Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Kittenkirst

Hmmmm received the council tax statement today for the new tax year and it seems as we moved in mid way through the year we only had one council tax free month....this means that the next year of dd's starts on 1st April so have to discount that £130 going as an OP.

Will have a gander at other ways to make up some money to keep on track with target.

Worked from home today so made brekkie lunch and dinner (porridge with jam, carrot soup & bread, chicken Kiev mangetout and potato bolangerie) took dad in law to pick up his car from the garage (most awful customer experience I've ever had I must say) so I swiped a complimentary frothy latte to drink on the way home & a cadburys brunch bar for the cupboard!

Other than that a very quiet day today!

Kittenkirst

Another lovely little cashback notification this morning -£130 from Sky :j massively fortunate timing as it'll make up for not paying any 'council-tax free' months in exactly. :beer:

So this months OPs will be:

£130 cashback
£22.50 cashback
£89.81 rounding mortgage payment to £900
£5 reward payment for contactless swipes (if we hit the target)

£247.31 aiming for- currently at £16.60 so should manage over the £250 mark this month thanks to the cashback :money:

The rest will all come from tilly tidies/change/eBay

I've not listed anything this week so need to get my butt im gear and do some this weekend- need the clutter gone and the pennies on the mortgage!

Gf is home tonight after a week in Scotland with work- really looking forward to her coming home. We have a snuggle night on the sofa planned catching up with Broadchurch, the replacement & suits. Might even treat ourselves to a posh pizza express pizza from the freezer as a 'fakeaway' :happyhear

(Can you tell I'm feeling very chipper based on the use of emoticons? :P )

themadvix

Great progress on all the small things KK! Pity about the council tax though. Fingers crossed you get the bonus you're hoping for!

Kittenkirst

So my lady is home

Last night was lovely, nipped to see her parents & the cat as they all miss her when she's away too, and then we caught up on some midweek tv we both enjoy and had our fakeaway pizza & chippies. So nice having her home!

Woke up this morning and the leg pain has massively reduced- hurray! So I will be doing a lot of the exercises the physio recommended when I tore it years back and am going to register with the docs and go see them about it as it's happened twice in the last three months which makes life difficult.

Off to visit gf's flat today to try and work out why it's not renting but there is a viewing today! We will work around the viewing and then see if it needs a deep clean or some of the furniture renovating etc....she's still covering the cost which includes council tax, whilst it's empty

Kittenkirst

Morning morning mfw's!

Yesterday was a (by our standards) spendy day- we went to the flat and had a look around, it looks in good shape but the sofa is a little tatty and could do with a clean or possibly replacement so we're looking on gumtree/freecycle etc. we took advantage of the free parking at the flat and walked into town as my leg was feeling ok.

I took back some shoes so £31.20 back on the Debenhams voucher card, and we popped to the fruit & veg market for some bits for mum and some for us and spent £4.20.

We then went to a local sandwich place we both love but haven't visited in a year called Croques and had monster melted toasties which were delicious! Spent a naughty £9.20 but it was lovely and we had a nice afternoon together.

We then popped to a fab veggie place called The Good Earth that's always closed when we do shopping on Sunday's (free parking day!) and got some cakes to take to mum and dads for dinner so £8 spent.

Total spend yesterday was a naughty £23 between us which isn't too bad as we feel like we had a lovely treat day and resisted places like pizza express where we would spend that much just on two pizzas!

I unpacked some boxes in the silversmith room yesterday and then we went to mum and dads for some Dhal, shak & rotlis which was lovely

NSD today is planned- we've collected all the remaining boxes from above the shop and so today I am going to Potter about trying to find homes for all of the stuff- I have a lot more than I thought as it's been split into different locations for a few years and seems to have multiplied! I'll make a start after lunch whilst the gf logs in and catches up with some work.

A few loads of washing are being done today and cooking an Asian style Thai pork mince for dinner with noodles for me and cabbage salad for us both....quite looking forward to supper and to using up noodles that have a best before of Jan 2015 (whoooops....they'll be fine!!)

chumpy45

Yum yum, all your recipies and meals sound gorgeous and are inspiring me to dig out the recipe books again - it's so easy to cook the same old things just for a quick turnaround when everyone is rushing around. Also, well done on all the small amounts, TTs etc which are adding up to brilliant OPs. You are doing so well :T

Kittenkirst

Hey Chunpy, we too get stuck in a good rut so we try to mix things up and we are both keen Instagram/Pinterest users so folllow a lot of food writers/blogs which keeps our interest.

We do have quite a lot of standard meals like ive had carrot & coriander soup for lunch this week a few times and porridge/cereal for breakfast. Today's lunch was mini wraps (50p a pack at Aldi) with some cheese swiped from work buffet lunch (there was a cheeseboard so I took home the leftovers once the suppliers had left!).

Also, I'm a tad greedy, I have to really reign in my impulse to eat anything and everything at all times

Many boxes are now away upstairs in temporary homes until I work out how best to run the studio space. I know have a huggggge tub of mixed beads to sort through and tidy!

Kittenkirst

Evening all, pretty rubbish work day today and finished late.

Girlfriends away with work from tomorrow and I'm away on Wednesday night so we did a small grocery shop this evening. We picked up 478g smoked cod loin reduced from £8.73 to £1.75 so we made fish tacos using the last of the mini wraps and the spice mix was used in homemade coleslaw (grated carrot chopped onions and cabbage mixed with light mayo, water and a little lemon juice) YUM!

We also bought posh chocs reduced to 80p for the weekend with friends, disposable razors and a reduced pink bucket with cornflower seeds & compost for £1.25 (box was ripped but all contents inside so was £1.25 instead of £5)

Pretty pleased with that little lot, and the cod made enough for four portions so two are in the freezer for a pie or something else another time.

The remaining money was tilly tidied to the mortgage so £3.70 sent this evening

Payday is on Wednesday and it can't come soon enough, I've been counting the days however this month is again going to be a tight month...best get used to soup nights when the gf is away to keep costs down :rotfl:

Kittenkirst

Small thing I keep forgetting to mention is I'm working through using up a whole pile of toiletries including hotel minis that we've amassed the past two years.
I've just finished using up the first free bar soap in the shower (it's taken 6 weeks!) and I must say I don't see anything different to the posh shower gels other than the bar soap is not as overpoweringly scented.

Small things but hopefully they'll all add up over time!

The Starbucks card is sat with no pennies on it currently as our last top up (November using Zeek to get 15% off and a small bit of cashback!) has ran out and we've agreed to not top it up for two months whilst the flat remains empty as it's a luxury and we don't really really need it! This makes me a little sad but it's hopefully only to get over the bump, and really it is just overpriced frothy coffees (that taste so good!)

ch4rly2002

Losing the will to live here... I just typed a loooong reply when my computer blue-screened and restarted I'll try again