Quest for (mortgage) freedom

eat_that_frog

Thanks! Yeah it definitely is motivating seeing the figure go down. And this diary is helping to keep me focused on the bigger picture of getting the mortgage down as quickly as I can.

I spent some money today on some finishing touches for the house, around £100. We've been in it for around  18 months now, and it's starting to really feel like home. We absolutely loved our previous home but it was in the middle of a big city and we wanted to be in the country as we're outdoorsy people. So we moved Feb 2019 and it did take some time to settle in. Not helped I think by the fact that we absolutely loved our last house inspite of the really noisy and busy location, so there was an adjustment period where we sought to make the new house more 'ours'. If we could have just picked up our old house and plonked it in a rural location, we'd have been happy. In fact for the first few months after moving into our new home we asked ourselves 'what have we done?!' but fortunately those feelings went once we got stuck into doing the place up and making it really ours.

On a different note I also bought some cheap cider at the weekend, we're not drinkers but we have a large pear tree in the garden so I'm going to harvest the pears this week (once the wind stops...), make mulled pears (River Cottage recipe I'm using) and give them in jars to people for Christmas presents.

So it's been an expensive week so far but my purchases make the house feel just that little bit more 'finished' and will make Christmas a bit cheaper in the long run!

More expenditure coming this week: car insurance needs doing, we found a better rate than the one quoted by our current supplier, but that'll be another £280 out of the account. Also having a vent put in the bottom of our chimney as the previous owners blocked it up without venting it and there's now moisture inside it, it needs ventilation.

eat_that_frog

Well...on top of the car insurance, it's also now house insurance renewal time! Found the best quote we could online but still a good c.£250 or so out of our pockets. What a month for outgoings 

Hmmm I think September's overpayment will be quite a bit lower than previous months.

eat_that_frog

Well I still haven't made an overpayment this month. We've been hit by another couple of bills this month: chimney needed sweeping, and needed handyman round to do a couple of things. Not ideal but done now (and paid for).

On a different topic, I'm making mulled pears for Xmas presents for people this year. We have a huge pear tree out in the front garden, loads of fruit on it, and I've started picking them off and making the mulled pears with cider and spices. It looks really good in the jars for presents. I also have a crab apple tree in the garden, looking at making whisky crab apples for presents too. I have loads of old jam jars and loads of whisky in the cupboard that I'll never get through (husband and I aren't really drinkers to be honest). 

Otherwise I think it looks like we'll be battening down the hatches over the coming weeks, what with everything that's going on. I've really enjoyed being able to see people (at a social distance of course) outside over the summer, it's a shame the weather's turned now and the new rules on who we can and can't see etc.

ruby_eskimo

Mulled pears and whiskey apples sound amazing.  I always want to make gifts for Christmas but never find time to get round to it.  Might actually achieve it this year though!

eat_that_frog

We've had a frustrating month with things needing repairing at home and then the car needed work done to it too to get it through its MOT. But finally we are at the end (I hope!), all bills paid for the month, and have been able to overpay £1000 today. Total left on mortgage now is just over £232k. So close now to being in the £220k range, it's very motivating.

It's looking challenging now to meet my target of £10k of overpayments by end of December this year since I set myself the goal in July. It was always going to be a stretch, but even if I only get to £8k overpaid by end of December I'll be pleased.

I live in Wales so we're going into lockdown on Friday for 17 days. Not sure how I feel about it to be honest. But from a money saving perspective, lockdown will help with the no spend days, that's for sure. Going to miss seeing my family, but I have to keep reminding myself that it won't be forever. 

Hope anyone reading this is keeping well and safe.

eat_that_frog

It's my 5th NSD in a row today. Welsh lockdown has helped the no-spending situation as I can't go out and spend anything anyway hmmm...

My target is 20 no-spend days in a row (up to and including Mon 9th November)    

The weather hasn't been great here recently so getting outside is hard unfortunately but we are managing to get out for 1 walk a day between rain showers to blow away the cobwebs and for a change of scenery. Even though it feels like yesterday I'd forgotten since March/April/May time how hard it is to be on lockdown.

caeler

Well done for trying to find the silver lining with lockdown. It’s so important we try to find the positive. 

rugbymadfamily

Great start to the diary @eat_that_frog! Some fantastic OPs. With you on the large mortgage and just every little tick over into the next thousand being a cause for cheer! Best of luck and look forward to hearing more about how you get on 😊 

ruby_eskimo

Hope you're coping ok with the enhanced lockdown in Wales - best to focus on the positives that you can now hopefully increase the OP's with every little bit you manage to save.

eat_that_frog

Thanks all! Hope you're all doing ok where you are too.

Yeah remaining positive can be hard and I have to keep consciously reminding myself to maintain that attitude! Since lockdown went into force on Friday evening it's pretty much rained non-stop which has not helped as we absolutely love being outdoors. 

It's my 7th NSD in a row today, absolutely no temptation to spend anything as there's nowhere open to tempt me. We live in a tiny (albeit lovely) village on the Welsh/English border so there's no temptation for miles, quite literally! Plus I'm not a fan of internet shopping so that definitely helps with my account balance too.

I did however pick loads of crab apples off the tree in the front garden this morning (I got absolutely drenched!) and I've got some fresh root ginger in the fridge that needs using up, I'm going to make crab apple and ginger jam with it later 

I made the mulled pears last month- pears from the garden, cheap cider, sugar, some cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. They taste pretty good for a first attempt, and have got 3 full jars leftover for Christmas presents this year.

I also think we might have sloes in the back garden hedge and would love to make some sloe gin as my next lockdown project but I'm not 100% convinced they are sloes. Need to check.