Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

Pippilongstocking

That is indeed a very cunning plan. I scored a free work curry yesterday after a session as we eat with the students and get out best crack when we do.

Vive la free nosh.

Tomorrow night I'm out cooking pancakes - me thinks I need to sample a few for tea too

Just to check their not poisoned!

Have a great one Cheery!

DedicatedDFW

I am clearly in the wrong job as i don't get any free food or any free anything *ponders* new job search :think:

How is the new car Cheery ? Was Mr Cheery happy with it ? And did i ask the colour of it yet ?

Wow to fab food this evening too - i am already feeling hungry and all this talk of food has me wondering what is in the kitchen

Hope it is a good day for all x

Cheery_Daff

Hope the pancakes were a hit pippi! :j :j

new car is burgundy and looks a bit like a taxi :rotfl: tis a Renault Kangoo - booked into the garage tomorrow so we can find out just how many things i missed that are wrong with it... :eek: :eek: :eek:

good day today though :j event this evening went REALLY well, 110 people there (the room only seats 120!) and SUCH a good speaker :j could have done without train being delayed and missing connection but got home eventually and thankfully i'm working at home tomorrow :j

no more spends to declare! :j :j ate lots of nibbles and we'd bought salady stuff to share, and i managed to poach a couple of leftover cakes for late night snacks :j

Going to try for a NSD tomorrow! :j :j Obviously we'll have to pay for the car but I'm not counting that...

Might try ringing council tax people again to change accounts, and need to switch RAC cover to new car (or cancel/restart, we're only a couple of months from the end so not sure where we stand with fees etc)

Night all! :hello:

Cheery_Daff

Morning cheerful MSE pals! Lovely to amble around and see you all this morning :j :j

So - today I am definitely aiming for a NSD :eek: :eek: I don't know why these fill me with such apprehension - probably a sign that I need a few more of them :rotfl:

Some money-related things I will do today:

* change council tax to new bank account
* change wildlife trust sbscription to new bank account
* switch RAC cover to new car
* book a spin class with my gym membership

Er, that might be it for today

Just sitting listening to a little dunnock singing away in the garden - tis all spring-like and lovely :j :j

Cheery_Daff

Yawn yawn yawn, on hold again to the council tax hotline - 'at least 10 people in the queue' apparently... yawn yawn yawn.

Rather annoyingly, it keeps saying 'you can now do most things on our self service website' - except you need a pin that apparently comes through the post and there's no button to press to order one - I might have already inadvertently ordered it of course, but it's been more than the promised 5 days since I tried to order it and it's not arrived :mad:

And woe betide them if they answer and they tell me they can't talk to me (after they added me to the account last week) - I shall NOT be impressed!

Cheery_Daff

:j :j :j :j :j

I did it

:j :j :j :j :j



And they didn't even quibble over who I was :j

AND it seems that we only pay over 10 months (I thought I'd changed it to 12 years ago, but clearly not :rotfl: ) so there's now nothing to pay til 1st April - which means Feb and March payments can go in the savings fund - that's another £232 :eek: :j :j :j :j

We're still spread over joint and Mr Cheery's accounts for the time being, but once I get paid next Friday I'll do a bit of juggling and update the signature - what FUN! :j :j :j

Cheery_Daff

Sorry folks, waffling on talking to myself today

Just had the annual mortgage statement, and trying to work out if it's worth paying off :eek: :eek:

Bear with me while I do a few sums :rotfl:

According to the statement, as of January 2014:

Total mortgage outstanding: £1564.07 :eek:
Contractual monthly payment £215.64 (although I'm pretty sure we had a letter saying they were reducing it to £140...)
Amount we actually pay each month: £277.69
Term remaining: 10 months

Apparently, if we'd paid it off 13th Jan 2014, the total would have been £1,339.02

SO... it's not going to take 10 months to repay because we're overpaying anyway, so assuming they don't add any more interest in the next few months (and I have no idea whether they will)

£1339.02
Feb payment £277.69, total left £1061.33
March payment £277.69, total left £783.64
April payment £277.69, total left £505.95
May payment £277.69, total left £228.26
June payment £228.26, total left £0

The Feb payment has already gone, which presumably means there's only approx £1061 left.

Question is - is it worth paying it off? Given the amount left, I'm not sure it's going to save us much interest.

Advantages:
* mortgage free! :j :j :j
* £277.69 a month extra in the bank account (or savings) :j :j :j

Disadvantages:
* lose £1000 from savings (but there's still enough in there, the only planned purchase was the car which we now have, and if we transfer mortgage amount into savings it'll be built up again in 4 months)
* er, easier to get a loan to do something to the house if you already have a mortgage?! We have no plans for this anyway, certainly not in the next 4 or 5 months!

So, er, it looks like I just answered my own question then :rotfl:

Right - best get Mr Cheery on the phone :eek:

If I'm honest I feel rather sheepish about all this It's not in my name, and I've only lived here 8 years, so while it feels like 'my house' (and we'll put my name on the deeds once the mortgage is paid) it doesn't feel like I deserve to own half a house, since I never would have afforded it on my own

Also feel a bit sheepish about paying the mortgage off altogether, whether it's mine or not, since I know so many others are struggling However it's only getting paid off because Mr Cheery was sensible and took it out based on one income (when there were two of them), and houses were a lot cheaper back then, so it's always been a manageable amount. He's been paying it off for nearly 25 years - the original amount was only £37,000.

So I'm going to get over myself and stop feeling embarrassed, and celebrate instead Hope you don't mind

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Some money-related things I will do today:

* switch RAC cover to new car

Ay up Cheery - my, you're charging through your lists - bravo :T Just one thing struck me - we're with the RAC. I was always under the impression that *YOU* were the member, not your vehicle - hence why they can come out to you when you're a passenger in someone else's car. I'm not aware that that has changed? So do you need to tell them you have changed car? We didn't when we changed ours several years ago.....

Greying

Cheery_Daff

We're actually with Autonet, Greying, but the cover is provided by the RAC (and in any case, I confess I've always used 'RAC' as a generic term, a bit like 'Hoover' :rotfl: ) A lot cheaper than going directly with the RAC and the same service (although Autonet have their own call centres I think, and put people with a number of different providers).

I think you get the option of insuring the car or the person - we always go with the car, since there's two of us and just one car - wouldn't want one of us to get stuck because the other one wasn't there!

We paid £55 last year, for everything including home start :applause: RAC direct wanted over £120 for the same thing :eek:

Anyway, £5 admin charge (grr, but still only takes the annual total to £60 so I wasn't going to quibble :rotfl: ) but all done now.

Just picked new car up from garage - full service done and track rod ends and suspension sorted (or something). Confirmed that cam belt has indeed been changed, as advertised (when I went to buy it, the receipt was from a different car :eek: )

£160 all in - not too bad, added to the cost of the car that's still only £1700...

Drove down in the old one, and Mr cheery drove it back while I whizzed back in the new one. We went different routes to see who got back first through the traffic. I won :rotfl: Hope he hasn't broken down on the very day I transferred breakdown cover :eek: :rotfl:

Greying_Pilgrim

Don't blame you for going with an *equivalent* provider. We're only with the RAC, as mrT has been *paying*. Think that will end this year, as we'll never get anywhere near enough in vouchers

Greying