the daydream fund challenge thread

Davesnave

We are still white, but there's a keen SE wind here, so not as warm as it might be and the thaw could be more gradual. Heavy rain forecast for today hasn't materialised yet, but I'm sure it's on the way.

Everyone else has gone to the sales, so I have a day of peace.

Hopefully, those with bugs and sniffles can take a bit of time out for themselves now, just to recharge batteries. Moderate weather for a week or so should surely help.

....And meanwhile, in these quiet times, there are all those seed catalogues!

alfie_1

hello folks....
hope youve all survived the "eating fest"...
yesterday i did nothing...literally! 1st time in i dont know how long...i went out the door once and that was to shut the chooks in and feed the owl.
i have now decided i do not like doing nothing !!
i feel i wasted the day ? i didnt realise what i do DO until i didnt do it !!
anyway iv made up for it today and feel much better for it ! chopped wood, stacked, walked dogs, put flowers in for my mum [they went away 4 xmas] for when they got back later today. visited a friend , and shopped [only 4 milk and bread] oh and had a bonfire...
just had dinner and now watching top gears trip to bethlehem... [rpt fr xmas day]
its not so cold here, ice is melting so dont know what will happen next??

my sister lives near lower town on the edge of dartmoor and they were due to go to her daughter in gloucester for xmas but had to cancel cos they could not get up the hill to the road 1:25 ! they are so snowed in...doesnt help that my sister shattered her knee cap in september [did it jumping on a trampoline after her daughters wedding !! duuurrrr]

COOLTRIKERCHICK

its raining here now, now they are saying people in flood areas better be on their guard, due to all the snow melting might cause some flooding..

Hubby and i were talking about these cold winters we have had for the last 2 years.... its like the winters we used to have when we were young...Hopefully it might mean we are getting our seasons back, as it was like they were blending all into one, and you couldnt tell if it was autumn, summer or spring....

At least with this long harsh spell it will kill off any bugs in the ground... ( hopefully)

RAS

A belated season's greeting.

Christmas nearly got cancelled; the trains just worked, the roads just about worked but the last bit was fun; think BIL has been watching too much Hot Gear or whatever it is called. Even with 4 wheel drive the last section was hairy and took several takes.

Still cannot get up here with a standard vehicle. It will be a while before the bin lorry, postie or grit lorry gets up here to sort things out. So we have had a very quiet Christmas just with family. Much warmer here than at home but still bitter at night sometimes (minus 6 to minus 10) and barely above freezing in the day.

We had a snow clearing party on Christmas Eve, or I think both cars would have been parked down the hill. I have probably been out more than anyone, in the garden and walking the dog. It has started raining, so the thaw has come now. Positively balmy about 5 degrees ABOVE freezing late this afternoon.

I am hoping everything at home is OK; left the heating on low and it was sufficient to keep everything unfrozen when I was there when it was minus 11 or more at night and minus 6 all day, so fingers crossed.

RAS

choille wrote: »

http://wildwritingfromtheedge.blogspot.com/2010/12/bit-of-thaw.html

Glad to say we have nothing quite like that, although when the snow started to thaw at home many of the house had icicles hanging from the gutters (little ones).

choille

Hello RAS - Season's greetings to you.

Weather wise I think most people have copped it this year. Hope you find all the pipes intact when you get home.
The road here has been bad but it's okay today. We didn't really get that much snow, just the freeze that's been long & now it's half melted, it seems much slidier.

I've felt colder today - think it's the damp air. It was above freezing, but I felt chilled to the core.

CTC - Don't know if this will kill the bugs - didn't here after last Winter which was really harsh. Never seen so many ticks last Spring.

I'm looking at the weather, the thunder snow in America-shire & wondering if it's heading here. We had the thunder snow thing here about a month ago.

Did anyone see Wild China on the telly the other day? I didn't catch it all but it was amazing.

Poosmate

Hi all. I'm so glad it's getting warmer and thawing. I haven't put my car on the drive since last Wednesday, it's been too icy and there are too many obstacles to get round including ropey old cars that shouldn't be parked on the shared driveway and my neighbours nice new(ish) car and a concrete lamp post. I know one certainty is that if I was going to hit anything it would the the neighbours posh car that's parked on his own drive! That's sods law!

Wow! Just turned the news on and it's reporting 50cms of snow fell on Central Park!! EEK! I seriously hope we don't get that over here! We got 4 inches here in Staffordshire last week. I managed to get the car out but didn't want to risk putting it back on my drive for the reasons above and also because I wanted to give myself a bit of a chance of getting out should we have more snow. Last week more was predicted for tomorrow but haven't seen the weather forecast recently to see if that's been revised.

Rummer, I've spent the last two years sorting out my finances. The first year I built up enough savings to be able to pay large annual bills in cold hard cash rather than use my credit card (which was how my debt was spiraling out of control). Used a few "Get Out Of Jail Free" cards (survey points converted to pounds) to pay a little extra off debts, created a Snowball account using: http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx It's a fabulous tool for a long term outlook. This year I started typing a finance journal (like a diary) but just on my pc not on any public forum like in the DFW Forum. I find it very therapeutic to write things down and then analyse what I've written. I have 2 current account. Salary is paid into one then most of it goes into my bills account out of which all the household bills are paid. I wrote down all of my outgoings and more goes into the bills account than goes out. The surplus (less than £10 pcm) is transferred to my ISA account and occasionally I pay a lump sum off a debt. December to March are fab months because water rates are only paid over 8 months and council tax over 10 so there's a bigger surplus in the bills account in those months. My original plan was to pay all the surplus to my debts BUT I had to get a new old banger this year and it's turned out to be a money pit! I disagree with Martin Lewis that people in debt shouldn't have savings! These past few months I've had to pay out almost £400 in unexpected bills, had I not had some savings it would all have gone on my credit card! EEK! The plan now is to leave the surplus in the ISA account until the month is out and if no unexpected bills crop up then it will be used on debts.

Keeping a journal and creating my snowball calculator has been brilliant for me. It's kept me focused and taught me exactly where my money is and what it's doing when, shown me options I didn't know I had. I visit my snowball calculator most days and usually enter a log in my journal each day, even if it's just to state that I haven't spent anything or to remind myself that I have a bill coming up.

I am currently preparing for the inevitable BoE interest base rate rise. One thing is for certain, the mortgage companies won't be so slow in raising the interest rates as they were dropping them when the rate went down!

Gosh! Don't I babble on! Sorry for the long post I just love my finances now! I know I'm really sad, it's just that I've never been more in control of my out of control finances.

Good night all and speak again soon.

Poo

Davesnave

Poosmate wrote: »

Gosh! Don't I babble on! Sorry for the long post I just love my finances now! I know I'm really sad, it's just that I've never been more in control of my out of control finances.
Poo

No, I think it's great. Lots of people never have a light bulb moment, so they blame their predicament on something else. I spent [STRIKE]years[/STRIKE] decades in ignorance about finance.

All of us have the power to improve our lot, but it can be a bit of a slog, and it may involve journeys backwards, besides the direction in which we'd rather go. This is why so many give up.

Threads like this one help us to stay focused. We read of others having problems, or cutting their coat according to their cloth, and then we realise we're not alone.

rhiwfield

Rummer/Poo,

Being on top of your finances is a great feeling. I agree with Mr Micawber:

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the god of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and, in short, you are for ever floored."

To stay on top you have to know whats going on, hence Poo is doing just the right thing

Tom Petherick wrote the book Sufficient, a state of mind that recognises when you have enough. So who cares if you dont have an expensive holiday, or the latest gadget, or top of the range car. If you have enough to live the way you want, thats priceless.

A lot of the most unhappy people I've met are those who want that bit extra (or lot extra!). Millionaires who sleep with a copy of a tax guide to avoid paying their dues, not happy at all but rich beyond our dreams.

stitching_witch

rhiwfield wrote: »

Tom Petherick wrote the book Sufficient, a state of mind that recognises when you have enough. So who cares if you dont have an expensive holiday, or the latest gadget, or top of the range car. If you have enough to live the way you want, thats priceless.

I have a book on a similar vein called Enough by John Naish. I went to one of his presentations a few years ago and it really brings home the idea that enough is plenty for me!

In the eyes of my friends, I live in a grotty council house with not enough money to heat it, pay the rent or eat properly, but having been to Bulgaria and seen the shanty towns that the poor live in (corrugated tin and fertilizer sacks as building materials) I consider myself to be very rich indeed.

I have a favourate saying: I don't have money problems - no money, no problem!