Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Fortune_Smiles

Congratulations!  It's such a relief when you get to exchange isn't it.

Fortune x

Poppycat1

Really pleased for you both.  Such a relief.

debtfreeoneday

Yay!! That’s great news. 

SandyShores

Brilliant news!  Full steam ahead now

Kittenkirst

Thanks everyone! Such a huge relief and completion planned on our current house on Wednesday- everything crossed.

What a glorious bank holiday weekend we’ve been having weather wise!!
We’ve managed to be fairly active with getting to our hot yoga class on Friday after work (hard but felt wonderful after), gym on Saturday morning before meeting with friends at lunch for drinks (which lasted until Midnight- I am not used to being sociable for such long hours anymore ) then we had a relaxing Sunday yesterday doing the housework, cooking a roast chicken for Sunday lunch, then I headed out for an afternoon walk in the lovely sunshine (I went at 4.30pm so the midday heat had dropped a little for my pale skin & SPF50!) 

Today we are headed to the gym at 10am, then to the house to check in on everything before Wednesday, then we are going for late lunch with friends at 3. Weve been out for a walk with these friends and their newborn (not so new now though- almost a year old. ) so we’re really looking forward to chatting with them & catching up. We were supposed to be in Cyprus for their wedding right night (wedding on the 2nd!) but now its July next year instead. Something to look forward to for definite but I’m sure they are a bit sad that they aren’t getting married this week though

Things are feeling pretty good at the moment, the stress from the house sale seems to have subsided since Exchange, we’re still waiting on dates for the sale of girlfriends parents shop (its been over a year now!) but we are super close and the solicitors don’t need any more paperwork or commercial agreements etc from us, so that’s a relief.
Oscar has settled in well here, although he is desperate to go outside and play  

Kittenkirst

Afternoon mortgage-free wannabes!

Back to work after a lovely long weekend; how fortunate are we to have had three lovely days off work together! Ive been reflecting on my list I made during lockdowns; it was a list of all the activities I was missing and wanted to note it, so that I could make sure I prioritise when we are able to do more.

My list was:
1) Hiking/walking outdoors- Ive arranged with my friend that i used to walking with regularly and we are going for a 10km walk on Saturday morning on a new route. Ive downloaded alltrails.com  and we’ve found a route in Leicestershire that looks pretty.
2) Kayaking/ SUP- We’ve already squeezed in some kayaking this year, however want to look at joining that canoe and kayak club at the canal by our new house; so we are booking in for 10th June for their beginners night- £5 each for a two hour paddle and see what we think.
3) Diving/ scuba. I was never into this as i simply couldn’t see underwater so found it traumatic, however since the laser eye surgery in 2018 (still the best thing I’ve ever done!) I can see clearly and have loved the snorkelling Ive done. I researched during lockdown and there’s a local club that do a “try-dive” at a local pool, so Ive messaged them to try and organise one when the restrictions permit and see how that goes.
4) Music & gigs- I really missed these however i am lucky that i do get to go to quite a few each year; I have lots of concerts and festivals postponed that have been rearranged for the next 18 months so will go to those
5) Laser quest- currently trying to arrange this with some friends when restrictions allow again

So, quite a lot of activities to look into and get booked in over the next year.

In money saving news I went for a short lunchtime walk and collected two bags of satsumas and a mixed bag of prepped sweet potato & butternut; so I microwaved the sweet potatoe/butternut when i got in, blitzed with some chilli and had a chunky soup, with a feta salad for lunch. Tasty and nutritious! 

Last night wasnt as nutritious as we fancied a sweet desert and had been chatting about fresh hot cookie dough, however its £7.50 a portion if we got a dessert delivery (!!!!), a quick google and i whipped one u; made 2/3rds of it with white chocolate for me and mum-in-law, then 1/3rd with orange bournville for the gf. Turned out really well; however I then put it into my fitness pal to look at the calories and promptly wished I had not!!! Sometimes ignorance is bliss

Tonight I think I’m having leftover roast chicken from Sunday warmed with some masala dosa that mum prepped and had yesterday (it smelt phenomenal!) so I’m very much looking forward to that, especially as i went a bit gung-ho at the gym this morning at 7am

SandyShores

You are doing amazingly Kittenkirst.  You have so much energy.  

Kittenkirst

Hi all, almost a week since I last updated and lots has happened.
We have finally completed YAY!!!!!!!

Completion happened on Thursday at lunchtime and the funds were in our account by 6pm Thursday!

Annoyingly the funds didn’t match what we expected for a few reasons:
- £420 off extra solicitor charges than what was detailed on the quote. I feel they have been super cheeky as these costs are in their Terms of Business but at no point did they let us know what and how much would apply- we were just expected to guess despite them using different terminology for differing charges. Grrrrr.
-Mortgage interest: I had expected this to be for 12 days only at the SVR (standard variable rate 4.5%); however due to the delays by the two solicitors, this was actually £545.49!!! OUCH  
-The deposit paid to Redrow was lower than we expected. We expected to pay 10% of the house price (so £39,495), however the solicitors agreed with Redrow to simply pass on the 10% from the buyers of our house over, so only sent over £22,100.

So we had a nice sum of £64,173.16 paid into our account; I am moving this across to our Marcus savings account £10k per day (max HSBC will allow) to keep safe until late August when we buy the new house.

Our friends who are going to be next-door but one coincidentally completed on their house sale on the same day as us, so we are now all sorted and ready to go.

It’s now time to focus on saving, saving, saving!

Kittenkirst

Oh and I’ve now had my second covid vaccine (Astra Zeneca) so yesterday was a wash out as i was exhausted, but I’m so so thankful to have better protection and therefore better protecting my family I was so amazed by all the volunteers at the vaccine centre- such a wonderful thing and I’m very thankful to all who make it possible- it has certainly made me emotional a few times.

Poppycat1

Congratulations Kittenkirst, great news.