Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Ok. Savings all in premium bonds - they'll go into the draw at the start of March.

Mortgage DD increased too, which has taken 22 months off the term, and saved us £5k in interest. Woo hoo! End date now Feb 2033 (down from Feb 2043 originally). I am delighted We've not been here 3 years yet, and have already knocked 10 years off the 25 year term.

My aim is to get the end date before my 50th birthday (early 2030) - that will also be the year Mr Cheery claims the state pension so our options at that stage (eg for me giving up work...) should increase! Hooray!

Ooh, and in other excellent financial news, I opened the car insurance renewal letter - premium for both cars together is within £1 of last year's, ant a smidge under £400. That'll do for me - I'l going to save myself the hateful job of comparing car insurance this year, and focus on sorting out the regular savers instead. Hooray!

Fortune_Smiles

Well done Cheery - 10 years is amazing!

Fortune x

Baileys_Babe

Lots to be cheery about today. I probably wouldn't have bothered about comparing the car insurance, just think of the savings in time.
Clearing the mortgage before your 50th would be a great present to yourself.

Tescodealqueen

That's a good day Cheery

rtandon27

Ten years off the term is amazing progress Cheery!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks all! I'm particularly pleased as it's mostly been dribs and drabs that we've thrown at it - we didn't use any of Mr Cheery's pension lump sum for example (that's now mostly in premium bonds!) I think the most we've done in one go was £2000 for the electricity wayleave thing. Of course, grateful and fortunate as always to be in this position.

Right, work finished for the day, counselling session done (felt like a bit of a fraud this evening as I was pretty cheerful ) and now I think we need to get our wellies on and go out for a walk... and then tea! 

What to have for tea?! Didn't plan for lunch and ended up having porridge - not ideal. Will try to make enough tonight to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow...  

Cheery_Daff

Obviously £2000 isn't a drib or a drab I mean most of our over payments have been a couple of hundred here and there, not a £20k lump. Don't want to give the impression that I think a couple of thousand is loose change because I absolutely do NOT!!

Baileys_Babe

Cheery_Daff said:

Obviously £2000 isn't a drib or a drab I mean most of our over payments have been a couple of hundred here and there, not a £20k lump. Don't want to give the impression that I think a couple of thousand is loose change because I absolutely do NOT!!

Us regular readers know what you meant 😃

Karmacat

Exactly, as Bailey's Babe says, we know what you mean and it's *fantastic* news Cheery, well done to both of you.  The big one is the ten years of the mortgage of course, but you've got a lot of other accomplishments today too.  Just imagine if a big premium bond payout happens  

Cheery_Daff

Karmacat said:

Exactly, as Bailey's Babe says, we know what you mean and it's *fantastic* news Cheery, well done to both of you.  The big one is the ten years of the mortgage of course, but you've got a lot of other accomplishments today too.  Just imagine if a big premium bond payout happens  

I confess I have spent some time over the last couple of days daydreaming about just what that would be like Got to happen to somebody, right?? 

In the meantime Mr Cheery has done his tax return and is apparently owed £78 No idea why, he did claim his pension at the tail end of the last tax year so perhaps they took some off that, then decided they shouldn't have? Or maybe they calculated the married persons tax allowance wrong? Or something t do with NI contributions? Who knows. 

Anyway, when it arrives, that'll be sent off the mortgage too.