Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

jodles16 · 8 September 2018 at 12:34PM

Hi KK!

You are so good at balanceing OP's, pensions and life! So impressive! Glad the kittens are growing well and keeping you on your toes! Also super jealous you got to see Stone Sour! Love!

Your upcoming travels sound amazing, love all the activities that you are doing, I am looking forward to trying more things but need to lose a lot more weight before I can (sadly over the weight limit for the paddle boards and cannot lift my own weight for climbing!). There is a page I follow which offers beginners rock climbing courses in the Lake District, this is one of my goals!

I will be checking in again soon!

Jodles

Kittenkirst · 29 September 2018 at 8:24PM

Morning all! It's 5.15am here in Townsville and I'm wide awake. Gf has come down with the flu so I was woken early today to help her.

Holiday has been fantastic so far- Singapore, Sydney, Brisbane, Mooloolaba, Fraser Island, Whitsunday Islands and now we are headed north today to Mission Beach. Think it looks be a slow drove today with lots of stops for the gf.

Holiday budget is going well and we still have a lot of cash between us

which is great news. The Whitsundays catamaran tour was just amazing- beautiful islands, stand up paddleboarding , kayaking, snorkelling with schools of fish & sea turtles :heartpuls true bucket list moments.

We've been missing everyone back home a fair bit, but are getting regular updates on our boys from the cat sitters, as well as camera snaps of the boys tinkering round the house!

Overpayment for September was a mini £4.56, so I just transferred an additional £5.44 to make it at least £10. This brings 2018 to £3010.58

Kittenkirst · 30 September 2018 at 9:25PM

I've been struggling to sleep since 2.15am today, I think by the time we fly home my body clock may have finally adjusted to Australian time

So, I've tossed and turned loads and have completed a little banking and reconciliations.

Had a surprise eBay sale of an apron we got from an experience day (another one still up for sale!) so I've messaged the buyer that postage will be on Monday next week. I've offered a refund if they need it sooner so will see what they say. If they are happy though it's a nice £9.50 to start the OPs for October.

I then checked Quidco and withdrew £2.40 to OP once it clears. Unfortunately prolific is only at £2.2 so a little more is needed to get that up to cashout status- deffo something to focus on when back
Home.

I drove us up to Mission Beach yesterday which was a gorgeous 3 hour drive. This place is a lot mire village like than some of the places we have stayed and is stunning, but food is a bit pricey! (£50 for some sweet potato fries, one beer, one coke, 3 sliders and some not so good mini ribs last night!)

We didn't stop at the planned waterfall as gf was still feeling awful with the flu, however a nice snooze in the car and easy day yesterday meant she was much brighter and feeling alright for a nice dinner together. Will amend today's plan to drive out to the Atherton Tablelands and visit six waterfalls. Will investigate and we'll stop at 2 on our way to Port Douglas (mainly to break up the long drive and see some bits off the beaten track).

We're then in Port Douglas until we come home (from Cairns) so hopefully gfs flu will subside and she can relax in PD :beer:

themadvix · 1 October 2018 at 11:17AM

Sounds like you're having an amazing time! Hope GF is feeling better soon though!

Kittenkirst · 7 October 2018 at 7:00AM

We're home!

Holiday was just wonderful, but I can't express how happy we are to be home!

I came down with the Aussie flu not long after my last post but luckily our plans in Port Douglas were a bit more relaxed than the first part of the holiday. We managed to visit three of the waterfalls- I even got brave and swam in the Millaa Millaa falls (where the Peter Andre Mysterious Girl video and the herbal essences hair flick advert were shot!) - it was blinking cold though, but a pretty fab moment!

We still managed to visit a local wildlife sanctuary to feed some 'roo's on one of the days where we didn't feel good (it was less than 2km from our apartment) and we waited until we were over the worst of the flu and still got to drive to Cape Tribulation and get off the beaten track for a bit- it was indescribable and I'm so glad we went!

Getting home was 31 hours of travel and yesterday was mainly sleeping, with gfs parents bringing some home cooked food for dinner (they are wonderful- potato shak with roti's!

)

Cats haven't left our sides since we got back- I woke at 3.30am to release the little vole brought in alive by Hugo and haven't been able to sleep since- felt so hungry! I've now decamped downstairs with Harry Potter on, a cuppa and a slice of toast to try and help with my body thinking it's lunch

Plan today is to go do the grocery shop- a big Lidl has just opened next to our Tesco so we're going to go have a nose. I've also checked cash back apps and there's a few bits from Shopmium at tescos worth us getting (4 breaded cod fillets for £1 etc) so have added those to the list.

Right, will crack on with the order of the Phoenix (my favourite HP!) my cuppa and Hugo strokes (he's curled up on my tummy!) :heartpuls

A_Frayed_Knot · 7 October 2018 at 7:12AM

So glad you had such an amazing and wonderful holiday, so many memories to treasure. Just a pity you both felt so naff for some of the time away.

Back to the grind.

CathT · 7 October 2018 at 8:09AM

Crikey I check in for first tome for a while and your holiday has been and gone! What a shame you were both unwell but it still sounds like the most amazing trip with many memories made.

What's the plan for the rest of the year now the trip is done and you've already exceeded your OP target?

Kittenkirst · 8 October 2018 at 4:11AM

Thanks both

CathT- very good question! Well the planned OPs up until Christmas are for a further £605 which is banking on a few things:

1. me not splurging too much on Halloween,
2. Christmas spending remaining within budget &
3. also paying off any additional holiday spends on the credit cards in the next two months so we don't incur interest!

I think the key areas we can focus on to make more OP's are:
1. My car insurance renewal- due end of month so looking now.
2. Our gas/elec switch is mid November- cash back from comparison sites is usually a good OP (may not pay out until 2019 though.....)
Sky renewal is end of this month too- we use this heavily but will look at what we could drop and do the haggle dance with them- is like to shave at least £10 a month off if we can....
4. The food shop- we've got in a rut with what we eat so will invest some tine in looking at new recipes/old forgotten recipes and try to make them lower fat/ lower cal but budget friendly
5. De-clutter pre Christmas and do the eBay stuffs....I'm also tempted to try some reselling on eBay but need a bit more thought into what will sell best.
6. Prolific, pinecone & food cash backs!

We did the shop today- we had cleared the fridges and larder of perishables so had to buy staples like cheese, garlic, onions etc. The new Lidl have a 6 week welcome card where if you spend £20 you get a free item- yesterday 1.6kg washing powder (25 washes). We split our shop in case we could get 2 wash powders but combined it Dane to £34.
We then nipped next door to Tesco for the bits we couldn't get (namely my 0% Greek yogurt) and a few Shopmium bits- 4 breaded fish down to £3 with £1 cashback (now in the freezer!) & a tube of Primula (£1.50 but will get £1.5 back).

That makes the predicted £30 grocery shop a steep £42 with £2.50 due back....need a bit more focus next week. Also I automatically bought blueberries (£1,89) and Greek yogurt (£2.06) but with the temperatures here being pretty chilly now I should probably swap back to porridge/overnight oats again which is often a fair bit cheaper over the months (especially if can get windfall apples/ free bananas from work!)

We did get a few freezer items and some of the veggies will carry through to next week so not too much of a disaster.

Kittenkirst · 8 October 2018 at 5:35AM

Jet lag is proving to be quite a pain at the minute, so I've used the time and been googling some new recipes/ ideas. I'm at work at 8.30am and am pretty much dreading the piles of emails....

I picked up a nice squash in Lidl (84p) today and been trying to find alternative recipes other than soup- I like the idea of roasting it with some crumbled feta on the side of dishes but have also found a nice taco recipe (we lovvvve Mexican style food!)

Making a note of them here so I can refer back and tick them off:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/420645/chard-sweet-potato-and-peanut-stew%3famp (with cashews instead)

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3091674/melanzane-parmigiana

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/chicken-tortilla-soup-recipe-1939403.amp

https://www.shelikesfood.com/roasted-butternut-squash-and-black-bean-tacos/

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/10/06/black-bean-tarkari-38p/

Will continue having a good read through and also through the old Style forum pages. Time to add some more meals to our repertoire and get a bit more adventurous in the kitchen l!

lessavyfav · 8 October 2018 at 4:23PM

Yum, I love butternut squash. I made Anna Jones squash, potato, kale and almond tray bake lots last winter - it is so flavourful!
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/12/vegetarian-christmas-lunch-anna-jones-modern-cook

Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

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