Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Kittenkirst

Hi all,
Almost a week has passed since I updated and its been a busy great week!

Monday started off fab- Girlfriend was offered the internal job move that she interviewed for last week; and despite them paying less than her current area they offered her a £2k pay rise I’m so proud of her, and really hope this job helps with her confidence a bit as she is great at what she does but doesn’t really believe it!

Our friends exchanged on next door but one on Wednesday so they are officially going to be our neighbours which is super exciting and they sent a pic from their garden to be, and you could see our patio doors of the new house! Eeeek!!

On Friday it was the girlfriends birthday so spoiled her- She wanted a more professional laptop bag for work meetings etc so i got her a lovely Stackers bag that I’d been looking at for me (pre pandemic, I don’t need one now with not going into an office!) which i knew she liked, and I bought her a spinner thumb ring that she can spin when she gets a bit nervous about things (and people wont know)

She also wanted some trainers, so i managed to find a discount code and ordered them for her from her parents too so she has been spoiled! 

Then yesterday she had a call that she’s got a cash offer on her flat. Looking at the numbers it should be just about enough to clear the interest-only mortgage, solicitors and estate agent fees so fingers crossed she will accept it and that will be one less stress for us both (as she makes no money whatsoever on it, and has to pay to repair various things throughout the year so its more an albatross around the neck than anything!)

So a pretty positive news week! 

In money-saving its all been fairly quiet, although I have now paid for the identity checks for Uber-eats and completed that so just waiting for that to come back and maybe i can get started in a month or so with that! I was mulling it over in the week and I’m not sure what I will want to do with the delivery money- not sure whether to overpay it or start a wedding fund, as I’m planning to propose when we go to Paris (now in December!) and we’ll then need to start thinking about where/when to get married. I think we’re both happy to elope somewhere, just need to work out whether the budget is more fitting to Hawaii, New York or Edinburgh  

In honesty both are options for us, as our first trip as a couple was a long weekend in Edinburgh which we loved, and being Scottish heritage is something that would be lovely, but then somewhere beautiful and tropical is also very tempting!!

Kittenkirst

Morning mortgage Free Wannabes!!

Had a good Monday yesterday- early morning gym session to get the heart pumping, then a slightly stressful workday. After work though we got to go to the company shop (3 miles away) and picked up some fab bargains, spending just £36.
I found the concealer that I use (No7 version of the YSL Touché Eclat) for £2. In my shade!! I also picked up a No7 pale pink lip gloss also for £2 as I seem to have packed everything but bright red or black lippy annoyingly!

Yesterday I got to book something super exciting. I think Ive mentioned about my lockdown list of things I want to do or prioritise more post the lockdowns and SUP/watersports is one of them; Ive previously been to some SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) yoga in 2018 prior to the Oz trip and then got to play on the SUPs in the Whitsundays, however Ive not been able to have a go since. At Kayaking club last week a lady mentioned a nearby lake (45 min drive) that does wakeboarding and SUP sessions so i messaged a group of friends to see if anyone interested and all the ladies are. So the four of us are going at the end of July for a wakeboarding lesson. £25 all in and I’m excited to try something new out on the water.

I managed to book in for kayaking tonight and thankfully the weather is looking clear (no rain and temp looks okay at 17 degrees) so hopefully £5 well spent; will see if i can manage to go more straight than last week

Quidco has paid out £6.91 so that’s been sent just now to the mortgage equity savings account. Prolific remains quiet but managed £2.30 over the weekend so will keep checking that periodically.

Ive had a message now from JustEat that they need couriers in the area so I have signed up for that; just waiting for my Sterling identity check to come back from UberEats and then can share that with JustEat too. Deliveroo is all signed up for and it states I’m on a waiting list to hear back so now its just wait and see on that front.

debtfreeoneday

All sounding really positive in here KK. Great stuff. 

VelvetFreak

Hi KK. Congrats on the new house and GF's new job! How exciting!!

Kittenkirst

Hi all, Ive been a bit quiet, just muddling along really trying my best not to spend money in preparation for buying the house end of August.

Annoyingly, the cash buyer pulled out of buying gf’s flat as apparently the tenants have not kept in a good condition (girlfriend has complained to the estate agents who manage it about this) but also because a tenant in another flat on the same floor has dumped a lot of furniture on the main landing area :O grrrr! So we’re back to the drawing board on that one!

I went hiking up Kinder Scout in the Peak District last week with my friend, however had a slight accident and have sprained my ankle so have been off my feet all week (which is pretty dull missing kayaking, gym, yoga and generally being out and about, I really sympathise with anyone who suffers this pain/lack of mobility regularly). I’m hoping the pain in the evening will start to reduce: I’m moving more with each day but get a lot of throbbing pain at night despite having my leg elevated in bed, using a elastic bandage and taking pain killers. I really want to attempt the gym tomorrow but will have to just see.

Work has been going well- I was nominated and won a recognition award this week for my attitude, drive and work Ive delivered so far, which was unexpected and super lovely 

We also got to see the house this week- went one lunchtime and got to see it in the plasterboard stages; we saw our garden for the first time which was great to see how far it goes. It’s not huge, but its certainly big enough for us and to do entertaining in a few years once we’ve got some furniture etc in.

We also went to see a finished version of our house that the sale fell through (feel so awful for the poor people!); our home has a new style kitchen/utility/downstairs loo configuration compared to the show home, so we got to see what it will actually look like at ours and we loved it. Seeing the house, and now all the stress of selling our old house is over, we are starting to get excited! We need to make some decisions about our flooring and chat to our floor fitter to get all booked in. Keen that he gets cracking very quickly so that we can get our things out of storage and moved in mid September! 

VelvetFreak

Congrats on your award at work  
I’m so jealous of your new house! It’s sounds so nice. 

Kittenkirst

Thanks VelvetFreak- I was so pleased.

I’m currently listening to a webinar on Imposter Syndrome and a lot of it certainly resonates with me a lot- I always just thought it was lack of confidence rather than anything else. But like life, its all a work in progress.

I’m on day 3 of the bodycoach plan (free for 2 months with O2) and have followed the food and tried new recipes- last night i made an aubergine parmigiana which was lovely, I added spring greens on the side to help fill me up. Not gym this morning though as my ankle made a “ping” noise last night and felt like someone had hit it, whilst we were trying to fix the shower door. So my ankle is bandaged back up and elevated whilst I slept and worked. It does mean Ive not done the workout annoyingly, but i think its more important to let it heal and not stress too much.

We are going to a friends tonight to watch the football, so they are making fajitas so Ive already worked out I can have the chicken, veg and sauces/salsa with salad rather than a wrap and stay on the plan which is good. I feel like I need to try something different to help shift my lockdown weight and get back into my lovely clothes, hoping this will be the spur i need!

In MoneySaving- I received a £5.04 payout from Prolific, have signed up to lots of People for Research panels (hoping i finally get one!) and have collected some bits from Olio on a lunchtime walk yesterday. I picked up lettuce, broccolini, spring onions, brown muffins, 2x cauliflowers and an oriental green cabbage type veg. Nice way to top up the veg and saves them being wasted 

South_coast

Aubergine parmigiana is on my "to cook" list for the weekend - have been waiting impatiently for aubergines to come on offer at Lidl again for ages 🤣😋!

Kittenkirst

Ohhh now is your time to strike whilst the iron is hot and the aubergines are on special! @South_coast

Ive been doing okay with the Bodycoach plan and managed to do 3 of his workouts last week, 2 standard gym sessions and a yoga class. I’m trying not to be too gung-ho with the exercise as my ankle needs to recover too, so I’m trying to be more active but cautious.

The food has been alright on the plan, however its worked out more pricey than our standard diet so far; trying to get used to what the requirements are and then work more with what we have- we have a freezer full of bread (YS & Olio specials) so i need to start eating those up as my carb refuel meals

In other news I decided that as my ankle was a lot better, I would choose Sunday evening to start the deliveries up. I went “online” on UberEats and JustEat at 1.15pm however I didn’t get any deliveries until 4.14pm when I got my first ping of an order and went and delivered it. It was all pretty straight forward to do. I ended up doing just short of 4 hours (with a 15 min loo & water top-up break at home) and my total was £37.96, and then yesterday evening I received a notification that I had received a £4.12 tip from my first delivery

So in total I did just under 4 hours and made £41.38 out of 10 deliveries. I had a few individual deliveries, and then several double deliveries (where you collect 2 orders from the same restaurant, and drop at the 2 customers which are on route), I also ended on a double collection (2 restaurants near each other, with 2 drop offs near each other). This was all on UberEats through as JustEat I had nothing come through oddly.

So far I have spent £37 on the insurance up front, the insulated bag & the identity checks so I’m just about in the black, however I still have 25 hours of insurance left to use but need to keep aside the tax amount.

Ive set up my spreadsheet to record times/Milage/payments/VAT etc to try and make it easy to keep track.

I am signed up for scheduled delivery tomorrow evening on JustEat but expect it will be quieter- will try it out and see! 

All in all, kept me busy on Sunday and meant I watched the 2nd half of the footie- less said about that the better I think really.

themadvix

Thanks for the explanation of the deliveries KK, that's really interesting (from a nosiness pov mainly, although it might be good top-up income if need be!). Was it constant once you got going? if not, did you hang around near restaurants or go home (although I guess that also depends on distance of home from restaurant area!). And presumably the pay is per delivery rather than per hour? Sorry, I didn't know I had so many questions until I started typing!! 😂