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Daring to Dream: Mortgage Free by 63

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  • beanielou said:
    Was just going to say high dose vitamin c works & remember your vitamin d for winter! 
    Indeed! I think that was the issue last year - I wasn't taking them and I wasn't taking care of myself either.

    Interestingly, I had my vitamin d tested before I got pregnant and I was borderline which was unexpected as I had been taking supplements, though I did wear a lot of suncream when outside. 

    Fingers crossed it works this winter season! 

    Mortgage incoming Nov '24.... £357,000 | 22 years | 5 yr fix @ 3.74%

    Shifting into a higher gear of financial freedom

  • Thought about popping on to update then realised I have less time that expected before I have to go out to do nursery pick up. 

    All's going well - spending as planned. Nothing major to report. Been off work these past two days. 

    Had a few issues with the house purchase flagged up by the searches that need resolving. Not sure the vendor has any documentation to resolve them though. Argh. So we need to explore options there. Hopefully not insurmountable but we shall see what develops over the coming week or so. Survey booked in for next week and may be important in resolving said issues. 

    We secured a slight reduction in our mortgage rate via the broker's rate check service, so the mortgage report and deed has now been reissued by our solicitor, though it'll take 1 year to break even on the additional conveyancing fees its generated!! I think our mortgage is something like £5 per month less when compared to our earlier rate, though it will pay for Netflix or iCloud storage so it's not to be sniffed at! I did contemplate whether to go for a 2 year fix if rates are going to come down, but decided to stick to 5 year as you never know what might happen, plus we want the financial certainty whilst LO is still in nursery and costing us ££s. 

    Doing well with a 'sort of no buy' - not bought myself anything other than a £4.10 book which actually I bought for DF but turns out he's already read it. Laser focused on keeping costs down. The main financial leakage is food shopping, as ever, so I need to look at efficiencies there. 

    Better dash off, LO has been under the weather this week so I don't want to leave him too late in nursery. Will try to catch up on here over the coming days and I need to reconcile my YNAB budget, so some time for personal finances needed!

    DSL

    Mortgage incoming Nov '24.... £357,000 | 22 years | 5 yr fix @ 3.74%

    Shifting into a higher gear of financial freedom

  • Up with the birds for some reason, though the tail end of morning birdsong is currently being drowned out by the sounds of the boiler - my attempt to keep the little one sleeping for a bit longer whilst I have 45 mins of peace with my morning coffee! 

    A few updates on the house move - the issues flagged by the searches seem to have been resolved which is good. We just need to wait for the survey report to give us the full confidence to proceed since they were possible structural issues. I hope to speak with my surveyor this week for a run down of their findings once the report is issued, though they've given me a very, very brief verbal 'everything seems fine, few small issues with the roof but nothing major' update so we do have some comfort. 

    Unexpectedly we received the report on title yesterday afternoon from our solicitor, which I was not anticipating! So, contract, transfer deed etc all to review, sign and post back. I need to head into the office to print off the documents that require wet signatures and get them witnessed and send back by snail mail, so must do that on Friday when I'm next in. I may even drop them off in person as their offices are very conveniently about 1.5 miles from my office. 

    We still have a couple of queries outstanding but we know what they are - something to do with the title - that I presume the vendors solicitors are working to resolve. They seem to have been working on them since the queries were first raised, as the solicitors have chased them once a week for the past 4 weeks, so I assume these to be issues that need some work to resolve, possibly communication with the land registry. Thus, I don't know how long it will be until we are in a position to talk dates.

    I am however, hoping we will be in the house by the end of November but that said, I'm keeping calm and waiting (we're in rental so have the luxury of not trying to balance selling and buying). Having read a few threads on the house selling and buying board, it seems quite a lot of people presume they are nearly ready to exchange when in actual fact there are still outstanding queries still being dealt with and they then seem to get all stressed and wound up when they don't miraculously exchange on an expected date. Perhaps this is a 'long chain' issue, but it strikes me as being a massive waste of metal energy and I just don't want that level of heightened anticipation / stress. So, I will just go with the flow. Fortunately, we do have an outstanding solicitor and I am 100% confident that she is on top of it and pushing it forward as best she can. She did so when we were selling our previous property, though funnily enough there was a last minute issue that cropped up right before exchange that risked us missing our completion date, but it all worked out fine in the end.  

    I'm daring to dream the purchase might happen! I have been having fleeting thoughts about what colour to paint the little one's room, but other than that, I've held off thinking too much about our new little life there for fear it might all go wrong!  

    All is going fairly well with finances, though it is very tight this month as I have had £750 of house purchase expenses and £360 of unexpected utilities bills. We have a family event this weekend which will cost some more. I've taken £250 from savings to cover costs already - which cancels out the £250 I put into savings earlier in the month - but I do expect to take a further £200 out to get me through, maybe a little less as its payday next Thursday.

    I'm still doing well on the 'sort of no buy' - I've not bought myself anything since the book. We have had a couple of takeaways though so I need to keep an eye on that!

    Little one is stirring and will be up soon so I will log off and finish my morning coffee in peace before the chaos of toddler life begins.

    DSL 

    Mortgage incoming Nov '24.... £357,000 | 22 years | 5 yr fix @ 3.74%

    Shifting into a higher gear of financial freedom

  • First of the month and I'm full of the hope and positivity that comes with a fresh budget! 

    YNAB is all done and all line items funded. I'm feeling more positive about this month's budget as we don't have any unexpected or big expenses, aside from possibly completing on the house! We still need to get some work done on the car but that's accounted for in my budget. I also want to squirrel away some money for xmas as it will be here before we know it.

    House move seems to be progressing well, though my solicitor is away this week so there has been no updates / correspondence. We're waiting for a few outstanding enquiries to be actioned. The survey report was generally fine, a bit of remedial work needed here and there but nothing that makes us want to renegotiate the price with the vendors. I did raise a few queries having read the property report and survey, which my solicitor sent over last week, so hopefully we will get some clarification on those next week. Other than that, we just need to return all wet signature documents and I need to get a quote for buildings insurance.

    We have a quiet month planned with no big excursions / visits / plans etc so I am anticipating being able to keep costs to a minimum to save cash for the new house. 

    DSL

    Mortgage incoming Nov '24.... £357,000 | 22 years | 5 yr fix @ 3.74%

    Shifting into a higher gear of financial freedom

  • Great news that the survey came back ok, hopefully you will be in and settled (with nursery walls painted) before Xmas 
    DON'T BUY STUFF (from Frugalwoods)
    No seriously, just don’t buy things. 99% of our success with our savings rate is attributed to the fact that we don’t buy things... You can and should take advantage of discounts.... But at the end of the day, the only way to truly save money is to not buy stuff.    Money doesn’t walk out of your wallet on its own accord.
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6289577/future-proofing-my-life-deposit-saving-then-mfw-journey-in-under-13-years#latest
  • Thanks for swinging by, @LadyWithAPlan (I really do enjoy reading your diary and you've inspired me with your Swedish death cleaning! I need to catch up with yours and others as it's been a few weeks since I've last logged on)

    I think we are nearing exchange on the house now. Eeek. Three of the outstanding enquiries can be addressed by the vendor submitting a correctly dated form (which we'll need to review but should be fine) and one is a legal / title issue that I think is well on its way to being sorted. We had one unexpected issue crop up this week that we thought might delay things but it turns out it can be fixed easily and should be done by Monday. We're 9 weeks on from offer accepted and 8 weeks on from the chain completing (us in rented, vendors, their purchase which is empty), so that's not too bad at all. It certainly, from our perspective, pays to spend more for a city-based solicitor who has a paralegal team. Vendors are the ones pushing completion so I think they want to move asap too. To be honest, if we can at least exchange asap, I can then order some items off our 'we really do need this' list in the Black Friday sales! The timing is quite good in that regard.

    Spending wise, I'm doing okay. I've had to buy LO some more trousers as he seems to have had a growth spurt and his current ones are all suddenly looking a little tight. He needed some warmer ones anyway as he spends a lot of time outside at nursery now that he's in the toddler room. I've also had to buy him some new pjs which it turns out are quite expensive now its long sleeve season, even in Tesc0!. 

    Other than that, it will be the usual spends on groceries and fuel that feature for the rest of the month. We have an overnight visit planned to see our best friends in a couple of weeks to see their newish home, but I don't see that being too spendy. We'll probably have some family come to us for a day visit next weekend too, but again, not too spendy as they just fit into typical weekend plans. No other big social events planned. Still need to book the car in for its work, really must get on with that. 

    I went to Al8i earlier in the week to do some F&V shopping for the first time in quite a while. I don't know why I got out of the habit of going there (I did it quite a bit when I was paying off my debt). There are two stores in convenient locations to us, so it's not a big detour. Anyway, I was very surprised by how cheap it was and I've made a resolution to go much more regularly, at least to get F&V. I'm really looking forward to having a decent fridge / freezer when we move and being able to operate a better weekly meal plan / batch cook etc. Our current freezer in this rental is dreadful so it limits me batch cooking which is a pain. So, its inspired me to get back on track with meal prepping / planning / batch cooking etc. 

    Right, I'm going to log off and enjoy these final quiet moments to myself whilst the house is still sleeping. LO had a late night last night as he had a late nap and so he's still asleep. Bliss. 

    DSL

    Mortgage incoming Nov '24.... £357,000 | 22 years | 5 yr fix @ 3.74%

    Shifting into a higher gear of financial freedom

  • Hope you get the paperwork sorted to save on Black Friday necessities!
    DON'T BUY STUFF (from Frugalwoods)
    No seriously, just don’t buy things. 99% of our success with our savings rate is attributed to the fact that we don’t buy things... You can and should take advantage of discounts.... But at the end of the day, the only way to truly save money is to not buy stuff.    Money doesn’t walk out of your wallet on its own accord.
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6289577/future-proofing-my-life-deposit-saving-then-mfw-journey-in-under-13-years#latest
  • The moving nerves are kicking in now.

    We've agreed a completion date for next week but it all hangs on whether our mortgage company are able to release the funds in time, as we are technically one day late requesting them according to their requirements. Our solicitor did request them this morning anyway. We now wait to hear back. If all is fine, we can proceed to exchange contracts! Eeek. I still haven't transferred the deposit but I gather that is fairly simple and can be done over the telephone via a chaps payment as our money isn't tied up. If our lender can't release the funds in time, we have already proposed another date for later next week that should meet their requirements. Hopefully the vendors can do that. So, we may or may not exchange contracts over the next few days but we are hoping we will be able to complete next week.

    I have provisionally booked in our removals company to deliver our stored items for the following week and I have requested availability for a professional move in clean and carpet clean for a few days before that. Thereafter it'll be a case of moving things from the apartment to the new house, which is only 2 miles away. We'll do this by car. We don't have any furniture here, just clothes and stuff, so a few trips back and forth over a couple of days should be sufficient. We will need to move LO's bed, but that will be on 'moving day' and it should fit in the car if we dismantle it. Luckily we can be flexible with our work, so we can book days off with fairly short notice. 

    Annoyingly, our tenancy rolls over on 16th of every month, but I am hoping our landlord will let us end our tenancy early by 15th December rather than making us pay an extra month. Lets see. I'm going to clean the apartment myself to save some money as to be honest, they seem to have a rather lax approach to the state of their apartments. When we moved it, it was clear that they had not checked it properly from the previous tenants and it did need a thoroughly good clean. I'm pretty confident I can do a good enough job to a high standard myself and it won't take long being a small apartment. 

    I spent some time this weekend browsing online and choosing items to purchase from our 'we really need this' list for the new house. I will order some of them once we exchange contracts but I need measurements for a couple of big things and I'm not sure our vendors will appreciate us visiting between exchange and completion so I will probably have to wait until we get the keys to order those. 

    Other than that, all else is fine on the money front. We have our car in for some work today so that bill will need paying but is budgeted for already. We are looking to run down the freezer now too, so I will be factoring in that to meal prepping / planning over the coming weeks. I want to start selling some of LO's old things soon too, once we settle in to the new house. We are one and done parents so we don't anticipate needing them again. That should generate a small pot of money for decorating his room or replacing some of his garden toys that he'll have grown out of by the time spring comes around.

    I'm hoping the snow doesn't cause too much disruption over the next 24 hours. If it snows a lot, I may keep LO off nursery in the morning so he can have the opportunity to play in the snow for the very first time! A nice reason to avoid what otherwise could be a nightmare morning rush hour. I had to defrost the car this morning which was unexpected but luckily I had bought deicer about a month ago. I'll need to remember to put the screen cover on overnight. I also need to clean the inside of the windscreen as it take ages to clear when its really cold and I read somewhere that is because they are dirty and if you clean them with shaving foam (!!!) they won't mist up as much.

    As I type, I have just received a property alert notification from land registry for our new house protecting a pending charge in favour of our mortgage company. Exciting. Let's see how the next few days unfold! 

    DSL 

    Mortgage incoming Nov '24.... £357,000 | 22 years | 5 yr fix @ 3.74%

    Shifting into a higher gear of financial freedom

  • beanielou
    beanielou Posts: 93,960 Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Academoney Grad Mortgage-free Glee!
    Hope all goes to plan.
    I am a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Mortgage Free Wannabe & Local Money Saving Scotland & Disability Money Matters. If you need any help on those boards, do let me know.Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any post you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button , or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own & not the official line of Money Saving Expert.

    Lou~ Debt free Wanabe No 55 DF 03/14.**Credit card debt free 30/06/10~** MFW. Finally mortgage free O2/ 2021****
    "A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.

    ***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb.
    ***Keep plodding*** Out of debt, out of danger. ***Be the difference.***
    One debt remaining. Home improvement loan.
  • Oooh exciting!! Fingers crossed all goes smoothly 
    MFW 2021 #76 £5,145
    MFW 2022 #27 £5,300 
    MFW 2023 #27 £2,000
    MFW 2024 #27 £6,055
    MFW 2025 #27 £550/£5000


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