Move mortgage mountain project

julliff

Hello

Squirrel, thnks for your reply. I know exactly where you are coming from. I was working and earning, but never seemed to get ahead. Whenever I tried to budget, I ended up feeling like I was such a tightwad and killjoy. Anyway, those days are over.

Thank you to all of you for the kind messages for our lovely cat. We buried him in the garden last monday, under the leylandiis (sp). Miss him lots. On that note, does anyone know if I need to tell the insurance people about his passing? Or will the vets do that?

Work is just madness at the moment. Have been pressurised into working today (Sunday). At least I get paid for it! I worked til midnight on Tuesday (fom 8am) and as I am on a day rate, I get nothing for that! I plan to put the extra money from today towards my car loan fund. Once I have that all put to one side, I will be able too put more money in my Mortgage Overpayments saving fund.

At the moment, I am saving 50ps & 20ps. I have just started £2 coins as well! When I get £20 of each type I will bank them.

I was planning to put a few things on ebay today, but I don't know if I will have the energy after work - I'll have to see.

Primrose

julliff -I think you will need to notify your pet insurance company of your cat's death. If you have paid the premiums up front, and are not planning to get another cat, you may be entitled to a small premium. Don't let them fob you off on this. You should no longer be paying for a service you're not receiving.
Hope you don't have to work all day today. You must be feeling tired!

*Jellie*

Sorry to hear about your cat. It is a shame you're working so much but at least today you're getting paid for it. Good luck with your journey.

julliff

It seems to be so difficult to keep this diary up – life is always too chaotic!

Yesterday my pc decided to crash and burn – so tonight I will be trying to resurrect it (its like being at work, but at home!). Could end up being a complete rebuilt – hope not.

Before it crashed I spent a load of time in MS money, trying to analyse my spending. The only trouble is, that a lot of banks & CC companies are not offering export to .ocx files, only csv. I think this is because Microsoft have dropped MS Money, and no longer support it. Made me start thinking of designing my own budgeting database, into which I can import the csv files. How sad am I?

I am cancelling my Which subscription – I don’t really need it. You can get online reviews of stuff anyway. I’m not sure whether to ditch my fee paying current account. At the moment I have a savings policy which pays 8% interest for 12 months, as a perk for fee paying customers. I also got a good mortgage rate – although I don’t suppose they can change it now, can they? On top of that I would need to buy breakdown insurance, and travel insurance (if I go anywhere).

I managed to get another quote for decorating my hall, which was £875. this seems a lot more reasonable then the first. This chap has also been recommended to me, so he should be alright.

The girls are complaining that the house is cold, and can we turn on the heating. I am determined that we won’t turn on the central heating until October, but I do allow then to put on a halogen heater in the kitchen on a school morning. Our house does tend to feel cold, and it is a big house. I am considering getting cavity wall insulation, as I believe this is subsidised.

On a positive front, my contract has been extended for another 6 months, so that is one less thing to worry about.

I continue to feel a little peeved about my x; he offered to buy her a puppy last week, without even discussing it with me (he is not allowed pets in his flat, so it’s not like he was offering to have it).
Also DD2 has told him he doesn’t need to buy her a birthday present as he is taking her for a weekend to France. Then, she tells me she wants a laptop from me for her birthday! Never mind that I took her to the USA for two weeks! Sigh! Sorry, rant over.

julliff

Right,

Managed to get the computer back up and running. I uninstalled Norton, and went for a free firewall and anti- virus. Will save me the renewal cost.

I have also resolved to be better at shopping. I seem to lose receipts (I don’t know where they go, but I am the King Canute of paper), and end up keeping items which I should have taken back. So far, I have found:

Pair of black trousers - £14
Art case for DD1- £15.99
Wrangler Jeans - £25

They are all still brand new with tags. So, I need to come up with a routine where I know where all receipts are, and make sure that I take these things back in a timely fashion. I bet there are other items like this lurking around in my cupboards!

I will put all of these on ebay, a few quid is better than nothing at all.

Primrose

I sympathise with your feeling that your life is cluttered and sometimes disorganised. This is something you can change over a period of time but it does need some self discipline in deciding those things which are priority and important and those that are not. And you probably can do without the expense (and mess and damage) caused by a puppy in your life, even though you are probably hugely missing your cat so put your foot down firmly over this one now if you don't want to go down this route. (Dirty paw marks over your about-to-be-newly decorated hall ??!)
Putting on thicker sweaters is one answer to the cold house problem. It's hard to train kids who find it easier to turn up the thermostat than climb up stairs to find a sweater but they do need to understand that heating bills have to be budgeted for.
And glad your contract has been renewed. That's one less thing to worry about for 6 months.

tootallulah

The cluttered life thing rings bells with me too and I am spending large amounts of short burst time cleaning and sorting things to make everything simpler. It is taking me a lot of time to properly do a one bedroom flat, goodness knows how people do this in a whole house. I have followed your diary from the beginning and view what you have done with no little admiration. You are doing brilliantly.

julliff

Well, I NEARLY had a NSD yesterday! Apart from buying DD1 a 45p bar, I did not spend at all. That’s very unusual for me. Work provided Bacon rolls, and it was someone’s birthday, so I got a large cookie too. That saw me through the whole day.

I have been over to the OS board, and now I am menu planning:

Mon Sweet & Sour
Tues: Chicken Pie, Mash & broccoli
Weds: Spaghetti Bolognese
Thursday: Omelettes & potato wedges
Friday: Casserole in the slow cooker
Sat: Out
Sunday: Roast Chicken & trimmings

It makes me feel more organised just looking at that!

Other progress:

Applied for a Lloyds current account, as they pay 4% interest, which is better ten most savings accounts. I’m not sure if they will accept me as I already have two current accounts. Once my 12 months is up on the fee paying a/c, I will probably close that (just hanging on for my 8% interest).

Rang EnergyTrust to arrange for a free urvvey to see if I can have cavity wall insulation.

Received an Energy Monitor from eon, and BIL is coming over this evening to set it up for me (I know, I know, I should be doing this myself, but he is an electrician, and he offered).

Other impediments:

Seem to be getting a lot of requests for money from the school at the moment. I know that most of them a “Voluntary” contributions, but I feel like I should pay, as there are many people who genuinely cannot afford to pay, and if no-one pays, things will get cancelled. I also know that our LEA is one of the worst funded in the country. (Doesn’t stop me being a bit peeved about it though).

Still, overall, I am pleased with progress!

Primrose

Well done Jullifff. You do seem to be getting very organised which I'm sure helps you to feel more efficient. You probably have one of those computer-based diaries. I use Lotus Organiser, and find it a real boon, not only for putting in birthdays which appear every year, but for anniversary expiry dates for house/car insurance policies, and the dates when fixed term savings accounts, etc end. I go in and put in reminder entries a fortnight beforehand, so have time to do things in an orderly way without suddenly realising I've got a pistol to my head. We've got one of those energy monitors. It's a bit frightening to see how it can zoom up when lots of electrical appliances are running, especially electric oven, dishwater, etc. so it does act as a good incentive to think about the way you run things.
And hope you haven't yielded to that request for a puppy yet ??

julliff

Hi Primrose

That is an excellent idea to use Outlook calendar. I use it all the time at work, but never thought to use it at home.

I am definitely standing firm on the puppy. DD2 knows that it is not a good idea, because the poor thing would be home alone all day. I jabe, however, decided to get another cat sometime soon. I am still missing furbones, but I wouldlike to give a cat from the rescue centre a home. The childish part of me wants to do this before x buys one for the kids, and then has some "claim" (I know this will not make sense to most people, but I need to not let him control things from afar). Sorry if this sounds bitter and twisted.