Thank you for the kick up the arse MrsMad
most Unfortunately even though we no longer have debt, we did until around 2 years ago and our credit ratings haven't recovered enough. We had a mortgage with a 10% deposit before lockdown, it didn't have the best interest rate but was completely affordable for us. Since lockdown, most of those mortgages are gone and lenders are asking us for 20-30% deposit.
The stress is awful to be honest, we've worked so hard to pay everything off, changed jobs to earn a better wage, saved our arses off, lived in a low cost house in an area we don't like much, literally get to our goal just for everything to shift in front of our eyes. It's maddening.
70 MIL and her H are similar to your DPs. The amount of stuff they have is nuts and their logic for it drives me crackers - they buy something, it doesn't do what they want / they don't like it. They don't return it / bin it / sell it / donate it - no they buy something else for the same purpose but keep the first one "just in case."
Example - bought a Hoover, it's too heavy. Bought hoover 2 - works fine but cable is too short and they don't like having to unplug it to move it around. Bought Hoover 3 which has no wires. They love it but battery doesn't last long enough to do the house and car and granny cottage. Couldn't possibly do one, charge, do the other. So they bought a handheld one for the car and a roomba for the granny cottage - they now own 5 bloody hoovers!
DH takes everything they palm off on him now, and sneaks all sorts out that they don't need / want then we donate / tip it.
I needed a few bits out of the attic today and DH had to get some of the Christmas decs our to get to it. Was nice, I had a little rummage through and found more kids Christmas books that I bought last year and forgot about
Tomorrow is my last day in my job - we're having a team zoom meeting to see me off and I'm a bit worried I'm going to get emotional (I don't do that at work ever). I've been with this team for 2 years and my current boss for longer than that - they're some of the best people I've ever worked with and that makes such a difference I think.
On top of that, I have agreed to a campervan holiday as our summer holiday has been cancelled. It's saving us money, gets us away and we leave as soon as I finish work so lots going on at the mo.