Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

dawnybabes

Buzzing here for you x 

greenbee

Congrats DFW. What a fabulous early Christmas present!

Jessy103

Fantastic news, well done! What a great Christmas present! 🥳🎉

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all!
Thank you all so much 🥰 @Newstartforme @Willow1983 @daisy_1571 @skint_spice @ladybird1106 @KajiKita @slm6002 @redofromstart @glass_half_full @beanielou @Baileys_Babe @dawnybabes @greenbee @Jessy103
 hope I didn't miss anyone. I appreciate all the congratulations

I am suffering with a bit of a hangover this morning after our Christmas party yesterday 🤕 compounded with a bad chest and cough that has gotten worse since the beginning of the week. I had a good time though and was introduced to lots of people throughout the afternoon, got some free dinner and drinks and I popped into town with a few who needed to wait for trains and we carried on into the pubs. It was a good reminder to me why I don't bother going out anymore it was expensive, busy to the point you cannot move and are hemmed in like a sardine in a can and the young ones were flitting here there and everywhere (we must have gone to six places in an hour) by about 8pm I quietly disappeared, found some chips and rang my cab ride home (DP) lol. I have been up most of the night having hot and cold flushes, a cough, sneezing and unable to breathe properly. Oh the joys of Christmas where everyone shares their bugs. 

DP has taken dd to work, he's also kindly taken the shopping list I hurriedly made and will get that for me. I did say to leave some of the fresh stuff as we can pop out to get those bits closer to Christmas but there is a 50-50 chance he will ignore/forget that lol. 
DP seems very excited about helping to budget with me now, feel slightly peeved I have had to make £1 into £2 for the last few years on my own steam but also happy he is on board with it too. With both our new jobs we should be bringing in £20k plus per year, after tax not that much obviously but it will still be a huge improvement. DP is on board for EFs, yearly funds, holiday and DIY (desperately need a few things doing outside the house, and we want one thing done in the house) as well as MOPs! This is quite exciting that he is on board with all of this. 

I spoke to one of my current colleagues yesterday at the party, she seemed a bit peeved I had got a better job and said she had seen the advert and it was for part time and temporary and that is why she didn't go for it, she asked how I had got a permanent full time offered and I had said because the other person in role was leaving. She was annoyed it wasn't advertised to all I haven't signed any contracts yet but I think she would have gone for it, can she complain? Will it do any good? Slightly worried but not overly. I went for the job because I liked the sound of it and even though I would have dropped hours I would have rather the job because it was a better fit for me. Permanent, full time wage was just a bonus. I feel like she would have gone for it just because she wanted full time perm. 🤔 Hmm anyway, everyone else was very kind and hugged me and was genuinely happy for me. So I am holding on to that.

P.s I heard feliz navidad yesterday, and in my sleep my brain was kindly singing it to me for hours on repeat in my dreams and when I would wake up coughing it was still there, and then when I woke up this morning -UGH. It is still up there singing but I am drowning it out with a film in the background. 😑🤪At least I know all the words  

debtfreewannabe321

Ahhh and I have just realised the ENT appointment I have waited almost a year for (feels like it anyway maybe not quite that long) is on the day I am supposed to start my new job! What are the odds of that. 

beanielou

Thare’s always one. Don’t worry about her. 

redofromstart

There is no requirement to advertise so I wouldn't worry. If someone complained to me I would respond to say that 'normally' we would but that on this occasion we had identified a suitable candidate through an existing compliant recruiting process. 

debtfreewannabe321

I went back through my diary to a year ago and have just copy and pasted a few bits that I wrote regarding some goals and where we were financially- 

MORTGAGE BALANCE  January 1st £99224.13 🤨 September 1st £120, 615.59 😬

Emergency Fund goals:- £1613.43/3000 

MOP goals:- £145/ 1000 (before August '25)

SnowBallFund:- £400/936.30(before March '25)

(The mortgage is now £162,000   )

New house, new jobs, new debts 😒 

Car- 0/12386

Carpet -563.70/1500 ahhhhhh carpet loan I had put this to the back of my mind lol

[s]CC - 0/1792[/s] Paid 🥳👏

[s]Car Ins- £434[/s] Paid 🥳👏

I have left the mortgage OPs as £60 but I would like to reach £100+ per month. I am planning on upping it when the carpet loan has gone.
I am putting aside £200 for the kids- skiing and driving lessons. I felt that as DD didn't want to do the ski trip then she should have equal spent on her for something she wants. She turns 17 in July so she has already said she'd like driving lessons....
 
I am trying to balance- living. eating well. DIY & some small breaks away. We have decided against a 2 week hols in the sun (it's too expensive for 4 of us without incurring debt or making too many sacrifices elsewhere )  but are up for short breaks away on a budget- exploring and trying to have fun at the same time. We have been in DIY mode, throwing everything into savings mode, paying off debt mode for TOO LONG. 2025 will be different. Our income has raised considerably from DPs new job as well as mine and I don't want to waste it. I would like to up our savings, pay down the mortgage and have some experiences with the kids before they grow up and leave home. 

MORTGAGE BALANCE £99k...it is now £118.600 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣 however we got to move much sooner than I ever thought we could and we're all so much happier so 💕 'nuff said. We own over £50% of this house and if I go by what RM are currently selling houses on the street (and surrounding streets) for then we own closer to 60%. Interest on my mortgage when I first started this diary was less than it is now but that is because the mortgage was less. Currently we're paying around £9.25 a day 😬🥴 which seems a crazy amount would love to see this dip below £9...baby steps and all. 

I also wanted to up our income. DP has done that. He was bringing home approximately £1700 a month with quarterly bonuses of around another pay cheque each time. And now he brings home approximately £2500 + expenses which comes to anywhere from £300-400 on top of that. I've also doubled my income from the beginning of the year - thanks to moving because there genuinely was no jobs to be had where I used to live without transport 👏🏻 

All in all a good year financially. 

I was complaining about the Diy in my initial posts as we were on our third house in a row. Umm.... we're now on our fourth 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣 I shall try to not moan too much about diy but I can't promise anything 🤣🥴🤦🏻‍♀️.

So that was 2024 and my goals for this year..... eek we have had a mad year I think, no wonder I am tired. So we paid off that carpet loan (woo) and also the car was paid for with my ISA, then we had a great amount saved in the EF which i was going to use for braces........DS left home 😥 so I bought a red chair and a car with that money. I should have left it as an EF, but, well, I didn't. 
I was paying towards a ski trip- I have had the money back for that and DS space was sold on. 
I paid nearly £2k I think on MOP in 2025 - can check this. 
We got an extension - on the house and also added to the mortgage 🙈. New kitchen and reception room which we live in pretty much. It has a fantastic view over the garden and you cannot hear road noise. The old reception room was switched to DP office which he loves, and his old office turned into our dressing room which I love (our bedroom floor is now empty of overspill). We have done a fair bit of work on the house that I said I wasn't going to do, basically. But nothing too back breaking for us really, and also a lot of it was just inconvenience of the extension over our summer hols. 
We didn't get a break away until December because of the extension but I did pay for concerts and other things going on for us and the kids. 
so debt paid off was around £13,000

and new debt added- kitchen £6000 (need to check this but worse case scenario)
and Mortgage added £50,000
Catalogue & CC £3k approx

DP & I end the year with new jobs again! Last year we both had new jobs and we've managed to both secure better paid positions to go into 2026 with. Which means we can work out some savings goals and hopefully achieve those.

My health has been up and down, up and down. I struggle a lot in winter so I am feeling it at the moment. I need to try and get it better for 2026 if I want to stay in my full time job, I already struggle with 4 days. I've set some of this in motion, I have sorted the pain out in my foot, this week I have worn boots, heels, DM's and not a single pain!!! Heel pads were the answer and stretching it out.
I have an appointment with ENT hopefully will sort out my hearing. I wear glasses quite a bit now which has helped with my head pains and eye strain. I am still having heart palpitations and breathlessness, weird pressure in my head every now and then, even after having joined the gym (and I was going regularly till the last bug I caught). So I have to call drs she has arranged for blood tests and an ECG to be done. If we can rule out anything serious she will then try and find what is causing this extreme tirednesss, breathlessness and palpitations.
HRT is up and down, I up the dose when the hot flushes come and then lower it again when I get bad headaches....I can't seem to get on with it. Might see if I can see doc about trying something new. Ideally I would like to come off it though. I would also like to lose weight have put on far too much over this meno period. I know my health goals....need to work out some finer points on the finances.
I think I will probably start a new diary too. New goals, the household has changed, jobs have changed and I would like some fresh energy I think. 

debtfreewannabe321

redofromstart said:

There is no requirement to advertise so I wouldn't worry. If someone complained to me I would respond to say that 'normally' we would but that on this occasion we had identified a suitable candidate through an existing compliant recruiting process. 

Thanks @beanielou I thought the same!!
@redofromstart okay this is good to know so I don't need to overthink this. My poor brain is exhausted from interview stress, end of term stress, bugs and singing feliz navidad on repeat 😫🤗

jwil

Huge congratulations on the job!