Twenty-something's aim to be mortgage free

wh_em

Hi all

Two updates in one week, it's almost like lockdown is back! Just squeezing in a quick one as nobody has arrived in the office yet.

It's my last day today, officially last day is tomorrow but my lovely boss has said that we should all "work from home" tomorrow, wink wink nudge nudge. So that's nice. A 3 day weekend before I restart my old job. I've been told that if I need to come in for work next week I have to get a covid test then go home and wait for the results, little bit annoying because to get to work it takes an hour, so I'd have to do a 2 hour round trip just for 3 minutes of my time! Trying to weigh up if I really need to go into the "office" or if I can just start straight from home.

Getting new job nerves again about it next week. I was only on that job for 3 weeks before covid struck so it feels like a new start all over again. I'm sure I'll fit right back into it after 2 weeks but a new job wouldn't be the same if I didn't doubt myself for 48 hours before the start time!

I've decided to try harder with making social plans. I'm very guilty of waiting for somebody else to "make the first move" when it comes to friendships, so I've been messaging a couple of my friends to see if they want to come and stay with us/come over for a drink. In addition, I've made a new internet friend who I've exchanged numbers with and we should hopefully meet up in the coming weeks. Don't worry, I'm a seasoned pro when it comes to meeting people from online in person! I met Mrs wh_em on Tinder and have made several friends through forums since the age of 14! I just find it much easier to get to know somebody through a screen before meeting them in real life.

It's so hard to make new friends outside of work/as an adult but I feel like I just need to take some risks with it and get outside my comfort zone. 

Have a good one

wh_em

Hi all
Payday today! £100 to my LISA and then the rest to various other categories, including my work expenses category - on Sunday night I bought a £300 height adjustable desk!! I had been thinking abut it for a while but if I'm going to be spending at least a year working from home I needed something better than what I'm currently on.
The top to the desk has arrived and is waiting patiently in the hallway, the legs/motorised part should be arriving within the hour - can't wait!

Second day of my old job. Yesterday I went into work and caught up with a few people, now I'm back home again and trying to get into the swing of things. I do love working from home, it's so nice that when you find you've done all your work you can potter about the house and don't have to pretend to be working like you do when you're in the office! I'm sure in a month or so it'll be manic and there will be no pottering to be had!

This month marks a whole year since we had our offer accepted on our flat. I can't believe how fast its gone and how much life has changed since then. I remember the day I emailed to make the offer, the estate agent hadn't replied by 11am and we were losing our minds! I called up instead and it turns out our usual guy was off that day so our email hadn't been picked up! The offer was put to the seller a bit later and she accepted it within the hour. Which now on reflection makes me think that our offer was probably too high, but we LOVE(D) this place so much there was no way we were letting it go.

Here's to several more months and years in our beautiful home

Have a good one

wh_em

Aims for Dec 2020/April 2021
1. Emergency fund -   £2000/£4000 No change
2. Mortgage OPs - £152.53/£1000 No change 
3. Family member loan - £600/£1000 No change
4. Mrs wh_em loan - £251.49/£7500 No change
5. LISA contributions -  £815.02 £915.02/£4000 

ruby_eskimo

Good to hear you're getting back into the swing of old/new job and a standing desk is the dream!  I keep joking with DH that we should get a treadmill desk as he keeps complaining that he needs to walk more but the weather isn't good enough.  Happy offer anniversary too - we had a similar thing with our house when we made the offer, they forgot to call us back to tell us that the owner had accepted

wh_em

Hi all,
Happy bank holiday!

Our beloved family cat passed away on Friday, he was 21 years old. He was my grandparents' cat for 13 years (they got him at about a year old) and on my grandad's deathbed he asked my parents to take care of him. We had him for 7 more years before he finally passed and he brought us so much joy and laughter over the years. Not only that, but each of us (my brother, my parents and I) had our own troubles to deal with during that time and that cat was there for every single one of us. In the darkest of days when that cat sat on my lap he made me feel special and loved even when I wasn't sure I was worthy of it.

He was the last connection we had to our wonderful grandparents/my mum's parents and it was lovely imagining them looking down on him and seeing us all together. I hope he knew how happy he made us and I hope he felt our love every day.

I was going to add some financial stuff to this post but I'm afraid I'm just too upset today

Have a good one

Competsoph

Sending you hugs @wh_em

ruby_eskimo

Oh I'm so sorry to hear that wh_em, it's never easy losing a pet but especially hard when one has woven through your family like that.  Sending hugs your way too.

wh_em

@Competsoph & @ruby_eskimo thank you both x

Competsoph

I’m still not over the death of my beautiful African Pygmy hedgehog Henry! I thought of finally getting rid of his old things the other day but I’m still not ready. I’m desperate for a pet when we move, I think they really help with mood and my mental health right now would really appreciate a fluffy character! I really do understand how you are feeling, be kind to yourself. Things do get less raw. xx

wh_em

Hi all, 
Haven't updated in a little while. Feeling better about the loss of our cat, but it still makes me sad whenever I think about him - he was such a good boy.

Trying to think of what has changed since I last posted. I've been working from home for the last 3 weeks which is loooovely. Just not having to do the commute is fantastic and if I have a spare moment I just empty the dishwasher, or put a laundry load on. I really hope that this will be a permanent fixture in my life.

No mortgage overpayments being made right now because I'm trying to max out my LISA - since that's got more of a deadline on it! I've been trying to put away about 25% of my take home each week and as of last week I've been contributing 15% to my pension. Annoyingly my work only put in 3% which is abysmal, but better than nothing!

Quite enjoying my gardening at the moment, every weekend I go out and fill one whole bucket with weeds and whatever else looks untidy. It helps break it down and makes me feel less overwhelmed. We've got 3 different gardens and a patio area so there's a surprising amount of upkeep. Two of the gardens are out the front so I'm determined to get them looking pretty so they don't bring down the rest of the street 

Have a good one, will post a financial update below