The Road to Financial Security

Pushkin

UPDATE
Did I omit 'carry on with surveys' from my Job list? I am still doing them - although remains to be seen for how much longer... haven't reached a single target for pay out yet

Pushkin

Big shock this morning when the NISA I opened in DH's name automatically transferred £15,000 from his bank account, despite the fact I hadn't transferred the money to him. :eek:

He checked his account to find it £13,000 overdrawn!

He rang his bank to query how such a large payment could go out without any checks and apparently if the monies weren't there at 3.30 today they would have taken the money back.

I feel pretty stupid - am trying to be switched on with finances but I must have inadvertently set this payment up when I opened the account. Lesson learned I think, on the positive DH who is most definitely NOT a morning person was very quickly jerked awake by events. :rotfl:

Not doing too well on money saving food wise, made a meal in the new slow cooker yesterday that can only be described as looking like dog food. DS had one mouthful and declared he didn't want it (pretty rare for him - he will eat most things), DH and I ploughed gamely on both declaring it 'hmm it's quite nice' but despite having a portion left over I just couldn't face it at lunch today. It's a lamb & lentil casserole and much as I hate throwing food away it will go in the bin. Possibly lentils & slow cookers are not a match made in heaven - twas a slow cooker recipe though.

Then to add in insult to injury I made DS a sandwich for his packed lunch this morning only to look down and notice the bread was moudly! If it had been DH I may have just scraped it off and let him take it but I ended up throwing it away along with the rest of the loaf from the bread bin.

So not very MSE on the food front the last couple of days.

Wirenth

Goodness, what a day you and OH have had!

Pushkin

All quiet on the NISA front today, money is in, DH's bank account is in the black and he hasn't incurred any interest charges.

Had another rubbish day at work and can't help thoughts of quitting flood into my head. Most days I can tolerate it and be grateful for the flexibility the job gives me - being able to work from home so I'm in when DS gets in from school and not having to leave the dog alone all day.

Lately however it just seems to have been getting worse and worse, morale is generally low in the company, we seem to be in a constant redundancy cycle and I am being pushed into a work area I neither wanted not enjoy.

Final straw lately has been frustrations with my boss and am struggling to work for someone for whom I have very little respect.

My main concern is that I don't do anything in haste or based solely on emotions. I very much doubt I'll resign, am too well aware of what I have in terms of salary (not to mention good length of service so better if they make me redundant) but it's not much fun longing for each weekend and constantly counting down the weeks until my next day off.

On a more positive note - DH is getting £30 compensation from BG for complaining about their customer service - wish I knew you could get money for complaining - I could turn that into an Olympic Sport :rotfl:

Pushkin

Grrrrr, just had technical issues on 2 surveys after I had spent quite a few minutes on each of them. I am also unable to access T*luna at all as it suddenly doesn't seem to recognise my userid/email.

Am really losing the will with them :mad:

So glad it's Friday, been a hard week at work but it's done now for a couple of days. Poor DH had to work late in London yesterday and didn't get home til 10.30. Still had to be in by 9 this morning and then despite leaving early the tube was stuck in the tunnel for 15 mins so he won't get home til 8. Grateful I don't have to face that kind of commute.

So the usual domestic to do list on the cards for weekend:

Washing
Ironing
Dust & Hoover through
Clean bathroom & loo
Haircut Sat morning
Ensure DS does homework

Not planning much spending, the way I feel right now I'd be happy to spend my time catching up on sleep - how dull do I sound?

Pushkin

Back to feeling like going round in circles again right now, having updated my finance sheet was feeling really chuffed that it looks like I'll have around £150 left in my current account when I get paid on 25th. Then OH came in from walking the dog and announced my car needed 2 rear tyres. Talk about impeccable timing :mad:

shala_moo

Pushkin wrote: »

He checked his account to find it £13,000 overdrawn!

:eek::eek:jeez, think that would have given me a heart attack lol..

Pushkin wrote: »

All quiet on the NISA front today, money is in, DH's bank account is in the black and he hasn't incurred any interest charges.

Had another rubbish day at work and can't help thoughts of quitting flood into my head. Most days I can tolerate it and be grateful for the flexibility the job gives me - being able to work from home so I'm in when DS gets in from school and not having to leave the dog alone all day.

Lately however it just seems to have been getting worse and worse, morale is generally low in the company, we seem to be in a constant redundancy cycle and I am being pushed into a work area I neither wanted not enjoy.

Final straw lately has been frustrations with my boss and am struggling to work for someone for whom I have very little respect.

My main concern is that I don't do anything in haste or based solely on emotions. I very much doubt I'll resign, am too well aware of what I have in terms of salary (not to mention good length of service so better if they make me redundant) but it's not much fun longing for each weekend and constantly counting down the weeks until my next day off.

On a more positive note - DH is getting £30 compensation from BG for complaining about their customer service - wish I knew you could get money for complaining - I could turn that into an Olympic Sport :rotfl:

I feel your pain on the work front.. i'm in much the same position. Best thing I've found to deal with it is to make a medium/long term plan, it gives you light at the end of the tunnel. You can't leave work right now but nothing to stop you in the future if you can get yourselves in the right position financially.

Could you plan to give up work/go part time/change career when your mortgage is paid off or at a level where you can still maintain a nice lifestyle? It gives you a date to look forward too then:D

Also, loving your complaint money :j I've managed to get £75 in the last few weeks from complaining.. i'm not usually one to complain but I get annoyed with people not doing their jobs properly.

:mad: to cars..

katiegizmo

Ahhh Pushkin, keep your chin up love x
Think a lot of people (including myself) feel that way about work/jobs at the moment, and it's not a world you can easily take risks in anymore. It sucks. I hate waking up and feeling dread at going to work, I have had jobs I love and it makes such a difference to the rest of your life.
And if you are feeling low in your job it's going to make money saving etc feel more of a slog. Just stick in there and learn to laugh at disasters. I've perfected a kind of hysterical laugh for those tyre-like situations.

hope this week is a better one for you

Pushkin

Katie_gizmo & Shala_moo - thank you for your supportive words - I am reassured to know other people feel similarly about their jobs but that is also kind of depressing too. I have so many colleagues at work who feel like I do. It really brought it home to me recently when my DH made a comment about how much he is is enjoying his job and I thought that I couldn't remember the last time I enjoyed mine.

Anyway rest assured I am way too cautious to do anything in haste or through emotions. I think in part it's why I pushed for us to stay in our current house when our buyers pulled out. Had we moved I would have been tied to that job (or that salary) for the next 18 years or so. Staying here I do have more options which does make me feel better.

Anyway enough work moaning.

Had a lovely day out yesterday - we went down to the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth, HMS Victory, wreck of the Mary Rose etc. Got a voucher through Gr0upon which turned out to be excellent value. £39 for the 3 of us and we can go back as many times as we want within the next year. On the gate price per adult is £28 so I felt pretty chuffed with that.

DH has also bought some fab low energy light bulbs and put them in the kitchen - according to our electricity energy metre the usage is a fraction of the previous bulbs. I'm not even ashamed at how geeky I sound - I am so getting into the swing of monitoring gas & electric usage and trying to reduce it. :rotfl:

Pushkin

TFI & all that :beer:
Another rough week at work coupled with too much comfort eating so really feel like I need to pull myself together!

One more week and I have a week off so there is some light at the end of the tunnel :j

Few spends coming up:
We have hired a van on Sunday as my parents have recently bought new garden furniture & are giving us their old set which is still in good nick - pretty luck there

Need to order wardrobe for DS - we've sourced this at 1K£a but have decided to order on line for delivery. Charge is about £60 but will save so much hassle, petrol and time doing it this way I think it's worth it.

Then we need to plan the redecoration of his bedroom and go carpet shopping.

Ditto the downstairs loo which needs decorating after having the new toilet & sink installed last month.

Must sort out 2 new tyres for my car

To Do
All the usual suspects; washing, dusting, hoovering, clean bathroom (should have done last weekend but didn't )
Further research into garden office idea
Christmas present planning with DH (do insist on some input from him!)
Some R&R - we've both had a busy stressful week

MSE Bits
Payment for the 2 items I recently sold on £bay has come through and been transferred to my money making account :T
Am monitoring electricity & gas usage daily now I've found it's possible on the BG web site & through the H1ve app (saddo that I am)
Still ploughing through surveys !!!

After weeks of not getting home til 8 DH has managed to get away early and will be in at 6.30 tonight - so let the weekend commence!