Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

themadvix

We have a Samsung and love the tunes too! We've both been known to sing along to them - sad, isn't it?!

It sounds like you got a very good deal on it then - at least that's something. Very frustrating though.

Fortune_Smiles

We've got a Samsung too!  The tune is The Trout by Shubert.

Fortune x

themadvix

Thanks for that Fortune - learn a new thing every day!

VelvetFreak

Hi KK. Congrats on your new house. I hope the shenanigans and chaos calms down for you! Getting new appliances is one of life's greatest joys. I'm sure you and the new washing machine will be very happy together xx

Kittenkirst

Morning all, thanks for the congrats Velvet We are settling in now, and its feeling like home! I’m also a bit perkier this morning after a lovely late Diwali meal with lots of the family yesterday. We ate far too much, giggled far too much and everyone popped to our new house for a nose which was lovely.

More things have gone on Olio (lots already collected, some waiting for pickups today or later in the week), and Ive just sold this morning an old (worn twice!) Ski jacket that’s been on Vinted since May Yay! Another £20 for the pot, alongside a £10 stool we sold Friday night.

We also both did Market Research for a nationwide fast food chain this week; after the expense of the items purchased we will make £26.30 back and we both got a nice cuppa out of it (and its on the way back from the in-laws so no extra journey made!). This should clear in the next day or two.

We have a list of items we need (or want) to purchase still, so have made a note of the product details and offer prices last month- will see if they come down in price for Black Friday or if they are not really deals! May as well wait a week or two to see if we get a decent reduction in price.

Our new bed is being delivered between 10.30-12.30 (mattress already arrived) & then Im going out for deliveries at 4-8pm today; first time in absolutely ages so hoping to make £35 (before tax is deducted) to add to the pot. After that it is lots of leftover veg curries and side dishes from yesterdays family meal, probably followed by brownies to Carrot Gajar Halva we brought back with us

VelvetFreak

Yay for a new bed and mattress. The market research thing sounds interesting. Will look into it and see if we have that kind of thing over here.

debtfreeoneday

What market research one do you use?  Well done on the earnings. 

Kittenkirst

@debtfreeoneday This was with Research Opinions as my last one (gift vouchers- paid £50 after the Zoom session). You sign up and then they send out regular emails about available research. If you qualify you can then log in and register for the individual market research. Its been great for my two ive done so far.

I ended up out for deliveries last night for 3.5 hours in the end and walked away with £43.32 which will clear this week (Wednesday for ubereats, Fri for JustEat). Not too bad and I have another scheduled shift Sunday 7.30-10.30 so its quite late and ive not done that late in the darker night so will see how i get on- i will reject any that are for areas that I don’t feel comfortable in though from a safety perspective.

I have booked in for my flu vaccine this week (I got a bupa voucher for it from my work) and gf has her covid booster on Wednesday so we are taking steps from a health perspective to be healthy! 

We have raked all the leaves over the weekend from the back garden (its quite large and there were so many!) and then we have mowed the back lawn. Photos have again gone to the site manager on the state of the lawn they’ve “fitted” and we’ll wait to hear back more….

The painter has been in this morning and our stairs are now done, ready for the runner to be fitted when it is in stock. Our patio door Blinds (perfect fit so sit within the frames) are also being fitted this week so we have some privacy at the back (where no one overlooks us!! ) the front ones aren’t made yet so we have to wait a bit for that still.

We have a blocked downstairs toilet which happened over the weekend, and are waiting for the plumber to come back to sort out the smell in the kitchen/utility from the missing seals on the pipes (meaning now we are living here the drains are open with dirty water smelling )

debtfreeoneday

Thanks KK. 

Kittenkirst

Morning folks, it has been a speedy week here at our new house. The coffee machine we had saved for came up on Hotdeals with a fantastic offer for a “refurbished-certified” model. Checking out reviews of the seller they were massively positive. It stated it would have been opened and tested, came without the manual and the small pick cleaning tool, but would have a warranty of 1 year on it from the seller.

The price difference was eye watering. the machine is £378 at the cheapest we have found in the past 3 months. This model, with a voucher was £224 all in…….

We deliberated on it for a whole evening and then decided to give it a go. It arrived yesterday- it is in pristine condition with seals all in place etc. It does include the cleaning tool and manual too. It looks to be brand new and not even opened! So we have tried it out, it works perfectly and we saved ourselves a mammoth £154! I honestly can’t believe it really, so Im sat here with a morning latte macchiato using those approved foods Starbucks pods I bought 2 months back ready! YUM

We also earmarked the house alarm and security system stuffs that we wanted; initial price was £490, it was on offer for £380 a few weeks back, but as a Black Friday deal it is now £289 and now includes a free indoor camera too. So we have also ordered that. We now need to order the outdoor cameras, however are still trying to work out which ones suit our needs the best (i.e. do we want ones that are battery and solar operated, and do we need a floodlight or will the camera nightvision be enough. A little more research needed before we spend on this).

We decided that whilst we have savings and some funds for these items, that we would use our 0% for 18 months credit Card to cover these purchases, and then pay off with extra funds (sales, surveys) and then from salary each month. As we a) have enough in the budgets to do this without any pain b) we can build up a better emergency fund but have the pennies there if we suddenly need to clear the credit car c) it costs us nothing to spread our costs for now and keep some pennies in the savings and provide some comfort.

Our new bed also arrived on Sunday so that is now built with the mattress on top. Our new bed linen is washed and ironed ready to make and sleep in at the weekend

We’ve had some small bits of pennies come in- £7.18 from Prolific this week, £34 from Vinted, £1.73 Quidco cashback so we have sent that over to the 0% card already for this month so a strong start.

UberEats pay has hit the bank yesterday so that went to the delivery ISA account, JustEat should pay in tomorrow so I will do the same tomorrow. I have scuba class and practice tonight 7-9pm which I’m looking forward to, and then more deliveries on Sunday 7.30-10.30pm. I’m hoping to make another £40 on Sunday to top up the savings account. It will have £119 in there from tomorrow, with £60 of that being the tax Ive calculated. (I will however keep a clean 20% of the earnings in there as a tax buffer just in case, so I need to up it to £130 really which should be more than doable by Sunday), then anything after that is 75% for me, 20% for the account as the tax buffer,

Ive shared some day in the life of delivery driver stories on my insta and have had quite a few people ask me questions about it so ive passed on what i know (ensuring I tell them to check their own tax situation etc) so that feels nice too, as people answered my questions on there/ online too when i started a few months back!

I finally went to my workplace on Tuesday, having started late February so i met a few of my wider team which was lovely. I also picked up some IT equipment to make life easier at home (double monitor and docking station) so once the new desks are ordered and arrived I can move away from the kitchen Island workspace ive been using (fiance in living room!).

Oscar the cat remains on new house lockdown until tomorrow, and he’s now starting to get fed up, and pawing at the cat flap with a forlorn meow throughout the day! His trackers are charged ready so he can start to venture out again. Im relieved we wont have to deal with cat litter again (I worry about the environmental impact of it- he refuses to use wood pellet style) but am worried as he does like to wander for days at a time….

Flu vaccine and fiancés covid booster all done last night, so we are boosted up health-wise. We do have a large arena concert this weekend though, and the news has started to lark us about being out with so many people. I think we are still going but going to wear our masks, anti-bac up a lot etc but we will see, it may change by the weekend. Ill go with whatever fiance is comfortable with, as her health is worth more than seeing Fat Boy Slim really!