Gallygirl's "A journey of 121,226.67 pounds begins with a single penny" diary

adindas

let me know how to You are so smart my dear ....
Could you let me know how could I train my brain so I couold get like yours ....:j

gallygirl wrote: »

Best I could come up with for a title . For those who haven't come across me before, HERE is my old diary. Hopefully I will keep this one to 2016 when I will be totally mortgage free

2011 challenges.

Mortgage #1
£19,546.15 Currently
0 Target

Mortgages 2 & 3
£101,668.64 Currently
£94,803.11 Projected end of 2011
£90,000 Target (mortgages - savings)

BTL Mortgage on Late Mum's House
£27,056 Currently
£25,489.36 Projected end of 2011
£23,000 Target


In addition to that I have set myself some other goals. Some easy to measure, others a bit more subjective:
1 June I will decorate the living room and buy new sofas
2 August I will reach my target weight (the 'real' one, not the official one. I will get below 11 stone) and stay there
3 August I will have no mortgage on my house
4 August I will be fabulous at 50!!!!!
5 October I will have a garden I am proud of
6 December I will read 12 books off the BBC list
7 Ongoing I will continue sell all possible things on ebay
8 Ongoing I will start entering competitions again (& flog everything I win)
9 Ongoing I will exercise for 30 mins at least once a week
10 Ongoing I will meet up with friends at least once a month
11 Ongoing I will continue loving life & thanking the Universe for all its' gifts

Here goes folks!

gg x

gallygirl

Tenants have moved out unexpectedly, were going to pay month's rent but we owed them the deposit so called it quits. We were in the process of having a leak fixed in the loft - pipework seems well dodgy - and have decided to bite the bullet and replace back boiler with a combi. Also walls were in a bit of a mess, there is another leak which we didn't know about (:mad: - why didn't they tell us - we ALWAYS action any issues :mad:). Have decided to make the place look a lot better so replasering of walls and ceilings and replacing light fittings etc. Kitchen units will be ok (with deep clean and industrial clean to oven :eek::eek::eek:), bathroom will be ok (with a bottle of industrial strength mould remover :eek::eek::eek:), speaking of which there is damp in all bedrooms - I'm sure it's because the windows have never been opened :eek::eek::eek:). So far:
LIVING ROOM paint ceiling and coving change light fittings (supplied) may need to rewallpaper, depending on fire/boiler situation
HALL skim walls where necessary paint fit carpet
TOILET paint
BATHROOM replaster ceiling paint
KITCHEN Retile/ skim and retile change light fittings (supplied) paint
BED 1 Change light fitting Repair and replaster ceiling Strip and replaster walls Paint Fit carpet
BED 2 Change light fitting Replaster ceiling Strip and replaster walls Paint Fit carpet Damp?????
BED 3 Skim/replaster walls Paint Change light fitting Paint Damp?????
OUTSIDE
Remove shed
remove some slabs
fix patio - using removed slabs
replace fence post and 2 panels (they are actually neighbours but it is also let so we'd prefer to just do it I think)

GENERAL
Get rid of rubbish from garden - I've tidied this into one corner but needs to come through house
Take down (with a hefty shove :eek:) shed & remove
Get rid of stuff left in house - at least one trip to skip I think
Good clean everywhere!
Get rid of smell of dog :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I'm happy to do the General stuff (well, prepared to, rather than happy to :rotfl:) but am not giving up my weekends indefinitely and Mr GG agrees. Unfortunately no money in the pot (anyone like to guess what the above will cost :eek:), but Mr GG will cough up and I will add that to what I need to pay back. The alternative would be I pay for it over next few months instead of paying off own btl, but as its' APR is 4.5% is makes sense to do it this way.

Hopefully we can have it done and someone in by Easter at the latest. It's v cheap ex-council and we only put rent up twice in 8 years, to £400pcm. Hoping we could get £475. We'll see!

gallygirl

Well, progress made on house. Have my builder lined up to start in less than 2 weeks :j. Went round there with him last night and had to keep telling him off as he was laughing at it . To be fair, a dodgy celing fan/light combo where the light only works when the fan is on, and the fan gets faster and faster, is pretty funny :rotfl:. So are the 4 different tiles in the kitchen :rotfl:. And me running round the house carrying the only 2 working lightbulbs :rotfl:. He has agreed to do all bar the heating, and also clear the house, garden etc (though I will empty a load of stuff he doesn't know about). We've decided every ceiling bar the hall needs redoing, and at least one of them needs reboarding. Plus more replastering than initially planned (there comes a point when a room that was ok-ish will look bad compared to smooth walls elsewhere). Total of 2.6k labour plus just under 1k materials, including skip etc :eek:. Actually, I had come up with a figure of 3 - 3.5k before the extra work so think that is ok. Plus he can start quickly, so am happy to let him do it, seeing as I had terrible trouble getting a plasterer just to do my ceiling a few months back. This is the same guy who did that, from mybuilder.com, and all his references on their (including mine) are glowing.

Note to self: probably best NOT to go on Rightmove out of interest to see how much you would get for house if you are going to end up looking at repos and thinking 'gosh, that's cheap, maybe we should...........' :eek::o:rotfl:

gallygirl

Car + Deer is not a good combo . £350 excess bill coming up for new bumper. Stupid thing ran off as well so didn't even get any bambi burgers out of it :rotfl:. Right enough, I was talking to someone whose friend's car was written off by a charging bull elk in Canada so I'll settle for a bumper .

Off to clean smelly house. Happy weekend everyone :rotfl:

ETA - not MY house, which is not smelly, but BTL

gallygirl

Off to Gambia in a few hours, so as usual am doing my pre-holiday all night vigil :eek:. Have had such a hectic couple of weeks (since my last holiday ;):rotfl:) I just couldn't switch off :mad:. So - update:

• builder started yesterday. Popped round last night, they have made great progress already - house cleared including stinky carpets, and some walls stripped etc. I'm paying them a daily rate, they were on site by 9.30 (they'd been there a while I think as they had worked out how to get fire on :rotfl:) and were still working at 7.30pm :T. They're camping out there for a few nights - brought their own DVD player, camp beds and gas barbecue . Feel happy about going off and leaving them, but they'll probably down tools for a week now .
• central heating guy going in next week
• sparky going in nexct week to check oven connection, them will fit a new oven
• need to sort out someone to fit 2 fence panels and posts and clear shed, also get carpets sorted out for beds & stairs
• reckon we can increase rent by £75 a month
• have looked at how much we could sell for. Reckon we would have 40k equity (which Billy would use to fund buying a town :rotfl:). The interest we would get on that would be equal to how much the renter would pay off our mortgage each month, plus we'd have around £2500 excess per year, so will keep it for now.
• no mobile phone all weekend - including access to mobile numbers - that was helpful with me going away and things to organise :eek:
• car not fixed. Couldn't get it done before holiday
• mouse in garage :eek:. Clever mouse, worked out how to get fried egg off trap without setting it off :rotfl:. Have rebaited (with crumbled Ryvita - concerned for its' cholestrol level ) and left for DS to sort out at weekend
• money is very :eek:.
• neighbour trying to catch me all weekend to pay back what I lent him, will wait till next week now but at least I know he's got it for me
• work is v :eek::(:wall::doh::huh::undecided:question::shocked::mad::exclamati_pale_:whistle::think:, with odd moments of :EasterBun and :coffee:and :beer:. BIG hole in next year's budget. We may need to make someone redundant (which tbh wouldn't worry me - 'what, only the one? Which eedjit shall I choose :cool:'). However, am worried it may spread further - we're an industry body so there is a bit of a house of cards possibility :eek:. Still, as I said to someone yesterday, I'm currently working through my worry list of things of things I CAN do something about, I'll let them know when I get to the worrying about things I CAN'T do anything about :rotfl:
• study is v :eek:. Frightened what the paper monkeys may do when I'm away. Afraid it may be a Gremlin-like scenario, involving swinging from lights, alcohol, drugs etc :cool:. Probably wouldn't be any worse than it is at present
• owed DS £60. Did an electronic transfer. He has the money. I don't know what account I paid it from and no money has left my accounts . Am more confused than normal :embarasse.
• lost 2.5lbs this week, and 1lb last week . Shame I'm still 1.5lbs higher than before Xmas .

Off to get ready, with a lot of makeup so I don't look like I need a holiday :rotfl:


ttfn



gg x

[Deleted User]

whew lots going on in ths gg world! I felt exhausted just reading it all!! :rotfl:

Have a fab holiday- everything else (even the gremlins in the study!) will sort itself out Im sure !!

CathT

Have a fab holiday, don't bring any creatures back!

gallygirl

Deleted_User wrote: »

Have a fab holiday- everything else (even the gremlins in the study!) will sort itself out Im sure !!

Gremlins have had their mates round while I was away, but are contained on the besk at the moment. Will round them up and destroy at the weekend

CathT wrote: »

Have a fab holiday, don't bring any creatures back!

I brought Mr GG back, does that count . Bought nothing this time. Had a lovely, relaxing break, set up to face the worst winter can throw at us. Although I am NOT meant to live in a cold country

Hmmmm, not as much progress made on house as I had hoped . Popping up today to have a word. Still, heating in and on so that's good, and place looking much better :T.

Got a tenant for house already :T, cousin of friend of SIL, nice couple, pleased with house & desperate to move to that area & looking for long term, so great. Rent agreed at £75 more than before. Will only take around 10 years to recoup what we are spending on it :rotfl:. Still, I believe the better quality the house, even although still a cheap ex-council house, the better quality tenant you will get and the better they will look after it .

SIL phoned last night and has some health problems. She's having a scan next week & hasn't looked anything up on internet but I have and wish I hadn't . Also came home to find out Mr GG's close mate has had a 2nd heart attack, fortunately he is ok & home .

Own btl sitting at just below 17k, projected to be 15.2k at end of year with normal monthly payments. Will be paid off by:
4015 from DD
370 from DS
606 ordinary monthly OP's
120 from nice Halifax every month
1400 tax rebate
750 bonus from work
7261

Balance to find = 7950 = 722 per month. So, very doable IF I can stop spending money :rotfl:.

Neighbour bringing round money tonight or tomorrow but that's from btl maintenance account so that won't help.

Work ok, 2 reports (1 on projects and 1 KPI's) showed we are making good progress so I am feeling 'phew, got away with it for a few more months' at the mo ;).

Off to plan shopping list, I am going to need to buy soap powder and conditioner for 1st time since last Easter (thanks to Tesco's DTD :T), so this will be very traumatic, also need loo rolls which is also a trauma. Probably no money left for money after that :rotfl:.

DS has just gone to Eurodisney with 3 mates for the weekend, what a blast that will be, 4 lads in their 20's posing with Mickey & Minnie :rotfl:

I think the phone in the hall has packed up, only had it 2 months and it was a replacement for one which had gone faulty so will be getting a different one this time

Need to book car in for new bumper .

Heading off for London later. On a busy train as West Coast blocked so all will be flocking to my lane, hopefully will be fixed by then.

Nearly the weekend :T

GG

gallygirl

gallygirl wrote: »

Neighbour bringing round money tonight or tomorrow but that's from btl maintenance account so that won't help.

:mad: Zilch arrived :mad:. Tbh I don't mind waiting, but every day there's a different excuse. I hardly know him but agreed to help as I like to think someone would step in to help me, but feel badly let down. I do think I'll get it back - but if he can't afford it this month then I wish he would come out and say it :mad:. V v annoyed :mad:.

Anyway........... in other matters..................

DD started paying me what she owes me :T. £2 and £5 so far :rotfl:.

House nearly finished - costing a lot more than expected, basically everything that could go wrong has gone wrong :eek:. Including faulty gas meter which caused a bit of consternation between gas man and workmen who all stood in a row looking at the WORKING gas fire - only problem being - the gas was switched off at the time :rotfl:. Looks good though and new tenant popped round today and is v happy with it. Just need to pay the rest of the builders, the carpet fitter, electrican/roofer/fence man. Plus credit card bills .

Crappy courtesy car is pathetic but will be going back in a day or two, just £350 excess to pay :eek:.

Diet/ meal planning / saving on shopping going well. In fact, diet so good I am approaching my pre-Xmas weight .

DS bought me flowers again :eek: .

3 items on ebay last week, 1 sold. Other 2 relisted along with a load of new things, one of which has a bid already .

Wanted some baby oil, usually use one from Lush but ran out and no Lush near here. £11 for bottle from Body Shop :eek:. Splashed out £2 something on Johnsons Bedtime Baby Oil instead, reckon it will last a year .


:mad: 4
:T 1
:rotfl:2
:eek: 4
2
3

Yup, that's about right :cool:.

TallGirl

That is annoying when people won't pay up can you not speak to them again? We are getting quotes for a fence between us and next door but hopefully that will all go smooth as we have known them for a long time

Boo to the extra cost but at least its all done and you should hopefully have a hassle free time with the new tenants.