The Road to Financial Security

Pushkin

Finally I can post my updated figures for 1 November :j (geek alert)
The thought of this has carried me through my first day back at work


Item MORTGAGE
01-Oct-14 £117,406
01-Nov-14 £116,096
Difference -£1,310

Item SLUSH FUND
01-Oct-14 £2,415
01-Nov-14 £3,300
Difference £885

Item MONEY MAKING
01-Oct-14 £141
01-Nov-14 £164
Difference £23

DOG FUND
£2,364
£2,514
£150

Item HALIFAX NISA
01-Oct-14 £3,800
01-Nov-14 £4,150
Difference £350

Item CAR FUND
01-Oct-14 £-
01-Nov-14 £700
Difference £700

Assessment of October - pretty good I think, managed to pretty much keep out of the shops so avoided impulse buys and enabled a decent chunk to go into the slush fund. This is now enough to pay for predicable outgoings (Christmas presents, RAC membership, Annual insurance etc) for the next 3 or 4 months. Still need to keep saving in it though as plan to pay for next years holiday from here.

Started car fund with the aim of replacing my car early 2016.

Increased amount going into NISA as we don't have to pay boiler maintenance for a year - diverted the money there.

Money making/selling - £23 hmm - grade D - still haven't listed anything on eb@y for a few weeks or done my next batch of cd sales.

Struggling with targets to give myself on savings - if I aim too low I think I'm making it too easy iff I aim too high I worry I'll lose heart, think sod it and waste money in some kind of rebellion :rotfl:

In spending news - had a survey from a garden office company today and DH and I are both very enthused and excited about the prospect of it - not cheap but cheaper I think than an extension and a lot less hassle so we are making progress there.

Pushkin

First frosty dog walk this morning and wasn't it fun de-icing the car beforehand at 7am:D

Didn't even try to go without heating today and as soon as it went off at 8.30 I switched it right back on. DS off school sick for 2nd day running , DH working at home too so I was stuck in the drafty kitchen all day. Am now sitting in the warm lounge with my feet on a hot water bottle - old biddy alert :eek:

DS's wardrobe has arrived and is currently being stored (in a gazillion pieces) in the lounge, we have a big lounge and it is fairly out of the way but having it there is already irritating us so this will spur us on with re-decorating his room. Paint has been bought but still need to order a carpet - oh and err actually do the decoration work.

Slow cooker boiled ham and jacket potatoes for dinner - lovely smell wafting across from the kitchen. :T Lovely cosy meal for such a cold evening. Goodness yet another biddy alert :eek:

amycool

The good thing about freezing cold days is that I actually want to go to work! :-) It must be hard to cut down on bills if you're home a lot. In the evening we sit with dressing gowns and blankets on, but it's not so practical if you actually have things to do!

Pushkin

Hi Amycool - yes know what you mean about the heating bills and working from home, especially as I am a 'cold' person. I weigh up the pros and cons - heating & electric is higher working from home but I save a lot on petrol and find it very easy to have NSDs!

Pushkin

Well today we finally had our new front door fitted :j

I wrote previously about the (whispers) 'A' issue in the porch ceiling and all the problems it has caused. We thought it had been resolved but when the windows were fitted mid October the installers instruction regards front door was delivery only. It has taken this long to sort out and I didn't want to mention it in case I jinxed things.

So now have fully double glazing throughout house, 2 beautiful double french doors in the lounge & a new front door. Should all help with the heating

We totally forgot about the doorbell so that needs to be wired back in and we have also ordered a letterbox to fix into the wall as door doesn't have one.

Not sexy spends but I am very pleased and probably more excited than is right.

Pushkin

This weekend's focus will be on the house so with that in mind it's a mundane list of jobs to try and ensure I am productive and don't spend too much time lazing, current Robert Goddard book is fab but long so very tempting to while away a few hours reading

Bedroom looks like a laundry so need to sort out all the clean washing
Bedroom also needs a good dust, hoover and tidy
Start clearing out DS's bedroom ready for re-decoration
Sweep leaves up from porch (seems a weekly task currently)
Hoover through downstairs - dog moulted a lot this week :eek:

DH is going up to Bucks to look at another garden offices company - I'll stay home with DS who is finally recovering from his virus. We had the quote back from the company who did the survey Monday - nearly £3k more than we were expecting but surprisingly I'm now starting to think it's still an acceptable cost. We need to have the comparison from another company but my thinking is as follows:

It's more than a posh shed - its another room in the house (albeit at end of garden) - the one we've had the quote for comes with carpet, double glazing, double french doors fitted blinds, electricity & telephones wired up, heating, house standard security etc
My view is to get full use from it all year round it needs to be welcoming and have the above - if we skimp we may save £5k but it could end up being cold in the winter and hot in the summer
It will get so much use as DS will use it and can have friends over & sleepovers without it impacting DH and I
It will add value to the house when we do come to sell or we can take it with us when we move

Not sure if I'm getting carried away (very unlike me when it comes to spending money) but sitting here in the lounge suffering yet another burst of a play station shooting game I really want a garden office!

Then I weigh that up against the saving and mort overpaying we are doing and it all seems a little extravagant which is proved by that fact that I've avoided stating how much money it is !

Further discussions needed once DH is back from the second company I think.

Pushkin

Most of jobs listed yesterday have been completed :A however haven't touched DS's room. DH has done the first coat of paint on the downstairs loo and I'm not sure there's much point starting another room until that one's done - thats my excuse anyway! Will have to put up with the multi pack wardrobe pieces cluttering up the lounge for a little longer.

I am having a bit of an issue with N£xt catalogue at the moment. Anyone with adolescent boys will understand the desire to avoid [STRIKE]dragging[/STRIKE] taking the shopping so I often order clothes for DS from their catalogue. I often order a lot so he can find the best fit etc and take the remainder back.

I did an order at end of October and took all but 1 pair of trousers back on 31st. However my account is showing I owe them for 2 pairs of trousers. I rang them up last Tuesday and they assured me it would be removed from the account but their system was a bit slow catching up. Well it still hasn't caught up 6 days after I called them :eek: so suspect I'll need to contact them again.

Have never had any problems with them and used the on line ordering thing for years but when issues like this occur it does make you think twice about continuing shopping there.

My parents are coming for Sunday lunch today (roast chicken followed by sticky toffee pud :j) DH is cooking so even better! Although he did rather casually suggest we get a new kitchen - yikes - that doesn't appear on any budget sheet I have!!

We will need to do something with it though as several things need replacing its just a question of how much money we spend - isn't it always :rotfl:

Pushkin

Need to start with a Monday Moan :mad:

Rang N£xt again today regarding them still charging my account for a pair of trousers I have returned.

I repeated my issue to the first person I spoke to, was put on hold for another 7 minutes as I needed to be transferred to someone else.

Had to repeat the issue - AGAIN and the lady then assured me she had updated my account and the erroneous £20 charge was removed.

That was 2 hours ago and it's STILL showing on my account.

I am increasingly frustrated that I have now:
phoned them twice
spoken to 3 different people
been misinformed twice
spent around 18 minutes waiting on hold.

If the account isn't updated overnight I will be looking for their formal complaints procedure.

I probably won't but right now I am really miffed with them. I am angry from Berkshire right now!

Do have some MSE news (am trying to calm down and cheer myself up here )

BG came today and did the survey for the insulation. Took ages but they are coming next Monday to do the free :T insulation which the engineer estimates will reduce our energy bills by around £120 per year!!!

The downside is that it's intrusive work which requires internal drilling and will affect the walls in the lounge, hall and likely 2 bedrooms. All these rooms are on our re-decoration list though but that work may need to be moved up the priority list:rotfl:

Although as anyone reading may have picked up we aren't always the most pro-active of couples regarding such tasks!

philhbug

Hi Pushkin,

Just read through your diary, sounds like quite the rigmarole with the (whispers) 'A'.

You mentioned liking spreadsheets and having one for utilities, you might find a site called iMeasure useful, you can enter readings weekly and it'll graph usage/cost/CO2 for you, useful for doing comparisons and it also works out how much you should use for heating based on weather where you are. I've used it for about 3 years and it's nice to see when the usage starts getting away from you.

Pushkin

The good news is my N£xt account is now correct - the charge for the returned trousers has been removed overnight :j

Just off to create my imeasure account courtesy of philbug :T