Lois_E begins a long MFW journey

Lois_E

Thanks Peonie for explaining about the marketing people. How long before their search thingies start including common misspellings? I mean, google searches for things spelt a bit like what you typed in, doesn't it, so presumably company marketing departments could do the same???

elantan wrote: »

Random dumb question ... How did you work it out? Is it the % of the house mortgages compared to the value ? Or maybe the % of the mortgage left compared to what you originally paid for it ?

Congratulations btw ... I know I'm very late to say it but congrats all the same must be a great feeling

Thanks for the congrats. 80% still feels a very long way away.

I only bought this place a couple of years ago, and the market is so flat that I'm assuming it's still worth what I paid for it. It hasn't been valued again since then. I posted that "I own 75%" thing when I had got the amount owed (mortgage plus both family loans) down to 25% of what I paid for the house. Does that make sense?

pink_poppy wrote: »

I found that a bit creepy on your diary, newgirly, like they're spying on us

Makes me want to be mischievous though, like mentioning company names in odd, random places

British Gas :wave::p
Tesco :wave::p
Virgin Media :wave::p

Lois, you're doing great & I'm so impressed with how organised you are. I really need to get my act together as I'm sure I could achieve a lot more than I do

:rotfl: I wonder what they'll make of my diary when they find it!

Thanks for saying I'm doing great. The fact is that my money is organised, but the rest of my life is not! I have two enormous walk-in cupboards of chaos and a spare room of shame and garage of ghastliness and a desk of doom, not to mention the paperwork piles of pandemonium, all of which need dealing with. I'm also useless at meal planning and that sort of thing. But I can do spreadsheets, and I can move money about to the places where it does most good. Today I am trying to have a mammoth laundry day to catch up on the piles of dirty stuff that have been accumulating in my utility room. I ought to go and see if the most recent load has finished and put the next lot in.

Hello and thanks to elantan, Peonie, Calfuray, QBW, newgirly, pink poppy & GG for posting :wave:
Thanks also to Calfuray, elantan, newgirly, pink poppy & Radish for thanking :wave:

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Lois, I am loving knowing that our loft is finished so good luck if you tackle a room or a cupboard. It has made a huge difference to our motivation to tackle the next 'mess'.

Best wishes Tilly x

Lois_E

Thanks Tilly. I have people coming to stay next week, so the spare room of shame is becoming urgent! I am planning a massive laundry effort today. I'm also going to read the meters and submit the readings, and take some stuff up to the loft - there are a few more boxes that need to go up there that have been waiting since last week when I did some sorting of some other stuff downstairs. Then I'm going to chill out tomorrow for Easter Sunday, and then blitz the spare room of shame on Monday. I won't get it all done, but I'll have to get enough done for it to be slept in, even if there's a big pile of boxes in the corner. It's good for me to have the people coming to provide the motivation, and yes, I know I'll feel better when I've made some progress.

skint_spice

I just tidied DS's room in his absence so you have my sympathies on the spare room, twas vile! Despite the fact he regularly tidies up...

I also tidied a cupboard in the kitchen that had been a bit messy and found numerous noodles, packet sauces and tins that had been forgotten:D Tilly is right though you do feel better getting a bit more organised!

elantan

Yep Lois that makes perfect sense thanks * wonders off thinking house owing percentages now *

Lois_E

skint_spice wrote: »

I just tidied DS's room in his absence so you have my sympathies on the spare room, twas vile! Despite the fact he regularly tidies up...

I also tidied a cupboard in the kitchen that had been a bit messy and found numerous noodles, packet sauces and tins that had been forgotten:D Tilly is right though you do feel better getting a bit more organised!

Thanks. I'm afraid I wasn't even including my kids' rooms in my list of problem areas. I can't begin to think about them until I've made more progress on the communal bits of the house and my own stuff.

I have made progress today, though. The fifth load of washing is just about to finish. The first four are hung up already (2 on ceiling rack in utility room, one on rack over bath in bathroom and one v small load of hand-washing stuff that's mostly gone on radiators) and the fifth load will be going on a rack on the floor in the utility room soon. I've put several things up in the loft (empty suitcases, toys for visiting small kids that we don't use often, box of Christmas decs that had somehow not got put up there when we cleared up after Christmas). I've done the meter readings and sorted out a laptop/network type problem. The kitchen needs dealing with before I go to bed, though - DD has been icing the cookies she made yesterday.

This evening I am grateful for these things:
1) I have a washing machine - I can barely imagine doing that quantity of washing by hand or at a launderette.
2) I have a huge utility room where I can hang loads of washing indoors when it's not nice enough to hang it outside.
3) My "dry-clean only" work skirt survived the WM on the hand-wash setting.
4) DD's cookies have been yummy - I've been eating them on and off all day.
5) DD and I found a free online game that we have been enjoying playing together in the intervals of everything I've been getting done.

Lois_E

Happy Easter everyone.

We have sunshine here.
The kids and I managed to get up and dressed and out of the house and to church on time instead of late as usual.

pink_poppy

Happy Easter to you too :icotbaske

I'm onto my 4th Easter egg *curses Tesco (:wave::p;)) for their buy 2 get 2 free deal*
I should say that I broke into them well before today

I have to say I was surprised to read that you're not organised at home ~ makes me feel better about my house of horrors!!

Lois_E

Well, I wasn't intending to do any sorting and decluttering today, but...

Reading a post on somebody else's diary, I remembered that my MOT and tax disc are due around this time of year. Dashed out to the car to find the tax disc expires at midnight tonight, and checked last year's calendar to find the MOT expires on Tuesday. :eek:

Tried to renew the tax disc online. Couldn't find the reminder notice. (Why do they send these things out so far in advance??? It just makes them easier to lose.) Checked the DVLA website. Yes, you can renew online without the reminder notice, but only if you have your V5C document number as well as your reg number. Couldn't find V5C. Started searching through paperwork. Still couldn't find either the reminder notice or the V5C. Decided to be systematic. Started making 3 piles - financial filing, other stuff to keep, recycling. Eventually found the V5C but the recycling pile is about 4 inches thick, while the filing pile is about 2 inches and the keeping pile is about 1 inch.

Have now renewed tax disc online. Will get MOT done asap once the bank holiday's over. But am thoroughly ashamed of the stuff I've been finding - What do you think of vet bills and pet insurance documents for a dog who died several years ago? Or ticket booking info for EuroStar for a holiday in 2001? It's not that I deliberately chose to keep these things, they just got in a filing cabinet that never got looked at or thought about.

At least it's made a start. Not bad for a day when I wasn't going to do any paperwork at all.

Thistlewhistle

Oh Lois, you're not alone. I have piles of stuff going back 3 years for events that have long since happened. I'm such a hoarder. My house looks like I've just been burgled. I need a massive chucking out session with a day of eBay listings and then I'll feel better, but who has the time to take a day off to declutter? Lack of time is how it got to be such a mess in the first place.
:rotfl: