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

gallygirl

To achieve by Saturday late AM (before I pick Mr GG up :T):

• Lift money to pay for nest of tables I bought yesterday
• Shopping - bits'n'pieces from hardware/bazaar type shops
• Clean back windows (may try steam cleaner on them now I have it set up and working )
• Prune/deadhead
• Wash floors (with aforementioned mop)
• Clean bathroom
• Clean en suite
• Polish
• Fix blind - am lifting it up a little so the window can open without catching it
• Sewing
• Pop out to golf club for Mr GG
• Put up trellis (once bought)
• Put up washing line
• Paint nails
• Defuzz legs etc
• Get hair cut (:eek: first new hairdresser for 20+ years)
• Put up hangy-up thing in wardrobe to hang brushes& dustpan from
• [STRIKE]Speak to UK MSE'er [/STRIKE] DONE
• Work out how to hide an extension lead as much as possible - then do it
• Decide where pictures going before chap comes round to do a little job for me - they are going too high up so I need him to use his laddders.
• Dishwasher - finish loading, wash & put away
• Washing machine - do load, dry & iron straight away
• Tidy twin room
• Drop coffee table off at second hand place (that'll be fun getting it down the stairs :eek:)

That should keep me out of mischief :rotfl:.

atypicalblonde

Wow GG that's quite a list! But eminently doable I'm sure. Apologies, I'm so late to the party, whereabouts in Spain are you living? x

edinburgher

That should definitely keep you out of mischief, lots of little things to potter about with

Karmacat

Your lists are really quite startling! Good luck

Goldiegirl

gallygirl wrote: »

We were chatting about budgets over the weekend, I'm struggling with the mindset of moving to spending rather than saving - GG did you find this, I know it's common on MMM? I was explaining to Mr GG that I was finding it difficult as I was spending money but didn't know what budget to allocate it to. He found that hilarious and I must admit it did sound a bit pathetic :rotfl:. I am going to monitor spending against projected pots for the next few months though to see how accurate my forecast was.

I totally agree, it is a big change of mindset to go from saving to spending.

I've always saved a little each month, whether it was for a holiday or home improvement. Plus there was the money going into Mr Goldie's private pension, and my AVC's going to my final salary pension.

In the last few years we really upped the ante on the saving, and a large chunk of money was going away each month.

So, it is really odd not to be putting any new money into savings at the moment, although money is moved around to get the best interest rates

It's taken a few months to get used to the idea of not actively saving money, and I must admit I feel quite pleased if we haven't spent all of our pensions by the end of the month. But we're not beating ourselves up if there's an overspend - we've worked a long time for this, so we don't want to limit ourselves too much.

Also, I think I feel comfortable with the situation, as I know more money will be coming along next year, when Mr Goldie is 65.

But, yes, it is a transition to go from saving to spending, but as long as we don't go completely mad and blow the lot, I think we're entitled to enjoy the fruits of our labours without feeling bad about it

PS, how lovely that Mr GG will be joining you:j

Goldiegirl

Arkers wrote: »

I just wondered how long have you actually been planning this stage of your life? My DH's work have a "retirement course," and I use this term loosely, a year or eighteen months before the event. I think this is way too late. I would think that these things take about five years to plan?


.

I started thinking seriously about retirement in my late 30's, and knew that I wanted to retire 'early'. I had the age of about 57 - 58 in mind at the time

At that time, I had what I thought would be a job for life in banking, with a final salary pension, so I started making AVC payments too.

At that time, I didn't do much in the way of any other active planning, just got on with enjoying the present.

But, as we all know, it went a bit pear shaped in banking, and I was made redundant at age 50, and was able to take an enhanced pension at that point. This was 2010, and these events really focused my mind on retirement, so I think 5 years is about right for the serious lead up to stopping work altogether, although the initial financial planning should start the earlier the better.

Up until about 18 months ago, I was still thinking I'd stop work at the age of 56, but my part time job seemed to be interrupting my rather pleasant weeks, plus my health issue prompted serious number crunching, and we worked out we could stop work earlier.

I like the idea of a retirement course, but I think people should have a financial planning course by the age of 50 at the very latest.

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Lovely news about Mr GG. No point him cluttering up the Middle East being miserable.

gallygirl

gallygirl wrote: »

• Lift money to pay for nest of tables I bought yesterday DONE
• Shopping - bits'n'pieces from hardware/bazaar type shops DONE
• Clean back windows (may try steam cleaner on them now I have it set up and working )
• Prune/deadhead
• Wash floors (with aforementioned mop)
• Clean bathroom
• Clean en suite
• Polish
• Fix blind - am lifting it up a little so the window can open without catching it
• Sewing
• Pop out to golf club for Mr GG DONE
• Put up trellis (once bought) DONE
• Put up washing line
• Paint nails
• Defuzz legs etc
• Get hair cut (:eek: first new hairdresser for 20+ years)
• Put up hangy-up thing in wardrobe to hang brushes& dustpan from DONE
• [STRIKE]Speak to UK MSE'er [/STRIKE] DONE
• Work out how to hide an extension lead as much as possible - then do it
• Decide where pictures going before chap comes round to do a little job for me - they are going too high up so I need him to use his laddders.
• Dishwasher - finish loading, wash & put away
• Washing machine - do load, dry & iron straight away
• Tidy twin room
• Drop coffee table off at second hand place (that'll be fun getting it down the stairs :eek:)

Well, it's a start

atypicalblonde wrote: »

Apologies, I'm so late to the party, whereabouts in Spain are you living? x

Will PM you ATB.

gallygirl

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Lovely news about Mr GG. No point him cluttering up the Middle East being miserable.

I agree :T. And if he doesn't bring me joy here I'll just Kondo him :rotfl:.

We have a sparrow's nest . In the cooker hood extractor vent :eek:. I rarely use it in the summer anyway so it's not much of a inconvenience. It's like this so they cling on to the outside and nudge up a vent with their beak to get in, very entertaining to watch :rotfl:. (Hence why I'm sitting on the terrace rather than ticking off my list ). However they are still at the building stage (must be a second brood in a new nest) and keep dropping dry grass everywhere . I'm cleaning the terrace later so will be having words with them after that :cool:.

Karmacat

Oh wow! I have a sparrow who's taken charge of my hazel tree - he sits there and cheeps monotonously, *very* loudly, its really funny to listen to him

Not long now for MrGG!