Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

MichaelDH

Hey Kittenkirst

Glad you and your girlfriend had a great meal out last night, and that it made up for the problems you had at girlfriends birthday meal

Bit of a spendy day for us. Popped to the local Melbicks Garden Centre this morning. There's a branch of Pets Corner there where we buy all of Oscar's food and treats. Managed to spend £45 on treats plus a small cuddly toy! Can't resist spoiling our baby Also treated ourselves to three plants in the garden centre, although each of them was reduced from £12 to £5 so I'm looking at it as £21 saved instead of £15 spent :rotfl:. They are slightly ropey looking but they are perennials so should bounce back and be long lasting.

Also just sorted out car insurance and breakdown cover. Renewal with LV was £601.33 but have gone with eSure at £486.11 and £42 has tracked on quidco too. Did call LV to check if they could match it but they couldn't so their loss!

Still need to sort out building and contents insurance renewal but will do that later. Off out to the garden now to do some planting.

Kittenkirst

Busy day spending & saving there Michael! Good work on the insurances and the reduced price plants

We went to do our weekly shop- £23.06 in Aldi and got some bits for girlfriends nephew coming to stay on Monday night and also got her mum some flowers to cheer her up as it's been a tough week for her this week.

Had an email that a survey on prolific was approved so it's reached £20; I've requested the cash via PayPal so will see £19 odd in the bank, just hoping it's a quick transfer to hit the mortgage for July!

Lots of household chores done including cleaning out the fridge and washing all the shelves etc- it looks much nicer now!

Sent back the superdry hoodie as they sent the wrong one out (& for gf too!) so have returned that via post today and also sent back the GlassesDirect trial frames. I've ordered 2 pairs identical to my current Prada frames for £58, and because I used gf's referral code she got a £15 amazon voucher for us to use. Whooop!

Decided to try making a recipe we saw John Torrode making on tv this week: Korean chicken (not fried though!) using a Korean paste we already have so we are having it with mangetout, broccoli and rice. Cannot wait to try it, hoping it's as good as the homemade katsu we made the other day

penny*pincher_2

Hi Kittenkirst :wave:

I just wanted to thank you for posting your diary - now I am registered.

I am now in the position of saving for a deposit and hopefully applying for a mortgage next year. I have found your diary (I am about half way through) really helpful and inspiring - I am now on the money saving mission! :T

Penny

Kittenkirst

Welcome Penny*Pincher! It's a long old read, sorry for lots of rambling!!

The Korean chicken worked well; we adjusted the recipe for what we had in (no cabbage or sweet potatoes so chucked in the mnagetout and baby corn instead!) it was very spicy though!

Just watching Top of the lake series 2 episode 1 on catch up- it's very intriguing I must say.

Forgot to mention that as we're early to town yesterday we walked through the shopping centre and looked at the menswear in the sale at Superdry; when my brother came to visit he really liked some of their stuff but not the price label! We found a hoodie/jacket he really liked but for 50% off so have bought it as part of his Christmas present. At the counter they had some nice makeup bags with toiletries in with no price so I asked them to check and it was £4.20 and a lovely set. We bought a set and will prob put it with something else for his girlfriends Christmas pressie. Feels odd to be buying it so soon but at £38 for the jacket and the gift set it seemed silly not to!

Kittenkirst

Hit the gym early this morning and clocked up a 10km run which I'm super pleased about! May have been undone by gf's cousins visiting from London and wanted food: the plan was chilli chips from a legendary place however they had unexpectedly closed for the day. So we ended up in a restaurant eating chilli paneer, crispy aubergines and the likes! £9 each which isn't too bad but then we all had ice cream after (one of the cousins bought mine which was lovely!)

Went into John Lewis and we bought gf's mum a V6 fluffy dyson to make life a bit easier for her- used vouchers and mum was so pleased. Hopefully it makes the stairs easier for her to do.

Counted up gf's change bottle that was still at her parents and there was £70 in it which she's given me for the OP's whoooooop!
She said she's not been putting as much into the mortgage OPs as I have and so was happy to do it! Hoping the prolific funds clears tomorrow and it will make it a much better month!

FloppyDisk

Well done for commencing the Christmas shop already!

shangaijimmy

Great find with the small change jar, a lovely addition to the OP pot, and a lovely place for it to nestle!

Kittenkirst

Struggling to sleep so checked emails and someone wants to buy my (likenew) Iron and an pick it up tomorrow That should see £8.50 to the mortgage thanks to Gumtree!

Purse/wallet I was going to bin sold tonight on Fleabay for £12 so as soon as the buyer and I'll OP that too.

Making a hopeful £20.50 in sales today which isn't too shabby!

The Fleabay pile is slowly growing as we dig out some Electricals we had left at gf's parents: 2 old fitbits, a Walkman, a Bluetooth car speaker and some other odds and sods. Will try and make listings this week to post up on Thursday/fri for ten day listings. I must get this done as the clutter is piling up and annoying me somewhat. Gumtree seems like a good outlet so will pop some old IKEA mirrors (still in packaging) on and see how that goes

On the other side of the spectrum f and I have decided we need some froofy stuff in the house to make it more homely: some canvasses on the walls, picture frames etc so will try and find some nice ones cheaply. I'm tempted to try a car boot next weekend for a nose and see what we can find...will see if can entice gf with a sausage cob to sweeten the deal!

Kittenkirst

The eBay sales has been transferred- £11.68 after postage and fees, and I've transferred the Iron money of £8.50 and hoping the lady paid gf parents today!

Spendy day today as have gf's nephew over and took him bowling; £41 for two games for three people :O how expensive?!? He got a free ice lolly as it's Monday, we also treated him to a costa coffee hot choc

Instead of eating out, as he loves Italian food we got two chees pizzas, some chicken bite things and will do some fries and garlic bread alongside a tomato pasta bake for dinner for us and gf's parents this evening much more purse friendly and fun!

Will do totals for the month tomorrow afternoon; lots of eating out his month which we really need to improve on for next month and reduce down. No good scrimping elsewhere if we're going to then spend it in fancy restaurants!!

Kittenkirst

July round-up

Mortgage OP: £172.36
Savings increase: £555

Retirement increase: £19,650*

Retirement increase from finding an old existing pension pot
Mortgage OP bolstered by £70 from gf's change pot, eBay sales, gumtree sales, Pinecone surveys.

Mortgage against target for 2017 is now £1543 / £2150 so 71.8% of the way there.

The next few months will be quite tight as paying for cat flap fitting, kitchen wall tiling and a sofa bed as well as our standard outgoings.