The Road to Financial Security

Pushkin

Well today the insulation was done :j

It was rather more invasive than I was expecting and we now have lovely holes drilled into 2 walls in the lounge, 1 in the hall and both back walls in the 2 back bedrooms. All rooms on the list to be redecorated so hopefully won't have to live for too long with this rather unusual design feature :cool:

Alternatively it could start a new trend

Pushkin

Our internet went down around 5pm and being such a luddite I just left it until DH got back from London a few minutes ago. He just switched it off and non again. I think I need to have him show me this - 3 hours without internet is terrible - makes me realise how much I use it

Very routine day, had to buy milk & potatoes so a rare spendy week day for me. No internet ordering though :T

Starting to draw up my list for my shopping day next Monday - need to get as many Christmas presents as possible.

My M&S vouchers which I cashed in from my surveys came through :j Printed them off (2 £10s) so touch wood they are accepted in store next week - cynical moi?

Goldiegirl

That happens to us from time to time - the Internet just randomly going off.

It's normally just when I've settled down to read my kindle, and notice that it's only got 3G' and not wi-fi.

So then I check my iPad, and it's not online, so I have to run around switching the router off and on.

It's strange how panicky I feel I haven't got Internet access. It's an essential in this day and age

Glad you are connected again!

Pushkin

Goldiegirl - totally agree with you considering internet is to me akin to heating, water and electricity - can't live with out it! Considering how new it is that is quite a feat.

Pushkin

Lots going on at the moment - my 'house investment' spreadsheet is becoming over complicated - maybe I need to do a book keeping course to help with my endevours

Fencing work starts tomorrow - will be such a relief when done to be able to leave the dog in the garden unsupervised - she currently scoots off to next door when my back is turned and has been known to do while I'm watching her.

We have also ordered a garden office - yikes! I was somewhat disappointed to discover they have scheduled it for mid March but guess it's a good sign that they are busy. We also have some work to do before hand - get 4 or so trees removed and flatten the area & remove some old bricks. I take ages to make a decision but once made want the work done asap!!!

BG are being a bit rubbish about the electric work we asked them to quote for - they provided a quote which DH queried - there's been no response to the query but today we had a letter from them advising the quote was about to lapse - I sniff another compensation cheque on the horizon.

Food stocks are running low but I'm not doing the weekly shop til Friday this week as I have the day off (wild day off huh!) so looks like pasta for dinner with whatever sauce I can cobble together.

Pushkin

Fencing work has commenced today and what a difference a day makes :j

4 strapping young men were waiting outside the house when I got back from walking the dog - before 8am - impressive. They worked like navvies all day, removed all old panels, did lots of cutting back, removed 4 more trees I requested and have started putting up the frame for the new fences.

We have gone for concrete posts which seems more sensible as each panel can be slotted out if needed.

Can't believe the amount of rubbish they have had to burn, mulch & remove.

Manic day at work - feel as I have tomorrow off I have had to squash 5 days work into 4 but thats done with now and I have a lovely 4 day weekend to anticipate. Tomorrow will be mainly chores but that will allow for a more relaxing and enjoyable weekend.

Ideally I would quite like to work 4 days a week and we could afford it but given the stability (or lack of) of the company I don't think it sensible to raise with my manager.

Really chilly this evening so the boiler is getting a work out.

Pushkin

Bit of good money news this morning. When we were moving house we paid extra for an insurance thing with the solicitors to that if it didn't proceed we wouldn't have to pay all their charges.

I finally pulled my finger out and contacted the solicitors last week to request the money (and all our house documents) be returned. £336 transfer from them sitting in my bank account this morning. :j

Have been very good and immediately transferred it to my NISA - tempting as it was to use towards Christmas I figured its kind of like extra money so should go into long term savings.

We do still need to sort wills out - this was partly why we left the money with them - to use that to pay. However DH despite nearly 2 months of nagging still hasn't contacted his pension company to get an up to date value. I want that sorted before we do the wills as I want to fully understand what happens re mortgage pay off, pension income were he to die.

I think about this more as I get older (am ahem 44 now) but he doesn't seem to consider it - also shocked that my nagging seems to be failing. Maybe he's becoming immune to it after all these years with me :rotfl:

Pushkin

Why do I wake naturally at this time on a Saturday when in the week and I have to get up at 6.30 its a huge effort to do so!?

Garden work all finished (for this stage). New fence all up and I can now leave the dog out there unsupervised with no risk of escape. The also did an amazing tidy up job, removing overgrowth, trees & weeds. It's a real blank canvas so we can create a low maintenance garden.

Once the garden office is installed (due March 2015) we plan to have the patio re-done and the lawn re-turfed.

Kicking myself now for not taking before pictures because it has been transformed.

Tried a new approach with my supermarket shop yesterday. Withdrew cash to spend which I thought I'd use as my budget. Total was £15 over that!!! So maybe not an strategy I'll be using again. It always costs so much more when I go in then when I do it on line. In my defence I did buy a box of beer (£20) and a cheesy Christmas jumper for DH (£16). If I take those out I can claim I was within budget!

Am still tracking my food spends each week and doing ok - budget is high (£115 per week) which I'm a little embarrassed about but it's manageable and I'm trying to get a benchmark to look for improvements.

So we are well stocked up food wise and I plan to have a couple of lower cost weeks before the Christmas madness starts.

Irony is though DS bought his school report home yesterday and it is a marked improvement on his last one. DH and I decided he needed a treat and some encouragement for pulling his socks up - so we are going to have a Chinese Takeaway tonight!!! A house full of food and we're getting takeaway - very UNMFW! It's DS's favourite food and we cant' buy him stuff this close to Christmas so couldn't really think of anything else.....

Pushkin

Feeling a little out of control spending wise at the moment - I think the Christmas roller coaster is starting. I am going Christmas shopping with my mum and have listed what I still need to get but have been known to get a bit carried away. I don't want to feel like that this year.

DH spent money in the diy shop yesterday that was totally unexpected (well to me). It was £50 which is affordable but I am so in the habit of listing everything down when he asked me for the money I didn't react too well (shame on me). It just throws my budget sheet out of whack.

I think I need to try and not become too anal about all this - there are always going to be unexpected things cropping up and I can't really quibble about him buying some paint & masking tape bits.

The clothes from Laura Ashley arrived - will be returning 2 pairs of trousers and one jumper so that reduces the £150 spend to about £60. I do need some trousers though so will have a look tomorrow when out shopping.

DS is so excited about Christmas already - his 2 yr old Christmas jumper is too small so I need to buy him a new one - he is especially keen now DH has one.

Very wet weather today, the garden is somewhat of a mud pit so need to mop through the kitchen and hall as we appear to have muddy paw prints on it!

Goldiegirl

Pushkin wrote: »

there are always going to be unexpected things cropping up and I can't really quibble about him buying some paint & masking tape bits.

At the start of the year I started doing the NSD challenges. But I was finding I was getting annoyed about spending money on something that was needed, on days which would have been otherwise NSD's.


So I stopped doing the challenges as they weren't working for me.


It's just finding the right balance, which is difficult when you first start out, but after a while you reach the right compromise between spending / saving / overpaying,