Pay Off Before Lay Off!

System

Hello! Loving the thread so far and the posts, have subscribed.

Hope you hear back from the tax office soon!

Habibiboo

:wave:

Hi all & lovely to meet you KatyKicker, thanks for subscribing to my ramblings about what seems to be a pretty daunting quest so far this month / year! The nicest thing about putting my own accountability on here is all the lovely people I've "met", all the good ideas which are so freely shared and all the support, it's great!

Elantan - I forgot about fruit, largely becauseI rarely eat it (more of a veg girl)! But indeed, fruit growing's already underway - house had one old apple tree, one old pear and an old chum when we moved in, all still productive (but apple and pear on last legs,so OH gave them the ultimate pruning from which I'd be surprised if they ever recover, tbh)!

In addition to those, he bought me an apple tree for my birthday 3 years ago (and some girls have to settle for diamonds, eh) and he's also bought a Mirabelle tree, crab apple, an apricot and a fig tree in the intervening years (can you tell he used to work in forestry yet?). Fig tree already has 5 little fruits on their way!

We also have a bed of strawberries, one of raspberries and two big pots of blueberry plants which were amazing last year- nothing nicer than popping up the garden for a handful of blueberries to throw onto your muesli (actually, one of the best bits about it was knowing that just one of the handful of berries would have cost a couple of quid from Mr. A or T! You're so right about the cost of salad in that respect too!

We do have a rhubarb crown but I fear it has drowned in the murk at top of the garden, amongst the fallen fences!

So, my updates:

Today's MF actions: Check on bills in mortgage account to make sure nothing horrible's happening there, and tiniest of Tilly tidy payments from other account. All looking OK for a mo, although I'm once again astounded by the big numbers and thinking that my goal to get the mortgage under 100K in 2014 might be more than optimistic! Still, 11 and a bit months still to go. No updates from tax man yet!

Today's grey cloud: just literally, the dogs did an excellent guilt trip on me when I stopped work for coffee at 11 (I'd been at my desk since 8) so I risked running them round to the small park. Well, of course the clouds just burst as we got there! Park's already soaked, the dogs' ball just landed splat onto the green areas, all splash and no bounce due to the wet! Plus one of the loveliest silver birches is now laying in state across one of the top green areas.

My boy doggie usually goes off for a bit of a squirrel hunt (there's a highly visible albino squirrel in the park who just taunts him, really), but he stayed unusually close today, I think because the park just felt so sad and different.

Today's silver lining: small gains on Eb*y sales which finished yesterday,will have to update my signature with that one, but it's all good!

Today's happy moment: The store cupboard / freezer challenge is going well, made a lovely Cullen Skink soup for our tea, which went down a treat after today's soaking. Got an incredible urge for liquorice allsorts now though, not sure why, not a flavour commonly associated with haddock, is it?

Hope everyone''s OK and not struggling too much with the awful flooding and hideous weather, hugs to those who need them.

Pearla*Merle

Habibiboo wrote: »

My boy doggie usually goes off for a bit of a squirrel hunt (there's a highly visible albino squirrel in the park who just taunts him, really)

:rotfl: Brilliant :rotfl:

I miss having a doggle, they're so entertaining. Ours loved huge sticks and regularly used to try and drag back home entire fallen trees. :rotfl:

Loving the veggie & fruit chatter, I can't wait for spring now. Must start thinking about what to do with my own little spot. We're in quite a sun trap so would love to try some exotic fruits.... I can almost hear a blueberry bush rustling towards me.

Habibiboo

:wave:

Hi all

Pearla*Merle lovely to hear about your dog, I reckon it would have had a field day with that fallen silver birch! I'm sorry your pooch is no longer with you - I dread anything happening to ours, I do know if anything happens to our older girl, the boy will be devastated as he's never been without her, since arriving here as a pup!

Garden's so wet I still don't think we'll be able to do much with it for a while yet although have a cheeky little bit of propagating going on in airing cupboard! This isn't as rude as it sounds, honest! :rotfl:

I'd really encourage buying a blueberry bush, it's so much cheaper to grow them than buy them if you like them, although they do need a little bit of TLC, which is why ours are in planters: we can add pine needles etc to the soil easier that way, as they like a bit of acid!

. Today's MF actions: have organised work schedule & bookings that I know I can make enough to cover January's OP on mortgage, despite the tax man! What's helped with this ...

Today's silver lining: ... Is that today I delivered to new client who gave me trial work at end of last week and they are very happy with my work and have added me to their team, so I should be able to get at least another £150 this month by doing gigs for them. This nicely off-sets the tax amount and adds a bit of breathing space (aka less "what-if-I-don't-get-enough-work panic) for the next few months too.

No black clouds, a good old plodding on kinda day.

Today's happy moment: coming on here and discovering that Scottish Power are reducing prices a tad - that's approximately £54 less to them which can be paid to the mortgage instead this year then!

Hope everyone's OK and not too soggy!

Habibiboo

:wave:

Well, it was a mixed kind of day, but all moving forwards to the greater good, I think!

Took a half day to spend time with my eldest boy as he's working in the big smoke and can't come down for my birthday at the weekend, so he came today. He treated me to a CD and lunch and it was great to take a half day from work and spend it with him instead of housework / clearing up mud from animals / thinking up how to keep afloat and pay off before layoff etc! Indeed, we just focused on having a bit of fun together and catching up a bit - it was a great interlude.

So, back to the other stuff:

Today's MF action: small Tilly-Tidy, quick check on accounts (and a free lunch)!

Today's silver lining: email from HMRC about tax ... it seems that they owe me but I need to phone them as I don't know if the figure they're saying I overpaid includes the £150 they demanded at the weekend, or not. So, as requested, I phoned them ...

Today's big black cloud: on hold, to HMRC, for .... two hours, wait, it gets worse .... it was an 0845 number, so now I'm convinced that anything I do get back from the tax man will go straight into BT's coffers instead of my mortgage account. Big black cloud on an otherwise fine day! Is it really irrational that I was in such a bad mood by the time I eventually came off the phone - without having got an answer to my question either? Sent them a very grumpy email but expect that will bounce back So, watch this space, I'm hoping for a positive outcome to put into the MF actions as an OP in a couple of days (depending on the phone bill, of course)!

Today's happy moment: took dogs over little park and had nice chat with the old couple who walk a greyhound. I was inordinately pleased to see them as we usually see them a lot as we're all regular walkers in that park, but haven't seen them for a bit and you do worry when the weather's been awful and they don't appear!

I also worry especially as I accidentally caught the poor old boy right in a sensitive area when I threw the ball for the dogs, on one of the last times we did see them (I'm !!!! at throwing ... you know, last one to be picked for rounders / netball, first one to get hit with something in hockey etc when I was at school). Nothing's changed, my OH is the designated ball thrower when we're together, for the safety of others but of course he's not always there! So it was good to see that I hadn't laid the poor old fella low and that he is still talking to me (albeit a little more high-pitched)!

So that was my day, less emphasis on the mortgage but good to put it on one side at least mentally for a few hours! Hope everyone else is fine and safe from the floods :wave:

Habibiboo

:wave:
Hope everyone's well!

Today's MF actions: NSD no 7 of month and no expensive phone calls to HMRC today!

Today's black cloud: cooked us a lovely curry to use up a squash and then remembered it's meant to be soup day (one of OH's fasting / soup days). I offered to blend it all but he counter-offered the fact he could make a nifty dahl to go with it, so no soup but lovely dinner instead & all from the store cupboard.

Today's silver lining: I've saved the squash seeds to have a go at growing these although OH says there's no room in his bed for them! We'll see about that!

Today's happy moment: It didn't rain today and no severe weather warnings! The hens actually tried to make themselves a dust bath as they were in such high spirits about not wandering around in the wet, although it was still pretty much more of a mud spa than a dust bath!

Hope it's dry and OK wherever you are, lovely visitors!

Pearla*Merle

Habibiboo wrote: »

Pearla*Merle lovely to hear about your dog, I reckon it would have had a field day with that fallen silver birch! I'm sorry your pooch is no longer with you - I dread anything happening to ours, I do know if anything happens to our older girl, the boy will be devastated as he's never been without her, since arriving here as a pup!

I'd really encourage buying a blueberry bush, it's so much cheaper to grow them than buy them if you like them, although they do need a little bit of TLC, which is why ours are in planters: we can add pine needles etc to the soil easier that way, as they like a bit of acid!

I had him when I was really ill so we were home all day together, oh my, it was indeed devastating when he got ill, but you do get through it and I'm thankful for all the good times we had together

Cheers for the pine needles tip :T I'm definitely going to try out blueberries this year Have fun growing the squash - I did pumpkin seeds last year, the plants were so big and impressive, I felt like I had a proper veg garden at last. :rotfl:

Yikes on that HMRC phonecall! :eek: That would have me spitting fire!

elantan

Happy birthday this weekend Habibiboo.. with blueberry bushes always use rain water to water them with as well ( more acidic)

ive put mine in the poly tunnel this time in the desperate vain attempt to grow some blueberries ... i think we are too far north tbh ... but if that is the case then why the hell sell them at the local garden centre ... grrrr that does my head in

Habibiboo

:wave:

Many thanks for birthday wishes Elantan, very kind of you! And yes, that's good advice about the rainwater, my OH always does that. Shame you haven't had much success, hopefully the poly tunnel will make a difference this time around.

Perla*Merle ~ squash seeds remain unplanted so far but OH tidied up two empty raised beds at the weekend, and I've got my beady eye on one of them!

Been a bit quiet on all fronts as I've had another bout of the lurgy. Thankfully it started towards the end rather than beginning of birthday celebrations! Just when I thought things were getting back to normal routines after Xmas, the old lurgy comes along and knocks the stuffing out of me again!

However, my disappointment pales into insignificance compared to the dogs' as I haven't been able to pop them out the last couple of days ~ the garden's big enough but not for all the fun things like the running, ball games and squirrel chasing (the dogs, not me, I'm not a dignified runner - or even co-ordinated for that matter)!

Oh well, on the plus side I'm hoping to make it up to them tomorrow and being laid low has meant a few extra NSDs, so will have to update my total there!

Recent MF actions: haven't been anywhere to spend anything and the account's looking OK from here! I'm kind of looking forward to the usual mortgage payment going out so I can see the full effect of the current OPs onto the totals (sad but true)!
Hope to make next OP on Friday as I should get a payment through from a client on Thurs.

Today's grey cloud: working for yourself and having deadlines means doing it all even whilst feeling rubbish!

Today's silver lining: at least I was able to surface from my bed and work in an upright position today and OH has been a star with seeing to hens first thing so that I haven't had to struggle on and do that at least!!

Today's happy thought: blackbird and robin (not to be confused with a famous crime-fighting duo of nearly the same name) were waiting for me at the back door when I did surface today.

Hope everyone else is OK and not struggling with weather / illness / bears, that kind of thing.

Habibiboo

:wave:

Been a bit more out of my pit and with it today (well, as much as ever), despite the weather!

Today's MF actions: small tilly tidy and started sorting through CDs to put onto my hardrive and then sell off to MM. Have two batches so far - one lot of £30 ~ almost finished loading them onto harddrive and another lot of £35, which I'll play through and put onto hardrive over next few days. This will add to the £5 a day challenge total which I'm hoping will bring in an extra £150 OP for the end of the month! Fingers crossed anyway.

Today's grey cloud: Still no news / payment from HMRC, was hoping for something extra there too!

Today's silver lining: Doing the CD task is helping to get some fresh music onto the old MP3, lots of re-discovering old fave tracks we'd forgotten about! All fabulous free fun (yup, am that sad)!

If you're there Elantan, going through the old CDs is another one of those tasks that's a great filler activity in the space where the old goggle box used to be!

Today's happy moment: All this soup and lurgydom is paying off ~ finally lost 2lb! Of course, I still have birthday chocs to eat when I feel better, so not sure it's a long-term loss!

Hugs to those who need them!