The Road to Financial Security

Habibiboo

:wave:

Oh dear Pushkin, what a nightmare, no wonder you're pushed to make the most of pockets of positivity?

Fingers crossed the salesman stands by the original quote for the whole lot and you get speedy, professional removal and your certificate without too much extra added onto that price!

Hurrah (almost) for the downstairs loo though! x

CathT

Nothing more frustrating than other people who don't know what they are doing. Fingers crossed the original quote is honoured and work done with no hassle.

It really astonishes me how much money we can spend on our properties, feels endless at times.

Pushkin

Worrywart, Habibiboo & Cath T - thank you for your support. The whole asbestos thing is sooo frustrating and what is annoying me the most it that we can't get guidance on what the right thing to do is. Don't suppose any of you know a building inspector or asbestos specialist? hee heee

DH was speaking one of our friends last night who was staggered we were even considering paying £2k and suggested we just take the porch board down ourselves and hire another window company who won't be any the wiser. I am maybe too risk averse to do that as I worry it will come back to bite us years down the line.

£2k to remove a panel about 1ft by 1ft does seem bonkers - someone is definitely making a fat profit there. Even if they do the garage too it won't take more than half a day.

Anyway we'll see if either the window company or the asbestos removal company get in touch today. DH is up in London so sadly I'll have to try and do the negotiating & discussion - which I don't relish.

Downstairs loo looks really good- ok it's only a loo but they have done a good job. Need to decorate it though - now the pictures have been taken off the walls look filthy and you can see the outlines of them. In my mind we only decorated that room a couple of years ago but I suppose it was longer.

Off to go and start work now.

Pushkin

Phew another working week over and looking forward to the weekend. Sadly I have my standard Friday feeling of lethargy and instead of housework am on the sofa, telly on catching up on here

Do need to make dinner though although asking DH to pick something up from the chippy on his way home is very tempting (slaps wrist!).

Really annoyed with myself as I accidentally bought a book on Am@zon yesterday - meant to put it in my wish list and downloaded it to kindle instead. Still was only £1.99 and I suppose I would have bought it at some point. Bit dopey though :eek:

So list for the weekend:
Clean downstairs
Mop floors downstairs
Clean bathroom
Catch up on washing (and ironing!)


So lots of housework and finally clean up after the plumber's work.

DS is away on a school trip this weekend so DH and I have a rare just the 2 of us night out tomorrow which I'm looking forward to.

Pushkin

Quite successful morning, cleaned the kitchen, hall and downstairs loo, while DH did the bathroom.

MSE Activities
When we bought the fridge/freezer it came with a £75 cash back offer. After 2 phone calls, 2 different web site visits and about 2 hours of effort I have confirmation the claim has gone in. They certainly don't make it easy! The claim now has to be reviewed and if validated payment will be made within 28 days.

We are going to the cinema and for a meal this evening, taking advantage of DS being away for the weekend. Last time we went to a film we were given 2 50% off vouchers so thats good. Not sure where we will eat, I did have a look at the restaurant vouchers site but nothing has taken my fancy. Know we should go somewhere we can get money off but sometimes it's nice just to be impulsive.

I have also realised the person who won the bid on the furniture I put on eb@y last week hasn't been to collect it. He rang me Monday and said he'd come Thurs or Fri. So I need to send him a message, DH is more wound up than I am. My view is if he doesn't follow through we aren't any worse off and I'd try and sell it again and maybe try GumTr££ instead as that focusses on local area only.

Sorting out the mountain of washing and doing the iron is still on my list of jobs but may well not get round to that til tomorrow.

Pushkin

Really enjoying this weekend, do miss DS but it's amazing how different doing chores & going shopping are without a moaning 12 year old around!

Very MSE night out last night, my father gave us a £20 off voucher for Pre£zzo and that combined with the half price cinema tickets brought the cost of the night out to less than £30! Felt very chuffed about that and we even indulged in VIP seats at the film. Went to see Before I Go to Sleep (fab book I read a few years ago). I enjoyed the film but OH fell asleep for about 15 mins so he obviously wasn't quite so enthralled.

Today I have been for my first tutorial session at @pple something I got when I bought my new Macbook. Very good session although I don't think I am used to such mental stimulation at the weekend. Will likely spend a lot of time trying out some of the nifty things he told me.

While I was having my tutorial DH did his annual clothes shop which he told me he achieved in less than 10 minutes. One shop and why would he need to try anything on before buying? In some ways I kind of feel envious of that. Not sure how much he's spent but he has his allocated money each month so up to him, have recently increased his allocation and think this bodes well for the future as previously he would have had me pay from the 'joint' pot I manage.

So day has flown by so far, still need to finish the washing, tidy & hoover the lounge and cook dinner. The ironing is also lurking at the back of my mind but hoping DH will do that as I did most of last weeks lot and 90% of it is DH and DS shirts!

DS is home around 6pm and I think I'll use use up some over ripe bananas to make banana bread to celebrate - got to be healthy if its using 1 of our 5 a day right? Also MSE since they'd end up in the bin otherwise - I'll ignore the butter, flour & sugar I need to make it :rotfl:

Very eager for pay day already (I get paid 25th of the month) and am trying really hard not to dip into the slush fund savings but according to current budget will need to.

gallygirl

Pushkin wrote: »

DS is home around 6pm and I think I'll use use up some over ripe bananas to make banana bread to celebrate - got to be healthy if its using 1 of our 5 a day right? Also MSE since they'd end up in the bin otherwise - I'll ignore the butter, flour & sugar I need to make it :rotfl:

Flour and sugar are from plants so that's 3 of your 5 a day :T. Butter has fat soluble vitamins and calcium so that will be good for your future health. All in all a healthy make :rotfl:.

Pushkin

gallygirl wrote: »

Flour and sugar are from plants so that's 3 of your 5 a day :T. Butter has fat soluble vitamins and calcium so that will be good for your future health. All in all a healthy make :rotfl:.

Thanks GG - don't feel quite so guilty about the two slices I've already consumed :rotfl:

Pushkin

Back to work today, always tired on a Monday, for some reason I never sleep well Sunday night. I think it's because I've just got into the swing of the weekend and not working and lo and behold it's time to go back to work - weird psychology.

Busy day at work and DH up in London so early start and late home for him. I have however cooked dinner which will be better welcome for him than my usual 'get yourself a ready meal' comment. Am trying not to have those so often - expensive and not healthy. So convenient though especially if like me cooking isn't enjoyable.

Am not happy with the budget right now as I think I am likely to have to withdraw about £60 from the slush fund. It is making me cross but I daren't put anything else on my credit card until end of the week or my humungous Oct bill will rise even further - by about Thursday I'm safe as it won't be paid until Nov.

Trouble is we are off to the Royal Berkshire Show at the weekend and the boys both love getting hog roast while there. So will have spending that has to be cash not credit card.

I am now annoying myself that I am annoyed about a day out. Just don't like that I will need to do this as I do normally budget sensibly. Also had the pet food company on the phone and they are delivering sack of her food on Tuesday which I hope won't come out of my bank account til payday on 25th.

I think I am driving myself mad making it all more complicated than it needs to be.

Habibiboo

:wave:

Try to relax a bit Pushkin ... and I don't say that dismissedly or lightly, but advisedly and from experience because I do know how you feel! I too find that focusing on the money side of things and being painfully aware of the budget and every penny in and out has the potential to make me very anxious at times. And I am, very anxious, quite a bit of the time, which is why I have to make myself focus on positives.

There will be times when you'll just have to park that anxious, niggly, budgety feeling, put the spending money in your purse for the day out and just enjoy it, including watching the boys tuck into their hog roasts. Sometimes these events are worth more than what they cost you ... the boys obviously value the tradition you've built for them and may even carry it on with their own families, who knows? It's almost certainly already going to be one of those "remember when we used to ..." memories for them.

Hope the work day wasn't too full of that Monday feeling either! x