Cottage Countdown

savingmore

hi leighofmar,  just finished reading your diary and subscribed.  I love your attitude and intentionality with all your small, and larger, overpayments and the difference it makes.  I have been mortgage free since 48, and it’s a fabulous feeling.  on the other end of the life scale and desperately squirrelling money into savings to retire in 26 months...so as much as possible going into pension and savings.  it’s at the whim of stock markets though with investments.  cash pot a good proportion of total and with no interest not worth putting anymore there.  I have £23,000 to go to get to my first mini goal, and if reach that before 26 months, i will save monies to try and retire earlier, so for every months bills i save I couldn’t go a month earlier. it’s good to have a focus and challenge! 

LeighofMar

Thanks for visiting savingmore. I couldn't agree more that it's wonderful to have a focus and a challenge. It gets the old brain cells firing and keeps us motivated. 

Today is payday. I paid the regular mortgage payment for May, so now I am paid up until June. This month is a 3-paycheck month, so I hope to pay June and July this month and then I will have my nice 3-month buffer again of mortgage payments. Balance is $31,295.00. All other pots were given attention to. Efund got its usual $16.00, house fund $100.00, and general savings $60. 50% of the medical insurance premium was set aside in savings. I'm having my groceries delivered right now and came under budget with that, mostly because we had excess from the previous 2 weeks. Work is going well if a bit hectic but trying to sort through all that now and always, always grateful that I work from home.

And speaking of which, I was upset as I received a jury summons in the mail. I didn't have a problem doing jury duty when I was healthy. But I was supposed to be on the exemption list after I was diagnosed with a chronic illness the last time 4 years ago and they had all my Dr's notes and documentation. And this year they wanted my affidavit notarized. It just angered me because it's like they already have my information and my Dr's note and I feel silly being too sick to get something notarized to tell you I'm too sick to serve. Chronic illness means chronic as in forever. The good thing is we have a client who's a notary who was able to do that for me, no problem. So I sent it along with my original Dr's note and told them to please put me on the exemption list again as chronic illness doesn't change or get better. Sheesh. 

But crazy government computer glitches or people not paying attention aside, my garden is coming to life so rapidly and beautifully. I have irises in bloom, my Japanese maple, and my lime green hydrangea all coming to life again plus daylilies and canna lilies coming back. I'm happy that even if have to be homebound at the moment while I fight through this mini flare, I have a beautiful place to call my own and enjoy it. Have a wonderful day all. 

savingmore

would love a picture of a lime green hydrangea, not sure I have ever seen one!

savingholmes

Garden sounds lovely 

LeighofMar

My limelight isn't blooming yet but here's what they look like in full bloom. Can't wait. 

savingmore

thank you so much for posting, I LOVE this, never seen one.  really, really love it.  will have a look to see if we can grow here in UK, or whether we even have them!

ElmoR

Gorgeous bush!

Watching you closing in on the $30Ks!

savingholmes

Looks lovely. You can get hydrangeas in the UK although this one seems a different shape to normal - which tend to look more like balls.

LeighofMar

This week is one yay and one boo. Yay, that we made it into the 30k bracket!! Hooray. Balance is $30,980.00. Boo that I just received an escrow shortage statement from the mortgager and as usual, prices on home insurance and property taxes keep going up, so it has adjusted my mortgage to $550.00 from $510.00. Not happy. I know to be grateful we can still afford it, but I hate when my plans change. So far, I have made June's mortgage payment so I hope to pay July, August, and September next month. Then I will have my nice 4-month buffer and the rest of the OPs can go straight to principal so I can try to really make progress on stamping this mortgage out once and for all. 

Other than that, all is well. Savings pots are growing. Today I felt good enough to visit the library for a few minutes. I'm hopeful that my health will start taking a turn for the better. I was also able to work out for 30 minutes, so feeling slightly stronger although I still get out of breath and tired easily if I push too hard. As soon as I make it back to remission, I want to get my eyes checked and my new glasses which I desperately need. Then I will probably start working on my back garden. The weather has been glorious. My front garden is so alive with colors and lights DH put for me in the front gate and a cute little sign we had made for our house. We named our cottage just for fun and had a sign made so I guess we're going full-on whimsical but I'm having fun and that's what counts. Hope Spring is being good to all of you. Have a wonderful week.

LeighofMar

I'm spamming with my garden photos because I've never grown anything in my life...as evidenced by the weeds and bald patches. Even so I'm so excited and darn proud of all the colors. These are the reasons I love being a homeowner and can't wait to be mortgage free!!