The Road to Financial Security

Luckyinlife

hehe how did you get lost lol
bet the dogs where landed hehe

Pushkin

Just had to order a new vacuum cleaner, the old one has lost a significant amount of its suction. Suspect hoovering up rubble from various recent DIY projects is the cause. We have had it about 10 years so I feel we got our money's worth.

Managed to order through a cash back site and should get 10% back (in about 6 months huh!).

Also ordered the carpet - underlay, grippers, carpet bar and fitting all costs more than actual carpet :eek: and also bought the paint.

So plan is - old walls (dry wall?) ripped off & study re-plastered Mon/Tues/Wed
Paint room next weekend
New carpet scheduled fitting on Tues 5 May
Weekend 9/10 May put furniture back in room.

So all going well will get our lounge back and have a working study again 2 weeks tomorrow :beer:

Few other spends coming up, need to pay DS's drama for the term and DH car tax is due at end of month - that costs £285

Still no holiday booked !!!

amycool

It'll be so nice to get your study back and it'll be all perfect and lovely! Despite having our back bedroom replastered AGES ago we still haven't finished the room.

Our hoover also struggled a bit with all the rubble!

Sorry to hear you aren't enjoying your job at the moment. I've had times where I have hated mine and you just have to think about what you'll be doing with the money you earn until you start to enjoy it again. I find it's rarely the job, and more the people you have to work with that cause the stress. It looks fairly certain I'll be made redundant next year so if I'm having a bad day I just tell myself, "This is the last 27th April you'll be working here" and that seems to do the trick. :-) Sadly it has the opposite affect on a good day!

Pushkin

Amycool thank you for the supportive words!

We actually had our landing re-plastered over 2 years ago and still haven't painted it so I know what you mean!:D It is on our list for some point this year though.

Pushkin

I am one peed off Pushkin right now :mad:

Study work started off with the radiator removal flooding the floor - not an issue in itself as the plasterer got most of it in a bucket and the carpet is due to be thrown away, did mean he had to go to the diy shop to buy a cap though. Felt really guilty as I think we should probably have removed the radiator ourselves prior to him starting.

Skip didn't turn up so all the dry wall is sitting in an attractive pile in front of the house - already overheard one neighbour moaning about it and have apologised to our direct neighbours who were ok about it, the other ones I care less about since they live diagonally opposite and possibly need to get some perspective! Have been promised skip tomorrow.

He's done a good job however we currently have no heating or hot water - I'm too scared to investigate - the hive control box scares me :eek: What a joy for DH upon his return from London at 8pm. Feels cold today as well which is just sods law.

Also lots of back and to with what plasterer recommended and DH wanted with me caught in the middle not understanding any of it - never seems to be straight forward.

I've also just spilled a virtual full can of coke on sofa and carpet :mad:

On a slightly more upbeat note managed to cook dinner (on the basis it helped keep me warm and am sat enjoying the last episode of Poldark - be still my beating heart

Luckyinlife

Ah pushkin

the rads are a nightmare i had to do mine myself as i dont trust anyone with stuff like if its down stairs it will dry out really quick try to keep a window open if you can safely

I wouldn't worry about your neighbour they would properly moan about the skip as well i guess you dont speak much ?

sounds like youv had a mad day just think you have to make things look worse before it looks better :]

BookWorm

Aww Pushkin - sounds like you have had a trying day. Sending you some positive vibes and a hug your way

As for the neighbours being unimpressed with the stuff sitting in the garden temporarily... pffft to them!

Pushkin

Well if I was peed off yesterday today I am well and truly something else beginning with p off :mad:

Finally got the heating/water fixed about 3pm but they charged us £50 for it because apparently its a sealed system and we didn't remove the radiator in the correct way - I blame my husband but I can't be too cross with him as I don't think they explained it to us when it was installed.

So nice to have some heat finally and tomorrow I even get to have a shower :j

I also managed to fall over while talking to the gas engineer in front of the plasterer as he was loading up the skip. One of those instances when however much you hurt yourself it's not as bad as the embarrassment!

DH I think working at home for rest of week so at least he can deal direct with the plasterer. Return of the electrician Friday and I will be scarpering to my parents to work as I think the power will be off for about 4 hours.

Fingers crossed this time tomorrow study walls will be smooth as a baby's bum and ready to be painted (subject to drying of course!)

Pushkin

1 May, have started doing monthly update but due to all the recent rejigging I've done moving money and opening up an account I can't reconcile my spreadsheets yet :mad: Will sort it out at the weekend.

Money making is very low this month at only £6 made - must get back onto £bay.

2nd payment into new FD regular saver so feel good to see that slowly growing.

Big discussion with DH last night who has finally (after months of endless nagging) obtained his pension statements. Reality is worse than I was expecting, I'm still working through my emotional reaction but know I will get over the shock. DH will speak to my father at the weekend (our financial guru ) to get some advice then we'll take the bull by the horns and take action. I worry I will be very annoyed if we end up saving less in order to start filling up his pension.

Having said that knowledge is power and we have to take this bull by the horns.

Oh to have married someone who wasn't hopeless with money and just put his head in the sand over every financial issue.

To end on a positive - 3 day weekend :beer:

Pushkin

Went to the cinema last night and got etickets from the discount website at work. They wouldn't accept them at the cinema as they couldn't find a recognisable code within the email. So ended up having to buy tickets at the normal price - three times as much :mad: Will take it up with work next week but that will likely mean a battle with an off shore call centre.

Replastered study still has the odd damp patch on the ceiling so still cant' start painting. Carpet is being fitted Tuesday and we have 3 coats to do as it needs an undercoat. Starting to think we are cutting it fine...

Am still working through the emotional reaction regarding DH's pension (I sound like a basket case huh!), I just can't believe he was so complacent all these years and didn't bother checking it. He is very matter of fact about these things and doesn't have regrets just thinks there is no point rehashing what could have been and getting angry about what hasn't been done in the past.

He is right to an extent but I do think my feelings are valid as well. We had some real issues a few years ago when I discovered some debt (quite a lot) he was essentially hiding from me. That has all been sorted but took a long time to pay off, build up his credit rating and of course enable me to have any level of trust in him. I just feel this is a huge step back and can't quite believe it's yet another financial set back.

I am all about tracking and managing money, building up savings to feel secure and trying to clear down the mortgage. This feels like a huge curve ball and we are now going to have to pay a large amount each month into his pension to try and make up for lost years - this will affect the whole budget.

At a selfish level this is all because of his financial ineptitude and it really makes me angry.

Bit of a long rant but better to get it out here than have another argument with him about it. I think I'll feel better once we have a plan in place.