Excited to try and be mortgage free

chumpy45

Jessy103 said:

Sorry to hear about DH, chumpy. Like you, I'm so glad to have found this forum and have an emergency fund in place.

Take care and stay safe x

Thank you Jessy103, that's really kind of you.  Just sitting snug in my little home office, I have quite a nice little escape hole here.  Have met with students on TEAM, and on a completely different system for my degree students.  Certainly a big learning curve at the moment coming to terms with all this technology.  I have been very thankful for DS4 this past week !
Not much money news atm.  The ISA has nose dived, nothing from premium bonds (although it's a new month tomorrow, fingers crossed), although at least we can't spend anything I suppose !!!  I am hoping to do a complete overview of the budget next week when we are on Easter holiday and try and clamp down in light of DH's reduced salary.  However, he still doesn't get it.  He bought a leg of lamb at the weekend that cost £24 - I kid you not.  I couldn't believe it!  His answer was "well that's what lamb costs", so maybe don't buy it then as you've just been laid off.   You couldn't make it up.  I am also planning to find my knitting bag and drag it out of hibernation.  There are probably several unfinished projects in it that might help me pass an hour or so over the coming days and weeks.  I hope everyone is well and safe.  Off to take the dog for a little walk before the next TEAM meeting is due.  Take care.

chumpy45

Lovely to see the sunshine today.  I took my mum her shopping this morning.  She met me outside her flat and we had a coffee sitting 2 metres apart.  She doesn't have a smart phone so I took a photo of her with her coffee that I could send to the all the family.  It was lovely to see her, albeit from a little distance.  I have made the normal OP and the balance stands at £10,999.00.  We have entered the 10s.  It might however be the last OP for a while due to reduced income from OH.  Still it's lovely to be at this point and I am very grateful we have been able to OP over the last few years.  Our regular saver finished last month and I was planning to open another but sadly DS3 has lost his job at uni as the campus has closed and we will have to send him some extra funds to help through the last couple of months.  So the current plan is to start a new regular saver once we have finished supporting him.  I'm hoping it would just be for 3 months over April, May and June, then he can come home.  It's a sad finish to his 3 years at uni and his graduation has been cancelled, however remaining healthy is the most important thing at the moment. The Easter holidays start next week but I think I will still be supporting stressed students and marking, so not much of a break.  However, I will be able to sneak into the garden if the weather's nice.  Can't do that when I'm properly at work. Well, need to start dinner then I think, given the week I've had, it might just be wine o'clock.  Have a good weekend everyone and stay safe.

Jessy103

Congrats on being in the 10s!

chumpy45

Jessy103 said:

Congrats on being in the 10s!

Thanks Jessy103, it does feel we are getting close now.  I was sorting out a pile of papers last week and came across a Royal Mail sorting office card saying non delivery of parcel due to customs charge required to pay.  This was something I ordered at Christmas and chose to return as the customs charge was more expensive than the item, and the charge hadn't been made clear at point of order. I had forgotten all about this.  I contacted the Amazon seller and managed to find the tracking number they requested and the refund of £34 is now in my account.  I feel very guilty for having forgotten about it, but pleased to have the money back.  It has gone to my credit card which at the moment amazingly now has a credit balance!  However it DS4's birthday in a couple of weeks so it will come in handy for that.  He was due to be starting driving lessons, but we will have to rethink that one !!.  Weather has been gorgeous and we had our first BBQ yesterday, missed the other DSs who were due to be home for Easter.   Checked my Vanguard ISA this morning and it has recovered somewhat from the early days of C19, however a long way off the heady days of 7% + return!.   I have tried to order some bedding plants for the garden online but everywhere is out of stock or not taking any more orders.  Never mind, in the scheme of things it is really not important this year and think of all the water that I will save.  Isn't it strange that when you're really busy at work you think of all the things you would do if only you had the time, and then when you have the time you don't want to do any of them ?  Anyone else feel like that? Happy Easter everyone and stay safe.

greent

Sorry to hear about DH's pay - fingers crossed the company manage to scrape together enough cash to pay furlough before the grant comes through....

Is DS3 not coming home early? And is there any possibility he will come under furlough rules? DD has a job at SU bar/ foodhall so that is obviously shut now - but they've all been told they're furloughed (in fact she's already had her first payment) She and DS1 aren't going back now - all their stuff is online - we/ they still have to pay rent, but there's no food for them to buy/ much utilities cost (Still have standing charges) so should be ok.

chumpy45

Thanks GreenT, tbh I didn't even consider DS3 being furloughed, that's a really good point.  I will email him today to investigate.  He could come home now really, but has chosen to stay with one other house mate believing that he will be less likely to be distracted from his dissertation. I am quite sad that none of the older boys have chosen to come home, for DS4 as much as for myself.  I suppose I finally have to accept that they have flown the nest and would prefer to be in their own surroundings.  I've found it difficult to accept over the last couple of weeks and I think it will change the way I look at things once the current situation is all over.   I don't mean that to sound really negative, more of a wake up call to myself that (apart from my gorgeous DS4), I have an empty nest and don't like it !!!!

greent

I can only imagine x - I'm making the most of having all of mine around at the mo x

chumpy45

So I can actually start with some good news from OH's employer in that they have managed to secure a new contract in DS's particular division which means he will return to full salary.  Some not so good news was that OH forgot about his annual professional subscription!  This is normally paid from his business account but he no longer has this account as he is now employed rather than self employed and neither of us thought to account for it during the year (hangs head in shame).  It has currently been paid from the current account and as spending is much reduced during this period of lock down I am hoping we can just accommodate it and not have to transfer from savings. We will squeak our way to payday at the end of this week.  I have added it to our virtual savings pots so  that the same thing doesn't happen next year.  OH's car insurance has been renewed (cheapest was his current provider - amazingly) but that was budgeted for and the money has been transferred.  DS4 had a successful lock down birthday at the weekend.  It should have been his first driving lesson but instead he was stuck with boring old mum and dad.  He did have a lovely zoom catch up with this brothers though. DS3 is likely to receive some money through the furlough scheme (thanks GreenT for the heads up).  He was already on the case when I contacted him after GreenT's suggestions.  He is still however waiting for confirmation and has received no money as yet.  I am still continuing to work from my home office (DS3's bedroom) and seem to be in a constant round of "TEAM" meetings.  Have also participated in a few ZOOM quizzes outside of work which have been great fun.  I have received full refunds of theatre tickets we had booked.  Was due to see Mary Poppins in May and Six in July but I'm guessing these will be refunds too.  Never mind, keeping healthy is the most important thing at the moment, tickets can be re-booked at some stage in the future.  Right, back to marking and another meeting soon.  I hope everyone is bearing up.  Take care and stay safe x

chumpy45

Exciting news, when doing my daily (hinging on obsessive) balance check of my Vanguard S&S Isa this morning, I found to my delight it has a "+" in front of the balance instead of "-" for the first time since C19 hit our shores.  Very small steps 

PurpleFairy26

It’s a good feeling isn’t it. My S&S ISA balance went up rather than down last week for the first time, obviously not huge amounts but nice to see it not going backwards!