Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

savingholmes

I don't allow my cat in the bedroom - or unfettered access to the house as otherwise he'd bring pressies. It's a big enough challenge in summer if I have doors/windows open... I used to make mine come in through the kitchen window if I left a window open as I found he couldn't jump and carry stuff... 

KajiKita

Thanks @savingholmes, @LadyWithAPlan. Chloe is Chloe … we live with her as she is … 😊🤷‍♀️

Strange day today. I was told VERY clearly a few weeks ago that writing work instructions for the big project is not my job ….
Today we have a critical deadline looming, the person who’s meant to be writing them hasn’t done them apart from one out of c. 12, is going away on annual leave next week and needs to be focused on a technical issue between now and then. Guess who’s now doing the work instructions … 
The irony, for me, is that I used to write these 25 years ago for £25K less p.a. so if you watt pay me so well for doing this low level task, quickly, so be it I guess … 🤷‍♀️😉😂

In other news …
- Did a job before leaving for work today and collapsed the heated clothes rail. For anyone else who owns one of these things I can hear you thinking, so …? For me it seems to be a real mental block 😉 so that was win 😊 Means I can get into check all my seed trays etc on the picnic table behind the airer is normally set up properly. 
- Had my monthly review with my boss today - he seemed pleased with what I am doing 😊
- Found a book in the works canteen swopsies bookcase about how to be failure - it actually very funny and painfully honest. Looks like it could be a good (free) read 😊
- Started decluttering the dining room table ready for next Sunday’s birthday lunch with MiL - seeds went upstairs, dried bay leaves from the garden into a spare jar onto the kitchen herbs and spices shelf and bills went upstairs. 

- Submitted meter readings to the Cephalopod’s website for the first time in a while (climbing through undergrowth to get to the gas meter and digging out steps for the electric meter). Their website tells me I could reduce our monthly contribution by £42 and we have a balance of £700+, but I shall wait until they have processed the readings before starting to extract any of the balance or reducing the monthly payment … 🤞
- Reviewed two updated bills that came in last week - life assurance will go down by £1.20 from next month because Mr KK reaches 60 and the water bill will go up by 25% or £11.50. That will eliminate the spare £10 I had assigned as a mini OP each month from the joint account … sigh … Oh well, maybe our energy bill will come down a bit …. 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞😉
- Done some tapestry this evening 😊

KK

PennysIntoPounds

It's still technically a mortgage payment if you use that money to stay alive thus being able to pay the normal mortgage payments, just a small roundabout way of definitely decreasing what is owed over time  

Cheery_Daff

If you're £700 in credit at this point it sounds like you'll definitely be able to reduce the utilities payment so fingers crossed for your OP after all! 

How vexing about the instructions. I hate having to do something short notice that I could have done much better if I'd had more time but someone told me not to 😂 In my case though it's usually some bit of housework etc that someone else said they'd do but didn't and nobody pays me an extra £25k a year for it 🙄😂

KajiKita

PennysIntoPounds said:

It's still technically a mortgage payment if you use that money to stay alive thus being able to pay the normal mortgage payments, just a small roundabout way of definitely decreasing what is owed over time  

Do you think ….? I always think of life insurance as being absolutely useless money UNLESS (please not!) one or other of you come to need it …

Cheery_Daff said:

If you're £700 in credit at this point it sounds like you'll definitely be able to reduce the utilities payment so fingers crossed for your OP after all! 

How vexing about the instructions. I hate having to do something short notice that I could have done much better if I'd had more time but someone told me not to 😂 In my case though it's usually some bit of housework etc that someone else said they'd do but didn't and nobody pays me an extra £25k a year for it 🙄😂

I will let you know what the outcome of the readings is! They are usually pretty quick at updating the status of the account etc. 

Ha! Your last comment has made me smile … 😊 

I have been thinking, as I woke far too early this morning before the alarm, … I’m not sure I can live like this, spending so much mental energy and time on the mortgage. I am trying to gamify it and set realistic targets for monthly OPs, do surveys, avoid selling stuff because it’s too much work, divert 1/3rd of extra funds coming my way to OPs, etc,  but it feels like a lead weight around my neck … and I have another 12 years of this …. It’s not existential or causing me depression, but I’m just aware that it’s draining me more than I’d like. 

I have to do all of the above, I’m happy to do all of the above but I’d like to carry it more lightly … Something to ponder on … 🤔

KK

f0xh0les

Maybe it is the drip drip drip that you don't like?  Why not try keeping all the money in your daily usage bank account where you can see it.  Then when it gets to £XXX, or Quarterly (on a pants rate) you get to buy something for the garden, and shunt the rest. 

You don't have to keep looking at it. If it feels like it is looking at you, rather than you looking at it, maybe you have not left enough fun money in the account. Some people like to chip away at it, some people like to hack a large chunk at a time.  Whatever works for you. But o/ps should not make you anxious, or drag you down.

PennysIntoPounds

I meant having water is essential for staying alive!
I was more trying to say what you then reflected on, that as long as everything that needs to be paid is getting paid then you are progressing brilliantly

LadyWithAPlan

f0xh0les said:

Maybe it is the drip drip drip that you don't like?  Why not try keeping all the money in your daily usage bank account where you can see it.  Then when it gets to £XXX, or Quarterly (on a pants rate) you get to buy something for the garden, and shunt the rest. 

You don't have to keep looking at it. If it feels like it is looking at you, rather than you looking at it, maybe you have not left enough fun money in the account. Some people like to chip away at it, some people like to hack a large chunk at a time.  Whatever works for you. But o/ps should not make you anxious, or drag you down.

very wise .... You need to work out how you can make it fun and minimise time.
Maybe decide to do 1/2 extra money to OP and just look at it once a fortnight etc

KajiKita

@f0xh0les, it’s not so much the drip, drip, drip of OPs. Each one makes me happy in the moment. It’s just the size of the debt, how long it will take to clear, and how long that means if have to work. The OPs feel minuscule in that context. I guess it’s just the ‘slog-zone’, if there is such a concept? 

I do have fun money, but it makes me feel guilty and like I should be pushing every penny I can at the OPs. Which is madly unrealistic for 13 years! 😉 

It really is about me and ‘how’ I’m carrying it. I will continue to ponder. 🤔 

Today then 😊

- Pressure is slightly less in work as a key piece of project has gone off the rails, is unrecoverable in the short term and has nothing to do with me! 😂
OTOH, I am hoisted by my own petard - the most cynical, negative and frustrated team leader on the shopfloor has decided I’m useful, become my best mate and is bringing every, single, possible quality issue my way … ! 😉😂

- Rang the Coop today about the mortgage.
The good news is that every OP comes off the capital not going towards the interest. I asked why the £2K I paid off didn’t seem to show up on our balance. It might be something to do with the timing of when I paid it off …
Our minimum monthly payment, if we were to recalculate it, has dropped to £1,787.69 which means as our monthly payment is set to £1810 the default OP has increased from £4.42 to £22.31 😊
I ran some calculations over lunchtime, like you do, and if I persist with the £22.31 and an extra £100 per month, that will take a year and two months off the time the mortgage will last … I hope it will accelerate more as we get closer ….

- Mr KK managed to get through to one of the local sawmills today and has ordered the oak slats to renew our pond bench. Only £78 which is quite a bit less than I thought. 👏 We will still need hammerite and stainless fixings but that’s a great start 😊

KK

greenbee

I've got about the same time as you left on my mortgage, so I understand the frustration. Every month I hope the premium bonds will rescue me...