The impossible dream

Tahlullah.H

Hi.  Thanks for the concern about kitty.  He is ok, but he managed to rip the bandage off today, so it was on for a grand total of 1 day!  OK, as part of my bill, they gave me one of those beautiful collars that pets love so much - lampshade style.  On that went.  His paw is absolutely awful, really mangled.  Looks like it had gone septic with large bits of flesh falling off.  Anyway, the vet said it was ok before they covered it over, and he's had an antibiotic jab, so the wound getting some air will no doubt help.  Just got to keep it clean by spraying it with animal antiseptic until it starts to scab over, which looks like it may be weeks.  Kitty will be pleased!

Prolific is so slow at the moment.  Submissions are not coming through that often, but quite a few are pending pay out.  I have £20.46 that I could claim now, with a further 4.63 waiting to be paid.  May as well leave it where it is until closer to Visa payment date.  Shame it pays into Paypal, as it runs the risk of being subsumed by the ebay money. 

Ebay is moving ever so slowly now; dribs and drabs.  Nothing of any particular value, just £5 here and there.  But that's £5 I don't have to find.  I need to list a couple of other items, as 3 have sold and they need replacing on the list of ebay items for sale.

The biggest shock today was that I actually did some of the work that I have been avoiding for an age.  I need to get a bit more organised, but now that I have made a start, I will get on with it and get it done.  I need to complete it before the end of the month, which is absolutely doable.

On the positive side, it was a lovely day, so I made some ice-cream and sat in the sun.  Could hardly see my laptop screen, but it was a small price to pay for the absolute joy of sitting in the garden, eating ice-cream and hiding from the sun under the parasol.  Can't believe that at some point in the future, all this will stop.

LeighofMar

On the positive side, it was a lovely day, so I made some ice-cream and sat in the sun.  Could hardly see my laptop screen, but it was a small price to pay for the absolute joy of sitting in the garden, eating ice-cream and hiding from the sun under the parasol.

Nothing better than that. It's those little moments that make all the craziness bearable.

StripeyTightsSpottySocks

Hi Tahlullah - i sent you a message - or I hope i did 

Tahlullah.H

Salary came in and did the money shuffle. Bills money in the bills account.  Tilly Tidied the spare pennies into the visa account.  Everything ready for the next month.  All bills will be covered.

One Poll is at £7.20 and Prolific is at £24.68.  Undid the great achievements today by ordering a Domino's pizza.  Still good, despite spending the value of my ill-gotten gains.

Managed to finally get an energy supplier to take on my supply, so electric bill reduced by £20 per month.

Ebay has ground to a halt.  But everything is on constant relist so perhaps bits may sell over time.

Second pension asking if I want to take any money now.  In the process of getting it transferred to Moneybox with the others.  Together, strong.

Nothing exciting happening otherwise.  Mortgage payment should be made, with usual overpayment.  Visa payments will be made as normal and the car loan will be paid as normal. Bringing the mortgage down is slow and laborious, but thank goodness that the payments can still be paid without interruption next month.

greent

You may say slow and laborious - but your signature shows over 15k reduction in less than 12 months - definitely not to be sniffed at!

Tahlullah.H

Thank you for the kind words of support GT.  To be fair, I just feel that I am not making progress.  I read other peoples diaries and they are moving the world, paying down debt, clearing mortgages and moving onto the next phase of their life and I feel I am stalled.  By now, I should have been mortgage free, looking forward to early retirement.  Instead, I am here with a mortgage of £62,250 and I will be paying it for another 5 years.  I can forgive myself the car loan and the visa bill - I see them as part of living life.  But what has gone so wrong in my life that I am still paying a mortgage at age 55?

I need to be more positive and look on the bright side.  I may pay it off before I am 60 and be able to stop working at some point during this 5 year period.  Lets hope I eventually win the Lottery.  Better buy a ticket!  In the interim, I will list a couple more things on ebay.

savingholmes

Hi Tahlullah - at least you have a plan. £15K in 12 months is stunning especially on one wage. Make sure that when you plan your retirement that you plan for social and brain. You may find you want to keep a little part time job anyway or some kind of work that can be done from home. I think this crisis has shown that there are far more home working options than employers originally thought. I hope that it changes how workplaces operate moving forward. 

Tahlullah.H

Thanks for the support SH & GT.  I should definitely count my blessings.  If I continue on this path, I should in theory pay £15k per year, so I should pay off the mortgage in 4 years, and less if I get the injection of money I am hoping for from my pension.  But never count your chickens until they have hatched.  It's just that it is all so slow.  I wonder what I am going to do when it is finally gone.  So much of my life and my time has been devoted to trying to be debt free and mortgage free, I am concerned that I will be without aim, without direction.  But the feeling will be glorious!

Survey sites are so painful!  Prolific has ground to a halt.  I feel as if I sit waiting for something to happen on this site.  It is exhausting.  If you aren't looking at exactly the right moment, you miss the opportunity.

One Poll is slow as well.  I am at £7.60 at the moment, inching my way towards £30 so I can get some money out.  That looks like it may happen at some point in my lifetime.

With both sites, I am not sure they are worth the level of time you need to invest to get something out the other end.  At least with YouGov, although it is slow, the questions are sent to you and you never get screened out and nor do you have to hover around the laptop in the hope someone throws you a bone at the exact moment the stars align.   I think I will get to the £30 for One Poll and then stop; and cash in Prolific when I get to £30, which I am just waiting for them to approve some of the submissions I have already done.

Ebay is still doing absolutely nothing, but it doesn't take anything out of me to leave items to relist on their own.  Perhaps, someone will suddenly realise they need this pair of shoes or that handbag.

Everything else is going the way it should.  Looked at booking a holiday in the campervan somewhere in the UK, and everything is already booked solid. Oh well, perhaps I will still be able to take the holiday I have planned for France in September.  Save my money for then - assuming I get there.

Just changed internet provider.  It's the same cost as the current provider, but hopefully because it is EE, I will get a better service, plus it comes with £120 cashback. The down side is that you have to claim quarterly and send in your bills to evidence the service and bill payment.  Luckily, I am organised enough to do it.  I think they assume that most people won't.  The offer ends today.

I was looking at the car insurance, it will be due for renewal in a couple of months.  And despite the pandemic, where we are all locked down, I have managed to do over 23,000 miles in one year!  A bit more than the 15,000 miles I said I would do, but travelling up and down the country regularly will do that.  I see trouble ahead.

Watched Glastonbury last night - Amy Winehouse, Bowie and the Foo Fighters.  It took me back to my youth.  I may give Adele a try this evening whilst I find something else to list on Ebay.  Every little helps.

savingholmes

Some good plans there. How frustrating for you about the campsites. At the same time it's good to stay safer. 4 years to go on the mortgage sounds good. I think with retirement - it is as important to plan your days and weeks at least at the start as it is when you are in work. That's partly why a lot of people end up volunteering.

Tahlullah.H

One step forward and one back.  The great internet deal was not as great as they presented.  When there was no contract, I had to ring and ask why, and they said you only get one if you took the deal online.   Well, the reason I rang was because your site was down, so swap me over onto the online contract.  No, can't do that, so you don't get any paperwork, you were told what you were getting during the telephone call...  I cancelled.  So, now I need to find another internet provider before this one runs out next month.

I appear to have stopped working.  So, I think I need to make an effort to start again.  I had that little spurt and then ground to a halt. At some point, I am going to be called out on my lack of productivity.  But, to be fair, if I was in the office, I wouldn't be that productive there either, because the interruptions are non-stop.  I always felt I was only partially productive at work, jumping from one thing to another as demands of the day came into my office .  And here I am with no interruption and I am still unproductive.  Maybe that's just who I am?  I feel like one of those people who gets where they are due to the phrase  'Fake it until you make it'.  Maybe I have been faking it all my life? Perhaps people only see what they want and they believe I am good at what I do, when in reality I do very little?  Oh well, not the time to worry about what is past, just need to think about actually doing some of this work at some point before lock down ends or my boss asks me how I am doing with it.  He just assumes it is being done.

Bits keep getting sold on ebay, the odd £10 or £5  occasionally.  I am still building towards my £30 on One Poll - I am at £9.70, with £20.30 to go before I can stop.  I am at £29.42 with Prolific.  The weather has been so bad, I still have the heating on in July!!  So I anticipate a big bill for gas coming up.