Debt and mortgage free wannabe

strandedinaber

Yikes, it's been far too long! It's been a busy few weeks. Quick life/financial update:

• Adopted a second cat after uhming and ahing about it for the past six months. They're definitely not instantaneous best friends and unfortunately seem to have quite different personalities at the moment (despite me trying very hard to find one which 'matched' my existing cat). But I think that's just a difference in age as new cat is 2 and existing cat is 8. We'll get there!
• Finances are mostly on track despite a) adding a new cat to the household and b) getting paid at weird times due to new job. The credit card is down to approximately £2.5k from £4k two months ago, which I'm happy with. However I think I was a bit ambitious and am probably going to have to use the card until the end of this month, as I seem to have left myself with £40 to survive on and £25 of that is earnmarked for travel into the office.
• I'm getting a new front door in a few weeks, which I'm very excited about - very lucky to get this as a birthday present from my parents. 

Will catch up on everyone else's diary shortly - currently being screamed at by a cat who thinks he deserves more attention than he's currently getting, so off to play entertainer.

beanielou

I have two rescue cats. Both rescued at different times & different ages. They don’t love each other but rub along. 🐱🐱

strandedinaber

Sneaking through the door with an update only about nine months later...

Some fairly substantive life changes in the past year, quite a lot of which are relevant to mortgage free ambitions! In short:

• We are now back to being a one cat household. 2 year old cat was adorable but had no sense of boundaries because he'd spent his life locked in a single bedroom, and 8 year old cat HATED him but wouldn't put him in his place. After months of fighting, working with a behaviourist and stress related asthma attacks from my older boy, even the behaviourist was telling me that some cats just won't work together. So 2 year old cat went to another home with two cats around the same age as him who were willing to put him in his place, and 8 year old took his rightful place as master of the house and receiver of all of my attention. 
• Said household is relocating from current major city in the southwest to Cornwall - aka back to where I grew up, in the same town as my parents, sister and her family, and most of my friends. Covid was horrible in every way possible but I am grateful for the advent of at-home working which means I can work almost entirely from home. Cost of living in the city was a major factor as well as family reasons, and I'm going to a bigger house (new build) that's approximately £35k less than my current place is selling for.
• I received an ADHD diagnosis via right to choose later on last year which explains a lot about my spending habits to date. It's helpful to be aware of this and challenge myself when I'm thinking of spending some money.

Cat tax photo: Cat being very unsure of what I'm up to as I'm clearing out/packing in the garage.

strandedinaber

Yikes.

Budgeting in advance of house move and doing the maths on overpaying the mortgage etc. My mortgage is around £205,000 - if I don't overpay at all over the next 33 years (which I intend to do) I'd end up paying nearly £380,000 for that including interest, and that assumes interest rates don't increase at all.

A £100 monthly overpayment could reduce that by £35,000 and 5 years.

No overpayments right now because I'm dealing with all of the house costs, but that will change as soon as the dust has settled, fees and credit cards have been paid off (still paying off the boiler on a 0% interest card), I'll be making a big overpayment. I've messaged YBS to figure out the best way to do this and also set up a savings account with them which can only be accessed once a year for when I inevitably need to replace the car.