Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Kittenkirst

Evening all, Ive chased up our mortgage broker yesterday and again today, as they told Redrow we’d have an update middle of last week but we’ve still not heard anything. I’m sure all is fine, I’m very aware that anyone involved in house buying/selling is in demand at the moment, but I can’t help but worry with the radio silence!

Ive been number crunching this afternoon on our predicted bills moving forwards; looking like with the new mortgage (including a monthly OP) our monthly bills will go from £800-£850 per month each, to £1100 each. This is quite a jump for us both, but fortunately we have both had pay rises in the past 12 months from getting new jobs (mine has increased £7k with changing jobs, girlfriends increased by £8.5k!) so we shouldn’t be able to absorb that and my figures do include a standard OP too (£210) to help us to pay it down quickly.

Olio was good again last night; we picked up some natural yogurt, aubergines, corn on the cob, avocados, a quiche and some limes. The yogurt was perfect for breakfast with a small banana, some cacao nibs & goji berries. We shared the quiche at lunch between me, girlfriend and dad. I had mine with.a lovely salad and I’m hoping to make a aubergine parmigiana tomorrow night for dinner with the gorgeous aubergine.

Kittenkirst

It turned out the mortgage broker office had emailed us but it had gone into junk mailboxes. So we have now sent all the additional paperwork that they’ve requested; some f which we had previously sent but at least they can crack on with the application now.

We’re looking at 2.2% for a five year fix with Leeds Building Society; checking the mortgage details it allows for up to 10% overpayment per year, but given the fact that it will be circa £305k at the start we would be nowhere near that- will be aiming for 1% overpayment in the first year, alongside all the costs of the move itself.

We went over to the show home this afternoon which was great; the Covid precautions that they have in place are great although was odd wearing gloves. The house is lovely and spacious, however the show home kitchen is different to what ours will look like so that’s a little annoying as we’re still trying to work out how we will slot our dining table and a sofa into the family area space of the kitchen. 

There are 59 days until the exchange on our current home is due; speaking with the estate agents all is going okay and the buyers mortgage has all been approved. Searches on the house are due back at the end of March so now just waiting until that to see what questions come through.

Ive started planning what to pack for storage; as we will be living with the in-laws from May-August we will only need a small amount of clothes, makeup, shoes, perfumes etc. So the rest can be boxed up ready for storage.

We are working on the use-up of the freezers and larders this week, also utilising olio where possible. This means for actual groceries since the start of Feb we’ve spent £26/ week on food shopping. We have however spent more than £30 a week on food deliveries (takeout delivered, cake deliveries etc that needs to be drastically reduced; alongside my waist!!

Kittenkirst

Happy Mother’s Day out there to all celebrating it. I don’t have a relationship with my own mum, however I did send her a card. I spent the morning at girlfriends parents making a lovely meal with her mum, and she loved her pop-up flowers card that we got her. We didn’t go overboard, as it was their 50th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago so we did cake, lots of flowers etc so mum said not to do anything for Mother’s Day, as I think she appreciates that we are around daily rather than a gift once a year.

We had a large Indian (veggie) meal that we cooked: Akhu Shak, Dhal, rotlis, salad and some patra (stuffed leaves). So I’m pretty stuffed still now; thinking that Ill just have some of the leftover Christmas pretzels and a cuppa for tea tonight.

I managed to do a HIIT workout first thing this morning, which was hard but it felt good to do it, I just need to keep trying and be more consistent with it. This time last year I was doing well with the consistency, but I have struggled to get back into a routine following the cat passing away and then my anxiety & depression spell at the end of the year. Positive thinking and one step at a time; one workout today is great, going to do a bit on the exercise bike in a bit and then aiming to do another 2 HIIT workouts this week (alongside some biking at home too)

Poppycat1

I have just started using Olio and I love it.  Lots of white bread products like French bread which I made in to French bread pizzas and froze them.  We have had lots of limes, wholemeal bread, celery, soup, sardines (Dad got these), rice, chick peas, lentils, and pretzels.  Have you used Too Good To Go?  It's around £3 a bag/box.  

I hope the house purchase goes smoothly for you both.

Kittenkirst

Hey Poppycat! Love your profile pic- just adorable   

Sounds like you are making great use of olio- french bread pizzas sound delicious. I love trying to think of new ways to use up the different produce to save waste. Over Christmas we got several butternut squashes via olio so prepped and froze them; tempted to do a turkey mince butternut squash sheet lasagne this week; just need to convince the girlfriend!

We have had a low fat cauli cheese, using a mammoth olio cauliflower we got on Friday night (girlfriend made the cheese sauce with cornflour and skimmed milk), alongside some curried turkey (turkey from leftover roast in freezer). I also added some chopped cavolo Nero (Olio again) to up the veg content, and the rest of the Cavolo Nero went into the freezer.

We’ve used Too good to go the once- we managed to get some clay oven naans from the factory for £3.00 and it was a huge bag which we shared with girlfriends parents- they were delicious. Due to COVID shielding we haven’t taken advantage of it since due to the lockdowns but we regularly check the app and will do in future

We’ve now paid the £2975 for the additional extras we added; which is half height tiling in the en suite & bathroom, toilet roll holders, extra plug points, the upgraded double oven, extra utility cupboard etc. So that’s all sorted, payday is the end of the month so I’m trying not to spend so I retain what’s in my account for what will have been 6 weeks by the time it arrives!

I did however get a letter about my old company’s share incentive scheme (SIP) which I closed ages ago. Because I left the company they wrote out to me that my extra shares were available. I requested the funds (as the share price is atrocious and I want to cut ties with the old workplace) so I received £87 today which I sent over to the mortgage today for an overpayment. I also managed a £6.18 mortgage overpayment thanks to prolific surveys from last week which i sent today, so I’m feeling happier that the mortgage is still reducing slowly. The more we pay off now, the less mortgage on the new house!

South_coast

LOL, sounds like we used to work for the same company - I had shares through a SIP as well and the price was/is atrocious 🤣! I decided to hang on to mine, as the £20 to generate the share certificate was slightly less galling than the £15 shardealing fee for selling them, although I too would have preferred to cut all ties 🙁

themadvix

Just catching up KK, so much going on here! Congrats on the new job and the soon-to-be new home!

On the cat food from we use Zooplus for the Royal Canin urinary dry food. Our B&W cat had the largest urine crystals the vet had ever seen (and blood in his urine too, poor thing). We've never had a problem since he's been on the food though (and only for dry as he has chicken for wet). We don't use the Feliway stuff - we tried and it didn't seem to make him less stressed and I was concerned about the artificial chemicals floating around the house. Hope Oscar continues to be healthy now you've got him sorted!

Kittenkirst

That sucks South Coast- I know when i started at my company, all fresh faced out of uni, people made an absolute killing on our company shares. However, I knew nothing about shares etc then and was just trying to pay off my student debts and adjust to post uni & single life ( I had had a boyfriend of 8.5 years and we split just as uni finished!). Hopefully by holding tight on yours you’ll get to see them increase in value and it’ll make the tie worth it!

Hey Madvix, thanks for sharing about the cat food. We’ve been giving Oscar the wet food nightly with the dry throughout the day but may try and go back to the dry food as I managed to buy 7kgs of it (  ). I will check on Zooplus too as its always worth comparing costs (& delivery charges) isn’t it! I don’t think the feliway is helping all that much with Oscar but we’ll use it a little longer and decide whether to bother repurchasing once it runs out.

Another small overpayment to the mortgage of £1.92 of Quidco cash back today, and I have £4.27 cleared in Prolific- just waiting for it to reach £5 and I’ll send that over ASAP. 
Off to Tescos to do a click and collect order as we have been using up our freezer and cupboards stores but could do with some fresh chicken, yogurt and eggs. Not sure what we are doing for dinner tonight, other than its chicken based- I’m in the mood for a takeout however my scales this morning tell me I should be in the mood for salad

Kittenkirst

We ended up having homemade Nando’s for dinner last night- we managed to get some Nando’s sauces, bake in the bag & perinase when they were on club card offers the other month, so we did the chicken in the Nando’s paper bag), with (Olio last week) Corn on the cob from the freezer and a few oven fries. It felt like an indulgent takeaway without being too bad on the calorie front (according to MyFitnessPal) and was a lot cheaper.

Our Olio food waste hero did a collection late last night so we ended up with a fair few bits after our shop: Pineapple fingers (we’ll both eat today for snack, rest in freezer for smoothies/yogurt bowls), watermelon & mango pack for snacks, trifle for girlfriends dad & plain croissants for girlfriends mum (both were very happy this morning with my drop-off !), baguette, pears, sweet potatoes and a cauliflower.

Add that to our Tescos shop which was a rather large £47 last night we have more than enough fresh food to continue working through the cupboards and freezer. We managed to buy quite a few bits last night we needed (tuna tins, chicken breasts, decaf coffee) and also took advantage of some Greenjin voucher offers- free dairy-free milk, 3 varieties, which is perfect as my girlfriend is trying to up her calcium without upping her dairy too much, and they taste great in a smoothie/protein shake after workouts. Fingers crossed these ones are as good as others we have tried. I also got a 3 grain rice/barley mix which should be free after the cash back (also Greenjin) so we should receive £9 back for cash back in total so £36 for the fortnightly shop isn’t too bad (especially as we’ve been hardly buying groceries since the start of the year).

New job seems to be going well at the moment- its super tiring still as my brain is just kaput by the ends of the day, but more is making sense, and the people seem super friendly and open which is great. 

My first payday is on Friday next week, so just inching our way towards that. As i started the last week of February I should receive a month & a weeks worth of pay so it should be a bit more than my normal monthly will be and it will also be my first pay packet with the large increase (£5.5k a year i think it works out to be!). That will definitely help with all the costs of the upcoming moves and house purchase!!! 

Kittenkirst

Ittttttts Friday and Ive finished work- hurrah!!

The new job is going well but I’m totally exhausted, which considering I’m not anywhere near as busy (at the mo) as my old job, I’m having to learn a lot more and ask a lot of questions, remotely too. 

In money news, its now a week until payday, the cash back from Greenjin has been confirmed, and I won £16 on a free bet on paddy power- I withdrew the £10 and have overpaid that, the other £6 Ive left in the account to remind me to check it regularly and take advantage of free bets and lottos.

I also had delivery on Tuesday of the boots that i fell in love with from Monsoon, that went into the sale and sold out. They came back in stock but didn’t list the size; I took a gamble and they arrived in the right side. However, on arrival they are scuffed on the suede quite badly. So, I messaged their customer services who have today refunded me and told me to keep the boots. Ive googled how to refresh the boots and try to get the scuffs out the suede and ordered a cheap suede brush from Amazon to try next week. Annoyingly I also ordered a work blouse i really loved but on arrival it looks awful, so I will send that back on Monday. Which means my naughty splurge online will be refunded in full, but i got to keep the boots! 

I had a pine one survey last night which credited this morning; Ive requested the cash out so will overpay that to the mortgage as soon as it arrives too. This all makes overpayments for March £179.55 so far, and hoping to pay the round-up the mortgage OP on payday of £162.45 which makes our monthly payment a nice round £850. That should push our OP to £342 for MArch which is a lot more than originally planned.

Conscious that if we can pay off even some small little bits before the sale, we will have even more equity for the new mortgage when that kicks in as its a higher rate (2.2%) so the interest is going to be painful especially in the first few years due to the size of the mortgage.

Oscar seems to be doing much better with the new food, although the little monkey is being a bit demanding when it gets to dinner time!  We are giving him the supplement daily with his wet meat every evening and he’s eating the specialised dry food throughout the day. I’m just glad that he’s eating the food as he can be a right fussy boy. He has become a lot more affectionate since Hugo passed; he’s home a lot more and sleeps on our bed nightly now (unless he’s at the farm) as well as loving to be brushed every day and being the prince of the house. I’m pleased he has adjusted well, I just still miss his furry bro a lot.