TallGirl seeks new financial freedom & hope to loose a few pounds on the way.

ammonite

OK who is Darren?! I want him too! :P Ah carbless days...something I could never manage. I'm a carb junkie !

Glad your DH had a lovely time, I bet he loved his surprise!

Wow that is a fab bonus! Our bonus is getting paid early in December, which is bloody awful come January!!!!

TallGirl

Darren is the personal trainer at my gym, I am sure he is same age as me if not older. He is quite small and looks a bit like Paul Scholes the exEngland footballer.

Had really hard session tonight my legs will ache tomorrow but can only fit I'm 3 more sessions before we go to South Africa, can't wait. Scales at gym ok about 1 kilo more than at home but clothes and shoes makes a difference.


I used to love carbs still do but don't miss them. DH had mash tonight me roasted butternut squash. Lovely it was. Bread I kind of don't miss if I do eat some I feel bloated yuk.

Ps my company is so lovely we get our bonus mid December before December wages.

ammonite

Oh I definitely need a Darren in my life

Can I come and work with you!?

Ooh not long until SA are you going to be away for xmas? How very lovely!

TallGirl

Yes today it's 3 weeks until we jet off to SA for Christmas we don't come back until the 4th January.

I'm off to HQ this morning staying in posh hotel but meeting tomorrow don't finish until 5pm so that is rank as I have a 3 1/2 hours drive home. Still it's work and they are paying me that nice bonus.

Just had an email from BIL basically nothing has happened to the probate. They had agreed to pay £300 to solicitors recommended by Natwest but they have not been instructed for some reason even though the bank agrees we did instruct them. There is no house involved (well its going to FIL) so I think it should be quite simple to do it yourself. Only problem is both sons are executors and BIL obviously live in SA. He is coming over in March so I might be able to time it well. Anyone got any experiences of doing it yourself? I know there is a probate board on here I might take a look.

I think she left them about £20k so 1/2 is quite nice.

It's awful weather here really don't feel like getting up and packing. Also need to sort out my EBay parcels sold a plastic Kipling Monkey (it's so horrid I took it off my bad straight away) for £10.40 to the US. Can you believe it!!!!

Mortgagefreeby50

Wow! Are there any jobs going? That bonus is amazing! I hate bonus schemes as a rule as I always seem to get shafted by them. My old company worked in clusters, so although my shop was doing well and meeting targets, coz the cluster as a whole hadn't met it's target, no one got anything, not even a tin of roses!
My current company give us all M&S vouchers at Christmas and I'm sure there is a bonus scheme somewhere but I have deliberately ignored it so that I don't get angry again!

TallGirl

Thanks for popping in Mortgagefreeby50 I agree bout bonus schemes but this one is good but if I had met my personal and team target I would have been cross too. Just spotted your weight loss target good luck with that. I don't know anything about WW but many swear by it.

Just spoken to the Probate office Natwest gave my BIL duff information executors don't have to be active they can claim Power Reserved Status. Hopefully we can crack on with it now. Would be nice for DH to have some savings although he is lusting after the new Toyota at the moment.

Final PS: had a chat with Darren we wants me to take my final weight with me to SA to remind me but he did also way that actually I had never started off that big so that was nice. My problem is that the weight has crept on in the last 6 years since I changed jobs a bit more each year.

TallGirl

Saturday oh how I needed this weekend such a long week even though I had Monday off.

Got my ebay all sorted had misspelled my email address so didn't get the money but PayPal sorted it all out. Must post the items today as the auction finished Tuesday.

FIL came down yesterday to have the chat about the company although it initially had forgotten all about it. Went out for dinner first then about 15 min before he had to leave for a Masonic do he finally mentioned it to DH. It looks like this was not discussed previously with DH so that makes me feel better as I thought he had kept it from me. Sounds like FIL wants to definitely retire in 6 months (he is 88 then so don't blame him).

DH took the news quite well and actually said he is excited about it which is very good as he is never excited about anything to do with his company normally. He agrees its the best way forward and they will arrange a meeting with the buyer of the company very soon.

FIL is a total worrier but he won't let anyone in and weird that it took him that long to tell DH only to then leave almost immediately afterwards but his lodge is obviously important to him.

Going out to get the last few Christmas presents first year I have been that organised. No idea what to get DH I suggested we buy a post coffee machine as our Tasimo is getting old as a present to each other. Then just get something small to open in South Africa.

Not signed up for any golf as I think the weather will be too foul so will do Zumba.

Finally do you remember the twitter social media challenge my work set two months ago. I didn't even get in the top three. Rubbish the boss was no 1 someone how only retweets and does LinkedIn got two and my colleague who I never see her tweets came third. Not happy neither was my other colleague who has written 5 blogs plus tweets as well. Still life goes on and my immediate boos thought I should have been in there.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

TallGirl

• EBay parcels posted
• BIL Xmas present exchanged for a nicer one decided it was really cheap looking the one we got him
• FIL present bought still need to find a small flokarti rug, our Ikea don't have the but online at a tender more.
• Macro done, got ale, Branston Pickle for SIL (cannot get it in SA),
• £20 dormant fee for American Express written off and card cancelled, limit was £11,600 :eek::eek::eek:
• light bulb for cabinet bought and fitted.
• travel golf bag looked at and fine to use so don't need new on
• need to do some gardening but rain is too heavy.
• activated this Santander 123 credit card had for a year but needed new card about 6 months ago.

Chilling out with a magazine my sister brought over actually a bit bored so might look to do some baking. Got some old bananas that could do with turning into something nice but then again that won't be good for the diet.

Also need to go to Lidl.

TallGirl

Well Sunday morning and I should be at Zumba but I instead looking at emails and got this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nespresso-EN520-B-Lattissima-Coffee-Machines-DeLonghi-/350650427659.

Talked about buying a new coffee machine as a present to each other and looked briefly in Macro and then today, click click and that's bought. I did check the price and its at least £50 off just hope it comes with the £40 worth of coffee capsule vouchers like the other site offers.

Our Tasimo is 6 years old and we mainly use it to make lattes but its difficult to buy the expresso capsules and the new fancy types don't fit our old machine. Also it's plays up a lot when you use it. The new one can heat the milk as well so I think it's a winner. Lets hope so.

Plans for today not a lot DH wants to go out for breakfast it's sunny but I think it's too wet to play golf. Might try to get a bit of the garden sorted need to move something's indoors.

I think I explained about the probate we have been trying to sort out since MIL dies in March. Unfortunely BIL dealt with it but the solicitors we chose never got the message from the bank so nothing happened. Now I have found out how to do it ourselves they have written offering their services. I think we shall go with them it will cost us about £200 more than doing it ourselves but I don't wan FIL to have the hassle as BIL and DH are inherriting the money alone.

I have scanned everything for BIL and emailed it to him and once he is happy we can start the process would be nice to get it sorted.

Anyway enough waffle lets we if I make it out of the house without spending more money.

Ps reason for not going to Zumba is that I have already been to the gym 3 times this week. I am seeing Darren Tuesday so will do circuits tomorrow and might go up there later today. Not confident about my weight loss.

TallGirl

Got FIL last Christmas present yesterday so that is done now. BIL didn't call maybe he will call today but DH will ask FIL to crack on with forms seems silly the money is just sitting there not earning any interest.

Monday morning and very wet here. Need to take Thomas to the vets at 11.30 but no conference all this morning which is great. Need to do a weekly update and sort out a few visits for Friday.

Thinking about Zopa been paying in for 11 months (£100 p/m) now and earned £24 interest however got £9.22 in late payments. You lend in £10 increments so £.9.22 is max I will lose if the person never Pays again.

Not sure it worth it as I am now lending at 6% and it was over 7% for that same risk when I started. Might stop after December ready for the MFi3 take 3 challenge. It will take a while to get the money out so could just re-lend it but not add any more. Will think about it.

Only 12 working days left until we are off to SA just cannot wait now.