Building The Burrow!

Pearla*Merle

Decluttered: biscuit tin, ear plugs I'll never use, decorative floral wreath, and think I'm going to get rid of a glass trifle-esque dish I have. Sadly no traffic cones or other roadside furniture has made the cut yet (*nudges greent *)

Forgot to say, Mr M was passing a shop in Londinium (Uniqlo, don't know if they're still running the promo?) yesterday and they were giving away fancy cooling camisoles/vests, so he got us one each. :T Perfect timing as I needed something to go under a work dress.... crikey, they're worth about £10 each! Wish he'd got another couple. :rotfl:

misscousinitt

PB I am so behind with your diary.

Hope to catch up soon.

MCI

apple_muncher

Send him back for a couple more. With a hat and false moustache!

Pearla*Merle

misscousinitt wrote: »

PB I am so behind with your diary.

Hope to catch up soon.

MCI

And vice versa!

I'm finally finally finally managing to catch up on here properly after months of awolness so expect a visit sharpish ! But I can see from your sig there have been major developments! Congratulations, what exciting times :T Can't wait to read about your latest exploits xx

Pearla*Merle

apple_muncher wrote: »

Send him back for a couple more. With a hat and false moustache!

That sounds like a plan! :T :rotfl:

Pearla*Merle

Nothing much else to report from today. Went to work, got almost taken out by hayfever for my trouble.

The humidity was madness today as well, never felt anything like it (where I wasn't on holiday, most discombobulating).

Had the most trashy tea, and Mr M. brought back leftover birthday treats that were circling around at his work. Oh dear. Back on the straight and narrow tomorrow omg.

Thinking about a cheaper day out tomorrow (or maybe no day out!) rather than the original plan (which involved trains and museum entrances), as we're pondering a trip to the cinema on Sunday... that's the extent of moneysaving today.

Simple Pleasures: clocking a film this morn and reading inspiring books at lunchtime. :T

Pearla*Merle

Definitely postponing the day out today - hideous hayfever and dismal weather makes the decision an easy one.

So housey things today instead, I feel a list coming on!

• kitchen clean, major dishwashing etc
• stocktake cupboards, meal plan
• laundry, laundry, laundry
• change bed linen
• trolley shop at Aldee
• look at list of healthy recipes I wrote, before going to Aldee
• kondo my jewellery/trinket boxes
• read some book/mags so I can declutter them
• likewise the dregs from the sherry bottle (current weather helpful in this case)
• clean bathroom, yawn.
• look at accounts, make short term plan of action for monies
• research & apply for new credit/charge card (with benefits)
• help Mr M sort out these boxes he's still not unpacked from the move :cool:
• meter readings, check how new energy account is going

Decluttered: hanging basket storage thing that's too skinny and oddly shaped to ever be useful, crafty stamp things, three books.

Note to self: write up ponderation of money situation below so I don't forget.

Pearla*Merle

Monies.

So first things first, the help to buy isa is apparently completely and utterly pointless if you don't live in a) London or b) the north. There's a £250k limit on it outside London, but if we were to even get a two bed flat pretty much anywhere around here you're looking at well over that. So frustrating. So should I just ignore it and put my money elsewhere or hang on until the situation becomes clearer, but it's still probably a completely ridiculous and unusable scheme with very little return even if I could sort-of use it? It's all a bit confusing.

In happier money news, Mr M has quite a lot of avios points gathering going on, so I'll get a card to gather points, but have decided not to open it yet, will do so when they either have a bigger offer or when we know we can spend the minimum to get the bonus points (probably in a couple of months). Hopefully we should get first class tickets/major long haul flights out of it. :T

I have a 0% that finishes in November, I'm going to keep saving & tracking all the cash I can then just pay that off out of my savings. That'll get rid of that card, at which point (or probably sooner) I'll also nix my other card that I'm effectively using as a charge card (got work expenses on it so am juggling money a bit with it currently), which should free me up to apply for another 0% in a few months (depending on avios card situation).

I still need to get current accounts in order, so I'm reading up on those next. Probably most likely to open TSB first, then others after so I can finally become a moneyshuffler (didn't mean to take so long to do this, oops, but I'm joining in at last!).

So just need to work out this ISA thing. Then once these things are all going I can finally start looking into s&s ISAs/diverting some savings to investments etc.

Need to think about pension situation. I've been auto enrolled, but it's for the most pointless amount you've ever seen. Need to look into this and think about whether it's worth increasing or just withdrawing? I'd need to save hundreds a month to get any sort of decent pension and that's impossible really. Hmm.

Pearla*Merle

There was more in that sherry bottle than I realised *hiccup*

Too knackered for the rest of the list... I'll leave it for some other day.

£68.something in Aldi, got some long life stuff and lots of healthy edibles, so we should eek it out over quite a while.

Cottage pie for tea, bulked out with veg and we tested out our Costko instant mash on the top of it, worked a treat and good to know we've got another emergency dinner item in the cupboards. :T

Realised I've got about £100 left this month after mad energy bill, so I've added that to the savings tally. Spreadsheets/piggybanking updated.

Simple Pleasures: literally stopping to smell the roses

katep23

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

Need to think about pension situation. I've been auto enrolled, but it's for the most pointless amount you've ever seen. Need to look into this and think about whether it's worth increasing or just withdrawing? I'd need to save hundreds a month to get any sort of decent pension and that's impossible really. Hmm.

Hi Pearla, this struck a chord with me as I am in the same situation. My company is (begrudgingly) offering a pension because they have to and it is the bare minimum - 1% now up to 3% in 3 years and I will have to put in 5%.

I have decided to take it as it is effectively free money from my employers but I will need to make other arrangements as well so I just look at it as a bonus to whatever other provisions I sort out and at least it can be growing in the meantime until I decide / have the money to save or invest.