Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

themadvix

Wow, that sounds like an expensive coffee machine! 😳 (We don’t drink coffee so the finer points totally pass us by!) It’s very satisfying to use extra money for these things though 😊

Totally agree about the flowers though - I don’t think it matters where they come from, they are very cheering!

Kittenkirst

Yes, its not a cheap one (hence the procrastination)- £378 in total so we have ummed and ahhed about it. We eventually decided as we’ve played with one at families house and found it super easy to use, clean and made a really good cuppa.

If we can pay for it without actually dipping into normal spending that would be ideal as then its truly a treat.

We have started overpaying the mortgage now. We ended up with money left in the equity account once everything was all paid, as I think i was cautious and put the mortgage value in for a little more than required.

In order not to reduce our monthly payments we need to pay in £999 maximum at a time, therefore I sent a practice £50 across on Monday, then yesterday spoke with Leeds Building Society to set up the online account (only for viewing), and then sent £949 across yesterday.

This morning I have sent another £999 across, and plan to do this for another 5 days.

This should see our mortgage to £303,503.02 by the end of the month. The interest (£382.36) will be applied and will be taken with the first months mortgage amount so that it should then be £302,351.48 after our first mortgage payment.

The interest rate is 2.05% for the five years fix and that means the interest is £17.38 per day. EYE WATERING! So we need to start smashing that down ASAP and getting it a little more in control. Project for 2022, alongside wedding planning and the trips/ events that have been postponed due to the Pandemic. Its gonna be busy!!!

LadyWithAPlan

Congrats on the new home and the wedding to come

Also love the fact you have been in the house no time at all and the OPs have started That £17.38 will be similar interest to mine by the looks of it but good news is that it is a big enough number to get you even more on fire..

What coffee machine? I have my eye on a red Smeg one £330 or some such price ... however my friends who are really into coffee  (even more than I) said the very best coffee is made with an aeropress .. as the water is added cooler so it makes it less bitter  . So whilst I also had a nespresso machine and an aeroccino milk frother  AND a stove pot I have fallen in love with my Aeropress - about £30. The coffee really is better - you do need a coffee grinder though to get the beans fine enough. 
I may still get my red Smeg one as it looks amazing - maybe as  a treat  but  I gather the  coffee wont taste better 

Kittenkirst

LadyWithAPlan said:

Congrats on the new home and the wedding to come

Also love the fact you have been in the house no time at all and the OPs have started That £17.38 will be similar interest to mine by the looks of it but good news is that it is a big enough number to get you even more on fire..

What coffee machine? I have my eye on a red Smeg one £330 or some such price ... however my friends who are really into coffee  (even more than I) said the very best coffee is made with an aeropress .. as the water is added cooler so it makes it less bitter  . So whilst I also had a nespresso machine and an aeroccino milk frother  AND a stove pot I have fallen in love with my Aeropress - about £30. The coffee really is better - you do need a coffee grinder though to get the beans fine enough. 
I may still get my red Smeg one as it looks amazing - maybe as  a treat  but  I gather the  coffee wont taste better 

We’ve been looking at the Nespresso Sage creatista- rather controversially Ive always been set on wanting a bean to cup machine, as I worked in a coffee shop from the ages 14-16 (before it was really a thing in the UK oddly enough) so I love the frother wands and the ritual of prepping the coffee, however my fiancé has always pushed for a Nespresso citing how great they are and that she’s thoroughly enjoyed ones had at friends/ families from their machines.

We visited her uncle who has the Sage Creatista (and he has had numerous bean to cup machines before that) and he waxed lyrical about how amazing it was and left me to play with his machine for a bit and I made a few different coffee varieties. The seller for my fiancé is the temperature control piece as she’s always been one who loves her coffee extra hot (I’m more a warm coffee gal!) and this allows for this without then burning me for my cup after.

Ive read lots about aeropress but never actually tried a coffee from it- have you found it that much better than a standard machine then? We don’t ideally want a legit coffee grinder in the house if we can help it (our ninja blender always worked perfectly to grind our beans for our cafetières on the weekends so we never invested in a coffee grinder).

Its available at most places for £378 and has stayed constant the last 6 months so that’s the amount we have aimed to save for towards it. We aren’t too far off now thankfully

In house news, the man who did our blinds in our last house (and was super competitive on price as well as being a local business) came out yesterday and measured up. We selected our choices all quite quickly & the quote has come through this morning and is £2,280 for the full house (apart from bathrooms), including the 4 massive patio doors in the kitchen and two bay windows. Its a little less than what both of us were thinking, but now we need to do some budget numbers and work out when we can afford to get them all fitted.

The broadband is also now active and all set up fairly easily. From a snagging perspective the site manager is off with Covid so we haven’t heard about any fixes/ updates but we don’t have anything massively urgent being waited on at the moment really, so will see when he is back.

I managed to claim back the Nescafé coffee deal that was going around on Tuesday night- bought it from Tescos at lunch time and claimed back straight away. Its been accepted already which is ace, and got a few prolific surveys through after what has felt like forever with no surveys- only £3.25 waiting to be approved but it all helps.  

Im about to overpay the £999 for today and get that sorted before I start work, so best dash off and get that sorted.

themadvix

I worked at a pub from 16-18 and have very fond memories of the coffee machine - it took me a long time to master, but eventually grew to love making coffees for people - it was the most creative part of the job! So I can totally see where you're coming from I think if we're going to be having frequent house guests when we move, we'll need something nicer than (dried up) instant to serve people. But I think we'll probably stick with a cafetiere as neither of us are coffee drinkers. 

If you can wait a couple more months, bear in mind there *might* be discounts on Black Friday (I would never normally advocate for BF deals, but for something that expensive, it might be worth it). Although, with supply chain issues for everything this year, it'll be interesting to see what happens on BF.

That's great about the blinds man - it's so nice when you find a local company that can compete. I know I'll miss our local carpet company when we move - they've been great!

Prolific has been dire lately, hasn't it - so much for my easy £20/month - unless there's a flurry for me in the next few days, I won't even reach payout this month.

LadyWithAPlan

Further on my favourite subject coffee.. I think if that is your dream machine go for it. The temp control makes it better as super hot water makes coffee bitter-er as it were
My neighbour has the Nespresso Creatista  Pro - £649 - and I hate to say this  but the £30 Aeropress   does taste better.. Having said that I may still  get my SMEG red one cos I love it   As long as you can grind the beans I dont suppose it matters how... 


Yes @themadvix is right black Friday there will be some deal somewhere on it. I have even moved my sim only contract dates to end Nov to coincide with the Black friday deals.

Kittenkirst

Afternoon everyone, a week has passed in a blur

House updates: our flooring upstairs is all finished now and looking gorgeous, the downstairs is all ground, screened, underfloor heating installed and top screed laid. Now just needs a few days for our fab floor fitter to get it all laid through the hall, kitchen/Diner, utility and downstairs loo. Then its onto the carpet in the lounge and finally the garage boarding.

The snagging list hasn’t progressed all that much, other than the plumber coming out to check our boiling water tap- it has a chemical taste and odour (like TCP)- they are getting the manufacturer out to see it now as he was rather perplexed.

Our good friend from our old workplace completed yesterday so is now next-door but one, which is just lovely although they wont be moving in until December due to furniture delivery backlogs.

The blinds have been ordered after a small discount negotiated- will equate to £2218.63 after the £60.90 discount (every penny counts!) so hopefully they will be fitted in November. The cat flap has been quoted by three firms with one wanting £560 plus the cost of the cat flap!!!!!!!  

Needless to say we went for the much more reasonable £290 plus the cost of the cat flap! They are coming out Monday to measure the pane of glass and then we can get that paid for and ordered.

In money- saving its all been a bit slow:

I used Shopmium to get 2x 4 packs of cat mousse from Tescos the other day. The cashback came through at half the RRP, as opposed to the Tesco offer I got so they cost me £1.24 for 8 cat meals that the cat loves and are pretty fancy. Spoilt little thing!

Overpayments- we have finished paying the remnants of the equity savings over to the mortgage and amazingly (for me, geek!) i can see the overpayment the next day on the online account. No more annual statement reconciliations for our house yay!
So we have sent £5994 (in £999 instalments daily) as overpayments to bring down the mortgage value. 

Today we have sent our first “true” overpayment of £7.41 due to rounding down both the joint savings and the joint bills account and sending it over to mark the first of the month. The first mortgage payment went out today £1,533.90 which is the standard payment of £1151.54 plus the first months interest of £382.36 so that’s all paid.

I joined up to the scuba club last night- £280 for the years membership, equipment hire and the various certifications. That’s come out of the driving money ISA so I now need to crack on with some deliveries to boost the coffers back up. Super glad I started the driving as it has meant I didn’t need to really stress about whether to do the scuba course or not; I just used the saved side money. 

Lunchtime is over so back to the grind (for 2 hours only though )

Kittenkirst

Busy Saturday so far today- unfortunately the engagement ring has become faulty after less than 3 weeks of wear, so we booked an appointment at Goldsmiths and its been sent back to be repaired/ replaced. I’m quite disappointed to be honest as it wasnt a cheap ring, I waited so long to propose and now fiancé has no ring on her finger Goldsmiths were fab though with their customer service this morning so that helps a little.

Tonight is the big meal for the mum-in-laws 70th birthday and for the in-laws retirement. We have 47 people attending and its a surprise. Coordinating it has been super problematic and a few people have pulled out last minute (no refund unfortunately as its a set menu and we had to order and pay in advance!). We are picking up the cake en-route and have told mum and dad its just a nice meal with us and to dress up

As we were in town I got a costa for breakfast- using a pre-covid dated gift voucher from my old work (so was free!) and then got the fiance a sausage cob from Greggs on the O2 priority freebie app. We never get to take advantage of this much as not often near a Greggs so was a good little perk.

We’ve been over to the house and looked at our friends house next door but one. They paid for a lot of the upgrades we didn’t go for (or get free) and vice versa so its interesting to see the differences, and theirs looks lovely, but luckily I still prefer ours It has shown a few bits that Redrow need to change in ours as its standard but missing in ours.

On Monday we have the cat flap fitter coming to measure up, the site manager is coming to discuss all the snags and when they will be sorted and two painters are coming to touch up in areas they need to sort. Our floor fitter has rearranged his diary so will be finished quicker so Ive messaged the movers last night to see if they can do the 21st October instead of the 25th which will give us the weekend to unpack as well as a few days off. Fingers crossed they can do it; if not we will stick to the 25th October to move in.

House is starting to look more homely now the floor upstairs is all done- the end is in sight

Jessy103

Hope the retirement meal went well

themadvix

What Jessy said - sounds like a fantastic thing to organise for them!