SLLM (Single Lady Large Mortgage)

Sistergold

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan, yes the balance has moved down and I am thankful. 

Sistergold

Hello ladies 
I hope you have all been very productive? I have had some lazy days but also a few productive days. This whole year I have not really done much in the area of diy but I think I have made good progress in the area of decluttering. I have been getting motivated by @LadyWithAPlan’s decluttering and have also been watching some YouTube posts on decluttering to motivate myself. I must say I have made a dent this year and although I am not yet where I want to be I have made good progress. One thing I have really held on to is that it’s no good getting rid of stuff if you are going to buy or bring in more stuff. So in the spirit of reducing my stuff overall I have managed to over the years/months reduced unnecessary shopping. When I do shop I will get rid of much more than I have brought in as a rule now BUT shopping is truly at a minimal. Two weeks ago I got rid of a car load. Another thing that has helped I have been not combining decluttering with organising as such. I find if I try to do both I get side tracked. So when I decide to declutter all I do is look at what to get rid of without creating a big mess, I then clean on a different day in my normal routine of cleaning. So after decluttering even if the house seems messy I might decide to not clean unless I still have the energy to do so. Previously when I would declutter it will lead to a BIG clean aswell which will lead me into not decluttering if I don’t have time for both. 

 Yesterday and today I have been through my wardrobe, my youngest son’s wardrobe, the loft, lounge book shelf, parts of garage and I must say I have LOADS, to get rid of! Progressively my clutter has reduced so much so that tidying up and cleaning is getting easier. Before if someone says they are coming I will be in a panic but two weeks ago my sister sent me a message that she needed to come to London next day and I did not even see the message till late. Previously I would have been in a panic but this last time I just relaxed and did not lift a finger to clean the house for next day. The only room that was really in a state was my bedroom as I had taken stuff out to start sorting and for that reason I made her sleep on the Sofabed in the lounge. Normally when she comes she sleeps in my bedroom but this time I told myself no way! I did not want to start panicking and sorting my bedroom and I did not want to derail the decluttering I had started and since she had not given me notice? 🤷‍♀️ anyway I was pleased that I now have my act together in general! 

So all in all this weekend was very good! The house is getting lighter by the month! 

The other week I ordered a mattress for my youngest son. All along he has been using a single bed. He is now really tall and I feel he needs to “graduate” to a bigger bed. When I have mentioned it he has said he does not mind the single bed but I just feel it was high time as everyone else sleeps on a double or king size bed. So I ordered a large single which is 108cm as he is in the smaller bedroom. His bedroom is still a double bedroom but he does like to keep his keyboard and stuff in his room. I felt if I ordered the mattress it will force or motivate me to make his bed frame which I have been postponing all year using the constant rains as my main excuse but no more. The mattress was delivered on Tuesday and is stored against a wall making it urgent for me to now make the bed frame. So on Saturday I started on the wide single bed frame and will press on as fast as the weather will permit. My hands will be full for a while. 

How have you all been doing? Has the weather been permitting you to do your desired projects? Have a lovely week! 🌺🥰 

LadyWithAPlan

I also need pressure to start a new big project so well done in making yourself - metal frame here we come Very impressive and I bet your kids love saying 'my mum is a welder'

I am looking at all my makeup - I also win some on occasion and get gifted some at beauty shows etc such as stylist live and there is too much  of it though its small/.. so much that I really dont intend to buy any til its gone thru with mascara exceptions...  so in decluttering we all re-think about what else we bringing in the house..

Your decluttering tactics make a lot of sense! I am trying the few things a day a la minimalist game so it does not cause that much chaos - though I have started pulling out some unworn shoes to either pop on vinted if never worn  or CS them and the pile is growing ... I have not counted them as part of my clutter though yet - will be satisfying when I can
- However when I tackle the huge and 9ft tall hall cupboard .. stacked with stuff ....argh ....  there will be a lot of mess - as cant pull it out in bits ..might have to save it for Nov 30 as will definitely find 30 things in there to declutter

Sistergold

Yes @LadyWithAPlan, the declutter “game” you are playing is really good as it’s a build up until the end of each month. 30 items from the hall cupboard will definitely be a win! 

Friday1989

Hi all, good to see you're all still chipping away and make good progress. I'm still doing a regular monthly overpayment and the numbers are becoming slightly less daunting. I'll get a pay rise in February so I think that should be £100 extra a month after tax, student loan etc. 

There's been a few fairly small expenses (guttering replaced etc) but the next big spend will be a new bathroom. I'm dreading how much that's going to cost in London. I'm possibly considering moving the toilet which I gather can really hike up prices. The bathroom definitely needs to be done. It really let's down the flat in its current state and I would like a nice bathroom!

Christmas is fast approaching. I've got no idea what to get anyone and I hate shopping! How are everyone's Christmas plans coming along?

Sistergold

Congratulations on the promotion! 🥳🌺🎂 @Friday1989, and well a new bathroom is always nice! Mmm Christmas I have always found the issue of presents too stressful. For the children I always tell them my budget and they send me a list. Past few years I have started just giving them the money. Honestly I hate getting or looking for gifts, my life is too hectic enough to add Christmas frenzy into it. They also tell me what they want to spend and I give them a list. If they don’t want to ask what I want they know it can be either bath bombs or candles. Anything else there is a risk it will eventually be given away or thrown away as now I am not keeping anything I don’t use as that’s clutter. 🫣. Family? I just don’t buy ANYBODY anything and I made it clear I don’t want or need anything. I have made it clear if I feel they need something and I want to get it for them I will not wait for Christmas and they should also not wait for Christmas if they want to get me something. I just want to enjoy Christmas as is without the hype! 

Well done on the regular OPs @Friday1989 nice to hear that the mortgage balance is going down! X

Friday1989

@Sistergold I imagine we'd get on in real life    I'm not quite brave enough to say I'm not buying or receiving presents to family but I am definitely saying tell me what you want. I am quite a practical person so I often get people practical things they said they needed. It did not go down well when I got my mum a pan and a potato peeler for her 40th   

It's not really a promotion, just hitting the next increment on the pay scale. The next one after this isn't for three years  I can't complain though. I earn a decent amount and have a lot of freedom in terms of light touch management, unofficial very flexitime (if I wasn't good at my job, I'd have been fired from every single one for my extreme lateness, but I always work my hours) and pretty much anything I want to do that is good for the service I can do. I'm very easily bored so being able to just say "hey, I want to do this. Is that cool?" and knowing it's going to be a yes is great. 

Sistergold

@Friday1989, pan and potato peeler! lol but you see I would rather I got that kind of present than something I will not use. You are right it takes a lot to get to the point where you are not under pressure for gifts. It’s good that you are happy with your working conditions and the money you earn. Nothing worse than an overly controlled work schedule. 

Sistergold

Dear friends 
How are you all doing? And the houses hope they are standing strong in these persistent rains?. Was just watching the news and was it in the Isle of Wight where it has rained so much such that there was a land/mud slide and some houses are now on the edge of falling off? Families have been evacuated and still the rains continue? My heart and prayers go out to them. 

Mortgage payment went out today together with the small OP of £50, 🥴 but well every little helps. I will post the new balance tomorrow as it takes 25hrs for payment to reflect. 

KITCHEN RUMBLINGS

Just wanted to update on the kitchen items I fitted and how I have found using them. 

1.  The two drawer fisher & paykel dishwasher is living up to expectations as I wanted to be able to do small loads at a time so as not to need to fill up whole dishwasher before a wash. This system has been very convenient as we do not need to go through many plates and cutlery before a wash. The only downside is it limits the size of dishes that can actually go in so if the dinner plates are quite large they will not fit. I had to get rid of a few plates but luckily my preferred/majority size of dinner plate does fit. Don’t get me wrong the size is fine but I can only have a dinner plate of not more than Xcm. The top drawer is slightly higher so can have slightly bigger items. Enough rumbling, for an active family having 2 drawers gives the convenience as if you are washing as you go and you don’t need to start fishing out an item from a half full dishwasher in between washes. 

2. Inn0centi 80cm extractor hood.

This was a HUGE disappointment and regretted it the longer I had it. Even with washing the mesh filter weekly, oil will always drip down the bottom of that glass front there. If frying a steak smoke will fill the kitchen and house if kitchen door is not closed. This canopy was supposed to be quite powerful according to the specs.  Also at the top of the canopy there was a carbon filter which had to be replaced every 12 months. I tried to order it and it was always out of stock and it seemed to be an item which will cost over a £100! Due to the constant out of stock and the potential high replacement cost and the fact that I did not find the functionality good I decided to ditch the canopy altogether. I then had one custom made by a metal worker as I now wanted a commercial type one which will also vent outside rather than recirculating. All commercial ones started at 90cm and my gap was 87 as I had initially only planned for 80cm canopy.

so if you can I would say avoid a recirculating extraction system. Also check the costs of the replacement filters before committing to any system. 

3. The new cooker hood extractor is the type below. 

I then also had some stainless steel mesh filters made of the type below

I had the extraction system changed in September and so far so good. It was expensive as its custom size but I have no regrets. As I paid extra for the stainless steel mesh filter I can wash them in the dishwasher. I also had two sets made so I don’t have to wait while washing I can just swap. 

The canopy was £1500 including fitting out through the wall and roof. I then had 2 sets of filters made elsewhere and that was an extra ££280. Each set of filters has 2 so they can fit into the dishwasher. The extraction pipe goes from the kitchen into the garage then out through garage roof. The pump is on top of the roof but it does not make any noise as I chose an inline pump. It costed quite a bit but the extraction is so good so much such that I cooked pumpkins the other day forgot about it and it completely burnt while I was sitting and reading in the kitchen and I never smelt a thing. With other extraction if I burnt something I will smell it all over the house! The good thing too is I will not need to be buying any replacement filters anymore so over the years it is more cost effective with this setup. Some of it is just the price you pay to make your house a home I guess? 

4. Del0ngi dual fuel cooker. This has also been very good. The only kind of down side has been although it’s a 5 plate cooker the oven walls are so thick such that the actual oven is slightly narrower than my old 4 plate cooker! Overall the oven size is still good. The ovens are also very powerful electric type. 

5. Whirlp00l combi microwave. This has been VERY good and I don’t miss the air fryer at all. This is huge as the airfryer is my most loved gadget to date but in the spirit of decluttering I could not have the stove which has 2 ovens, the combi microwave oven AND an airfryer. So I ditched the airfryer but was not sure if I will regret the move. NO REGRETS. 

6. Food macerator. Was really good choice. I chose the

It was quite expensive  at the time but it has been really good. It has been working very well and during summer I did not need to freeze my waste food inbtween bin collections as my food bin was at a minimal and only to do with a few bones. So I would recommend a macerator if one can afford. Only thing is it takes quite some space under the sink so less storage. I had the macerator fitted to the larger sink. To be honest I can not say I have regrets or any thoughts as to why I would need it fitted to the smaller bowl. My reasoning for fitting it to the larger bowl was that I always wash in the large bowl(on the left) and rinse my dishes in the smaller bowl(on the right), and the drying rack is on the right next to the smaller bowl. This is the order I decided right from start from left to right. Washing where where the macerator is means on draining the dirty water out of the bowl any food bits drain into macerator. 

While we are talking about under the sink I would definitely recommend fitting another shelf with cut out for plumbing. Having just one bottom shelf leads to a storage mess and waste of space under the sink! When I added a shelf I gained so much space so much such that all my food storage containers are stored on this shelf under the sink. On the bottom shelf is all my kitchen cleaning items, dishwasher/washing up liquids etc. 

7. Sink choice, if you remember I chose a 1.45sink so one and three quarter sink. I did wonder at the time whether to just stick with the medium single sink as one before, or go with a XL single bowl or double sink? The aguement at the time was  since I was installing a dishwasher maybe no need for a double sink? BUT I have actually enjoyed the double sink. When I roast in the oven once in a while I wonder if an XL single bowl would have been better so as to easily wash oven trays? All in all it’s not often I need to was the oven trays and I have adapted so I could not say no if I would choose a large single bowl but if I had a very large kitchen I would still want a double sink arrangement but maybe one bowl will be very large. I still would rather have two functional bowls even if on the smaller side. 

8. Freestanding floor cabinets have been a very good choice. I have had the plumber in and all I had to do was pull away the units. When the new extractor canopy needs to be fitted all I had to do was pull away the units. Just as a note I fitted 10cm diameter wheels. These have been good in that I can sweep/hoover underneath as it’s not all the time I want to pull the units. I must say though on the sink unit I fitted 12.5cm and they gave me a little extra space so I made floor storage drawer under the sink unit on little wheels.

9. Wall unit size. As a note I made the wall units 38cm which is the outside measurement and inside is 36cm usable space. This has been great for dinner plates and gives me loads of storage space. Also installing all the way to the ceiling I can not recommend that enough. Yes you can not reach up there without a ladder but for items you need but don’t need everyday it’s really useful gain of spaces. 

10. Floor units and countertop size. Thought I should comment on how I have found this. Remember I chose the breakfast countertop which is 70cm wide as the size for all my units. They are round edge on both sides which is nice. If your kitchen is wide enough for you to go with 70cm width instead of the usual 60cm countertops, I would not recommend this enough. It makes SO MUCH of a difference. The counters are more usable and the floor units have so much more storage. 

11. Washing machine in the garage. Mmm the only downside is that it’s in the garage so there is a downside that cloths have been left after a wash and it takes time to notice. This happens with the children that they wash and forget to go back and take out. The good thing is if you wash overnight there is no noise in the house, it freed up space for the dishwasher. I found it all a bit too much for an average size kitchen to accommodate both a dishwasher AND a washing machine? I have not found it too inconvenient to go out and into the garage, during winter it can be a bit mmm. Remember there are already so many appliances which need to be in the kitchen so whatever you can take out the better. Need space for fridge freezer, stove/oven, micro ave, dishwasher. The sink will also eat into the space. I would not bring the washing machine back in, I find the garage arrangement better use of space. 

12. Over the fridge unit.
I opted for a whole depth unit. As many would comment it’s not easy to access all the way to the back. I must say I have found the extra space useful as I use it to store light items. The over fridge cabinet is where I keep things I can keep in bags or containers. If items are in a bag or container you can pull forward for access. So I have been keeping toilets rolls and kitchen paper rolls as I buy that in bulk. I also keep the rolls in their original plastics. If I buy lose I will put them in a bin bag. I do keep a folding compact ladder in the kitchen for hard to reach places. 

Sistergold

Finally I managed to login after a bit of hustle. Just a mortgage update. Payment went out yesterday and new balance is 

Just looking at my initial mortgage offer my figures today after 4.5yrs are at year 13 so approximately I am 8yrs ahead of my mortgage payments. 

According to the same illustration I should finish paying in 9years using the illustrative balance. That feels like a good challenge for me to now see if I can finish paying this within the next 5 to 6 yrs. I am not sure if I can do this but I will try. If all goes well I hope to throw in another £100k when this deal ends in 1.5yrs. Will be saving like mad!