Minnie's Midden

savingholmes

Good luck with your journey. Fantastic news that you can walk again after having such a poor prognosis. Hope you manage to up your income again soon.

MinnieMidden

A slightly belated 1st December 2021 update:

Mortgage amount owed £219,626.60
Offset savings account £32,552.15

Back up to three lodgers with more viewings to come.  I am aiming for a total of five although DH is complaining that he is struggling to work round them.  He'll just have to get on with it, I reckon/recommend/propose!

I passed my medical and have returned to work, thankfully.  I have made myself available for overtime for the rest of this month, so my fingers are crossed that I pick up as much as possible.

@LadyWithAPlan yes, we all share the kitchen, dining room and lounge.  However, the lodgers only use the kitchen and the laundry, generally, and stay in their rooms when they are not out working or socialising.  

@savingholmes thank you for your kind words.

Here's to a Merry Christmas for all.

LadyWithAPlan

As long as it works for you.
I only briefly had one lodger who was on/off with her 2 + years ongoing partner (who never visited) so she spent far too much time crying and talking about how she wished he would change ... Ahem ... I was sympathetic but after a few months of  this cycle of him dumping her and her keep on crawling back and saying at his, the he'd re-affirm his lack of wanting a long erm relationship  I got very bored.

MinnieMidden

Happy Ne'er to you all and may it be a good one.

Here is my 1st January 2022 uodate:

Mortgage amount owed £184,367.16
Offset savings £0.51

The above figures are not the result of our agreed family plan.  DH and I went to view a house a few weeks ago and we were both quite impressed with it.  The only way that we would be able to purchase it would be on an interest only buy-to-let mortgage.  To raise the deposit and the stamp duty, we would have to get planning permission, in principle, for a piece of land we inherited a number of years ago, sell it and then come up with approximately another 70k.  So had I kept my hands off our offset savings account, we would still have had 34k in there.  Yesterday, being the last day of the year, was my last chance to make a lump sum payment to the mortgage from our 10% allowance.  I had made overpayments at the start of the year but then we emptied our offset savings in May/June time and remortgaged the house for additional capital, so that DH could buy a property that would be beneficial for his step-daughter.  I was against the idea then and my thinking has not changed.  I know him well enough to stand back and watch everything unfold as he attempts to work through all that is required.

Anyway, DH started looking at ways of gaining planning permission for two houses, rather than just one and I thought sod it, I'm going to stick 15k against that mortgage.  Then before midnight I worked out how much I would need to allow me to pay this years allowance.  I transferred practically all I had spare in my current account over to the offset and then after midnight paid off my 10% allowance for this year.  If the house we looked at is still on the market around July/August time then we will move forward to getting it surveyed and putting in an offer.  Meanwhile, I'll have to work as much overtime as I possibly can to replace the money in the offset that I have just emptied out.  I'm rubbish at keeping my own secrets and I'll eventually spill the beans about the money moving and he'll just say "I knew you'd do that" because he knows everything!  I don't want to risk our home by overstretching ourselves and sinking everything we have savings wise into buying another one.  The less we owe on this mortgage then the safer we will be.  DH still owns his own house and so if the worst came to the worst and I shuffled off this mortal coil he could sell his house to repay our current mortgage.  I still need to reduce our mortgage down to 150k and then it will be equivalent to the value of DH's house.

34k is the target to get back into the offset so frugality and overtime, along with the lodgers, will be the name of the game between now and July/August.  Here goes.

@LadyWithAPlan the lodgers can be challenging indeed.  Two of mine have moved on and DH keeps telling me I should have more patience.  I don't agree it was anything to do with patience so I suggested that if he was that bothered then they could move back in and I would move out.  Patience has not been mentioned since.  We have another gentleman who has come to live with us and he is very pleasant and there is another lady due to move in on Monday.  

Fortune_Smiles

Hi there MM.  Just de-lurking to say Happy New Year!

Fortune x

MinnieMidden

Happy Ne'er to you too @Fortune_Smiles

Minnie x

MinnieMidden

An additional update for the month due to the bank holiday.

Mortgage amount owed £183,306.90
Offset savings account £480.51

Swithering whether to reduce monthly mortgage payment amount or shorten term.  I dislike paying in excess of 1k each month (due to the remortgage) and much preferred when it was £767.  Knocks it down quicker at the higher amount though so I should probably just try to grin and bear it.

New lodger moved in yesterday and is very pleasant.  Now back to sleeping downstairs due to two rooms being unavailable because of the work being done (or not) on the heating and hot water.  At least the gas hob is now back up and running; one out of three ain't bad!

On a different note, I recently started taking turmeric and the aches in my bones have reduced quite dramatically.  Supposed to start on Denostumab next week which might just remove the bone pain altogether.

MinnieMidden

1st February 2022 update:

Mortgage amount owed - £182,648.73
Offset savings account - £4,269.45

I opted to reduce the monthly mortgage payment instead of shortening the term.  I've got a fair bit outstanding on credit cards to be paid and have been diverting cash towards those rather than the offset mortgage account.  If I can get them cleared by April I will be delighted.  Overtime has been decent since before Christmas which has helped a lot.  I was under assessment last week and discussed moving to a different role, with my manager.  The job I want would mean an increase in salary and would take me off shift work.  My fingers are crossed.

DH has been working on the Midden this week and the heating and hot water work is moving along nicely.  When complete, DH has agreed that we can purchase a bedroom carpet and get the room decorated.  We've lived here for more than three years and this will be the first carpet to be replaced.

Healthwise, the turmeric has been superb at alleviating my bone pain.  I also received my first injection of Denosumab which was painless and has no side effects.

I'm going to collect my oil paintings from the framers today.  I purchased the paintings 33 years ago from a lad that was going round all the offices selling his work.  This will be the first time ever that they will be hung and I'm looking forward to having them on display.  I ordered my curtains for the lounge yesterday and it will be approximately six weeks for them to be made.  I had hoped to have them before my friend arrives later this month, but it's not to be.  The windows have wooden shutters on them so it's not the worst thing in the world to be without any curtains.

Here's to February.

MM

MinnieMidden

March 2022 update

Extremely concerned about the war in Ukraine and worried about the nuclear threat.  Mad Vlad, I suspect, will have no hesitation whatsoever about pushing the nuclear detonation button and which country will be his first target?  How many more days, yes days, will it be before Europe has no option but to enter the fray?

On the radiation front, I had another large blast of it on my spine yesterday.  It was my day off and I returned to work today.  The side effects came on quickly and passed after only a few hours, thankfully.  I didn't have time to queue outside the chemist for anti emetics today, but fortunately I have not had to endure any sickness. 

On the mortgage front, figures are as follows:

Mortgage amount owed:  £180,011.84
Offset savings account:  £5,000.00

My friend and her daughter came and stayed with us for a few days this month and it was lovely to see and spend time with them.  We went to see Bedknobs and Broomsticks in the theatre, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.  

Lets pray for an end to the war and all the death that comes with it.

MM

 

MinnieMidden

A late 1st April update from me...

Firstly, thanks to all the people who have gone out to The Ukraine to help.  Praying for a resolution to stop that war.

Mortgage stuff
Mortgage amount owed:  £172,341.80
Offset savings account:  £5,000.00

Monthly highlights
My friend moved to a new job after working for the same employer for over 20 years.  I am delighted for her as her new employers have an excellent reputation for treating their staff well.
DH and I had a lovely afternoon out in Betws-y-Coed and they have an iron bridge over the river Conwy.  It is a Thomas Telford Bridge and William "Merlin" Hazledine did the Ironwork.  
Two of our grandchildren came to stay for a weekend and we baked cupcakes.  
I had an upper body scan and my medication is keeping everything at bay disease wise.
I got another two pictures framed - one that another of my friends gifted me when I was in hospital last year and another that was a leaving present when I changed jobs.
My lounge curtains have been made and should be ready to hang shortly.
I've given up working overtime and will be starting to strip windows on my days off.  I can only do 15 mins at a time but over the days, this will add up.  The laundry window will be first and also, DH is going to build some shelves in the laundry to accommodate the huge amount of bedlinen that I seem to have accumulated.

MM x