Reach for the stars...

niccatw

Ah, but Miggy, you have reminded me of what I have overlooked. I don't have an emergency fund. And I need one! If the factors had to do something to the building, my terms and conditions state I need to pay them within 14 days. Can you imagine my panic if that were to happen tomorrow???

So far everything I have had to pay out has been under £50 so it's been fine. Inevitably that won't last!

So, in that case, the easy access ISA is the way to go!

Ooft, this being a grown up is a bit of a minefield, ain't it! But I think if I am saving for an emergency fund, I'll be restrained on raiding it!

The trouble will start when I am rich enough to save for non essential stuff like holidays. I'll be much more likely to raid a theoretical holiday fund for new furniture/clothes/fun things that are not a holiday but I want right now.

Although, I will off course have learned how to budget properly by then. Ahem.

Butti

My terror is the boiler going. Can you imagine!!!

Lodger wants us to tidy the garden up this weekend. Two weeks before my Masters dissertation has to be in. Next door have very helpfully dug a large hole!

niccatw

Oh Butti, mine too! Though if it's going to go, the next few months would be better than say, November!

My other fear is the electric box. It's rather old.

Erm, you lodger is way more demanding than mine was. Mine was just there. Can she "tidy up" the garden and leave you in peace to do your dissertation?

Poor mum called to find out when they could come up with my nephew (we are going to take the boat across the river to the "new" transport museum). I had to admit it might be a good few months yet as there was no furniture in the room and half the paper had been stripped and I will only be able to do a little bit month on month.

Not that I could tell, but she was probably rolling her eyes at the other end of the phone. I doubt she expected anything less when I spent my childhood in various places Dad was doing up and my teenage years watching them knock down all but the outer four walls of the house they currently live in (which does now have more than four walls).

But how bad did I feel! Such a bad daughter and Aunty! (And when it is all done up, my poor nephew will not be allowed in the room on his own lest he finds a way of adding a 5 year old's touch of creativity to the room :eek:.)

niccatw

Eh, hail in Hampshire? It was only sporadically raining here.

"In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire [STRIKE]hurricanes[/STRIKE] hail [artistic licence] hardly ever happen” Eliza Doolittle, Pygmalion

miggy

niccatw wrote: »

Ooft, this being a grown up is a bit of a minefield, ain't it! But I think if I am saving for an emergency fund, I'll be restrained on raiding it!

When I come to think of it, I have accidentally grown a little list of things that make me feel grown up: having an emergency fund is on there of course! Overpaying the mortgage (even once by £10 counts) is not only grown-up making, it smacks of financial wizardry and a Swiss Bank Account - not that I have either.

Then there are the things that make being grown-up a bit less relishable, such as DD declaring I have a marvellous vintage wardrobe when trawling through my old favourites in the loft!

I'm sure you'll enjoy your ISA. If you ever get the hang of them please would you explain it to me? Preferably in nice short, easy to understand words.

niccatw

:rotfl: Relish your DD declaring your wardrobe to be wonderfully vintage!

Though you obviously aren't as keen to declutter as I am! You have a loft full of clothes? What else is up there?

I went to the business start up awareness course on Saturday morning and then jumped straighht in the car down to my friends for the weekend. Have spent most of today jumping on the trampoline with wibbly-wobbly children. I was of little help to mummy who was trying to fix a hoard of bikes and trikes and such.

Another weekend that I have managed to avoid the state of the flat! The easy bits of the wallpaper are now off. The next bit is the messy, soaking with warm water bit.

Then hopefully I can get it plastered in the next few weeks.

I'm now away off to browse on ebay for cheap bits and pieces of all the ideas I have tumbling around in my head. The interior design evening classs starts this week. I've not yet had a phone call to say they haven't got the numbers, so I'm hopefull it will go ahead.

At the very least, I might learn to measure a room properly!!!

Butti

niccatw wrote: »

Erm, you lodger is way more demanding than mine was. Mine was just there. Can she "tidy up" the garden and leave you in peace to do your dissertation?

But how bad did I feel! Such a bad daughter and Aunty! (And when it is all done up, my poor nephew will not be allowed in the room on his own lest he finds a way of adding a 5 year old's touch of creativity to the room :eek:.)

Ah yes but 5 year olds can be VERY creative in a very destructive manner.....and you have to not get upset.....and I am very much on the edge at the mo.

Lodger has stopped whining about the garden but has planted a load of stuff out in the pots on the balcony. It's taken me about 5 hours to work out that those are the pots that I have filled, composted and made ready for tomatoes.(I'm not very on the ball!) GGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Notice or death? What do you think?

niccatw

I'd maybe go with notice first! That way, when you are standing up in court, you can say well I did give her notice, so I think my subsequent actions were perfectly reasonable your honour.

I have eventually managed to sneak home for lunch so I can actually call NRAM and pay off the unsecured loan bit of my mortgage. In theory this would mean I can jump ship to another mortgage provider. In practice, as with lots of people, I can't as I am don't have enough equity. To combat this I upped my D/D by £60 a month as I am no longer paying the student loan.

I also have enough left over to get the spare room plastered. (Which really should be going to the next debt I want to bust!)

Anyhoo, plastering and then debt of £1000 to be busted. This is what I owe to a friend and as everything left is now 0% or coming off my wages (student loan 2), I'd rather he was paid before the big financial institutions!

Right, best get back to work. Will update signature and totals later.

PS Interior design course starts tonight. You need to be a much more organised person than me to go to a three hours course straight after work! What have I done!

niccatw

Right, need some organisation this morning! I can't seem to get started for paralysing myself with everything I want to cram in to today!

So far I have taken the bins down! But I need to finish stripping the last of the wallpaper in the spare room. The fiddly hard bits are left; the high up bits that need soaked off. Then I need to clear up the paper!

I ought to clean the flat, especially the living room and my bedroom. It's really suffering the dust from lack of skirting boards!

Then I need to head to a local DIY store to get the electrical stuff for the plasterer. I should probably pop in to the nearby sofa and furniture places and see if I can scavenge swatches and stuff for my night class... will see how brave I feel!

I also need to head into the city centre. :eek: On a Saturday. :eek::eek: In the afternoon. :eek::eek::eek: To see if I can get the bits and bobs I need for my night class.

I need to take more stuff to the dump and get rid of the stuff my friend wants to car boot as she hasn't come to get it yet.

I have the money saved for the plaster and I'd like him to come in the next few weeks so I can get the walls in the spare room sorted. I've sent for some samples of nature paint and if I like the colours, I have a DIY store voucher that can only be used on paint, so I can at least get the hall and spare room looking more like rooms...

I am feeling guilty as the money I have saved up for the plasterer is just under half of what I need to pay my friend back. I know he is fine with waiting. I am not. But it also doesn't make sense to have a big, empty room lying there and no be able to use it! Argh. Decisions.

I think I am doing my usual and running ahead of myself. I can get the plaster and painting done. But then I'll likely have a big empty room waiting for me to save up for the flooring and skirtings.

I guess I haven't figured out the best way to balance paying off debt with spending money now I am at a stage where not every spare penny needs to go to the debt.

This bit is much harder than I anticipated. I don't think I am completely cured of spending, spending, spending! Yes, I am much better at thinking about whether I need and can afford it, but I'm just as likely to kid myself on and trick myself in to justifying why I do need something...

This is probably confounded by speaking to one of the conference speakers who was just out in Uganda (the most likely place I'd be sent if I was doing VSO) and who was trying to implement what we were talking about in our conference (which she is hugely experienced in doing) and they are just not ready for it. That in itself doesn't put me off, but they way that they are currently working is a model that really frustrates me... so I am still trying to figure out how I build up indpendent practice stuff, get published (:eek:) and move towards doing something like VSO...

Methinks I need a rather large windfall to do it all at once! And a big sign in the flat saying I don't have to do it all at once! I am only a wee human, I am not a miracle worker!!! :rotfl:

And I haven't opened an ISA yet. Thinking about it was grown up enough for me... Too much stuff tumbling around my wee head!

Anyway, for now I am going to have a cup of tea and toast and then I will tackle the fiddly wall paper!

PS Did any-one see Louis Theroux's programme about autism? You must watch it! Another part of my job that I love. But if I say any more I will go into work rant mode or American rant mode.

And today is Saturday and who wants to rant of a weekend? (That is not an invitation! You know who you are. :rotfl:)

Have a nice day y'all!

niccatw

Ooh 'eck. I'm bleeding knackered! Ok, didn't make it into town yesterday. Or today. But don't seem to have stopped. Today I gutted the living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. The clutter is now confined to under the table in the living room (stuff I need to sort through) and in or on top of the wardrobe in the bedroom.

I cleared all but the handwashing from the washing basket and put away all the clothes that have been waiting forever to be ironed. They be waiting longer than forever for that ever to be my priority.

Instead I stained the wee bookcase (not the wobbly one) and two champagne boxes I use as bookcases. I'm fair chuffed with them.

Doesn't sound as much now I've written it all down! But it took me all day!

And I've a busy week ahead. Think it's time for a holiday!