EH is Back - and going Onwards, and Upwards!

EssexHebridean

The offer is absolutely still available - PM me or message through FB with your email address and I'll send it on. it's in a rather elderly version of excel so I hope that's OK for you? All the figures *work* but there is a small error with one of the calculations (I suspect related to the interest rate) which means you do have to fine-tune the total outstanding column when the mortgage statement arrives!

Just had out annual service charge bill through and the good news is that the payments are due to drop by £6 per month! :j Water rates are set to increase by £2 however, but I am going to go to the water companies website right NOW to see about getting them to look at fitting a meter. :cool:

Lemon_Tree

sending you a pm next, thanks

Karmacat

I found Martin's statement about bedrooms vs. number of people living in the place to be very true - hope you get a good reduction.

taxi73

got to be worth looking into...we are 2 beds but 3 people here ..DD2 has lots of baths,washing etc....so not worth us looking until she moves out.

EssexHebridean

Well we're the same number of people as bedrooms, but MrEH is far more likely to shower than bath, as am I really, we don't use the washing machine daily - probably 4 or so times per week only, dishwasher only goes on a couple of times a week as a rule and I think we're pretty frugal with water generally so I think there are savings there to be made. My parents swapped to a meter a few years back and they pay £10 per month less than we do now. The application is made, anyway, so I now have to wait for an appointment to see if it can be fitted OK.

LT I have your PM - will sort out the spreadsheet tonight when I am on the laptop, as that's where it lives!

Lemon_Tree

no worries EH i can wait. I had a laptop free night last night which was nice.

EssexHebridean

Goodness, I had to trawl all the way through to page 8 to find myself! :eek:

Wouldn't be right to start any new diary entry today without comment on the awful events with the earthquake & tsunami in Japan - terrible pictures on the BBC this morning and it really brings home with chilling reality just fortunate we are to live in a country with such "normal" weather and environmental conditions.

OK - quick money update specifically relating to new financial year:

Money In: No change to MrEH's, as for me in theory I could reduce the amount I am setting aside for Tax & NI but I have decided to leave things as they are for the moment as I would rather have too much in the Tax account come next January, than not enough. I intend to fill in my self assessment form as soon as I can as this year will be complicated by being on PAYE for half the year. Also, the sooner I fill it in, the sooner I will know what my liability for the second half of the year was. Registering for online self-assessment needs adding to my list of things to do.
Avon still seems to be doing fairly well - I have gained another two customers this campaign, both from houses where I didn't expect to see orders, and one of which I'd almost not bothered giving a book to this time round! Just goes to show! I am now starting to weed out those who throw the book straight back outside again though and wont be delivered to those any more which will in the long term mean I can reduce the number of books I need I think.

Mortgage: Now overpaying by 43% - no prospect of being able to increase any more for the time being but fingers crossed things might change on that front at some point. At the moment I am pretty happy with how we are doing on that front.

Groceries/Shopping: We are currently still eating from the freezer as I want to get the second freezer emptied and turned off whilst we are on holiday. It is in desperate need of defrosting so that is helping force the issue. I need to sort out starting to transfer "stuff" from that one to the first freezer now so I can see where we are at with that. We have plenty of cat food and litter thanks to Tesco's recent 3 for 2. Loo rolls need buying when they are next on BOGOF in Makro. I have enough washing powder and cleaning stuff for the time being. Ditto pasta, but need basmati rice when I see a decent offer. Aim: Continue with £3 per day spend target for the time being.

Bills:

1. Council Tax - Stays the same
2. Service Charge: Drops by £6 p/m
3. Water Rates: increase by £2 p/m - but have applied for a meter
4. gas : Currently set at £5 per month, this should mean we build a little credit, but only slowly. Price is fixed until september, after which we should make savings
5. Electric: Now set at £41 per month. I am hoping this is about right but a lot depends on temperatures increasing steadily from now. Price is fixed until september, after which we should make savings
6. Insurances: Life & CI now sorted - ahead of the changes to insurances which are being forced by the European courts.

Car spends will continue to be paid from via the account we pay into monthly - it will remain to be seen whether the changes to the insurance rules mean that my cover will increase in cost dramatically. I will be doing a lot of shopping about this year mind you as am determined to escape from the clutches of Admiral!


other: Holiday is now pretty much paid for, or so my pretty coloured in bar-chart tells me anyway! ferries still need booking but I will probably do that tonight. Any money left in the holiday account when we come home will be put towards next years so giving us a head start on that.

Second post to follow with a first draft of "stuff to do, targets & aims"

EssexHebridean

Financial:
1) [STRIKE]Register for online self-assessment [/STRIKE] Done 11/3/11 - needs activating when the code arrives
1a) [STRIKE]Activate HMRC online services when activation code arrives.[/STRIKE] Done!
2) Fill in SE form online as soon as possible
3) Once notification of tax owing comes back set reminder to pay that in 1st week of January 2012
4) Restart cashback site clicks
5) Start refining current Avon territory in terms of houses that throw their books straight out, with a view to reducing number of books needed, and considering more territory once we are back from holiday.

**note - recanvass current territory in May before taking on new, using back-order books**

Household:
1) Transfer stuff from freezer 2 to freezer 1 as and when there is space to do so - Started doing this
2) Defrost freezer 2, turn off and leave door propped open slightly
3) Defrost freezer 1
4) Set aside a Sunday to do a complete deep-clean of the kitchen
5) Continue with decluttering / tidying even if just 5 items a day


Health / Personal:
1) Continue with trying to get out walking as much as possible.
2) Use stepper for short bursts running up to holiday so help build legs up for climbing hills!
3) Continue with "No buying Toiletries" challenge - planned "need to buys" are a couple of Clinique bits next week (will use Boots points and buy at Bonus Time for the freebies too) and some sun cream while it is cheap in the Avon book. (Will cost me £3 for a 150ml bottle of SPF50, and the same for a 50ml tube of the SPF30 face cream so no-brainer there!) other than a tube of toothpaste at some point, nothing else needed at all.
4) Really start focusing on healthy eating - the onset of warmer weather should help with this! Commit to one "salad night" per week from now on.
5) Make the effort to get out and about with my camera more as the weather improves. Revisit old projects and post on my blog regularly

Fun Stuff!:
1) We have £20 of Days out vouchers expiring at the end of May, and £40 expiring at the end of June, all bought at the higher (4x) conversion rate, so must keep my eye on the ball to make sure these get used. the May ones will probably get used when we go to Cornwall if not before
2) Continue with "Do at least one fun thing per month" plan :

1. March : Trip to Chester for Friend's birthday
2. April : HOLIBOBS!
3. May: Meal at "Smiths of Smithfield" Courtesy of lovely friends!
4. May: Camping trip to Cornwall!

Other things in the pipeline but not specifically planned yet include:

1. Various trips around the place following the wonderful Ipswich Witches Speedway team!
2. Camping weekends in Norfolk
3. Take the camera and visit the Raptor Foundation in Cambridgeshire
4. Trip into Central London with the camera, meet MrEH for the afternoon and visit Middle Temple & Hall

taxi73

Plenty of stuff to be getting on with there...I must take a leaf out of your book and get stuff done

EssexHebridean

taxi73 wrote: »

Plenty of stuff to be getting on with there...I must take a leaf out of your book and get stuff done

LOL - always sounds to me like you get plenty done Taxi! :T

*edit*

Step one done - Self Assessment now registered for!