My Mortgage Free Mountain - A 7 year expedition to climb to the top

craftingmad

Good morning everyone  

I ended up only working 12 hours yesterday so it was not so bad. I'm meant to have a day off today but been called in to delivery drive again from 4pm so planning on having a bit of a rest until then although knowing me I wont

I've got to sort out some bits for mum and dads house sale and move today so fingers crossed I can get hold of people without too much bother. We have decided to swap estate agents as the original one is awful and not got one person round to look at it! We need to sell it so we hopefully don't need to use all our money to buy the one near us!!! I'm going to instruct searches on the one we are buying to help slow that down a bit too so fingers crossed these new agents do their job and get it sold. We have reduced it by £15K too so surely there is no excuse now! Pray for me people - I now know why we had decided never to move again

I also need to finish two orders and get a bit of housework done and I really need to tidy my craft room as it has got out of hand again. Maybe I need to reconsider that rest I was planning to have

Its an expensive day for us today too as van in garage to have its brakes sorted and we have a plumber coming to sort a problem on our boiler. Fingers crossed they are both quick and easy fixes.

I did get a bonus free dinner last night from delivering as somebody had ordered table service but they were not at the table just as my shift was ending so I came home with jumbo sausage and chips and cod and chips for 4 people Why does free food always taste so much nicer  

Right time for my to do list. Today I WILL:-

1. Play on Mistplay (50 points target) - 7 points so far 
2. Watch videos on WeR8 - no videos available 
3. Make logo amendments for Etsy customer - DONE
4. Reprint sewing planner gone missing in post and post off
5. Instruct new agents for mum and dads bungalow - DONE
6. Authorise searches to be carried out on new bungalow - DONE
7. Tidy some of craft room (aiming for two piles) - DONE two piles sorted and also found something to list on FB Marketplace
8. List dads PC games and roleplay games on FB Marketplace - Listed PC games but appears we have not bought back role play games so must still be in dads garage. Also listed some grow your own vegetable kits which have been in my craft room since the start of the year
9. Get one load of washing washed and hung up inside to dry as raining outside
10. BK shift (4pm - 11pm) - DONE finished at 9.15pm so much better for my body
11. NSD (apart from garage and plumber bills) - FAILED  had a craving for a burger and some cheese garlic pizza so caved in but did use my 50% work discount

Baileys_Babe

I am glad to hear your headache has improved and hopefully has disappeared now.

Definitely, the right thing is to change the estate agents for your parents' house. I hope the new agents sell it quickly and for a price your parents are happy with.

Remember to look after yourself today 🤗

daisy_1571

glad you had a lovely half day from work  jeezo cm, long days ! 😆 

Dxx

daisy_1571

Hope all well and you've just been as busy as ever

craftingmad

I'm finally back again for a quick update - I really need to find a few more hours in the day

Daisy that meme made me laugh out loud 

I've been plodding away and working what feels like every hour of the day but progress is being made. We now only have to find £3600 to have enough to pay off our BTL2 mortgage and then we will officially only have one mortgage left to pay off   

Sadly no viewers for mum and dads houses yet despite changing the agents and dropping the price by £15K I'm starting to get a bit worried if I'm honest Next step we think is to have to paint it throughout and replace the carpets but not really sure when we will be able to find time to do that if I'm honest. I'll just have to add it onto my huge to do list and hope somebody else comes along to cross it off for me  

I have a doctors appointment booked for Wednesday as I have been getting really bad pains in my joints and in particular the soles of my feet when I am sitting down and first thing in the morning so I'm getting them checked out. I think I may have arthritis as mum and dad both suffer with it and getting back up after bending down is becoming increasingly difficult and last time I went about 5 months ago the doctor thought the same but in true me fashion I ignored it but it is now getting really bad so I need to take action I think. Blood tests are also booked for 4th September as that was the first available appointment they had  

Big news is that hubby and I have booked a short 3 night break away to Clacton on Sea next week. We have found a lovely little airbnb cottage and I'm really looking forward to it. We toyed with the idea of taking the camper van but we want to take the dog and can't leave her inside that if we want to nip somewhere without her (I want to visit the local zoo as I love it there and dogs are not allowed) so we decided to splash £300 out on the cottage. We need a little treat now and again don't we so I'm trying not to feel guilty. Besides I feel it is very much deserved  

The new cafe owners are still not paying me any holiday pay so I need to chase them again as they now owe me around £300 and quite frankly I don't trust them as far as I could throw them so I need to be brave and ask them about again and not take no for an answer. I might need a little pep talk for this so if somebody could tell me to pull up my big girl panties and just do it, it would be gratefully received  

I have to leave soon as have to take hubbies car to the garage for its MOT (not looking forward to it - his car is a bit of a boy racer and seems to be a money pit!!!!). then I need to get to work so here is my To Do list for today:-

1. Play on Mistplay (50 points target) - 7 points so far
2. Watch videos on WeR8 - DONE watched four videos for a total of 34p
3. Chase up WeR8 for payment after cashing out 10 days ago
4. Take two Etsy orders to the post office - DONE
5. Cafe shift (9am - 5pm)  - DONE
6. Tidy some of craft room
7. Renew facebook listings
8. Take a course from one of my memberships
9. Create something new to sell
10. List Words of Wisdom cards on Etsy
11. Investigate if I can buy zoo tickets using Tesco clubcard vouchers
12. Delete 100 emails from my inbox
13. Pray car passes its MOT - DONE and it worked
14. NSD - DONE

daisy_1571

Oh definitely,  thats your money they are trying to steal/borrow/delay paying depending on their motivation.   People like that are either just disorganised or relying on others not being firm, again depending on their motivation.  No need for a fight but also don't leave it ambiguous.  As a question 'when shall I expect my holiday pay?' is quite hard to ignore.   If you don't get an answer just ask it again, and again till they give you a definite answer.  Then ensure you hold them to it by reminding them 'you said I'd get it this Friday, that's 3 days away' etc on a countdown. 

Dxx

daisy_1571

Maybe this one is true today?


(Just serendipity it appeared today from a friend who posts a pic each day on a group chat)

Dxx

craftingmad

daisy_1571 said:

Oh definitely,  thats your money they are trying to steal/borrow/delay paying depending on their motivation.   People like that are either just disorganised or relying on others not being firm, again depending on their motivation.  No need for a fight but also don't leave it ambiguous.  As a question 'when shall I expect my holiday pay?' is quite hard to ignore.   If you don't get an answer just ask it again, and again till they give you a definite answer.  Then ensure you hold them to it by reminding them 'you said I'd get it this Friday, that's 3 days away' etc on a countdown. 

Dxx

Great advice - thank you x

craftingmad

Good morning.

Love todays meme thank you you Daisy. Sums me up perfectly

I ended up doing a 13 hour double shift yesterday as BK asked if I could come in as they were desperate as two people were off sick so I went there after my 8 hour shift at the cafe. Sorry Baileys - I promise I will look after myself this evening It will mean more money in the bank at the end of this month but didn't help me get things crossed off my list yesterday

Good news though is that the car passed its MOT first time so that is fantastic and very much unexpected with his mid life crisis car. It always has something wrong with it

My body is really feeling working so hard yesterday today so I am planning to just get my shift out the way and then spend the rest of the evening sitting down. It might be sitting down in front of my computer and doing a bit of work for my business but at least I am sitting down which doesn't seem to happen that often these days! Only 7 more days to work until I have three days off though and we enjoy a little bit of time away It might only be a 2 hour drive away but I'm very excited

Right I'm going to get onto my list as for some reason my little finger really hurts today and typing is quite painful

So today I WILL:-

1. Play on Mistplay (50 points target) - 7 points so far 
2. Watch videos on WeR8 - none available
3. Chase up WeR8 for payment after cashing out 10 days ago
4. Check on Amazon code from Mistplay
5. Cafe shift (9am - 5pm) - DONE
6. Tidy some of craft room
7. Renew facebook listings
8. Take a course from one of my memberships
9. Create something new to sell
10. List Words of Wisdom cards on Etsy
11. Investigate if I can buy zoo tickets using Tesco clubcard vouchers - DONE I can pay for the tickets in full for the zoo so that will be an almost free day out for us
12. Delete 100 emails from my inbox
13. Talk to cafe owner about holiday pay - wasn't in so could not talk to her
14. Freeze meat going out of date which I have not had a chance to cook
15. NSD - DONE

craftingmad

Morning all,

So sorry for lack of posts - life has just been really busy for us. 
We really enjoyed our little short break though and feel refreshed and raring to go again  

Great news to start the new month with - we officially have enough money to clear our BTL2 mortgage when the fixed rate ends in February 2026 That means only one more BTL mortgage to go before we can declare ourselves officially mortgage free  

In total we have cleared £134931 of debt in just under two years. Just writing that down makes me smile so big that my mouth hurts  

Our last mortgage is in our sights to clear off

As of today that balance is £77497.52 so I am going to round that up to £77500 just to make my figures easier
The fixed rate finishes 30th June 2027 (which also happens to be our wedding anniversary so when we pay it off that will mean we will be officially mortgage free so what a wonderful gift to ourselves) so that is our deadline although honestly I'm really hoping we can reach it in around three months

We have an investment which is currently worth £75k but this goes up and down each month so we are going to use this to pay off the majority of this mortgage and are going to class it as £70k which means we have just £7500 to find. It actually feels like our dream will become a reality - and its given us the motivation to plough on  

I'll be back later with a list as running late for work but just had to share our news x