Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

MichaelDH

Hi Kittenkirst and Shangaijimmy

I'm definitely going to stick with using Aldi and may try Lidl. I try to cook from scratch as much as possible so should be able to find most things I need. Anything I can't find I will try to stock up elsewhere when on offers etc.

How did the kittens get on yesterday Kittenkirst? Hope you and the kittens are feeling better soon

themadvix

Hope you're feeling better soon KK!

Amazing pension fund find - and you were surprised you'd let a fiver slip under your nose

Hope the boys weren't too traumatised by their 'ordeal' - I don't think ours even noticed, bless them.

ch4rly2002

Hey KK, I'm a bit behind on reading blogs with my decluttering mission, but it sounds like you're getting on great.

I'm glad the Prolific is working well for you. Well done on getting a £10 one! I find it really does add up well.

Amazing pension find! well done That beats the £5 purse find Must be a great feeling. Does that alter your thinking on your contribution amount or will you still increase it? I find it hard to decide between upping the pension and paying the mortgage early. I guess a mix of both is probably best.

Hope the boys are doing ok after their op x

Viking_mfw

Good luck with the kitten training. Ours go fine til about 3 am at which point one in particular will come and try and snuggle on a chest which is very uncomfortable and also noisy. We tend to shut them out at that point.

The other one doesn't tend to disturb us, he just has a purr so loud you can hear him from the next room.

themadvix

A lovely act of kindness there KK. It is awful seeing people living like that

We don't let our boys in our room at night (despite pleading from them and DH - he's not the one who'd be woken by clingy cat). Unfortunately this means that we tend to get woken by miaowing and scratching at 6.30 most days (woe betide anyone who goes to the loo or makes noise once the sun is up, even if that's 4am!). We have used plugged in hoover to deter the scratching in the past, but with stressy/clingy cat, we worry it makes his stress worse! But at least we can sleep in comfort and without fear of suffocating a cat!

Kittenkirst

I'm back home now ready for some lunch before my next calls at 2pm, can't wait for 3pm when I can log out; this weeks felt like a long & tough old week!

Good deed for the day completed; spent £12 on some sandwiches, croissants, biscuits and bottles of water and left them in a bag outside one of the tents in the hope that they will share it amongst themselves. £12 well spent I think, makes me feel better that i feel I'm helping if only for a morning by filling a tummy and will hopefully give someone whose having a bad time the feeling that people do care.

90p tilly tidy sent over to the mortgage and a quick survey completed on prolific on my lunch break. No other made activities this morning. Will package up the eBay sale and post that out today then it's a nice quiet evening in after my free eye test

Kittenkirst

Eye test went well last night- prescription has changed slightly so am going to give GlassesDirect a try next week.

I looked round the shops near Boots and picked up lots of items but I managed to put them back each time and wall away. I don't need a new work dress from next sale, or more nails Inc nail varnish as I rarely wear the ones I have! Pleased I managed to resist the urge.

Today was a little more spendy ; went to see my big brother in Oxford and treated him to whatever he wanted for lunch; he chose Burger King but I almost fell over when the lady said how much the order came to- £27 for burger meals for 4!!!

So a bit more spendy than we had planned but it was good to se my brother, he confided that his schizophrenia has been a bit difficult the past few months so he's been to his doctors and got his meds increased a little which he said is helping. It's great news that he is identifying when he is feeling worse and seeking help when he needs it. I did get a bit upset when I left as sometimes it hits me that he will have to battle with this all his life, he won't ever get better. I comfort myself that he is okay with this and has a lot of coping mechanisms and support networks out there, but still sometimes it does upset me.

On a more positive note, we went to the gym today and I smashed 580 cals by running, stepping & doing the dreaded dips! So that burns off 2/3rds of that burger! :eek:

Prolific is now up to £13.03 with another £16 awaiting approval. Hoping that approvals soon as want to overpay that £29 as soon as possible. Another Pinecone survey and a Yougov survey also done, really trying to bolster those values.

A little new pile of eBay stuff to try and list tomorrow: a book, an old Motorola pebble phone, two headsets/earphones for spares, an older Guess purse and empty perfume bottle. Will whack them all on eBay and see if they sell. If they don't will relist them once and then in/charity shop if suitable

Quiet evening in with the gf, kittens and sky box sets coming up

Kittenkirst

Lovely lunch made at gf's parent; we made a Chana dhal, a shak (curry) similar to my favourite (a quicker version) with salad & rotlis. Delicious!

Got gf's phone screen replaced finally- I dropped it a few months back and she was ok with it as she only has two more months of contract and it still works. She's dropped it several times since and it's got worse so I've paid for it to be replaced. £43 so not too bad but still it wasn't budgeted for.

Quick grocery shops at Aldi & Tesco; got some YS BBQ chicken; the multibug offer kicked in making it £6 for three packs of chicken which isn't too bad. Got the rest of our shopping list at Aldi as is cheapest

Now watching Power and relaxing!

TT of 45p yesterday and 58p today.

Kittenkirst

Morning lovelies!

We decided we needed some fresh air last night so headed to that blackberry patch we have found. Picked a takeaway container of berries before the heavens opened. Berries all washed and popped in the freezer....cannot wait for crumble season

Had a splurge last night...I've been longing for a nice fluffy superdry hopdie but couldn't bring myself to pay £55 for a hoodie...or even with 20% discounts they do mid season. It's now in the sale and in my size, so I ordered it with free home delivery. £27.50. I didn't need it. Hmmmm.

On the more brighter side I listed five items last night and relisted a thermostat that had no interest. Weirdly after relisted it has some watchers! Odd world eBay is!


88p TT today as the tv licence DD has claimed.

Work time now cuppa is done best get earning the pennies!

MichaelDH

Hey Kittenkirst

Glad you’ve treated yourself to a new hoody – if you really want something then it doesn’t matter that you don’t actually need it, plus you’ve done so well so deserve to spoil yourself once in a while!

We had a look for flooring at the weekend, we want an engineered oak in the living room/dining room (now one huge room with French doors out to the garden so not going to risk carpet) and in the hall. Looking at around £2k excluding fitting! :eek:

Also went and had a look at some furniture. Found a leather sofa we both liked in Harvey’s so think we may order that. It’s a three-seater power recliner and around £1100 in the sale so not too bad at all really. We also popped to a nice independent home furnishing shop, if money wasn’t an issue I could spend an absolute fortune in there! I did find an amazing love seat that I really fell in love with. It’s super soft and has like a silver and grey textured patter – would complement the dark grey leather sofa perfectly, but it’s £900 so will have to think that over… Lastly we visited Oak Furniture Land and found a really nice glass topped dining table that we could have with highbacked scroll chairs in a charcoal material, again complimenting the other furniture we chose, and also a large side board and a dresser, around £2k in total for everything. Lots to think about, it is a lot of money to spend but at the same time it is needed. On the plus side I can’t face ordering from OFL in store as they are just too pushy, so if we go ahead I will order online and get cashback from Quidco. Every little helps. Just fed up of the rubbish Ikea sofas we moved with us, and also fed up of not having any flooring down and worrying about another drafty winter with bare floorboards. Would also be nice to be able to sit at a table to eat our meals. I’m not very good at spending money, find it a bit stressful after being a bit too frivolous in my youth and getting in to a mess that took a few good years of hard work and belt tightening to put right.

We ordered a new car for Drew last week, thankfully it’s not due to arrive for another 12 weeks so that’s 12 weeks until we have to start paying for it. Decided to give leasing a go as worked out about £150 per month cheaper than a PCP with the dealer for the car we wanted. Did think about ordering a car for me too but to be quite honest my car is worth more to me than what I would get for it if I sold it so will probably keep it a bit longer and keep my fingers crossed nothing major goes wrong with it now that it’s five years old.

Popped to Aldi again yesterday but found it really frustrating not being able to get everything on our list. Also going through the checkout can be an experience to say the least… Why do they insist on trying to break some kind of world record when scanning the shopping??? :mad:

My car insurance and the house insurance are both due for renewal early next month so my job for this week is to check out the comparison sites and cash back deals.

Oops didn’t intend my message to be so long but got a little carried away… think the rambling has been slightly therapeutic though.

Good luck staying on track this week!

Michael x