Only freedom will do

edinburgher

slowlyfading wrote: »

:eek: to the credit card bills...!

Home improvements SF, that's not just us living lavishly

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

:eek:

I always insist that no work is done before we've discussed it. Do the test, let me know the result, and if it's a fail, let me know what needs doing, along with a price to get it all done...

Well, we got away with it today, flew through with nothing needed beyond the checks and the MOT. £80. I agree with you, but we're somewhat stuck. We need the car (have doubled our annual mileage since DD came along) and we would need to spend something like £2k in repairs before it made sense to scrap the car, so we'll stick with it.

The mechanic is old school polite and formal, so I don't think he's taking the !!!!, he's just used to people assuming he knows what's best.

Somewhat spendy day. MOT, tank of petrol, groceries and some baby clothes came to £200. I am so grateful that this is just a spendy day and not 'oh !!!!, we've run out of money'. We have a tank full of petrol, a fridge and freezer full of tasty, healthy food and a warmly clothed baby. That will do nicely

Work continues to be worrying, we are lumbering towards industrial action it would seem.

edinburgher

Topped up EF to our target of £1,000, sold a few P2P loans to fund it. New target? £1,500 I suppose...

AlexLK

I call home improvements rather lavish ...

£80 for an MOT?! :eek: That's expensive, I pay £40 and thought they were legally only allowed to charge c.£55.

I used to have a friendly MOT man who'd ask me if I wanted a brake test or not. The only check he'd do was whether or not the car was badly rusty in structural areas then let me go. :rotfl: Don't get them like that anymore but my pass rate (with a not so friendly MOT man) is high because I do a big pre-MOT check before I take the car. You can find out online what's looked at for your year of car.

Re. your work, it doesn't sound good.

edinburgher

The MOT was 20p shy of £55, he charged £24 labour for 'check and {something, can't read it} for MOT test', which doesn't seem excessive.

edinburgher

Woohoo! Checked Mrs E's DC pensions - nearly £4,000 higher than the last time I checked :beer:

ZoPig2016

Hi ed

Spent two weeks or so reading your diary from start to finish. My daughter was born a year and a day after yours, loving reading about her progress!

The house sounds magnificent. Sounds like a good job well done re diy.

Hope you're better after recent illness.

AlexLK

edinburgher wrote: »

The MOT was 20p shy of £55, he charged £24 labour for 'check and {something, can't read it} for MOT test', which doesn't seem excessive.

He is charging the maximum allowed, then.

I wouldn't pay for a pre-MOT check as a retest is free.

chumpy45

Brilliant news on Mrs E's pension :T Ouch to the CC bill, but I guess we do have to live along the way on this MF journey :rotfl: and I am betting the house is looking fab Scuttles off trying not to look at scuffed paint and dirty marks in kitchen and wondering if the mojo can be found to do something about it .........

edinburgher

ZoPig2016 wrote: »

Hi ed

Spent two weeks or so reading your diary from start to finish. My daughter was born a year and a day after yours, loving reading about her progress!

Hope you're better after recent illness.

Thanks ZoPig - hope you didn't get too bored!

I got over recent illness (as well as all the kids we know, half the office got similar symptoms as well). Just in time for a new illness - DD kindly sharing her cold with me :eek:

chumpy45 wrote: »

Brilliant news on Mrs E's pension :T Ouch to the CC bill, but I guess we do have to live along the way on this MF journey :rotfl: and I am betting the house is looking fab

Well, £800 of it was a dental implant for Mrs E. That was the first one in 31 years, so not as if we could have planned for it

I am trying to whittle down the credit card bills, but unfortunately balancing a little bit of interest free credit (say up to £10,000) as we get the house finished does seem to be part of life at the moment. I realise that it can't be a long term thing, imagine Mrs E will be back at work f-t in 3 and a bit years.

edinburgher

Horrible night with DD - her cold doesn't seem to be shifting. I know she's only small, but I am already looking forward to the possibility of her growing up with alligator like levels of immune system like her parents. Before DD came along, we were unlucky to get 'sick' more than once a year! Mrs E let me have a good lie in this morning - obviously currying favour before her girls' night out this evening

Trying to get back into better dietary and exercise habits, so spent the morning making breakfast burritos (black beans, brown rice, scrambled eggs, green and yellow peppers fried with onions in a little duck fat and salsa). Made enough for a fortnight and will save me 10-15 minutes each morning before work.

Lunches will be rice and beans with loads of veggies and fruit.

• Spreadsheets updated - now that we're including baby food, medicines and all communal toiletries in the groceries budget, it needs to go up a bit
• Small payment made to pension pot
• £25 paid into P2P site for a property loan that goes live tomorrow
• Aiming for a no spend day after some groceries this morning (well, maybe an ice cream at the country park)