Keeping up appearances.......

Starmummy

Hi Happy,

I spotted your diary on the board, i read a few pages from the start and the last 5. I love your writing style so I'm going to hitch my wagon along side and join the ride if you don't mind.

Your house sounds absolutely darling.

SM

Seasidegal58

Hi there Happy! Wonderful to see you posting again and belated happy significant birthday wishes from me too!

I'm so very sorry to hear the sad news about your dear Dad. I do hope your Mum is finding things easier to bear, but I know that you and your family will always be there for her.

Your forever home sounds lovely now after the refurb.

I agree with Honey in that you should leave your pension where it is. I've got two years to go before I will retire and am absolutely not touching my pensions! They've got to carry me through retirement (I'm afraid I'm not going to be one of those who still hankers to work after retirement - I've done my bit and have lots of ideas on what I want to do that doesn't involve an actual job!)

Also agree about paying off the debt what with the future uncertainties re. Brexit and the muddles all the politicians seem to be getting into.

Looking forward to reading your debt busting updates.

SSG x

HappyNow

Hi Starmummy

Thanks for dropping by and you are very welcome to hitch your wagon! I see you have a diary so I'll have a read through tonight.

HappyNow

Hello Honey and SeasideGal , I'd hoped you'd both pop in

Thanks for the belated birthday wishes, and it was indeed a significant one. Partly because 60 is a nice round number, but mainly because it gave me access to a flexible retirement package from work. I've worked there for 30 years so have something called Rule of 85 protection, meaning I could reduce my work hours and claim my pension with only a very small reduction for taking it early. So as of last month I work just 2.5 days per week but with no drop in monthly income. Boom! Mr H has also dropped his hours to match so we're both feeling pretty chilled.

The pension that could (but won't) cover the debts is Mr H's private pension. That's gone into drawdown to give us a respectable income for the years until our state pensions kick in, at which point we'll be more than comfortable and still have a hefty lump sum sat in his pension. If something went desperately wrong he COULD draw more, but he'd lose 20% to tax and where's the fun in that??

Honey - speaking of being stalkerish, I was so sorry to read about Kelpie. And presumably Devil Cat too with the mention of kittens? You must be totally devastated. What a lovely old age he had with you though, and when the time is right you'll be able to do the same for another lucky one.

The house finally got finished two weeks ago. It's still a bit chaotic and every time I turn round a new layer of dust has settled but it's very nice and easy to live in. Garden next! We already had too big a garden, but now it's double the size and includes a knackerdy old greenhouse and a potting shed so I'm going to try and learn new skills. Self-sufficiency in case Brexit scuppers more than interest rates!

Speaking of which, I have heeded both your warnings and have just transferred £15,500 of debt onto my latest Barclaycd offer which is 0% for 18 months for a 1.9% fee. I didn't need to move it for two months but I've done it early just in case that offer disappears soon.

Thanks also for the thoughts of my dad. It was Mr H's mum who was the frail one (and still is), my dad was relatively healthy. Flu took him of all things, even though he'd had the jab. It was a terrible shock but very quick and he didn't suffer.

I'm going to spend the afternoon going through YNAB with a fine tooth comb looking for savings. Back tomorrow!

joeyjimbles

Hello, late to the party as always. And so sorry for your loss but a belated happy birthday too.

You seem like you have been massively busy in your absence off here but it's lovely to have you back posting.

Honey_Bear

An excellent work scheme that allows you to go part time with no drop in monthly income. A brilliant compromise and a great choice. I loved working part time when I did it; I was much less emotionally involved in the place, but still worked just as hard when I was there. Nifty that Mr Happy's been able to drop his hours to match, too, and I agree, if he took his pension out when they were gaining in value well above the rate of inflation (Oh for the heady days of the pension growth of the 70s and 80s) then it should be a tidy amount. Excellent; and jolly well done for being so profitably sensible.

Yes, Kelpie. Terribly sad. Thank you for your kind words. He'd had a fit in early September and then collapsed at hydrotherapy on 6 December, but I didn't actually realise he was dying until mid-December. He gave us Christmas Day, for which I'll always be grateful. Lovely, lovely dog and very much missed. I'll get another one, but everything I've liked the look of so far is either a rabid cat chaser or has gone to someone who saw it sooner. I'm not in a rush; the right one will come along.

As for Devil Cat, yes, him too, on Easter Monday last year. He had a tumour behind his left eye which was spotted really early by OH, but there was nothing that could be done for him other than to keep him painfree. By Easter we knew he was beginning the struggle with it, so we made the phone call. The vet always comes out for us, so all our animals go very, very peacefully at home but it is always heart-breaking. Devil Cat was a stray I rescued from the front garden, Kelpie was a rescue from Bath Cats and Dogs home. We were so, so lucky to have had both of them in our lives and they are both very much missed.

The kittens are now well over a year old, and we didn't even want kittens when we were looking for a bonded pair of cats! I was really shocked to discover that nearly all the rescues now don't let you choose the cat you want; you get told which one(s) are suitable for you and that's that! The local Cat Protection League didn't have any truck with that nonsense; the local manager came and inspected us, the house and the yard, told us where to increase the fencing around the yard and hey presto! a seven month old brother and sister were ours four days later. They'd had a horrible, horrible time after being given to a fleet of kids in a large family to be used as toys, got chucked around, had to be kept separately from the huge dogs in the household, just awful. It took weeks for the CPL to get them back into a fit state for us to adopt them, and even now the little female is terrified of being picked up. The huge boy loves it, but as he weighs over 6 kgs, that's not too frequent! I didn't know that kittens and puppies in a single litter can have different fathers, and these two most certainly did. Their fosterer used to look after the big cats at Dartmoor Zoo, so she knew what she was doing. Marvellous organisation. They're wonderful, but we both still miss Devil Cat. They never replace the ones that go, do they?

I'm so pleased you've finished the house. It's taken quite a while if you've been working on it all that time - no wonder you stopped posting and debt-busting; you must both have been permanently knackered if you were working on it all that time even if it was only on and off and working full time. Yowsers. You've got some stamina. Well done, and long may you enjoy it and the garden. Lucky you, having a bit of space and a greenhouse and potting shed to grow your own. I rather think that might be a good idea over the next few months.

We're so used to people bouncing back after what they call 'flu, and is often just a heavy cold, we forget just how serious it can be. I'm so sorry; there's nothing anyone can say that will make losing him any easier other than time. I can understand why it must have been such a terrible shock. I hope Mr H's mum keeps going and regains some strength when the weather warms up, although I realise that may not be realistic.

Good luck with YNAB!

Seasidegal58

What a great post by Honey. :T. And I'm sorry to hear about Devil Cat too. But your new cats sound lovely.

Happy - do you still have your dog and horse?

And what a wonderful workscheme you have - I'd love to go part-time.

Good move too on the cc offer.
X

HappyNow

joeyjimbles wrote: »

Hello, late to the party as always. And so sorry for your loss but a belated happy birthday too.

You seem like you have been massively busy in your absence off here but it's lovely to have you back posting.

Joey! Thanks for the good wishes. How's things with you? I remember you were a bit anxious about Mr J's job possibly meaning you had to move house? Hope everything is going well for you. Half term for the boys this week?

HappyNow

Thanks HB. Part-time is just lovely. I'm very lucky to work with a great bunch of people who are as much friends as colleagues. I wouldn't want to give up altogether because I'd miss them, and I do think part-time workers are great for employers - I no longer feel drained or suffer the fatigue of doing 37 hours.

You gave DC and Kelpie the home all animals dream of and now you're doing the same for the kittens. As an animal lover, thanks. What a sad home the kitties came from, so tragic that there are animals (and even worse, children) being treated like that out there. We're down to three animals now, and quite a mixed bunch. The Happy Dog is a proper GSD from a proper breeder and came with a proper £750 price tag (back in the day when I was financially deluded!). She's wonderful and clever and loyal and everything I could want in a dog, but so was the free collie-cross we had before her. And as for Donkey Dog - the GSD who belonged to our neighbour and was part of our inheritance - he is the best dog anyone could wish for. Faithful, gentle, kind and just a natural good boy. Our only remaining cat came from Howarth Cat Rescue nine years ago as an 8 week old kitten, having been left in a cardboard box on their doorstep with his mum and sister. He's jet black, and apparently people don't generally want black cats, which is pretty unbelievable as he's ridiculously handsome and shiny. True, we do tend to stand on him in the dark, but that's more his problem than ours and doesn't put me off having a black cat at all.

The house has been two years of a project and if we'd known that at the start we'd probably have done things differently - probably even sold the lot and moved. But we didn't know, so we went into it full of excitement and anticipation. Two years later I'm so glad we did and we will be here for many years. There's just nowhere I'd rather live and if we won the lottery we would still choose to stay here.

HappyNow

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

What a great post by Honey.
Happy - do you still have your dog and horse?

And what a wonderful workscheme you have - I'd love to go part-time.

Yes, Honey does that

We've still got our original dog and when we inherited our neighbour's house we also inherited his dog! That means we have two now, both German Shepherds, with a combined weight of 85kg. And they're both moulting right now so we're an incredibly fluffy household! Someone told me that if we brush them outside at this time of year, the birds will use the fur to line their nests. I've no idea if that's true, but if it is we could house a colony of eagles!

If you do get chance to switch to part-time work, absolutely do it if you can possibly afford it. You've put they years in like me, so time to relax just a little.......