Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Ahhhhh lost a really long post!

The crux of it was my dismay at the events in Manchester this week; I know the news coverage is needed to update people as it unfolds but at just so heartbreaking thinking about those innocently caught up in it.

1p OP yesterday, but cancelled dinner plans yesterday mean £35 up on the budget which will cover some additional spends that weren't budgeted for. I wonder if the budget will always be this fluid?

No more savings possible this month; next regular saver is at the start of the month so the figures won't change much really until then.

A few days off work now for us; we're both struggling after the last few weeks of traveling which has taken its toll. Off to the gym shortly as need to focus on reducing my weight as it's getting me down abut but also my clothes are starting not to fit

Time to get on with the day!

Another gym session yesterday at the other gym- tried using battle ropes and it is so very hard. Managed three sets of 20seconds only

No gym for me today as my stomach is pretty tender from the ab exercises so taking today as rest day.

We had plans to go to a local street food fayre but after chatting about it we decided we could save some money and have a 'treat' dinner at home instead. We stopped at Lidl on way home and bought some mussels
In sauce (ys so 30% off)- we bought two packs as thought one pack between two wouldn't be enough- and some frozen fries. Dinner was fantastic (we saut!ed some garlic first for the mussels) and only cost £2.82 with lots of frozen fries left for another day. I even had a nice bottle of corona we had in fridge already so minimal spends but felt like we ate out and had a treat together

Barbecue day today at some friends, trying to reign in frivolous spending for friends get togethers so I have got up to do the dishes and made a raspberry bakewell cake- the cake is cooking now and then will slice it, pop raspberry jam in the middle and ice. We had all the ingredients in and it satisfies my baking urges (but shares the goodies so I don't feel bad having a whole cake to eat!) so feels like a win!

We have some leftover cider bottles from the housewarmings late last year/early this year so I will take those to drink and we have some Diet Coke from when it was on offer. Will pick up some chicken on way so we are taking some meat too but by only buying the chicken we are saving quite a bit

Kittens have been going out into the garden and loving it, the lawn was so long that they could play hide & seek before. Yesterday we borrowed our neighbours lawn mower and mowed it early morning and takes up the excess- it's not looking the best but we can start mowing it weekly and have read up on how to look after the lawn so we should be good.

Download festival in a couple of weeks with my bestie- we're pretty close so both our girlfriends are going to take turns picking us up each night, we just have to work out how to get there. Trains/busses should be pretty easy from Leicester though.

Off to check on cake and then time for a cuppa and a read of more diaries: I'm living vicariously through the diaries whilst there isn't much money shuffling going on for us!

Tonight's culinary exploits in the house of kittens was using up some ys chicken drumsticks (50p) so found a recipe for a spicy chicken with mango & beans. We tweaked it: no rice but added red pepper, frozen sweetcorn & courgette instead and it was delicious!!

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/chicken-drumstick

Served it with tender stem brocolli that was on offer at Lidl the other week yummy & frugal as used up mangos from gf's mum (they are in season)

Took a walk to our local Tescos to peruse the ys area but by 3pm it was all gone- we were obviously too late this week!

Kittens appear to have had a bit of a rough fight last night as we've spotted little Oscar has some small cuts on his mouth...will keep an eye and make sure it's nothing more serious than rough & tumble!

We have the rest of this week off so just relaxing with a cuppa before the next gym session- although I ran 8km yesterday and then went on the spin bike for 20mins so am a little tired!

My cousin and his family are over tonight for dinner, got the last of the cooked turkey from that crown at Christmas out (got four people's portion left luckily) and some bacon from freezer already chopped when YS. Going to make a turkey and bacon pie using the lighter puff pastry we got for £1. Whack some veggies in and sorted. Will serve with the free roastie potatoes we got through shopmium a few weeks ago.

Will be lovely to see them and pleased we are sticking to the budgets!

Been playing with figures and decided to reduce the amount going into my 2% regular saver as the interest is lower then the mortgage. As I still want to build up the Emergency Fund I'm popping £175 a month in and switching the additional £75 to the mortgage for the next few months.

I think this is more financially sensible as we are at the start of the mortgage and from the numbers it looks like overpayments now have a bigger impact

This means the EF may only be up to 6months expenses by Christmas time but I'm still happy with this.

We've also decided to not continue the free cat insurance we got with the kittie package from the vets- it was free for four weeks only which is now up- we're both putting £20 a month into savings instead for them as an emergency. We both have a few £k in savings already if the worst was to happen as a back up whilst the money builds. All kitty food, injections, etc will just come out of our normal money so we build up the kitty EF

Right,must stop procrastinating and get my bum to the gym!!