So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

Morning all,

So, after 10 years (to the day) in this house and on my old diary, with all the trials and tribulations of not moving contained therein, I thought it was time for a new diary. My old diary is here: Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off! and if you have time to kill, reading it is one way to do that, although not recommended.

We never intended to stay in this house this long - it was going to be 2 years, then 5, then 7 and now it's 10. And we've decided we quite like it, we don't need more space internally (it's a generous ex-local authority 3 bed house, offset terrace so we never hear our neighbours through the walls) and don't want to pay £200,000 extra for an extra parking space and maybe a double garage. All the annoyances of living in our road are mainly related to parking and the small garden, but 🤞 we're getting the garage we've applied for (with parking space, at the end of our garden) and I have this morning picked up the keys to our allotment, meaning I won't have to shoehorn fruit and veg growing into our small garden and we can give some more space over to flowers and being able to relax there (i.e. extend the patio and buy some garden furniture from this century - I kid you not, ours is plastic hand-me-down stuff that was green and is now grey). If we can get rid of the mortgage then we'll have more options - at times DH's work is very stressful, so he could downgrade; we could buy an investment/holiday property; we could save to build our own house; we could stash all the spare cash away, retire early and travel the world (or what's left of it by then).

As of today, we have £29,318.44 left on our mortgage, which is fixed until June 2023 and has exactly 4 years left to run. We've paid our OP allowance in full for this year already, so the focus is on adding to savings to a) pay next year's as soon as we can, and b) have enough over at the end of the fix (approx £18,500) to pay it off in full, or as close as we can get. DH will probably easily cover part a) so my focus is on part b). 

And that's quite enough big picture stuff!

I picked up my allotment key this morning and have already been down to the allotments and met new people! 😁 I've also had a proper look in 'my' shed at the stuff I've acquired - quite a bit, some useful, some not so much. I've also established that I have a blackberry and several currant bushes (I really hope none of them are red!). If I get time, I might go back later. I also met some little frogs, who are living under the polythene cover on one of my beds! :smile:

I'm still testing negative, DH is still feeling grotty (he's not tested today yet). Despite a rubbish night's sleep, I'm feeling a lot better than I have recently, so hopefully this cold is on its way out. We had veggie bolognese last night for dinner. No idea what it'll be today, but I'll try to actually cook something healthy.

MS things:
* Clicks done
* Santa reward (£3.99) moved to savings
* Going to see a woman about a cat tonight (in walking distance)
* Only used tiny bit of fuel this morning and no plans to use car again today
* Dinner was not takeaway and won't be tonight - I'm determined we're heading out of this slump. Maybe shakshuka tonight? 😂

Gratitudes:
* Lovely people at the allotment and at the council offices
* The sun is shining (it wasn't forecast to)
* I'm still testing negative

Have a good day all!
Mortgage free 16/06/2023! £132,500 cleared in 11 years, 3 months and 7 days

'Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.' Ernest Hemingway


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