!

SandyShores

Hi Kittenkirst, sounds like its all going really well.  When we moved house last year we had to pay for our extras up front, and it is a worry - goes against MSE to spend money on something that isn't even yours yet.  Although I can see the builders don't want to get stuck with the bill if people pull out.  But your build sounds quite a way off, so if they won't be adding them in yet hopefully you won't have to commit until after you've exchanged on your current house.  

 Your cat sounds so good, mine throws a wobbly if we take him anywhere in the cat basket and hides for ages when we get back.  Monsoon bargains sound great.  I haven't bought anything for ages, apart from trackies, as I've been working from home for almost a year.  Will be very strange to wear formal workwear again and I feel like I need to have a whole change of style as its been so long.

Kittenkirst

Hey Sandyshores,
Yes Oscar is pretty good usually- we try and take him to the vets together usually. That way one can sit in the back with him. We’ve found that if we remove the front bars, he stays calm in there and snuggles down or just pokes his head out for a nose, then back in he goes. Not sure if its a psychological thing for him, as he knows he’s not caged maybe?

Fingers crossed for the exchanges all lining up okay, and in time for the extras. As we managed to negotiate a fair amount before reserving we are only due to pay £2975, as the flooring will be paid to our flooring guy after completion date and the property is definitely ours.

Plumber is coming today to look at the partially blocked downstairs toilet- Ive tried so many things- bicarb and hot water, soda crystals, vinegar, chemical unblockers, a bendy plunger. And nothing has worked. The guy is doing it as a freebie as girlfriends parents always look after him in the shop, but we’ll give him a nominal amount (it is the weekend after all) to say thank you! 

Kittenkirst

Happy Tuesday! Not much is happening at the moment- just waiting for more to do with the solicitors and mortgage advisors, so just waiting for updates.

New job is going well, but I’m having to work from the in-laws house daily as our WiFi just doesn’t work at home (but does for my girlfriend oddly!) so I’m accompanied by their ginger cat, instead of my ginger cat. 

We’re on a use-up mission for the pantry, so last night I had gnocchi, with some leftover homemade pesto and roasted veg from Sunday night. Sunday night we used the Olio brioche buns and had chicken burgers (gf got the chicken burgers in the Heck Black Friday sale), I whipped up a pesto with the two packs of basil (from olio), combined with a little oil, water, lemon, garlic and sunflower seeds. We got a Caesar salad from Olio on Friday so I used the Parmesan shavings from that in the pesto too and we had the lettuce leaves on the side of our burgers Yum!!!! It worked a treat, alongside half a roasted red pepper, red onions and courgette. 

Ive collected some piri style mackerel fillets this afternoon from a lady down the road via olio  (dated 14th March) so will use that in something this week as I love mackerel and we really should eat more oily fish. Planning battered cod (olio a few weeks ago and frozen) with veggies for dinner tonight so I’m looking forward to that- I’m debating having mashed swede with it as we got a big one from the fruit & veg guys stall on Friday, and its rather tasty (and better for me than chunky chips

Ive been checking prolific religiously but every time a survey comes up, its either full or says the researcher has paused it. Not sure if there is something wrong with my account or just bad timing on my behalf! 

Luckily the plumber unblocked our loo on Sunday with minimal issue (a very long plunger) and som brute force, so it only cost us the £30 we gave him (as he said no charge but it was a Sunday so we felt we should give him something for coming out of his way for us).