Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Kittenkirst

Thanks @debtfreeoneday. Its all gone fairly well so far.

And most importantly my friends cat wandered in all on his own on Tuesday night- much relief all round for his owners, and he has been “grounded” for a few days whilst they sort out their own house move. So happy he came home for my friends

I have had another wretched cold that i came down with on Sunday so Ive been taking cold & flu tablets with merry abandonment (! Probably not great for my health but necessary this week!) but it hasn’t really stopped progress,

We have our things finally out of storage! Yayyyyyy! Ive had the past three days off to be unpacking, sorting and getting ourselves straightened out.

Unfortunately I filled the new dishwasher with salt & rinse aid, then stacked it up so that I could get everything washed and away, but it wouldn’t turn on! So Redrow had the electrician come round and sort i (he also changed the plug socket in the front room that seemed to decide when it would work and wouldn’t)! The Sky installer came yesterday so we have that installed (new customer deal for the TV and broadband) and our floor man has been round too to tidy up some bits etc.

We have the snagging list on a whiteboard in the kitchen but the site manager is a bit hit and miss. I can tell he is trying his best but i think they are having real issues with getting the tradesman out and staying on site getting things done really. This week though we have the plasterer coming Friday to remove the trunking for the cables in the living room (as its blocked so you can’t put the cables in!! ), the handyman coming on Wednesday to put shelving in our airing cupboard, put hooks, pictures and other bits up for us (we did try in our last house and made a right mess so will get someone in who knows how!!) and the garage flooring coming Tuesday, so our floor guy will fit it on either Thursday or Friday

So its all been a bit hectic, but we’ve been doing some money saving bits and bobs along the way- Ive picked up a wooden mirror on olio with the plan to paint the frame and revive it. We picked up the O2 priorities free brekkie sandwich yesterday from Greggs for girlfriends breakfast (I had porridge before we left). Ive also listed all the empty folded boxes and pacing stuffs (insulated pack, bubble wrap etc) on Olio as well as some other bits as we’ve unpacked so things have left the house too!

I also received 3 nice samples of Royal Canin wet cat meat in the post so that helps keep Oscar happy at dinner time for 3 nights cheaply too!

In car news, the garage managed to fix the faulty wire, which i am super grateful for, as the cost of the full harness was actually £923 from Renault before any fitting so the fix has been done and it cost £300.
Annoyingly though the seat then got stuck so it went back to the garage for them to fix it (as it was in the furthest back position so I couldn’t reach the pedals!) and girlfriends dad asked them to service it (I was going to wait until November payday but he told them to do it anyways) so that’s another £120.

Not cheap but the car lives to ride another day ( well, year hopefully) and I will need to carve out some time to go and do some deliveries as the account is nearly empty (Just the VAT amount in there, should i need to pay- if i earn over £1k) so I could do with building that back up and trying not to spend it again!

The in-laws are now looking at houses and want to move away from opposite their old shop; so I added up all the bigger spends on the house so far (not including solicitors, stamp or anything to do with the purchase itself) and it came to £20,005!!
That really shocked me as we’ve covered it all out of savings/salary which i never would have thought we would have those sorts of funds. That’s the flooring, under floor heating, blinds, cat flap, kitchen island and extras on the house.

We need to start sorting out some furniture to replace what we left with our last house sale, but in honesty i think we’re both a little tired this weekend, so maybe in a few weeks!

We are booked in for a pumpkin patch visit today- its probably all a gimmick but id like to go the once, so we’ll go there in the morning then back to the house for more unpacking and sorting! 

Kittenkirst

Morning folks, 
Am at the house again today as we have the driveway gulley being fixed (it doesn’t drain- the water just stands still! Doh!) and we also have the garage floor being delivered. We also have next door but ones being delivered too so i have their garage key ready to accept their delivery too!

We have now met next door neighbours (they brought curry and side dishes over after their Havan- blessing of the house), they are very young and lovely. They seem really friendly and helpful and girlfriend has her eye on their beautiful car (a Bentley no less!) My little green Clio holds her own on our drive though

We have the handyman popping over tomorrow to hang lots of the bits and bobs, which meant we spent £60 in Asda last night on TV brackets for them to go on the walls (!) We also popped to the Range over the weekend as were told they did goof bar stools (they only had 2 types out, the rest of the floor was all Chrimbo stuff everywhere!) and we found the perfect living room dangly light. Its an LED one that matches the 2 side lamps I bought a month or so ago on sale from Dunelm so that will hopefully go up tomorrow too!

The pumpkin patch was a really lovely morning out in the end; fiancé loved it as she’s never seen pumpkins growing naturally. We went pretty early in the morning, it was a dry day but wet underfoot and it was just a fun few hours. We stopped at their farm cafe afterwards for a cuppa and shared a toastie. It was super lovely to do something and not be talking about the house/ working out the logistics of the house etc. It was £3 a ticket in advance and we came home with one larger orange pumpkin to carve, and then lots of gourds and squashes. We spent £20 in total on these from our ‘entertainment’ budget. They are all now washed and on the porch looking pretty and the squashes and gourds will be made into soup next week (especially the crown prince squash- i made soup from that a few years back and it was delicious!).

I’m off work tomorrow to go to Alton Towers for our almost annual trip to the scare mazes. We’ve booked online, which was lucky as an email came out on Thursday that they were fully booked from Friday onwards. We had those Cadburys buy one get one free tickets, but annoyingly the cost of the one ticket when you use that code is inflated from the standard day cost for tomorrow. Bit naughty really, but we wanted to go so I’m pleased we have saved a bit of money! 

Ive also been busy planning my departments Halloween Quiz which I’m hosting whilst on leave (I love Halloween so much I’m happy to ha ha) which has lots of fun rounds including a mini scavenger hunt all online. Fingers crossed it goes down well on Thursday for the department; we have 80 people so hoping to get around 30 dial in (its during the day so people many be busy etc)

No overpayments this week so far, however we did take advantage of the Tescos meal deal glitch yesterday and got 3 meal deals for £3.03. We had two sandwiches between us for lunch and dropped one in to father-in-law. We have all the side snacks & drinks in the fridge for another day to take out with us when out and about to save splurging on snacks. We also used the Shopmium paneer offer last night at Asda (Appetina Paneer is free after cashback) so i got one and so did the girlfriend as that will be perfect for a chilli paneer dinner (one of gfs favourite meals!) 

Ive bee receiving lots of research panel invites, so have been signing up to all of those that i fulfil the requirements for too, but no responses just yet on it. I’m not sure if they like you to have gaps in between the market research sessions or something, but it takes two minutes to sign up so i may as well continue to! 

Also, if you are on O2 make sure you check your priority app; they have a daily instant win draw. Worth a quick click each morning to see if you win something! I’m after the £1k John Lewis voucher (although anything would be fantastic) as that would cover the coffee machine and quite a few other luxury items for the new house

Kittenkirst

Evening all, 
Lots has happened in the last week as we finally moved in on Thursday, our garage floor has been laid and we are now feeling at home here!

We have unpacked the majority of boxes- have a handful in the office room (stationary and gadget techs stuff) then some shed boxes in the garage, but everything else is unpacked. Hurrah!!

We have been busy listing on FB marketplace and Olio lots of items that we no longer need, and have made a sale of £7 so far; every penny helps.

We have also got a lovely bottle green sofa for the kitchen diner (Ikea- got a spare washable grey cover for it too) and stools for the breakfast bar have also arrived and match perfectly making us very happy. Both were paid for by an old savings account that’s been closed down last week (£1430 “found” money).

Payday has been and gone, so we have paid £145.46 as an overpayment to the mortgage, and the monthly payment of £1154 has gone through too. Weve topped up my Tesco gift card (get 7% extra with my work) so £172 has been added for the month.

Weve had many many tradespeople round to sort snagging, and also the handyman has now put the TVs on the walls and put us some shelving into our storage cupboards.

We now just need to wait for a sparky to fit our light fitting, and a plumber to plumb in the washing machine. Our snagging list for Redrow is still underway and they are trying to tick things off and get it sorted which is good to see.

Kittenkirst

Morning,
After ages on Prolific with no surveys I had a few yesterday which enabled another small overpayment of £7.46 to be sent to the mortgage last night. Yay! 

The accounts app has now been updated fully and reconciled to all of our accounts as all the recent spending on the house etc has meant it was a little neglected. We will have a look tomorrow night at it for the next month or too and plan out the next purchases (bed, dining table & chairs, desks) and our budgets so feels good to be getting that back in check, as felt a little out of control before.

We had a few people collect items from Olio last night so a few more things have left the house which is great and the handyman has now put up all the TVs, the shelves are in place and we have managed to sort a few more piles of odds and ends out.

Went to the gym before logging on for work first thing, as KIve not been since I had that horrid cold and then we moved, so it was good to get moving, but i didnt have my headphones so it felt like a long slog on the cross-trainer.

Its Diwali today so we have a small family meal at the in-laws, and have put up some Divas in the house making it feel rather lovely here.

The cat is snoozing on the bed and seems quite happy, other than wanting to go outside, which is a relief!

themadvix

Happy Diwali!

Kittenkirst

themadvix said:

Happy Diwali!

Thanks @themadvixwe had a lovely Diwali, nice small family meal at the in-laws that we made together and lots of yummy treats and just generally relaxed which was lovely.

Halloween quiz went down super well at work, and we also arranged a Diwali videocall for the department and our colleagues over in India which went down really well with both teams too. Really lovely working for a company that is keen for us to take the lead and work on working better together and bringing teams remotely working in the UK and India all together in various ways!

The house stuff is cracking on; we had a disaster on Friday as the washing machine we were given was plumbed in but on the first wash it didnt drain. Weve tried a lot of trouble-shooting/ YouTube’s etc but to no joy. So the soggy washing went to the in-laws to re-wash in their machine, and Ive had to manually drain the drum (using Tupperware and a towel- bit yucky). We then spent time over the weekend researching the best machine for our use, which will fit in the utility room space, but then got a bit of decision making fatigue! 

Anyways I then checked my work benefits and they do a great discount with Samsung (which was the model we had selected) and it works out £100 cheaper than the best price online (and that includes fitting and taking the old machine away). So delivery is planned for tomorrow. We also have grounds team round tomorrow to move the outside tap drain as its not aligned so if we run the tap it misses the drain *facepalm*.

We managed to finally find our new bed online and have ordered it and a mattress for the master bed- the mattress is due tomorrow too, and the bed middle of next week. We shipped around a lot and have gone via Quidco so should get £30 back on that too!

Our savings are massively being depleted, and we should have the blinds fitted at the end of the month so that will be £1550 left to pay on completion (we’ve paid a large deposit already). This house buying malarkey is very very very pricey, even with saving for months and trying to make considered decisions.

Electrician came today to look at the cable trunking in the front room; he cut a bit of the plasterboard out but doesn’t have the right trunking to replace so will have to come back out.

We’ve been listing lots more on Olio and FB marketplace for free; things like multiple travel mugs, toiletry bags, clothes & toiletries. We’ve also got lots of stuff on Vinted; Ive made £25 after postage so far (need to post after work tomorrow!) listing unopened samples/beauty products from the John Lewis beauty goodie bag I got late last year- I pulled out anything we will use, but a lot of it wont suit (e.g. I don’t need blusher with suffering from rosacea- i try to reduce the redness of my face not highlight it )

In Prolific news I got a few good surveys all come through in a row so sent £13.65 extra to the mortgage overpayment pot for this month making it £171.77 overpayments so far for November. Weve also successfully both signed up for market research for coffee this week; I bought my coffee earlier today and will get reimbursed £13.01 (after taking the £1.99 out for the coffee purchased). Lovely fiance also signed up and will complete hers tomorrow so will have £26 going into the fancy coffee machine pot. We’re still trying to increase that pot with additional earnings so we can buy the machine without dipping into our salaries as it is a luxury not a real need.

Ive not done any delivery driving recently as evenings have been taken up with sorting boxes/ clothes/ building furniture etc, however have a shift 12-4 on Sunday for JustEat (will do UberEats alongside and jump between the apps) and potentially may try to do one evening this week purely to try and repay into my Cyprus savings pot (holiday booked for friends wedding next year) as that’s taken a bit of a hit with paying for the new Washing machine.

Kittenkirst

Morning Morning, Its all go here today, Sitemanager turned up to see if the sparky had completed the works to the trunking and was irritated he hadn’t because they had the plasterer here today to make good after (but the works not done so he can’t do anything). Whilst the site manager was here we asked him about the kitchen sink/ cupboard smell; he thinks it may be the dishwasher so is going to come back and get it looked at too…at the moment we have all the scented candles and was burners going in the kitchen to try and mask the standing dirty water smell!

We should have the groundsmen in today to sort that drain alignment today too.

The Mattress and the washing machine are also due to be delivered today (mattress we requested for Friday but seems that is being ignored!). This combined with a busy work day is giving me lots of anxiety (and the gf has had to go into the office) so for a crucial call at 10am mum-in-law is popping over in case deliveries arrive/ contractors arrive etc. She is such a gem

I didnt post out the vinted stuffs last night, so that is one task tonight for us that we must do. We can’t forget because as soon as its posted and received we can get the funds

I did however manage to get our gas/elec onto DD and pay our first bill, moan again at the council for the bins not being taken (gone now yay after a call Monday and yesterday), collected some bread and tattie scones (YUM!) and a few items have gone via olio/ trash nothing apps this morning too!

I need to get a bit more organised and update our accounts apps again as we did so much spending this weekend and ive only captured part of it really…..

Kittenkirst

Yesterday didnt quite go to plan; the drain guy didnt show, the electrician and plasterer didnt show either. 
I did have lots of other contractors randomly show up (including a few who were for next door and got the wrong plot) so now the turfing issue is sorted, the fridge and freezer doors all close without grinding and the sealant around the bath is now rectified. So progress is happening!

T Redrow customer care chap came (he did the smaller snags). He was super helpful when the washing machine was delivered; we had paid £30 for premium install and to take the old machine away, however the guys came in, spent a while looking at the connectors and said they couldn’t do it and would have to leave. I ran out the front to get the Redrow guy to see if he could assist (he was on his lunch bless him) and he came and talked them through how to do it.

Once fitted the Redrow guy quickly checked what they did and asked them about a missing clip- they said they don’t fit them, and he then said well as soon as water pumps through it will pop off and flood the utility…they just said nah we don’t do that and tried to leg it sharpish from the house. Luckily the Redrow guy sorted one out and came back this morning.

So last night I was feeling a little stressed with all the comings & goings whilst trying to do some urgent work (for my job!) and we ended up with a takeaway being delivered late at night and a total sofa night as we were both shattered.

The little twist in the tail was when he did the clip this morning, he then found a plug that Redrow hadn’t removed initially which meant the washing machine wouldn’t drain…..so we didnt actually need a new machine at all

themadvix

Oh no! Will you raise this with Redrow, given that you've paid out for a new machine?

It sounds extremely chaotic at yours at the moment - don't blame you at all for the takeaway!

Kittenkirst

Chaotic is the right word for it MadVix; don’t get me wrong, we love the house and are grateful, its just a stressful time at the moment really.

Yes, I have emailed the site managers and cc’d in their customer services; I have a feeling they will say when the washing machine was installed that should have been spotted, however it wasnt by our guy last week for the old machine, or the Samsung installers either so Im hoping they don’t try and push ownership onto them really….will see.

Bright side is we have a lovely new Samsung washing machine that is now washing its first load, and makes tuneful noises in the utility  Just annoying as we were hoping to get at least a year out of the old donated machine to give us some breathing space as we are just spending here there and everywhere at the minute.

We did get it via many work rewards so saved a fair bit on RRP, and also got it on 0% interest so its under £17 a month, so we’ve not had to pay in full this month. It could be worse really, just frustrating!