Mortgage free ASAP

South_coast

All looking good - fingers crossed you get the valuation back soon 🤞

bubblycrazy

Thanks SC, I feel as though things are in limbo until then. 

Had a productive cleaning day today, the windows and sills are gleaming! Now just to continue the motivation through to the following day for some consistency  

Jobs for tomorrow:
Mop floors
Clean fish tank
Clean bathroom 
I'm hoping I may actually do them if I put them on here  

bubblycrazy

bubblycrazy said:

Jobs for tomorrow:
Mop floors
Clean fish tank
Clean bathroom 
I'm hoping I may actually do them if I put them on here  

Well all jobs were done by 1pm yesterday. I haven't started todays jobs yet though, whoops!
All that needs doing is a load of washing and a quick hoover so it won't take long. Best get on with it I suppose 

bubblycrazy

Jobs done (hours ago - I haven't just finished now) - I'm feeling good about the cleanliness of the house this week, I don't say that too often! Tomorrow is a chore free day in my schedule so I'm going to focus on one area to declutter.
There's an end section of the kitchen bench which gets 'stuff' dumped on and then left forever more. It's become a bit of a blind spot so I think I may try and tackle that. I also have the same problem with the living room chair, I'll see which one looks most appealing in the morning!

bubblycrazy

My living room chair appears to be my decluttering nemesis. Still no news from the valuer! Not sure what to do, there's only so many ways you can ask for an update.

On Tuesday we had a leak downstairs after using the shower upstairs, waiting for a plumber to hopefully come out on Tuesday. In the meantime we're popping to my dads to use his shower.

My OH is off work for a week so we have a few things planned and will be spending on meals out.
We've been to OH parents this afternoon for lunch and are off to my dads for a chinese now. Yum! 

bubblycrazy

bubblycrazy said:

Pots at the end of May:
Presents - 180
Holidays - 1000
Car stuff - 410
Pet Ins - 120
Home Ins - 140
Clothes - 50
EF - 3000
Land Purchase - 2761.88
Wedding - 124.95 (Bits and pieces, parents are paying for the big stuff)
Mortgage OP's - 188.94 (no OP's until we find out the land purchase cost)

Mortgage at the end of May - 35208.07
S&S ISA - 2352.83

Pots at the end of June:
Presents - 150
Holidays - 1000
Car stuff - 410
Pet Ins - 120
Home Ins - 140  - This is due next month
Clothes - 50
EF - 3000
Land Purchase - 2833.37  - If it ever goes ahead!!
Wedding - 124.95  - We ordered our invitations this week
Mortgage OP's - 42.94  - Raided this to purchase 2 Elton John tickets, not sorry!

Mortgage at the end of June - 34897.40
S&S ISA - 2470.05

Last week was a spendy week with OH being off work, we ate out loads!
I'm still managing to keep on top of the cleaning which I'm really pleased about. Still desperately need to declutter, I have a pile of stuff in each room that needs sorting out. 
Our leak in the shower was fixed with a bit of sealant so that was a relief.

We've received an email from work discussing the possibility of us moving to a 52 week contract. There are pros and cons but probably more positives overall, it would be great to have a set income all year. Not holding my breath that it will happen though. 

bubblycrazy

We have finally heard from the valuer...to tell us that no we can't purchase the whole piece of land! (I didn't even want to purchase it all, only about half, but he said we would have to buy all or nothing).
He is now offering us a tiny section which is only as wide as our sitting room. I've asked him if we can have a bit more than that, let's see how long it takes to hear back this time!
Part of me is relieved they have said no to the full purchase as it would have cost a small fortune, and I nearly died when I realised how much it would be to fence it all!
At least now I don't need to save any more money towards it and we can start to OP the mortgage again 

Transferred £45.50 from quidco and £12.50 from Topcashback.

bubblycrazy

*Opens the curtains, blows off the dust and cobwebs*

Wow, long time since I updated this, yet the time has passed by so fast I can’t believe it was 3.5 years ago!

Quick catch-up of July 2021-December 2024:

I’ve now been married for 2.5 years! We had an amazing day, after a slight hiccup with a venue cancellation. Fortunately there was plenty of notice to sort a new one. We spent approximately £5000 all in. More than I’d wanted to spend but not too bad.

Our land purchase finally went through and we got our garden fence put up in March 2024!

I’m still in the same job, although I took a 12-month transfer to another department from May 2023-May 2024. I didn’t enjoy the change in hours or the change in role and am much more appreciative of my old job now. My contract still hasn’t changed, although I’ve been informed it will be happening as soon as it’s possible. Everyone who’s been hired since I last posted is on a 52-week contract though!

Our 5-year 1.74% mortgage fix ends on 31st March and I’d been contemplating paying it off. It would have wiped out most of our savings but my original pipe dream was to be mortgage free by my 40th and this would have made it possible.

Recent developments:

Unfortunately, my dad was unexpectedly taken into hospital in December and sadly passed away a week before Christmas. It’s been a very difficult few weeks. I switched to admin mode to get through Christmas, funeral arrangements, sorting probate, dealing with all his finances, and dealing with the estate agent as he was in the process of selling his home. Truly awful. Now that most admin stuff is sorted, I’ve been hit with the reality of the situation.

I’ve always been more of a lurker than a poster on the forum but hadn’t been on at all for about 6 months. I’ve just caught up on everyone’s bookmarked diaries and thought I’d update my own. I think I’ve returned partly as a bit of escapism, partly as my finances are an area I can have some control over, and partly as this is somewhere that’s always felt like home. I’ve had an account here for 15 years, although have been reading posts for much longer.

Fortunately, this awful situation does mean that we can stop weighing up the pros and cons of whether to use the majority of our savings to pay off the mortgage, as we’ll now be able to do this easily once my dad’s home is sold. I’d also been weighing up whether to stay at 4 days per week or drop down to 3. Now there’s a financial cushion, it’s an easy decision.

I’ll leave it there for now and will be back soon with an update on some personal goals.

beanielou

Sorry to hear about your dad. Take care of yourself. 

bubblycrazy

Thanks beanie

Had a very mixed few days. Was just about managing to juggle the plates and keep emotions in check, then the just eat guy decided a road closure was too much hassle for him and he cancelled my food! That was the final straw and I broke down. No one comes between me and my food. 

Looking ahead at the rest of the year, I have some personal goals I'm hoping to complete. I have a half drafted novel which I'd like the first draft fully done by the end of the year. Coming up to 40 has made me realise I can't keep procrastinating on this 10 year project any longer, now compounded further by what's happened with my dad. 

I have written words in sentences that rhyme before. Some call these poems, but, I would like them to be songs. I've never been able to make any music to go with them (I play guitar), so my goal this year is to compose a song.

The final goal is to sort out the house, particularly the spare room. It's a dumping ground for everything that doesn't have a home. 

Oh and we also desperately need roof insulation as the heat just escapes right out the top.  

Hope everyone has as good a week as they can.