Challenge of a lifetime!

cotswoldaccountant

A busy day today. OH has looked after the children and I've been trying to get on top of all the (literally hundreds) of tasks needed for re-opening our holiday cottages next weekend. From Covid-19 information documents and new virtual guest information folders, through to enhanced cleaning protocols and risk assessments, the list is endless. Fortunately, we've been inundated with bookings now that potential guests know they can book accommodation from 4th July so our summer is nearly full in both cottages. Fingers crossed this trend continues!
So a reasonably expensive day in that I've had to order lots of supplies, but we got a nice booking with upfront payment as it is within the next few weeks, so this offsets the costs.
I've also managed to get my signature updated with current mortgage balances. The balance at the bottom of the signature is a bit of a red herring, as the cashpool balance is unusually high at the moment! We've taken out an interest free loan which has to be repaid by next March, and at the beginning of the tax year I always transfer money from my business account to last the whole year - so the cashpool balance will gradually dwindle as the year progresses. It looks nice to have a low balance at the moment!
We took out a membership to a really pretty local garden in our town last week, and have used it four times already, so this is definitely going to pay for itself over the summer. It's only a walk away so no need to even use the car to get there. Friends coming round this evening for socially distanced drinks - I am looking forward to it and the cost is very little.

cotswoldaccountant

The weekend seemed to pass very quickly! A busy day today, with school for DD and a hospital appointment for DS3 involving a trip to the city - first time on the motorway for a couple of months. I was mostly worried about taking DS5 along and having to negotiate stairs etc with the buggy - but all went smoothly although I always forget the costs of travelling to the city - car parking, coffee for the journey home! First time we have had to wear masks, which I found quite hot especially in the stuffy hospital! Apparently the next appointment will be by video call which seems much more sensible.
Have had several payments in today for holiday bookings after the weekend flurry of activity - although annoyingly these were mostly cancelled out by a bill for boiler servicing and gas safety checks - oh well, it is important to keep on top of these things! I had also forgotten to pay myself some expenses from my business account for a software subscription that I paid for on my credit card, so that is now paid into my account. Good news was that I received an e-mail from DD's school to say that we would be receiving a full £400 refund for her cancelled Year 6 holiday. This has been in dispute with the insurance company, and while it is so disappointing that she, and all those other Year 6 children who will miss their primary school leaving trips, I'm pleased that the insurance company have seen sense and agreed to pay out.
Lots of work to do this week to get the cottages ready for re-opening at the weekend - news of new lockdowns elsewhere is a bit worrying though. I hope the situation improves and this doesn't start to happen regularly. 
Hoping to have some time this week to catch up with others' diaries - I'm really pleased to see that there are some that have been around since I first started posting in 2012 - all far better than me at keeping up with their diaries!

cotswoldaccountant

After a busy week finishing off all the jobs needed for our holidays cottages to re-open this weekend, I'm pleased with the result - they look lovely, and everything is ready for the first guests to arrive. Bookings have slowed down but I think that's because we're actually almost full for the summer now, so there are not many weeks left to book!

I also managed to get on top of some admin jobs today - finished OH's tax return and realised I had forgotten to include gift aid payments in it, which reduced the tax to pay. I have till January to pay it but decided to pay the bill now so I can forget about it. Just my tax return to do now, which is always a big task as I have my holiday cottage income and accountancy business income, both of which take ages to work out, as I am very good at keeping my clients' accounts up to date, but never seem to have time to do my own!

It's been so nice to see all of our local shops and businesses opening up today. The town centre looked quite vibrant which is such a change after being so quiet for months. Even after the shops opened there have not been many people in town, but the cafes, pubs and restaurants opening has changed that and people now seem to be enjoying being out today for the first time in months.

cotswoldaccountant

We also booked a holiday too! A cottage in Yorkshire for October half term - which was somewhere that we stayed in the very early days of writing this diary back in 2012, and I remembered it the other day when I was re-reading my old diary entries. We've been a couple of times since then as well - it's a lovely place to stay and we're looking forward to going back. There may be air bridges but travelling abroad with six children is no small task, especially as DS5 is a rampaging toddler now and not very easy to manage on long journeys. In fact, having barely travelled anywhere since March, he has a great dislike of being in the car seat or even pushchair for longer than a few minutes at a time, so I think we'll save a trip abroad till next year. Not going away much will mean we can put more towards the mortgage this year in any case.

cotswoldaccountant

The week is flying by. Guests happily installed in the cottages - so nice to see them occupied by happy holidaymakers. Our local cafes are starting to open up too which is lovely, so I've met a friend for coffee a couple of times. I've saved a lot of money during lockdown not buying coffee and cake, which is a big weakness of mine, but a friend treated me this morning so that was very nice. As several of our guests book through one of the bigger listing sites, we don't get payment until they have arrived, so some money is now coming in for those which is helping the bank account. I also realised that I needed to make a small amendment to OH's tax return, which has resulted in a £60 repayment which I've just applied for.

I'm determined to get to the bottom of my pile of paperwork today too. I really hate having paperwork hanging around - as soon as it is dealt with, it gets scanned or shredded, so no "new" paperwork ever stays in the house long. I'm still going through old files of paperwork though - I got most of the client files cleared out when GDPR came in a couple of years ago, but there's still quite a lot of personal paperwork from years gone by to wade through. My aim is to be a paper-free house! Unfortunately at the moment my desk (currently the dining room table) looks like a bomb has hit is, as DS1 is using it as his study area, it seems to be a dumping ground for Lego and other small toys that we don't want DS5 to get hold of, and there's still a substantial pile of stuff that I need to deal with. I shall get on with it now!

cotswoldaccountant

Spoke to the mortgage company just now as I was a bit worried that we weren't getting the full benefit of our cashpool mortgage - I happened to re-read the opening documentation and it says a maximum of 50% of the mortgage value can be offset, and we have more than that in our cashpool account. They reassured me that the full balance of the account was being taken into account in calculating the interest, so that is good. I'm a bit nervous they might try to claw back this interest at a later date though! So we have decided to make an overpayment from our cash account into the mortgage itself, which I need to do by post. While I like having an offset mortgage, the "overpayments" don't seem quite real until they have actually come off the mortgage balance! We have no early repayment penalties on this mortgage so I think this is the best thing to do.

OH also sold some shares today that he receives from his employer once a quarter. It's not a large amount but will help towards the overpayment, as will a payment for the holiday cottage which arrived this morning. I e-mailed out quite a few balance reminders so hopefully some more will follow in the next few days!

Have also been to a lovely pick your own farm this morning with DS4 and DS5. I can't believe I have never found it before - it was really beautifully laid out, with amazing strawberries and raspberries, although sadly their lovely adventure playground was closed. It certainly wasn't cheaper than buying fruit from the supermarket, and we did pick rather a lot - but I am sure it will all be delicious!

cotswoldaccountant

A lovely sunny Saturday - about to go for a walk with the family and I've had a fairly thrifty day so far. I have found an easy face mask pattern so have been turning some old clothes into face masks - much quicker and simpler than I thought it would be and a nice chance to get the sewing machine out, which I don't use often as I am not particularly proficient at using it! They actually look quite nice and feel much less clinical than wearing a medical mask. Even the teenagers didn't baulk at them, although they insisted on "plain" or "striped" designs - no floral for teenage boys!

I've been using up some cooking ingredients from the back of the cupboard - dried cherries, walnuts and various other fruit - to make a fruit loaf cake and a coffee and walnut cake. The fruit loaf cake was delicious for lunch and the coffee and walnut cake is going in one of the cottages as we have new guests arriving today. The bookings have carried on coming in which is wonderful after such a long spell of nothing - we have sold every single stay for the whole summer now in both cottages. I chased up one guest who hadn't paid, to find the email with payment instructions had gone to his spam folder, so I'm glad I mentioned it!

I have also been listing some items for sale on our local selling page - we have quite a bit of bulky baby equipment hanging around the house which we won't use again, so getting rid of it would be nice and would free up some space. I need to start gradually taking things to the charity shop too now they're open again - our local one will only take 2 bags at a time but that would be a start. The local selling pages don't seem to generate as many sale nowadays as they used to though - I'm not sure why. 

Our mortgage overpayment has now been processed too, so I am pleased about that - I am holding off updating my signature until I receive this month's statement as the reduced balance will then feel real! It doesn't make any real difference as the money was being offset from our cashpool mortgage in any case, but knowing it has gone to the mortgage once and for all is a nice feeling. 

cotswoldaccountant

I did one of my least favourite tasks yesterday, which was to call the mobile phone company - prompted by a £10 increase in my monthly bill - annoyingly a couple of the contract discounts had come to an end but I hadn't realised. It took a ridiculously long time, but I managed to renegotiate them and ended up with an overall monthly bill of £5 less than I was paying before! Not bad for four mobile phone contracts - mine, DS1, DS2 and DD are all on the same bill. DD's comes up for renewal in September so I've made a note in my diary so I don't forget this time! I don't usually give children a phone until secondary school - I don't think there is any need - but at the start of lockdown we decided to get DD a phone so she could keep in touch with her friends. I'm not sure it was the best idea - the phone has been removed for stroppy behaviour almost as often as she has had access to it!

We found ripe gooseberries in the garden yesterday and I was going to buy apples for a crumble, but then DS3 and a friend climbed apple trees in the garden this afternoon and several fell down - I thought they would be unripe but actually they seem okay. We shall see!

greent

Hello! Glad you've had lots of bookings for the cottage I also don't give my children mobiles until secondary school - but DS3 did have an old one on PAYG (basically was only allowed to use it over wifi) with lockdown. Actually, I need to convert that to a 'proper' one on a month by month contract so he can have data now that he'll be in Y7 next week - a job for tomorrow, methinks

cotswoldaccountant

greent said:

Hello! Glad you've had lots of bookings for the cottage I also don't give my children mobiles until secondary school - but DS3 did have an old one on PAYG (basically was only allowed to use it over wifi) with lockdown. Actually, I need to convert that to a 'proper' one on a month by month contract so he can have data now that he'll be in Y7 next week - a job for tomorrow, methinks

Good luck for next week for your DS3 Greent - lovely to hear from you by the way! My DD is starting to get quite nervous - I am sure all will be fine, but it's a big step after such a weird year already.