That was scary; now to tackle the remaining mortgage

teapot2

Just been out to get new duvet with voucher - was going to get it in the week but it was that stormy day :eek: Looking forward to trying it tonight.

OH got some trainers in a sale and I also got some appropriate notebooks to do my accounts before the tax return - that'll come out of the business account. Sadly that is looking a bit depleted at the moment but I was off work before Christmas quite a bit around the funeral. Also waiting for an invoice to be paid for December but the cheque signatories aren't in till next week apparently then when I do get the cheque it takes 4 working days to clear :eek:.

Will have to replant my wallflowers tomorrow - looks like the storm has ripped them out of their container so they are looking a bit sad. The cyclamen are still hanging in there and adding a much needed bit of colour :cool:.

Got some stuff to clean the oven so might do that tonight..... what an exciting life I lead :rotfl:

teapot2

Cats eyes are all better now . He was prety good really with the eye drops although it did always take two people. I've learned that he panics if we try to grab his scruff so better to hold him in our arms.

Still not done tax return - must get on to it though. OH is away until tomorrw night so this is an ideal time to get on with it. So why am I on here instead ?

Got two cheques yesterday for work I did in December so that will help the business account a bit. One of my sessional jobs is having probs with funding so I've lost an hour a week there [I only do 4]. Nothing new on the horizon as yet but it takes a while to get going in the new year I guess.

I noticed some prices have gone up when I was shopping. I used to get 2 ready meals for £5.50 and keep them in the freezer as OH liked them. They've gone up to £6 for two so won't be getting them again. Think I need to do even more cooking from scratch - already do quite a bit.

I've got a physio appointment tomorrow as my back is really sore again - hope that will help. We made an OP of £400 last week which came from OH and thats nearly all of the 10% we can overpay. Theres another £30 or so before we reach the limit so I'll pay that in tomorrow.

Really frosty here already, I went to put the wheely bin out earlier and it was all white everywhere.

Have a good week everyone. Teapot x

stedwell

Hi Teapot
I went shopping at Mr S today and noticed that lots of things had gone up by 10 or 20p which all adds up.
Glad your cat is better. I always dreaded trying to give our cat a pill as he would hold it in his mouth until it dissolved and then he would froth!! :rotfl:

teapot2

Hi Stedwell, nice to see you . I got a bit alarmed at how many prices had gone up. I know vegetables are seasonal but leeks were £1 a pack last month and they were £2 when we went this time. As you say it all adds up. We only have a Mr A near us or its about 10 miles to Mr T. No Mr S round this way at all. The old Somerfield store which has been empty for a while might become an Aldi or Lidl according to local rumour but will wait and see.

We've had the non pill swallowing behaviour with previous cats. Nothing like a fizzy mass of half dissolved tablets to contend with. The vet showed us how to hold one particularly reluctant cat and then stroke his throat to induce swallowing - didn't work! We'd think he MUST have swallowed it now and he would pretend he had then I'd find a soggy tablet behind the settee :eek:

teapot2

Had a NS weekend! OH is poorly so we haven't been out and hes been spending lots of time in bed to try and rest as he has to go away with work on Tues so wants to feel better by then. I've been gradually doing my tax return and am getting there. This patchwork income is all very well but it doesn't half make it more complicated [or maybe I do that ]. Of course if I did the figures each month rather than just gathering piles of paper in a box and panicking each Janaury that would also help :o.

Got the boiler man coming tomorrow as the hot water isn't working and the boiler keeps losing pressure. Hopefully it won't be too expensive :eek:. We had to buy a new fridge freezer in December as our other one gave up the ghost and leaked over the floor and defrosted all the contents. It was just around the time our godson died so just went ahead and got a new one without too much research. Hopefully these things won't be happening in threes!

Listed some more books on Amazon - been very quiet on there so hope that might give sales a boost.

Have a good week everyone, Teapot x

teapot2

£150 for the boiler repairs :eek: it needed several parts replacing and it took him 2.5 hours. I did have some money put aside for repairs in case we lost roof tiles or the fence in the gales so used that. It is working much better now as is the upstairs shower which runs off it.

Well inevitably I caught OH's bugs and have had a really horrible cold and cough. Had to take a day off last week and have taken tomorrow off work as well to try and get rid of it. Not happy as am losing a days pay but my voice is going and I keep having coughing fits so I need to get well. Feel really tired today [day off] so haven't done much. Made some one pot mince and tatties for OH but was too tired to do anything else.

Managed to get my tax return in at the last minute as per usual - didn't help that my head felt like it was mince so hope the TR was ok. I did triple check it as they wanted a lot more tax than I was anticipating. Think I earned more than usual [which is not very much anyway] as I had six jobs at one point in that tax year before it all got too much and I downsized .

Mortgage out today so will update online tomorrow and report back. Off to bed now and hope I sleep - seem to start coughing when my head hits the pillow

pink_poppy

Hope you managed to get a good sleep last night, teapot & hopefully feel a bit better today. It must be hard to take days off when you know you're not going to get paid, but sometimes you need to just rest & take care of yourself otherwise you risk getting worse & having to take even more time off Sending you some virtual honey & lemon

Yaay on finally completing the tax return 6 jobs to account for sounds like a nightmare so I'm not surprised you kept putting it off!!

I'll be checking my mortgage balance today as well & doing the money juggling so that I get the £5 reward ~ feels like ages since I've done anything exciting money-wise ~ January is such a long month!!

teapot2

Thanks PP, unfortunately didn't sleep at all well - kept waking myself up coughing! Actually am really glad I took today off was so tired and lethargic which isn't like me. Went back to bed and slept for 3 hours which I never do in the day time so must have needed that.

Going to work tomorrow but just a half day so that should be ok I hope. Pushed myself to do the bare essentials today and also made some butternut squash and sweet potato soup which was lovely. Otherwise took it easy.

Mortgage down to £35,514 which is great as we are nearing £33,333.33 which will be two thirds of it paid off :beer:. Got a Letter from stupid Halifax who are intent on reducing the monthly amount due to overpayments whereas we of course want to reduce the term :mad:. They have done this before and theres supposed to be a note on our file to NOT do it. Will sort that out tomorrow if I feel up to it. Almost the weekend - hooray, am off to bed hope I sleep.

pink_poppy

Oh dear, hope you had a better night last night, nothing worse than an annoying cough keeping you awake.

Your soup sounds yum :drool: (to me anyway, my DH & DDs are not keen on sweet potato so I don't usually buy them). I cooked a gammon joint in the SC yesterday so will be making soup with the stock today ~ definitely soup weather here brrrrrrrr!!

I wonder if the [EMAIL="H@lifax"]H@lifax[/EMAIL] will try that 'reduce the monthly amount' with me?? I haven't heard anything from them since I went on SVR but I'll be ready for them if they try that trick!! :rotfl: Actually, this probably sounds a bit dim , but does it make any difference if they did reduce the monthly amount & you made OPs to make the payment up to the original amount you would want to pay anyway, iyswim?? Hope that makes sense :huh::o

teapot2

Yes thanks PP I did have a better sleep though still woke up a few times. Am very pleased its the weekend and no tax returns hanging over me . Freezing cold here but we've got rain forecast rather than snow though it might turn icy if its wet I guess.

I rang the Halifax and didn't really understand what the guy was on about - he said they do an annual review and thats why they've adjusted the payment figure. AFAIK we've never had an annual review before. I said we'd like to keep the same payment amount and he said that they'd send out a letter to confirm so I'll wait to see what that says.

Re your question about making the figure up with OPs, I'm not entirely sure and this may be wrong but what they want to do is keep the term the same whereas we want to get shot of the mortgage ASAP due to job uncertainty and our ages. Its only about 7 years till OH retires and I'm not far behind. When we took out the mortgage it was going to run one year into OH's retirement - no thanks :eek:. Also I guess the interest wouldn't go down so fast? And we have to be careful with the amount of OPs as we can only OP 10% on an annual rolling basis or else we trigger an ERC . I write to them every six weeks or so to find out how much we are able to overpay as theres no obvious way they work it out. It seems simpler if we can stick to this and I'm all for simpler .

I love sweet potato too - have you tried them baked [microwave if fine] with butter melting in them - yum. OH doesn't like them either but will have soup if its also got the squash in it.

You are getting there with your overpayments - you'll be well ahead of your target at this rate, well done with that.