Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

themadvix

Sorry to hear about Paris, but a very sensible decision. It would be a lot of potential exposure and the risks associated with rules changing at the last minute too. Very rubbish, but as you say, it'll be there in March or whenever you do get to go. 

It all sounds go, go, go still with the house and work - make sure you get some relaxation time in too!

Kittenkirst

yes definitely MadVix- seemed the sensible, if a little disappointing, thing to do.

In Mortgage Figures we are now at 

£300,932.85. Eeeeeesh!!

We’ve managed the following overpayments so far:

September £5994 (some leftover equity, remaining mortgage savings and the stashed surveys, selling etc from May-Sept)
October £34.28
November £201.75

We now have online access to see the mortgage but i dont *quite* get how they are doing the interest as its not applied in the statement but seems to be a running total for the year so far….my figures on my app are £54 out (in the banks favour); which i assumed was because on my app i will add Decembers interest on the last day of the month; but £54 isn’t 7 days of interest  

Anyways, I will continue to keep tracking on my app and reconciling where I can to online; and just keep us hammering at the mortgage where we can!

Kittenkirst

Afternoon all,

We had the scuba meal last night which was lovely, despite wearing masks except for when eating. The club has a high % of people over 55 years so everyone agreed in advance to wear masks except when eating to just be extra careful. It was a lovely meal and even better as we had paid in advance from last months pay

Prolific was great yesterday after work so I got a small cash out (£5.80) and did an overpayment of £10.06 as we had a small amount of cashback available. Ive got £4.84 approved in Prolific with 80p pending so when that clears i will send it over too. Every little bit will help over the long run!

In house stuffs the boiler guy attended yesterday and did something; meant the heating is working and we’ve not yet had it cut out again, however at 5am the water tank/cylinder thing on the landing sounded like an aeroplane taking off- the heating chap is coming back out hopefully this afternoon, if not first thing. We were already quite tired as Oscar decided to bring home 3 woodland friends throughout the night (from 2am ish), one was alive so needed rescuing and releasing, the other two we had to usher him outside with it to eat it blinking cat and his murder mittens!!

Our blinds were all fitted yesterday too so they are making the house look a lot more cosy and homely; we have to do the transfer of £1000 this afternoon and drop £550 cash off at the chaps house after work and then that’s all paid for.

Other than a dining table, that’s all the larger purchases (hopefully) now sorted so we can start rebuilding our empty savings pots again! 

I called Redrow and they are giving us 50% back of the cost of the washing machine; as they say its not fully their fault as our installer should have spotted the issue too. We are happy with that 50% so a cheque of £294 should be winging its way to us shortly.

Tonight is scuba class, and Ive arranged an Olio pickup for just before which is round the corner- 4 tins of mackerel (yum!) and a big box of Earl Grey which is my brothers favourite- he will (hopefully) be staying 3/4 nights after Christmas so that is his tea habit sorted too (and they are fancier than the ones I would buy! )

LadyWithAPlan

Wow you are so close to that 300k mark, I am sure you are doing everything to break through it for the new year.

Sorry your Paris trip was cancelled, hopefully when you get there Fiance will also be wearing ring.  I wont be buying anything from Goldsmiths  thats for sure after your tale. I have often travelled o the Birmingham jewellery quarter for serious jewellery as they have some amazing deals and many many independent shops, you can negotiate far easier.

Glad you loving your coffee machine, I did take a look at the Smeg Expresso Machine I really want over Black Friday again, I already have the aeroccino for heating milk and many fabulous ways of making great home coffee inc my Aeropress and a stove pot .. but those red SMEG machines are my design dream.
When I finally get my programme out for sale and once it hits a decent amount of profit, say £3000 I may yet buy one as my reward!  That could be a while away yet ... I did save from having to not buy a extra  freezer as I got a fridge/freezer  free from my  neighbour so in theory I have got £150 saved ...

At least when you have saved up for so long for such treats as I know you did with the coffee machine, hey are compleely justifiable and worth waiting for.

Hope Oscar is back to normal. 

Kittenkirst

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan Oscar is back to his normal self again, and is so settled he has started bringing us in delightful gifts in the small hours of the morning, and managed to lose his tracker yesterday morning! A rather funny scene ensued of me using the kitchen steps to climb over our fence, clump around in the small wooded area to try and find it, which thankfully i did! It is back on again, much to his annoyance  

I also agree those Smeg coffee machines are completely drool-worthy! And yes I feel justified and happy that we’ve saved for the machine, also bought in a savvy manner to save us some cash and we both are using twice a day (using our approved foods pods that we got for a steal a few months back too). Its such a lovely treat to have a nice frothy latte in the morning around 10am after a meeting or two with work!

I was assigned a Just Eat courier shift this evening but am so very tired at the moment, so Ive decided not to take it and instead will have an evening at home with the fiance and just chill a little. House is all slick and span from the weekends cleaning so we dont have much to do tonight other than making dinner (& tidying up after obvs).

I collected my first Olio Food Waste Collection on Saturday morning at 7am; two huge boxes of pastries and breads. I managed to give a lot away, including to a friend made via the frugal community on instagram, the fiancés aunty who was having a little get together, and lots of new Olio people. It felt good to give a bit back as we have found Olio great so I want to do a bit more when it fits with work. Rather annoyingly our road was being tarmacked all day on Saturday so I had to do the olio peoples collections from the in-laws house. Next time it wont be so chaotic i hope.

We had our first group of friends over this weekend; a couple who have been pretty awesome this year with advice re the house sale and purchase etc and generally just great friends. We made chicken wings, masala fries and I made homemade garlic bread using 2 small batons from my olio collection, and we ordered 2 pizzas as a treat. For Dessert i made a croissant bread and butter pudding with homemade crème anglase studded with chocolate (also using my allowance as the food waste collector). The pud and garlic bread both went down a treat and it was lovely to have people at the house.

Vinted sale funds finally cleared of £4.99 so that’s gone to the mortgage yesterday, and we sorted a few boxes of junk from the garage so more stuff is on olio (fancy dress stuff, computer speakers etc), a box has been put aside to take to the charity shop and Ive popped something on ebay for the first time in ages (already has 7 watchers which is positive). 

themadvix

Yay to another FWH on here The croissant bread and butter pudding is something I've intended to do for a while but keep forgetting.... will have a go for Boxing Day I think!

Kittenkirst

Oooh definitely give it go @themadvix Ive never been one for bread and butter pudding in the past but this converted me and i scoffed my portion heartily!!

Its been a busy few days; It was my birthday yesterday and we had the time off for the (now postponed) Parisian adventure so we went to the little vegetarian restaurant for a quiet lunch. It was so tasty and well socially distanced so felt super safe. I opted for a scrumptious new potato, leek, pea and Lancashire cheese bake which was so tasty. Fiance opted for the broccoli and Stilton bake which was also lovely and we shared a nice salad plate. Its become a bit of a birthday tradition to visit there (apart from last year).

We also managed to get into town nice and early and get out again, so it meant there were no crowds so we felt nice and safe for whilst we were there, and I picked up my Birthday freebie donut from Krispy Kreme which the fiance enjoyed (as Im not really a fan!).

We managed to book in and go on a Christmas lights trail last night too over in Nottingham, which was just magical- a bit of (socially distanced) queuing but it was definitely worth it; It was at Wollaston Hall House in their grounds so all upside in the crisp cool air and was just superb! We had fancy hot chocolates and marshmallows we toasted over a fire. All in all a truly lovely evening and a fab way to spend my birthday together.

Today we headed out fairly early again and went to a huge Sainsburys the other side of town as we wanted to get the remainder of gifts sorted for Christmas. We managed to get everything sorted and then shared a turkey roast baguette for lunch. We also picked up lots of different flavoured Coke Zeros on great deal via Shopmium (8 pack will be £1.50 each, 2L bottle will be 50p). We both have the app so I bought Vanila varieties and fiance bought cherry. We managed to get some Diet Coke with lime last week using Shopmium too which was the same so we’ve spent £7 recently on Coke Zero (which we drink a fair amount of) but have loads now stored in the nice cool garage.

We also both had a sponsored instagram post for free san Pellegrino can (6 pack) for free, so we’ve submitted for those too.

We managed to get my cousins childrens presents sorted (lots of fun colouring and crafting stuff for his little girl, and a light up & sound making huge police truck and pepp pig stuffed toy for his little boy). We also got my cousin and his lovely wife some lovely M&S chocolates and will give them a bottle of sparkly stuff (we have lots of nice bottles from moving in gifts we just wont drink). Looking forward to seeing them all, but he’s recently tested positive for Covid (thankfully is double jabbed and has only mild symptoms, phew!) so we will be waiting until post his isolation period once he’s tested clear of the virus before we can deliver the gifts. Such a shame for him and he’s feeling under the weather with it

Ive managed to book my booster for Tuesday after work and as we’ve seen people the past week or two we’ve been testing regularly; all negative thankfully but now we have no more social engagements and just working from home.

Been completing a few prolific surveys this week; now at £7 so as soon as that clears it will go over to the mortgage as a little OP; not huge amounts at the moment but every penny counts I hope.

debtfreeoneday

Every penny does indeed count!

Kittenkirst

More of those little pennies are showing themselves; the Prolific funds mostly cleared (£5.94 of it) so ive cashed out and sent to the mortgage. 
We had Quidco cashback of £2.66 so that’s also been withdrawn and sent, alongside a pinecone survey of £3 that’s cleared.

So that’s £11.60 of extra money sent over today. Ive also requested a £5 cash out from Shoppix for receipt scanning so that will be sent over as soon as it clears too. 

Received a surprise in the post today; my good friend in Portsmouth we visited earlier this year has sent us a money plant/ tree. We fell in love with her large one at her new flat, and she is super into plants, so she ordered us one for the new house/ Christmas present which is super lovely! Its in the kitchen diner; we will need to check in the garage to see if we have a nice big plant pot to house it in. Super surprised and grateful for it

themadvix

Belated happy birthday! 🥳🎂 sounds like you had a good day.