Hurdler's Race to be Mortgage-Free

Hurdler

Happy Saturday everyone. My day started with watching Murray lose in Acapulco and hurriedly getting out of bed to screen-cap and tweet the net handshake having watched most of the match in bed!

Today is also INVOICE DAY!
Tomorrow is Business Expense and Bank Reconciliation day - which is not such fun but hey ho!

Full list of things for a To-Do list tomorrow ... but today I am on my own and have reams to write/watch/write/edit....

Alchemilla

Glad the spraying worked. Did you wash it off afterwards?

Hurdler

Alchemilla wrote: »

Glad the spraying worked. Did you wash it off afterwards?

Yeah - I got carried away writing so it was more like 45-60 mins but wiped it all down and it didn't seem to take off too much paint...

I am trying not to be drawn in to the energy monitor constantly reminding me that with the dehumidifier on I am burning 10p per hour.... but the decorator said it would be the best way to dry it out to have it done from May onwards, so... alas needs must.

Invoice sent... so now begins the nonchalantly-frantic (it's a skill) checking of the business account, to check when it goes in even though I STILL have to wait for my "salary" to come across on pay-day!

I am not looking forward to tomorrow's To Do though... lots of money-swapping, a bit of a Tilly Tidy but there will be a lot of expenses to deal with in March including MOT and body work for the Hurdler-mobile. And then after battering my car fund, I have to pay tax and insurance...

Damn I wish I hadn't been playing with the overpayment calculator this morning now... if I could make OPs at a min of £1000 a month I could be mortgage free in about 5 years (obviously assumes rates don't move which of course we know they eventually will).
But see the next few months being lean times.

WAILLLLL!

Alchemilla

Gosh thats a long time to dry it out. Do you know what caused it?
I havent washed the wall off yet!

Hurdler

Alchemilla wrote: »

Gosh thats a long time to dry it out. Do you know what caused it?
I havent washed the wall off yet!

Yeah I had a secure parcel box bolted to the front wall but with the horrendous rain the gutter above just dropped heaps of water on top of it and it just drummed off the top of the box constantly with the water boucing up into the brickwork and obviously getting in behind it as well.

You can actually see exactly where the top of the box was with the start of the bubbling of the paper in the wall - most of the staining has gone now though with wiping off - and I did another quick squirt today as the sunlight showed up some streaks!)

You can see outside where the bricks are soaked and have got all mossy - so it should be easy to see when it has dried out in the front... but it does me a favour to leave it to May - every builder/decorator I called for a quote were flat out being called in for rain damage...

He reckoned inside had dried out just by having the gardeners move the box earlier in the week so I might not dehumidify it too much after this weekend...

This is one of the few times I wished I had a real job still (heheh that's my mum speaking... "you are still looking for a real job, right?")

Hurdler

Sunday To-Do

• [STRIKE]Business expenses for February and draft expense form ready for 6th and payday [/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]VAT return due for filing so check and send back[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Pay credit cards in full - money to leave on 6th[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Transfer share money for Investment wrap OUT of Vernon and back into current account [/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Transfer rest of share money from Nwide savings to current as it probably takes at least 5 days to come across an I need to give the Financial Advisers a cheque on 18th for tax efficient Investment Wrap [/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Top up car fund from Vernon[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]B@rclays Savings sweep (a monthly Tilly Tidy, if you will) into Vernon ready for over-payment on 6th[/STRIKE]
• Ironing and tidy laundry
• Try out Hairy Dieters Spanish Bake but halving (at least) the recipe
• Sort out gym sessions for the week so that I can use the spin bikes when there isn't a class going on - annoyed when I couldn't do a proper session on Tuesday

Think that is enough for one day!

Hurdler

Got quite a bit done today despite a bit of a false start with the business stuff - half way through my expenses the system died so I sent a snotty tweet thinking I would have to out everything off until next day off on Tuesday -- so was pleasantly surprised when the customer service manager emailed me to say that the server was being rebooted to fix the issue.

Of course by the time I went downstairs to have tea I ran out of oomph and back at it tomorrow in the land of fuzzy balls (ooh err!)

Hurdler

Ooooh Sneaky Kingston Council- I wondered why when I tried to get the free parking ticket to 8:30 for the gym it was always coming out at 7:30 - they have updated the machines and have now changed the valid times from 7am-6pm which means even if I hadn't switched from Virmin Active to David Lloyd, I would have had to pay for parking.

However moving has saved me a little over £20 a month so at least the parking can be absorbed by that, but that is a little naughty - so when they say they are improving the local s4insbury, they mean it will cost you more to go there. Just as well I drive to New Malden to use Mr T once a fortnight!

So two NSDs in a row (had to go buy some cordial and milk from the corner shop yesterday).

ETA: FINALLLLY got through to BNP Paribas in France - I swear (a lot) I will have spent as much as the damn Eurotunnel shares were worth to get them to sell the damn things. Turns out they were sold finally but the transfer won't be made until tomorrow, but they should arrive before I need to write a big fat cheque to have my inherited funds from dad now put in a proper managed fund.

On a side note - I tried explaining to my mum (who was hurt that the shares I inherited were now all sold) that I wasn't going to spend it... but that I was going to continue dad's legacy of investing them for the long term, but just where someone who knows more about the stock market can make them work better for me. I then said to her that it is at times like this where I really miss him not being around - because those shares (which have lost about half their value) would have covered half my mortgage and I would have loved to ask him what he thought was best - pay off half the mortgage or invest. To which she responded: "ah but then he'd still have the shares wouldn't he!!" There was just no arguing that point! Anyway cheers daddy :beer:

Alchemilla

Heres to your Dad.

Hurdler

Ooof - talk about double whammy.
Booked car in for MOT which is apparently late - so when I asked the garage why they hadn't sent a reminder this year, they pointed out they'd stopped. Unhelpful.
So car booked in for MOT, Bodywork repairs, and... Cam belt - so that will pretty much wipe out my dedicated car fund and I still have tax (that might just squeak in that fund) and insurance in May.

Then the last of the decorating quotes came in and the best (which included re-pointing the brick work) is just over £1000 but thankfully this will be at least May or beyond before it starts so chance to save.

The only good thing today - my full time colleague is hell bent on working through the night while Indian Wells (tennis) is on so that she can watch the matches and write them up. So I have the day shift which means no coffee after tennis lessons this morning so this could well be a NSD.