Category Archives: mortgage

Extra mortgage payment & decluttering

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Our holiday is all now all paid for. I made the last payment yesterday. The only costs now will be anything we spend when we are there and we don’t usually spend much at all. So now I can get back to paying every spare cent off the mortgage.

I made an extra mortgage payment of $800 yesterday with a new mortgage balance of $152,264. Feels good to be back on track with extra payments.

Made a big batch of cauliflower rice which tasted fantastic! Just cauliflower chopped finely with onion, bacon, leftover lamb, carrots, peas and egg cooked in a little olive oil. DD took this lovely photo of it for me – she’s much better at food photos than me.

Today I’m still working on decluttering in the lounge room. I’ve sorted a couple of boxes already this morning. I still have several cupboards to go that are filled with old games, CD’s and old newspapers/ family papers. My plan is to fill some more bags for Vinnies over the coming week from the lounge and bedroom and do a trip to the op shop next weekend.


Mortgage milestones & holiday plans

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I made an extra payment on the mortgage to reach the end of Year 11 total on the original amortisation schedule.

So our current mortgage balance is now $154,682. My next goal is to get under $150,000

It feels good to mark another year off that chart and to see how much interest we have saved.

We made some changes to our holiday plans and had to pay extra to change our flights. I also didn’t take into account some of the taxes that get applied so our final price is more than I originally planned. However its going to be an awesome holiday (Canada, Alaska, Japan) so it will be worth it!  I need to spend the next month or so paying for it so I won’t be making as much extra payments off the mortgage till that is done.

This and that…

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Last week was a sad one at work. Attending farewells, saying goodbye to colleagues who’ve lost jobs. Some have worked there for 30+ years, dedicated teachers.  At one farewell all my conversations were about peoples plans for either retirement, hanging in until possible redundancy, or applying for other jobs.

This is my third restructure. I’m so over it. The organisations’ values are not the same as they used to be and all of us ‘oldies’ are not wanted anymore. I no longer speak up about things as I used to. There is no point wasting my energy unless I really have to. I am there to set myself up for retirement and I am ticking off the days until I can leave.

Yesterday I did the grocery shopping. My savings were: $20 in survey vouchers, $10 CC points and $38.64 savings from specials. So at Coles I got $270 worth of groceries for $200. My plan had been to track all my grocery spending in detail on my blog but I am just too tired now that I’m back at work for a few months and alsodoing the extra work. So I’ll track the savings only for the time being.

We didn’t walk much last week at all, DH has hurt his knee so will give it a rest until next weekend before we start again. I do miss it when we don’t go. The picture in this post is from the last day we walked.

I’ve made no progress on the house decluttering at all, or the yard. I am going to just spend April getting caught up at work and then get stuck into the house again in May.

Well thats a quick update on a few things. I’m feeling reasonably good, just very busy. I’m managing to keep out of the stress and politics at work most of the time so that is good. I’m just accepting that I need to knuckle down and work hard for a year or so but it will be worth it when the mortgage is gone for good.

1719 days to go!