I have more than enough for my needs BUT I really WANT a landrover

Pippilongstocking

hope you're feeling a bit better today

Travel keeps the other bits of life a bit happier I think -

I'm hoping you'll have a dally up north at some point

Off to catch up on your diary x

Pippilongstocking

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Life's too short to be hoovering under sofas! :rotfl:

Glad you're feeling a little better, even if stiff and sore. And I'm SO glad you've finally got that blinking hire car! :T :T Hope you've had several apologies for all the fiasco :mad: and glad Moo got a nice run in the forest

Glad you've been plotting - always good for the spirit I believe And hooray to a new diary - this one is lovely of course :d but a shiney new one is always exciting too

Exactly what Cheery quoted my thoughts too

Hoovering under a sofa indeed - above and beyond.

Cheery_Daff

Wouldn't catch me hoovering under a sofa :rotfl:

I'm funny with travel cherisong, not that interested in travelling very far, but I *do* miss days out :rotfl: just little ones, to the seaside, or weekends away in a different city, even if it's only 20 miles away :rotfl: So I'm all about holidays, but not very much about travelling, if you see what I mean?!

Not sure I'm even making sense to myself now!

The percentages thing sounds good too :T When I get paid my full time wages, I'm aiming for 25% straight into longer term savings account to keep options open for later - then some more for emergencies/house repairs etc, and some more for holidays, and some more for increasing the general living budget a little. Should probably work it all out in percentages though!

MrsMoo2U

Thanks Pippa.

Oh Cheery that makes perfect sense. I consider holidays and travel one and the same thing and I really dont have to go far either. I am as happy travelling to the next town to investigate as I am travelling to another continent. I just love to see new places. I harbour this idea of buying a camper van, taking a year off work and travelling around Britain as there are so many places that I would like to see. Next year will be about going to places in Britain mainly. Places that I can take Moo with me but also having some girlie weekends with my friends who live a while away.
I have been very lucky to have been to some really lovely places in South America and the Carribean but I have been to some equally beautiful places in Britain and I really want to see more of it. Pippi, I have every intention of dragging OH back to Orkney to show me his favourite places and to meet some of his friends (who do keep trying to keep in touch with him but he has this fear of contacting them as he has put Orkney in a box with a lid on it) Apart from which I LOVE Scotland and I want to see more of it.

MrsMoo2U

Some of the best places I have been to

Scotland
Invertrossachs
Crianlarich and Killen (Falls of Dochart are stunning)
Arrochar (almost bought a shop there)
Grantown on Spey
Loch Lomond (I swear that is heaven on earth)

England
Dorset Lyme Regis (Mmm maybe that is heaven on earth)
Cornwall
Newcastle
Kendal
Liverpool (oh that is like the party in heaven on earth)
London
Somerset Wookey Hole/Cheddar Gorge

Wales
Most of it but favourite places
Cardiff
Snowdon
Bala Lake
Llangrannog
Brecon Beacons

Foreign favourite places

Miami
Puerto Vallarta Mexico - Aberystwyth in the Sun

MrsMoo2U

It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to get credit! And then it never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to say yes to the offer of that credit. And so it goes on until one day they say NO and that is the day that you need them the most.
Yesterday I decided to make the most of my enforced time of work and put some things in order. I have a MINT card which I have just transferred the balance off to another card at 0%. I decided to ring them to close the card. Instead they offered me a life of balance transfer at 1.9%! I declined. I was rather proud of myself because it would have been so easy to say yes. However, I have all of my cards on 0% until at least February. I have been quite good at the old shuffling lark so far. I have an £8000 limit on this MINT card, never asked for that they just kept upping the amount all the time. Never got to that amount. Even when I needed money for the mortgage deposit shortfall. So I ended up putting the phone down and realised that I had not cancelled the card after all. DOH

I then attempted to buy a new dog bed and a small parrot cage for my boys on two different websites. Both of which let me get as far as the putting the payment details in and then I got errors saying there was a problem with some data. Is somebody trying to tell me something I wonder? I do need these two things and I do have the cash for them but I am feeling quite spooked by it so I have retreated. I will have a think about it today.

So plans for today are a visit to the doctors for blood tests. Whilst out I will be doing some shopping in the supermarket next door to the doctors and that will see me through the next few weeks when I have no car again. I only have the hire car until Sunday evening. So I need to get my thinking cap on. I have to have a car, I have very little in savings (£1000 emergency fund) and the car that I have just written off was valued at a very small amount and I have a £250 excess. What to do? This will be my priority for the next week to have a good think. OH says to wait until we arrive back from holiday but I am concerned that I will have no car for work. Although I can request hire cars for work when travelling over 150 miles in the day I am not sure how they would feel for me to hire one every time I need to go anywhere.

The sky is very grey and heavy here. Looks like at some point today the snow will fall again. Oh well, it does look pretty out there. Roads here are mostly clear except for the village I can be on clear roads in just over 2 miles travelling.

I realise that my diary has been a bit all over the place lately with very little debtbusting posts. I will remedy this shortly but for now I am just taking baby steps.

Karmacat

You sound as though you're at a bit of a crossroads, cheri - what do you think the message is? As to your debtbusting - your cards are all on 0% which is really good, do you have loans as well? What do you want to do for debtbusting - the little stuff that we've all done, or looking at bigger and better?

MrsMoo2U

KC - no I have no loans. Just 3(now) cards. The debt on them was all due to a last minute hitch in the mortgage last year. I bought a brand new flat. Seems the mortgage companies got jittery about them and despite me having more than enough to buy it and have money left over with a 75% LTV, the surveyor downvalued it with just 7 days left before exchanging contracts. I had no option but to go ahead as if I had backed out I had to pay 10% so I was between the devil and the deep blue sea. I did the right thing though because mine was the only one downvalued, they all sold within days of going on the market and the next phase have just been released at £3000 more than I paid and have all been sold very quickly. So, I console myself with the thought that, had things gone smoothly this would in fact be on my mortgage and not on credit cards. I hate debt and have never had debt of my own. Although I was left with some debts to clear when my exoh left me as he had racked up credit cards and talked me into remortgaging our house to pay off the debts two weeks before he left!

So I want to really break the back of it next year if I can. I guess that I should see it as paying off my mortgage quicker and at a lower interest rate because I do have them all on 0% at the moment. I just get a bit obsessed about debt as I grew up in a household where my Mum was rubbish with money (although I have to admit that she never had debts as such)

Wow, that was a long post. And would you believe in the middle of it I have had another row with the car hire company because they just rang to say that they are collecting the car from me this evening. NO WAY JOSE. I was promised 3 days and 3 days I will bloody well have I said. Sent them back to the insurance company to sort it out.

Cheery_Daff

Oh good grief cherisong! I do hope you'll be writing a couple of VERY strongly worded letters to the insurance company, and the car hire company, and possibly the local newspaper as well?! Absolutely outrageous! Funny how they can get to you quickly enough to collect it but not deliver it....

MrsMoo2U

Thanks Cheery. I had VERY STRONG words with the insurance company. At the point that I told them that they were in breach of their contract with me and I might take legal advice they said that they would sort it out. In fairness to the insurance company they have been very good when I have contacted them, it is the car hire company, a very enterprising lot I might say. However, as I said to the insurance company I deal with them not their subcontractors and if the subcontractor is doing a bad job then it is a reflection on the them. I have now been told that I can keep the car until Monday morning.
In other news they have advised me that the car is a write off (which I expected due to its age and value) They asked me what I wanted for it. I tried a cheeky £960 - they offered me £900 :eek: I should have asked for more :eek: so I accepted. With an excess of £250 that leaves me expecting a cheque of £600. so either a deposit and taking out a loan (should I be able to get one) or another cheap car. Decisions Decision.