Climbing the Mortgage Mountain step by step

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain · 24 November 2020 at 4:12PM

Hi All
I have finally been able to set up my signature, think it must be a delayed thing to prevent spamming, I'm really excited as it means I can start recording my over-payments from tomorrow (Payday)!
Had a busy but chilled weekend. Dentist and Opticians for me and DD, suspended my £9 pm contact lens scheme as I have a backlog of lenses at home, got a refund of £18 for the last two months, will all help towards the cost of new glasses for us both, plus the contact lens scheme gave me 50% off the new pair. Brightened up my kitchen with tile stickers which I bought off of someone on Facebook for £15, they look great. I'm so impressed that I want some now for the bathroom, I'm gradually updating that too, bought brand new under sink cupboard and matching drawers, again from Facebook for £10 a few weeks ago. I sorted out my wardrobe, definitely don't need anything for the foreseeable future and found a few things to sell on Facebook.
Minimal grocery spend, been using up stocks over the weekend, chicken flatbreads, carrot koftas and a yummy curry with all the trimmings. Popped a chicken stew in the slow cooker this morning, should feed us tonight and tomorrow.
Plan this week, list Facebook items, sort life insurance for OH and check what Xmas presents we still need to get.
Have a great day
MvTMM

caeler · 24 November 2020 at 10:00PM

Good luck on your mortgage free journey!

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain · 26 November 2020 at 11:46AM

Hi All
Caeler - thank you, I'm only at the start but then climbing Everest starts with one step!

Had a good couple of days, minimal spending. Finished off the chicken stew last night. A friend has given us a large fresh trout so that will be dinner tonight, cooked En Papillote with lemon, butter and some tarragon. Another friend is getting me 5kg of good quality fresh chicken breasts for £17.50 so that will top the freezer up. We have a glut of carrots again so I may make some more of my koftas and a banana and blueberry cake for the weekend to use up some of our frozen bananas and berries.

My first over payment of £750 has been placed in my savings account as my online mortgage access isn't set up yet, I'm still waiting for some access codes, as soon as it is I will transfer it across. I have a day off tomorrow so will pay a visit to the bank as we have some coins to change up which will then be Christmas money for the kids, I still need to check what physical presents we need to buy.

OH has transferred all of his borrowing on to 0% which is great, he can finally start really paying it down now. Still have to arrange his life insurance.

Have a good day

MvTMM

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain · 30 November 2020 at 6:29PM

Hi Everyone

Hope you've all had a good weekend. I did some cooking to use up some bits and pieces, a nice mushroom, watercress and stilton flan, banana and blueberry muffins and a lovely big roast dinner chicken dinner last night, we've got bubble and squeak with the leftovers tonight. We got the tree out of the loft and put up all of the Christmas decorations, still not really feeling it though!

I still haven't received the login details for my mortgage account so the first over-payment is sat in my savings account, really frustrating as I am so excited to get properly started on this journey. Have had quotes for OH life insurance, managed to shave £10pm off of the Aviva quote by shopping around.

Have a good evening

MvTMM

longway2go · 30 November 2020 at 6:55PM

Good luck

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain · 1 December 2020 at 4:18PM

Hi Everyone

Longway2go - thank you for sending me luck, I think I'll need it!

Not a lot happening today, picking up a Too Good To Go box from Morrisons later, we generally get one a week and they started off really good but the selection and number of items is dwindling as the weeks go by, still worth the £3.09 and I like the surprise of not knowing what you will get and trying different ways to use up the items. We seem to regularly get a big bag of carrots so carrot koftas have become a firm favourite, using some of our homegrown herbs from the garden, I freeze them and recook from frozen to have in wraps or flatbreads. We had our bubble and squeak last night with some poached fish and I am making a chicken and mushroom pie tonight with the remains of the roast.

My loan payment went through today so I will amend my signature, still can't make the mortgage over payment though

I'm keeping my spending diary, monitoring it closely and trying to use cash where I can as I find this is better for me, it's too easy to tap your card these days.

MvTMM

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain · 2 December 2020 at 6:02PM

Hi all

Well we had the Chicken and Mushroom pie last night and it was lovely, got enough for tonight as well. Simply softened some chopped onions and button mushrooms, added the remaining meat from the roast chicken and a tin of mushroom veloute, topped off with a suet crust for ease and speed, tasty and filling. The Too Good to Go box was good last night, had a few bakery items as well as fruit and veg, getting another one tonight and will have a batch cooking session on Friday (my day off).

I chased Santander today as I still haven't had the login details for the online mortgage so they are going to resend them to me.

Life Insurance company are going to ring OH tomorrow night to do the health questionnaire with him as we need to get that in place. We also both need to make wills, thats the next job and I have emailed my solicitor to get that ball rolling.

No great money saving revelations today I'm afraid, just plodding along, one step at a time.

MvTMM

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain · 9 December 2020 at 6:05PM

Hi All

I've finally been able to make my first overpayment

, I chased the login details last week, they agreed to send out new logins and then I got home to find the original ones had finally arrived, but of course they had been cancelled by sending out new ones! Anyway, I've now managed to set-up my online Mortgage account and have set up monthly overpayments which will hopefully take 5 years off the term of my mortgage. I've updated my signature, which was very exciting, it seems such a small step in comparision to the total mortgage, but each step takes me nearer to the summit! My Will has been drawn up, I just need to sign it and pay for it! I've installed YNAB on my phone, just need to set it all up now.

We are trying to eat healthily but fairly frugally and with zero food waste. I am still getting one or two Too Good to Go Bags a week and they have been better again the last few times, plenty of fruit and veg and some bakery items too, although we never seem to get meat products like they do in some areas. We had Pie and Chips from the freezer on Friday, magi garlic chicken and mixed roast veg on Saturday, gammon joint with egg and chips on Sunday, made leftover gammon into pulled pork with wholegrain rice on Monday and a mushroom and cheese crustless quiche with mixed Mediterranean veg last night. Tonight we have slow cooked liver and bacon and the smell has been making me hungry all day (working from home this week), I'm serving it with steamed veg and new potatoes, DD wont eat this so she can have something from the freezer (extra portions of homecooked meals frozen for a later date). We had some apples and plums which were going over so I stewed them last night with some butter, dark sugar and cinnamon and have frozen it for a crumble another day, we try to only eat puddings at weekends, trying to loose some lockdown weight!

I still need to get some Xmas presents but as I can't face going into Big Town due to Covid and the crowds I thing people will either be getting cash or vouchers this year. To be honest I'm really not feeling festive and can't believe it's little over two weeks away! I think that's in part to not being able to have the Xmas parties and meals or nights out with friends that I would normally, most years I've had 5/6 Christmas dinners before the big day itself.

Right I'm off to sort dinner and I might sit down later and look at YNAB!

Have a good evening all

MvTMM

savingholmes · 10 December 2020 at 9:59PM

Good luck on your journey. We have an interest only mortgage that we need to clear within the next 10-11 years. Ours is £144K. I've got to finish getting past our CC debt first.

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain · 16 December 2020 at 12:52PM

Hi All

I can't believe its been a week since I posted. Hi Savingholmes, sounds like you are in a similar financial place to me, and I also need to declutter! When my marriage broke down 3 years ago, ex walked away leaving me with approx £25k of credit card debt, my credit rating was in the toilet and I had our daughter to support (had to go to CSA in the end to get maintenance), I never thought I would get to the stage where I am down to the last £3.5k of credit card debt (which I could clear with savings but as it's on 0% I'm letting it ride) and my Experian credit rating is a perfect 999! Now to smash this mortgage!

I don't know about everyone else but I'm still not feeling festive! I think I have all of the presents sorted, food and drink is organised but I still haven't written a single card and have presents still to wrap.

From New Year I am going to go into super frugal mode, the clothes challenge has already been set and I'm going to try and save an additional £100 pm from somewhere (I already aim to save £300pm).  We have so much food, freezers and cupboards are full so, apart from basics (milk/bread), I'm going to see how long we can go without buying anything extra after Christmas, I think it could be at least three weeks before the meals start to look a bit 'odd', it would be great if we could get to the end of January without really buying anything at all! We have done a lot to the house in the last year, decorating, sorting the garden, some new bits of furniture etc but next year the main project is some new decking and we already have a head start on gathering the materials (free/upcycled or cheap).

We were a bit extravagant on Sunday and bought a leg of lamb, DD had been craving it and it is literally years since we have had it. We had it roasted on Sunday, the leftover veggies became bubble and squeak on Monday and the remaining lamb went in the slow cooker yesterday to make a lovely rich Morroccan style dish with enough left to go in the freezer for a quick and easy dinner another day. Tonight's dinner will be something simple, a pasta dish maybe?

Has anyone tried Octopus energy, are they any good? Someone was talking about it at work and I thought i might give it a try, not changed providers for a while and think I could save a bit on our bills.

Have a good day

MvTMM

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