Our Mortgage Free Journey

Ami-Rose

Thanks for all of your comments guys, I've been really overwhelmed with the move, work and health so not updating. To answer questions:
- we relied on the bank survey so no one to sue. Literally everyone we asked said not to bother. Another lesson in trusting our gut, because we were going to until so many people said otherwise. 
- part of the contract is that you've inspected the property and agree to purchase 'as is', so no recourse there. I did ask! 

The wait for the roof to be fixed was initially 5-6 weeks, but the roofer had a cancellation last minute so he's squeezing us in next week now. It's my 30th birthday tomorrow so my nan keeps joking that she's buying me a roof as my present! 😂

Other money bits... 
We officially returned the keys to the flat on Sunday and got most of the deposit back (£495). Little is an enthusiastic dish 'washer' so there was some water damage to the cupboard doors below the sink. The money is already back in our account so I'm impressed with the speed it was done! 

We are due £200 cashback from the mortgage and I'm told the cheque for that is being raised today. 

No overpayment planned with this money as we are desperate for curtains! The previous owners left blinds in every room except the kitchen so we didn't prioritise them, but this house is so cold! Doesn't help that temperatures here aren't going above freezing all week. Wish I was exaggerating! So curtains to save our gas bill and then living room furniture with any leftovers. 

To soothe the OP itch we have decided to round our monthly payment up to £450 (from £436) so that small progress is always made and we can work up to big progress.

In non-money news... 
Still waiting for a surgery date to come through, but current medication has me functioning again, mostly! Still tired all the time and can't do anything too energetic, but I can cope with Little by myself again and that's the important thing.

Speaking of Little, she's becoming a chatterbox! Parroting everything we say and loves naming things she knows. Current obsession: toes! The other day I had a proud MSE moment when I put her in a dress from when she was 5 months old and it fit perfectly as a jumper. 😂 Attached a comparison a year apart for your enjoyment. 

South_coast

Excellent work - I think I prefer it as a jumper 👍!

Grogged

Such a sweetie!
We do the same with our standard mortgage payment, with that round up and the Monday TTs, our requires no thought OP is around £50 a month.
Curtains sounds like an excellent toasty investment.

caeler

I like the jumper outfit too! 

First thing I did in my place was sort curtains, Dunelm came through for me, it was during one of their sales and most of the curtains I brought so cheaply 8 years ago are still up!  I’ve gone through several pairs in the living room (each old pair being given away to friends or family!) but I’m on my 3rd pair and I quite like these ones, thermal and black out. Perfect! 

Ami-Rose

Happy Valentine's everyone! I was very MSE and wrote my husband a little poem as a gift. It was only a silly one that popped into my head at 2am, we don't really 'do' V Day!

I'm probably going to look at Dunelm too @caeler, we've had some good ones from them before. Probably won't bother with blackout as I don't like it too dark (I'm an odd one, I know!) but thermal will be a must in every room. Not only are we in a bloody cold area as it is, we're only 1 mile from the coast so it's pretty blustery too!

Spent a small fortune on Little this weekend, but we got the bulk of her recent clothes free from a pass it on group so her savings pot had filled up quite nicely. Plus her great nan wanted to pay for some of it to make up for not getting to see her, which was lovely of her. The free clothes must have been bought for summer as it's mostly leggings and tops. We're constantly doing tights and leggings just to keep her warm! So I focused on thicker joggers and jumpers etc plus a few plain long sleeve tops for base layers. I got it all in 9-12 since she's had a growth spurt, but it's all too big so she'll have to grow into it. 😂

Also pleased because I ordered her a new sleeping bag and the zip broke on one of hers last night. She has 2 to rotate, but they're different brands so the one that just broke was getting too short for her. I'm a little bit annoyed because I thought we had a couple of weeks left in it, but it was good timing really. The new one should arrive any day now.

And last but definitely not least, we have internet! I don't even remember if I documented our many, MANY issues trying to move EE to the new house, but after 4 failed attempts and the prospect of almost 3 weeks without internet, we told them to do one and switched to Virgin. Faster speed and a lower bill anyway! Plus a small refund which we weren't expecting - I was just glad they didn't try to charge us an exit fee, so this was a bonus.

Grogged

Perhaps you should have ordered sleeping bags for everyone! 😁
Broadband seems to be a thing this weekend, just swapped ours too.

Ami-Rose

Back in for a check in. Our month was almost too long for our money after a bunch of expenses. Payday was the 26th and I think we had about £15 left to our name in household money! The EF hasn't been empty in years. It was a combination of moving expenses, overspending on takeaways as we recovered from moving and got the food shops back in order and purchasing some much needed furniture for the living room. I was reassured by the realisation that in a pinch we have £1600 worth of overdrafts between us that are never, ever used, so we wouldn't starve if we were in that situation again.

Rather than do curtains for every room, we've decided to finish a room at a time. It just feels better mentally to actually make progress. So we've bought curtains, pole and tie backs for the living room (£120!) plus a TV stand and two end tables for either end of the sofa. Decided to forgo a coffee table because hours of searching still ended in disappointment and I gave up. 😂

Previous owner had bodged the curtain pole fixings so when we went to fit them yesterday we ended up with a massive hole in the wall instead. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Many video calls to Dad and some polyfilla later, we're going to try again next weekend. The furniture isn't being delivered until the 15th anyway so we're hoping to have a completed living room by the end of March.

Bathroom is next on the agenda because it feels like a quick win. It was recently redone, so we really only need some extra storage (£20 from Argos) and new towels. Ours aren't that old (almost 5 years) but were used as floor protection for a number of jobs before moving and have seen better days already. They will be kept for cleaning rags, in the garage etc. Haven't decided on new ones yet, but want to invest in good quality ones that will last this time. Any suggestions?

Also got a cheque for £300 cashback from the mortgage which is more than we were told it would be so that was a good surprise! Waiting on that to clear. It'll either go towards the towels or bolster the EF for now. We managed to put £645 into the furniture/EF pot thanks to working my absolute butt off in Feb to get a project finished. We're keeping £450 as untouchable so our mortgage payment is covered minimum in case of job loss etc. We'll increase the untouchable amount each month as we keep adding to it. It might sound complicated, but it makes sense in my head. 😂 Ideally we'd pause on purchases until EF was at least 1 month income, but we really are in dire need of furniture. We're still living out of boxes a month in because we don't have enough storage.

Phew, think I'm going to have to check in more often, that's a lot in one go and I probably forgot stuff too. 😂

FtbDreaming

You’re doing really well! I deffo think one room at a time is more doable! And you’ve got a little one so I’d leave the coffee table for now anyway as they’re just obstacles for bumped heads! My youngest is 7 so I’m ready for one now but not buying new stuff until I do the house starting top to bottom so livingroom is the very last one unfortunately! 

I can’t wait to get a new bathroom and towels! I remember buying towels when I was 17 (I’m 33) and had lots of hand me downs since so although I have a big stick they’re all old and mismatched! 

Sounds like a plan to ha e the untouchable fund! Mines slowly working towards £1000 but that’s gonna take all year. Xxx

Ami-Rose

FtbDreaming said:

You’re doing really well! I deffo think one room at a time is more doable! And you’ve got a little one so I’d leave the coffee table for now anyway as they’re just obstacles for bumped heads! My youngest is 7 so I’m ready for one now but not buying new stuff until I do the house starting top to bottom so livingroom is the very last one unfortunately! 

I can’t wait to get a new bathroom and towels! I remember buying towels when I was 17 (I’m 33) and had lots of hand me downs since so although I have a big stick they’re all old and mismatched! 

Sounds like a plan to ha e the untouchable fund! Mines slowly working towards £1000 but that’s gonna take all year. Xxx

We do have a coffee table from our old flat, but it's the IKEA lack and is too small now we're in a bigger room. We're actually making it into the art/snack time table as it's the perfect height for Little to sit at! Ironically she's never bumped into the table but manages to trip over air everywhere else. 😂

Yesss! I've had so many hand-me-down items (oddly not towels) and even though that's lovely and money saving, sometimes you just want to choose your own things! Good luck with sorting the house and getting things as you want them. 😊

Ami-Rose

Oh, definitely forgot something, haha! OH got the promotion at work. So proud! 😍 He's going to try to negotiate better pay, but currently it's an extra £180-200/month so that will definitely add breathing room to the budget. 😊 He's jumping two levels, so definitely think he could argue for more. It's hard to know what's 'fair/average' because most stats are UK and NI tends to be a bit lower.