Tales from a country cottage

Igamogam

Morning Ani

An Owl with hiccups is quite funny until you realise you have been lying awake for about an hour listening to it! He/she sort of hoots for a bit then splutters and hoots backwards : Tuwhit Tuwhit Tuwhit splutter splutter splutter....Whitu whitu whitu then its mate joins in so then we get Whitu Tuwoo whitu tuwoo whitu tuwoo splutter splutter splutter - get the picture ?? Anyway think they are happily 'together' as last night a little quieter:rotfl:

Looks like you have a busy day. Me too which includes a trip to airport to take DD1 and her friends for their week away before finals:eek:
I have plans for next 2 weeks but at the moment everything crowding in shouting sort me, sort me, sort me:eek:

ani*fan

Sounds sweet though. Sometimes it's like our owls invite all their mates over for a party. It's a proper racket outside. Makes me think of Harry Potter and wonder if they're actually up to something, a very secret and important mission for the ministry of magic or something. :rotfl:

HappyNow

Hello ani*fan, I just wanted to say congratulations on everything you've achieved so far .

I've read your diary through from start to finish today, and you have really come a long way in just a few months. In your first post you said that you'd always been rubbish with money, but look at you now! I have 'borrowed' a few ideas - hope you don't mind!

I have subscribed and will keep popping back to see how it's going x

ani*fan

Hi there HappyNow

Many thanks for dropping by and yes, feel free to copy any tips you like. The encouragement is truly appreciated.

Well, I managed to get a load of chores done yesterday. Which means only 1 thing...I am now officially living in the land of essay procrastination. Suddenly everything in the world is much more important and far more interesting than getting my 4 essays for uni completed and mailed off. I got one nearly done before the end of term, and an hour or two would finish it off, but just can't seem to get motivated.

Painting the shed yesterday was a killer. It needed done so badly, and OH had gone off and bought paint (buy 2, get one free :T) so we just got cracking and kept going and kept going. 4 hours and 2 coats later, we were both thoroughly exhausted and massively pleased with ourselves. It looks amazing and will hopefully not need redone for another 5 years. :j

But obviously the essays still need written.

Think I''ll draw up a plan for today. It seemed to work well yesterday. And this is my first proper day of annual leave. SO happy to be off work. And so looking forward to our trip away.

Happy debtbusting everyone.

ani*fan

Today is a big day for me...so big, in fact, that I broke out in a sweat and needed encouragement from OH to do it. I did something I've never done before.

I just bought a year's car insurance outright! My current insurer were trying to charge me over the odds by a mile so I spoke to them and tried to knock down the price but they said no. So I told them to just end the policy when it runs out.

I then did all the steps martin recommends and found the one I wanted. I avoided the DD charges for monthly repayment, and I also avoided a small fee for CC payment by having the cash right there and paying with my debit card. YEY!:jI can do this! I can actually manage my cash!

I also logged on to my bank and cancelled my DD for the old insurance which has been paid up and will end in a few days.

Sorry if I'm sounding smug. But I'm feeling it.

ani*fan

And coming back down to earth...the road tax has gone up by £10 and is due at the end of next month. Which means I have 2 pay days to find £270 if I want to stick to my new money-management plan and buy 1 year's worth and not 6 months.

Hmmm.

The petrol account (I need to stop calling it this, it's the 'all aspects of car maintenance' account ) has just been stung with the car insurance payment. It still has £290 in it, and will continued to be topped up twice a month as per usual. I have £100 of expenses due to go in there too.

Now, the challenge will be to have £270 sat in there at the end of May. Somehow, that needs to happen. I need to be extremely careful with petrol over the next wee while. (As though I'm not anyway. I nearly died of shock when I last filled up.)

It's all food for thought. I pondered a mystery shop or two to try and help. Only I've just realised that with the cost of petrol now, and the average shop paying only a tenner, it's pretty much not worth my while. Disappointing cos I loved doing this.

Anyway, have a wonderful day everyone.

ani*fan

I've just spoken to a very lovely woman at the council. She informed me that my council tax cannot be moved to 12 monthly installments instead of 10 unless I can prove 'serious financial hardship'. After a quick chat about what that means, we agreed that I probably wouldn't qualify.

So that's that. Oh well. It was worth a try.

ani*fan

I've done a quick survey of 4 oil providers this morning. Today the provider we are with seems to be the cheapest. I was surprised how little difference there was in price per litre, until I added it up to a tank full and there is about £10 to be saved each time we buy.

I hadn't realised there were so many. Two didn't answer their phones. Maybe they're cheaper again? I'm keen to get started with this but need to wait until the account is settled.

Igamogam

Hey you have been busy! Smug away I say! Did you use a cash back site to get your insurance?? If not remember to when you are renewing the car/house next time;)

Now...............how about those essays!?

Any snow with you - blizzard white out here:D

ani*fan

I just spoke to orange about my mobile phone contract. Oh my goodness they could not have been more helpful. How amazing is that?

The woman helped me check over my last few bills to work out what I need (i.e. many less minutes and loads of texts) then told me I could reduce my contract to £10.50 per month. Which is only 50p over what I had hoped to get so I went for it. She then offered me a new handset. Given my old one is so tatty looking now, I thought that was a good idea but I haven't even had a look for alternatives. So I got online and she recommended a few that were as similar to my old one as possible. I chose the one I liked and it turned out to be free!

And to top it all, it's arriving in the post tomorrow!

Brilliant! :T:j:T