Gallygirl's 95 month challenge - now 'only' 92 months

shopgirl2512

Just PMd you...Message received! Thanks very much!

gallygirl

Quick update. Computer is in for repairs at a minimum cost of £55 :eek: . Surge protector being bought PDQ .

I feel totally cut off without it - although I have back ups of excel etc they are about a month old so don't want to try to update one month's transactions :mad: . Hoping for good news tomorrow and want to update spreadsheets - NOW .

Hopefully quidco money will be in tomorrow. £145.30 :j , however doesn't count till it's in the spreadsheets really .

Got 1 mystery shop tomorrow and 2 Thursday, so that will be good, and will be doing 4 @ €20 each on Sat. New company scoring me highly so hopefully that will work out ok.

On the car front I am hoping to have some time on Thurs to have a test drive of another car. Watch this space. If I am going to buy one I will probably do so at the weekend. Maybe

Wanted to stay up to watch election but too tired as no spreadsheets to keep me entertained. Will wait to hear Ohio then hit the sack. Night all x

frazzmunch

noooo!! not computer death!!:mad: that is so annoying for you....they always seem to go when you least expect it...:rolleyes:

well done on the mystery shopping and quidco though..:j

will keep my fingers crossed that you get the car you want....it is such a trauma having to replace them (well, it is for me anyway!!) i don't know a thing about them and always feel like i may be getting ripped off...i am far too cynical for my own good!!:rotfl: Happy hunting...:D

setmefree2

gallygirl wrote: »

Wanted to stay up to watch election but too tired as no spreadsheets to keep me entertained. Will wait to hear Ohio then hit the sack. Night all x

I wonder what time you went to bed?:rotfl:I got up at 5am this morning - IMHO I think it was the best news ever;)

SmlSave

Wanted to stay up to watch election

Wasn't it nice to wake up and see good news on the TV this morning? :rolleyes:

I hope your computer will be all fixed soon

When are you off to NY gally?

gallygirl

:T V pleased re Obama. I look at Bush and think 'out of a country of hundreds of millions is that the best they could do '.

Puter is ok :j but monitor has gone :mad: . I thought both had gone - puter wouldn't boot up so I thought def. problem with it but it seems it is only the monitor. Why didn't I get one off freecyle to try it . Never mind, have put request on just now (meant to do earlier but forgot) so hopefully will be back to normal tomorrow & I can update spreadsheets at last .

Took a car for a test drive tonight, not sure if I really want it, dk what to do . Will try to test drive both short listed models at the weekend one after the other, then decide.

Sml, off to NY at end of Feb :T . Still a while to go, so time to lose 2 stone so can buy designer bargains .

Yay to BoE :T . 2 of our 3 mortgages are on trackers with Egg's variable rate - they are pretty good at passing on cuts so here's hoping :think: . The other is a bank rate tracker with C&G and they have already announced the cut :j. Will be able to assess impact on that one tomorrow and will increase monthly OP into offset to account for it.

Went to an award dinner with OH last nice, there were 4 categories with around 500 nominations in each (he works for large national co). He knew he was nominated but not that he was in final ten for one award. Ended up as runner up :T :T . Was v proud of him, especially with all the nice things people said to him afterwards. He works v hard so nice to get some recognition. Well done hon :kisses2: . And he looked v handsome in black tie . I think he was secretly relieved not to win as he would have had to buy champagne for the table :rolleyes2 , he has 'issues with celebrating' (i.e.can't pay for champagne unless from supermarket :rotfl:).

gallygirl

Was off sick (trust me, you don't want to know, but a lot of moving quickly was involved at times ). Felt better this afternoon so decided to do some jobs.

Tried to change battery in smoke alarm. Couldn't take it apart. Broke it. Took me an hour to find one big enough to fit over hole from last one (was wired in as well as needing a battery ).

Tried to fix blind in en suite.It ended up falling down. Have had to buy some wood to stick up so I can attach some hooks to it. Need to paint it first. Had to buy 'no more nails' and hooks as well.

Picked up 19" monitor from Freecycler . Mentioned I was taking some old glasses to Specsavers & she gave me a load so dropped off about 10 pairs in total.

Ordered 2 surge protectors Thurs off ebay & they turned up today - that's what I call service . On the other hand the refilled ink cartridge has had to go back as they sent the wrng one. It;s not worth the effort, won't be doing that again

Went to pick up PC. Nice man didn't charge me :kisses3: so will be getting some Quality Street or something for workshop next week. Couldn't do today as needed to get home quick (see 1st post ).

Have had mammoth tidy up of study :j, however that mostly involves chucking stuff into hall to go elsewhere so that needs doing now :rolleyes:.

Got PC up & running with new monitor. Oooohhh, v v big! Spent a happy hour updating spreadsheets so feeling back in control now . Still on target so that's good.

Spent time on internet researching cars yet again. Have ruled one out and another in, driving it tomorrow, then need to make a decision, for own sanity as much as anything. List price is £15,200 but found a dealer doing it for £10,495. Local dealer, who I like (all satff been there for years, including service staff) has said over phone he can match it, 'but it's not sraightforward', whatever that means .Hopefully it will all be ok as it's a good spec but still v economical (combined rate of 62mpg) & only £35 a year tax. It looks a bit grown up though :rotfl:. Need to decide how to finance it. May try for 0% credit card then borrow the rest from offset . Don't panic, it will be all be paid off in 33 months. Hopefully .

OK, off to fight my way out of the study, wish me luck

gallygirl

I appear to have bought a car . I'm happy I've got a good deal as other garages wouldn't match it. I've traded in my car and need to pay £9222 - next week . So, I've decided to lend myself the money from the offset. Mortgage rate will be 4.24% soon so couldn't borrow it any cheaper.

This will seriously affect my MFIT challenge. I hope it doesn't impact too much on the overall figures . However, I think I can still catch up by the end of the challenge .

At the moment OH & I have separate finances & he matches my OP's. My intention is to keep that as it is and keep track of the £9222 separately. I intend to pay it off by the time I'm 50, meaning I can hopefully still meet my own challenge to pay off (or have in offset) the full amount of our mortgage by then. So, I'll be setting up a standing order of £280 to go into the offset every month which will pay back 'car loan' and then I will carry on paying as much as possible on top of that which OH will match.

If I can pay the £280, and OH & I pay £208 each in addition to this then we will be back on MFIT target by March 2010, just in the nick of time. I may fall behind at first but hopefully will soon get back on track. At the moment I've been paying a minimum of £200 to offset, plus £57.50 for NY. I've just had a pay rise and new car will be cheaper to run, hopefully saving around £50 a month . So that is £280 easily accounted for.

I've budgeted for all of NY and Xmas costs bar £115 which will come from Nov & Dec's salary. Then all ebay & competition wins will go to mortgage so that will be a good incentive to enter lots of comps. I am off between Xmas & New Year so will hopefully enter a lot then & get a nice start to the year. And hopefully in spring I will have another £200 a month from mum's house so that will be my additional £200. Only £8 left to find.

H*ll, this is going to be easy :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Oops, better input mystery shop, that will be £10 towards it

StuartGMC

gallygirl wrote: »

I appear to have bought a car . I'm happy I've got a good deal as other garages wouldn't match it. I've traded in my car and need to pay £9222 - next week . So, I've decided to lend myself the money from the offset. Mortgage rate will be 4.24% soon so couldn't borrow it any cheaper.

Gallygirl, you have done the right thing; reviewed options, got competitive quotes and paid for it from savings. You appear to have got a great deal so consider that saving in addition to the running costs.

Sounds like you can also bring back on track too, but I trust you have considered your annual saving needed for a replacement in whatever period of time is appropriate to your use (3yrs?) within the MF plan?

gallygirl

Thanks Stuart. I got 30% off list price :eek: so am sure I got a good deal. Re the saving..... I have had my current car for 5 yrs & she has done 125,000 miles. I don't envisage replacing Juliet (:o) any sooner than 5 years.

:shhh: tbh I am hoping I can keep her for 7 years till I'm 55 and then get rid of her when I retire to the sun. But don't tell anyone . If I do need to replace her it would only be to get me to 55 - I'd probably fund again from offset as the offset is by far my best incentive to save & OH matches it. But don't tell anyone. :shhh: