The march to financial freedom

Ali-OK

Evening Diary,

A pretty good day today. Drove the dual carriageway tonight where the panic symptoms started on Saturday and was absolutely fine this time. Confidence growing. Am going to try driving to Mum's probably Thursday evening - a combination of fast A road and dual carriageway.

DS is ready for back to school, though his first day is a school trip, so we've had to pop out and get some snack bits. I also used a voucher of spend £15 on cleaning/laundry/bin bags/tissue items to get 14p off each litre of fuel. Total spend £19.48 and a cupboardful of everything I could possibly need for probably a good 6 months - mostly basics and comparable costs with the usual Wilkos stuff I'd normally buy.

Osteo appointment meant a £40 spend today and now visits every 10 days :eek:. So yes, stress is expensive.

Financials:
- bank account checked - balance transfer has gone through so I did a faster payment to pay the £76 fee to avoid that accruing interest. Actual statement will be produced @ 10th September.
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - just 2 bonus points added, 14 pts total
- Nectar Search - off the blocks 5/100
- Nectar card - on £113.13
- Inbox Pounds - up a tad at £13.76
- Qmee, still on 55p in the pot

That's it for today.

Ali-OK

Another steady day and a No Spend one too.

DS had a good day out and was home about 7pm, so a quick dinner from the freezer tonight. A couple of things to get ready for the morning for first proper day back in school - including his transport cheque for the term at £60 - and then early nights all round.

Financials
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - up at 25 points
- Nectar Search - up at 10/100
- Nectar card value - up at £113.38
- Inbox Pounds - up at £13.82
- Qmee - 11p added, now at 66p in the pot

P!necone sent through a survey, completed that so there will soon be points to convert to £3 for Paypal .

Next Osteo appointment booked for Thursday 11th September. Really stretching the budget this month with those.

Not done the food shop yet this week and we seem to still have quite a good stock of most stuff, so hoping for a low spend one.

That's all the news today, hope everyone has had a good one.

Ali-OK

Dear Diary,

It's been a bit stressful today, mainly caused by coming home from work to find the neighbour had sawn through the majority of stems from the trunk of my wysteria - it has taken over 10 years to get it growing and flowering over my pergola. I am so :mad:. The reason - they took 2 fence panels out to replace them (they were old and broken) and said they needed to cut everything they did in order to do so. They didn't, but it was too late and I suspect most of the last decade's training and pruning work is now worthless and dead. . Why don't some people have the courtesy to discuss these things before doing them? :mad::mad:

So it's been fun trying to find big enough barriers as they don't seem to realise that the dogs use the garden..and instantly went into theirs as no fence. :mad: The job isn't finished either!

Other than that...
- food shop done and spent £22.18
- fuel fill up done and spent £37.92 (saved £4.62 with the voucher)

Financials:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - nothing new, still sat on a lowly 25 points
- Nectar Search - 12/100
- Nectar card value - £113.38
- Inbox Pounds - £13.86
- Qmee - still on 66p

DS walked to and from transport point on his own today. He used his mobile for the first time to phone me from about 100 yards away to see if I was home and to open the front door so he didn't have to get his key out :rotfl: I'll put that down to the novelty factor :rotfl:

Business is booming and if all the billable work booked happens, then I'm looking at more than covering the office overheads and some. :T. If this continues, the money I leant the business will be paid back to myself in a very short time.

Think that's it for today - looking forward to the end of the working week, then the DIYers are here on Saturday to sort the spare bedroom furniture and replace the taps and waste. Electric use will be up then with all the tea I'll be making to keep the workers happy

Ali-OK

And breathe...it's Friday evening, the weekend is here. :j

A really good work day and week and I've updated accounts and left the office tidy as an earlier start on Monday. A No Spend Day too

The financials:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - bonus 20 points added, so up to 45
- Nectar Search - 18/100
- Nectar card value - £113.54
- Inbox Pounds - £13.91
- Qmee - 66p still, nothing new

Housey stuff under way - 3 loads of washng done, bins, towels and general tidying up. DS has mostly settled back into school, though the class seating plan means he's not sat next to or even near his friends. With his Aspergers that's a big deal, so we've discussed how we are going to approach that for Monday. His form tutor is quite new, so how open he'll be to movement is yet to be seen.

Think that's it for today. Busy weekend coming up, but at home which is great. Hope everyone has had a good Friday and happy weekend

Eager_Elephant

Ali-OK wrote: »

Dear Diary,

It's been a bit stressful today, mainly caused by coming home from work to find the neighbour had sawn through the majority of stems from the trunk of my wysteria - it has taken over 10 years to get it growing and flowering over my pergola. I am so :mad:. The reason - they took 2 fence panels out to replace them (they were old and broken) and said they needed to cut everything they did in order to do so. They didn't, but it was too late and I suspect most of the last decade's training and pruning work is now worthless and dead. . Why don't some people have the courtesy to discuss these things before doing them? :mad::mad:

So it's been fun trying to find big enough barriers as they don't seem to realise that the dogs use the garden..and instantly went into theirs as no fence. :mad: The job isn't finished either!

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:


You are a better person than me - I would have been ranting and raving!!


When my neighbours fence fell down in the winds we knew they were short of money and offered to help them with it, they have 2 little dogs who loved a wander in our garden - we didn't mind as we knew it was going to be sorted and the dogs are lovely but of course once the fence went back up they were mortified


On the other side we had loads of conifers that we cut down, next door had attached a magnitude of junk to them over the years (not just current neighbours all the old ones as well) so that was interesting. They have big dogs but they knew that for the weekend it would be open and they controlled their dogs. We put up a 6ft fence which looks much better but when the conifers came down so did half of their bushes - they had never trimmed them and they got caught up in our conifers.


No hard feelings as they were aware and they have got rid of the bushes now and everyone has more light.


It's hard when neighbours are a nightmare - they knew they didn't need to chop your plant down but I expect they got a big trigger happy with the chain saw:(

Igamogam

Wisteria chopping - in your garden? There are laws even if the fence was their responsibility..................I would be incandescent!

Ali-OK

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:


You are a better person than me - I would have been ranting and raving!!

It's hard when neighbours are a nightmare - they knew they didn't need to chop your plant down but I expect they got a big trigger happy with the chain saw:(

Igamogam wrote: »

Wisteria chopping - in your garden? There are laws even if the fence was their responsibility..................I would be incandescent!

It's not the first time they have leaned over by a good few feet and sawn through thick stems (that lead to the growth going away from them) - I think they've been trying to kill it for the last few summers...but this was the last straw as the trunk is way inside my boundary and it's obvious they've done it after taking the old fence panels down and was completely unnecessary. When I caught them, he was intending on sawing through the pergola post - not realising it was part of a whole structure :eek: Imagine what would have happened then! :mad:

I was furious at the time and on chatting to the dog walking group I go out with, one of them is a police officer - so they've been round to mine, had a look and we went round together to talk to them - it's criminal damage and they've been warned I am within my rights to now take further action. Profuse apologies were forthcoming as they have ruined it - it's dying away all over the place now. They've also completed their last bit of fencing...badly and been warned that it's not secure also. Talk about a bodge job.

With the DIYers here yesterdayt, it prompted a 'garden project' conversation, so over the next 6-12 months we're going to move the pergola to the other side and take the Wysteria down from it - in place will go a corner shed and I'll train it up there and keep it smaller and where they can't reach over and cut it. Presumably they'd prefer a shed roof in their eye line rather than a green leafy and purple flowering sight.

There's alot of work of hard landscaping involved, but mostly moving stuff, digging or getting rid. Purchases will be limited to keep cost down and I'm so lucky that the DIYers will be doing all the heavy work for more tea...and they've asked for home made cake too! I shall oblige

Igamogam

Neighbours! Our 'up the hill' neighbours are fine...........our 'down the hill' neighbours not so and the land owner that our garden backs onto has no idea about the responsibility of owning land.....thinks himalayan balsam is an asset:mad: Your plans sound great and a suitable solution:)

Ali-OK

Ig, I've come to the conclusion that it's just not worth the time and effort to keep the Wysteria as I think they'll continue to do what they've been doing - the previous cuts they made were at the top of it - where it curves over and across, so they've killed off alot of the stems that sat across the top that produced the lovely big hanging flowers and scent - the whole point I did it all those years ago - to sit under in the summer. I've a photo somewhere of it at it's best and it was beautiful. Now it's a poor thing with fewer and fewer flowers thanks to the neighbours exploits.

Their excuse was they're not green fingered and just wanted to trim bits coming over their boundary - but that isn't what they've done at all and I always secateur those several times a year. I'm going to have to untie lots of branches now to get rid of all the dead stuff. :mad: Ah well, a solution that doesn't give them an opportunity to destroy what is left is the least stressful for me.

They'll be something spikey on top of the shed roof as well - when the pergola first went up, they stood on the corner of it to do something to their house (my fence is only a few feet from their house in this particular corner) and bent and brought one side of it down...no apology for that either and I only found out by the nice neighbours telling me as they saw it happen! So I have neighbours across the bottom of the garden who couldn't give a toss and lovely ones to the side of me.

On to this morning...I've been to the tidy tip and taken all the cardboard from yesterday's DIY fest, plus cleared the garage of books from the Christmas clear out and previous piles that didn't sell at car boot sales. Just didn't have enough to make up to the amount needed to sell to Zapper or similar. Am liking the space this is making

Next is to put back the spare room stuff like pillows and bedding and hoover and that room can have the door closed and be ready for our visitors next weekend.

Hoping to drive over to Mum's after lunch - I've not been on a fast road since Tuesday so fingers crossed I won't have a panic attack with picking up speed.

Financials:
- bank account checked
- Inbox Pounds up to £14.03
- Qmee - another 11p and 77p in the pot
- Nectar card - at £113.43
- Nectar adpoints - still at 45, nothing new to do there

Tons to do as always - grass needs cutting, summer bedding in pots is ready to come out, car needs a thorough clean, DS's shirt needs ironing and work needs some prep for tomorrow. And more housework! Out of that lot, it'll probably be the ironing and work that I will do today.

A No Spend Day today so far too. Yesterday, we picked up DS's glasses, he needed a green pen and Spanish dictionary for school, so a spend of £6.98. Parking was free though . I also did the gas and elec readings into my spreadsheets - elec lower again with DS back at school and me not working from home. Can't believe how much we're saving just with moving suppliers and then the cutting down beyond that. Candles have slowly been making an appearance too - it's dark down here @ 8pm ish now.

Ali-OK

Forgot to post yesterday . It stayed a NSD :T and I drove to Mum's and back without a panic attack or major symptoms :T.

Grass got cut, DS's shirt was ironed and work was prepped for today. So a good Sunday on all levels.

Today was similar - great work day with client facing this morning and the afternoon ran away with phone calls and booking more work in - some for October. This is excellent news and I should be stress free!

After a dinner of sausages and mash, I started to pull through some of the cut wysteria branches and kept finding more branches they've sawn through. I was shaking with anger by time I'd done that - so many bare patches now whereas it was almost waterproof under there! I may have had a little vocal rant It's good to let it out! :rotfl:

I've emptied the summer bedding pots as well, so the garden waste bin is full and out, ready for collection tomorrow. I sat down with a cuppa only for a visual migraine to come on and a headache afterwards. Roll on GP and Osteo appointments on Thursday.

Financials:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar - not looked at today except Search is up to 31/100 and nectar card value I got wrong on Saturday as it's slightly more at £113.54
- Inbox Pounds at £14.23
- Qmee at 77p in the pot

And £3 in Paypal from P!necone.
And another No Spend Day.

It's getting better!