Only freedom will do

AlexLK

We don't have either of the German supermarkets close by which I think most people find outside very large towns / cities. The nearest is 15 miles away. Local supermarket is either a big Sainsburys in one town or a large Co-op in the other town. Co-op is more expensive but that town has a large open market every Monday. Try to get as little as possible from the supermarkets, though.

Can't believe how close you are to completing your house when you've not been there that long.

Karmacat

edinburgher wrote: »

Well, she mashes laptop keyboard like a pro and yells 'CAT' whenever she sees a mobile phone (blinking YouTub3)!

The internet is made of cats, as you well know, Ed :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I wish a German supermarket was in my town **wistful sigh**

I *did* experiment with Waitrose - I had some vouchers (a "meal" and a snack) plus I worked on myWaitrose, where you can choose a 20% discount on ten of hundreds of offers. Once I worked out how it worked on the website, I went for it: 500g marmite was £4.50 became £3.60, a pack of 9 own brand toilet rolls was £3.75 became £3, stuff like that. Sometimes its worth it, but finding Alpro single cream soy, which I actually *like*, was appallingly difficult, so in general I'll just keep an eye out and not usually take advantage of it, its too energy-consuming. Asda online delivery is coming up but I might go back for some more marmite and toilet rolls

The meal, by the way, was an open sandwich with fresh avocado and hard-boiled egg, it was lurvely.

Save

edinburgher

Exhausted after 2 hours of backbreaking gravel removal! Should be able to finish it tomorrow, but also have normal housework, gym visit and family stuff to think of.

Thought the following might be useful for people if (like me), you find your Nectar points about as useful as a chocolate teapot :rotfl:

You can get 50% of your points refunded if you convert them into an eB@y voucher, which seemed like a good deal. Hotukde@ls had it

I used up some lingering points to buy bulbs and got some back as well :money:

AlexLK

I feel your pain re. gravel removal! Getting the priorities right , my wife and I extended a gravel driveway when we first moved here up to outbuildings that now form our workshop. We tried far too hard on the first day and had to give up for two weeks. Every single muscle was aching and we gave up on the idea of doing anymore work to the house during those two weeks.

Suffolk_lass

I took my Son to the dentist (50 miles from home) on Friday and he was limping and waddling from overdoing the glutes and leg-work but his was in the gym - I always have hamstring and achilles problems after weeding where I bend over and keep thinking, I'll just do that bit before I stop.

edinburgher

April 2017 Financial Update

Net Worth 158,264.52 (+£525.65)

Mrs E got paid today, so time to call time on finances for April.

A brusing month for finances, but it's important for reasons of accountability and to test my assumptions that we talk about the bad things as well as the positives. Essentially £850 of pension contributions were vaporised by the market, the only thing that saved us was a small bump to our home equity. I am also starting to get a little concerned about our low total cash on hand, the only things that will move the dial will be spending less or earning more...

This month's lack of performance would seem to be an object lesson in why British people love house price inflation, despite it almost definitely being a bad thing for their overall prosperity. A £500 increase that is 'all mine', despite 88% LTV. If not for leverage, I suspect most people would run screaming from home ownership!

I don't forecast, but the first day of May finances makes for grim reading. I suspect that this month will be as bad as April :eek:

I hope that everybody else has had a productive month?

Debsnewbudget

I have just been talking to a mortgage advisor and commented that I understood we are all 3 pay days away from being out on our ears
He commented back that recent research has shown the majority of people are only 14 days away from running out of money
Its a sobering thought. I inow I used to work with people who didnt have enough money to buy toilet rolls the week before pay day, but apparently its got worse.

AlexLK

That is a very scary thought, Debs. :eek:

PositiveBalance

Debsnewbudget wrote: »

I have just been talking to a mortgage advisor and commented that I understood we are all 3 pay days away from being out on our ears
He commented back that recent research has shown the majority of people are only 14 days away from running out of money
Its a sobering thought. I inow I used to work with people who didnt have enough money to buy toilet rolls the week before pay day, but apparently its got worse.

Scary as hell. Until people's pay:bills ratio gets better, it's unlikely to get any better, either: even those who want to save are struggling with everything going up except wages! :eek:

edinburgher

I could survive for several months on unsecured credit, but that's a finite resource, sobering stuff to be sure.