22 Foxhole East

crazy_cat_lady

How strange that nobody came to the f/b - I would have thought that it would have been busy. Maybe you're right though in that they won't come while kids are still on holiday.

I also have a massive stack of books I need to read. I get a bit obsessive once I start reading books in that I won't put them down. Hence I don't do it as often as I would like to. I got 4 new (to me) books for Christmas though so I had better be getting on with it.

f0xh0les

Maybe that could be your Friday night treat ccl. I know exactly what you mean about not being able to put a book down. I have one by the bed, a couple by the end of the sofa, and usually at least one in the car for when I am waiting for people to finish clubs after school, plus the current one I am reading - just in case I forget it, or finish it. I hate sitting in the car doing nothing. Such a waste of time. Do I remember you booking a hol with the kids for half term or Easter? Something nice to look forward to anyway. I have my pom poms ready for Tuesday, and am stretching, ready to do a cartwheel. I swear I spent most of my first 10 years upside down or cartwheeling. How things change.

Today is school shoes/school shirts/ lunchbox tat shopping with DS3 & DS4. I have uncovered the pile of school backpacks they shoved under the dining room dining table (we use the dining table in the kitchen (two dining table family - how middle class is that??). bleugh!! one lunchbox was practically sentient, all the others had been given in at the end of term, the PE kits are currently in the washing machine - I do ask for them, but it is usually the weekend before they go back that I realise they still have not surrendered them. Anyway, they are being cleaned even if they are still wet. I am on washing load 4 already this morning. Clearing the decks. 7 loads folded and redistributed this morning. All the sheets and duvet covers and all that jazz.

Just waiting for the kids to reappear downstairs - they breakfasted, took their laundry, took their beepy devices and legged it. Swines!
So getting up at 7.15 this morning has resulted in quite a lot being achieved. Yay!
So today is going to be spendy, but I have £5 luv2shop vouchers I am going to spend on box tissues, pocket tissues and lemon-flavour-paracetamol-based-hot-drink-powder for poor dh who has what I had last week, but is not looking after himself half as well, so it will last twice as long. His choice.

Right, enough blathering, more stuff to do while I am motivated - Xmas boxes being put away up in the high cupboard today. That will clear half the kitchen floor again. All pretty organised really.

f0xh0les

Well two pairs of shoes were bought. So everyone can go back to school happily (have no idea about DS3 as he has taken to his room again to grow more) next job is back to school haircuts.

Sitting here getting stressed about the stupid remortgage. I really hope dh is going back to work on Monday. I could do with a day without him, and he could send me his payslips. Then I could get on with the phone calls and doing it myself.

Everyone seems to be suffering from the lack of discipline and routine. 7.15 was fine this morning, will try for 6.30 tomorrow. Get back into it properly. This kind of thing is what did for the Roman Empire.

crazy_cat_lady

You have had a very busy day f0xh0les - I'm tired just reading it I too have been laundering PE kit from ds today (strangely did dd's the first weekend of the hols...) but not needed to buy the shoes.
Good call on a book for a Friday night - I like it!

f0xh0les

I Have Defeated the Laundry Mountain!!!!

All hail the mighty me.
Rah!
36 hours til normality resumes

apple_muncher

Not that you're counting...

f0xh0les

I have loved not having to shout at them to be ready, or having to do the school run, but I am annoyed that they have no desire to do anything or go anywhere.

DH has decided, sometime between 11.30pm and 8am that he is working from home today. So I am legging it while 3 of them are still in bed. The smallest two have had breakfast with me, so I need not worry.
Off to volunteer and pack emergency boxes for a couple of hours, and then the big ' lets choose what goes in your lunchboxes' shop for the rest of January.
Half term is Feb 14th.

f0xh0les

Shh, don't tell anyone, but the Shanghai Bank mortgage advisor sounds like Lorraine Kelly, and is extreeemerly perrrky! We are doing as much on the phone as is humanly possible. When we took out this mortgage originally, 4 years ago, we could only get a 26 year term on affordability, 2 yrs later we switched and dropped it to 20 years on affordability, we have just dropped it again from 18 down to 16. If we had kept with the original mortgage we would be on year 22. Not bad eh? Worst case scenario we are mortgage free in 2036.

Anyway, DH decided he would be happy to pay an extra £35.26 a month and leave the overpayments to me - up to 10% of the annual balance - 60 payments of £563.48 takes us up to 25/3/2025 and we do not need a valuation! they asked how much it was worth so we just said what it was when we bought it, which is probably about £40k less than we'd sell it for now, but will be about £90k less than after the planned extension and building work. But, nobody coming round to value it is always a bonus. 60% ltv is the lowest band they do for interest rates we are 58.8% - as I had planned and made sure we were sub 60%. We are happy with 1.79 for 5 years, by which time we will only have 11 years left with no overpayments, and less with overpayments! yay!!
What we did not expect, was that DS1, who is now 17, has to sign a form to say that, if we are repossessed, he does not have the right to stay in the property! I never knew they did that! So, we have to return a form, and for some unknown reason, the Bank of Shanghai do not have any record of photo id and address for me, although I have a credit card with them and they sent me an annual statement last week. So I will take them my passport, my driving license, and my credit card report in the morning, on the way back from dropping the kids at school, and then it goes to underwriting. Fee free. They say it can take up to 8 weeks, but sometimes less. I am counting on it being less as DH is a customer, has been for 20 years, and our rate ends in 21 days. So we might have to take the hit of a week or two at 5.2% before we switch properly and completely. But no valuation should speed it up quite a bit. Just solicitors nonsense. I cannot wait!
DH has also had another pay rise! So if he gets his promotion in Spring, then we will have to start paying back a % of child benefit. Boo!
The clearing, cleaning and tidying stalled today, as I went to the foodbank early and moved stuff around before the shift started, it was quite busy today, so I was glad I did.

School run was dull, picked up 3, dropped them home, went back, picked up the other one, came home, did the washing up while supper cooked, then spent 90 minutes with mortgage lady on speakerphone. Evening over.

Tomorrow, I will continue the cleaning and clearing of the baking implements and tins and dishes , and while doing that I will bake some cakes in loaf tins as they seem to last longer that way. A coconut one, a gingerbread one, and a chocolate one, to see us through the weekend.

I am coming toward the end of my postal survey, so should get double stamps in a week or two. Then 6 months off (or less).

So all is going quite well at the moment.
F-i-L is having his prostate op tomorrow, m-i-l is stressed and so has gone into be-ach mode, as being horrible is going to make dh ring his parents more often .... you reap what you sow, at some point his parents are going to have to accept that. I am keeping well out of it, and am not having any opinion on anything as it is well beyond my paygrade and frankly none of my business.

The energy bill for December (DH kept hitting the +1 button on the heating and the water heating) was £130, up from £68 the month before. I am so glad they are all back at school and work! Normal service has resumed. No heating from 7.45 - 4.30. it is not even cold if you are moving about. I am still £130 in credit anyway.

So, all in all a productive and useful day.

mark55man

if you are annoyed about losing the Child Benefit your OH can pay the excess into his pension and you then get the tax relief on that, and put himself under the threshold so you are still receiving full CB.

if not, fair enough, but if it gets to the point when he earns enough to lose CB completely you should still claim it as it entitles you to NI contributions + you could stooze the money and earn a little interest before you pay up when you close you tax affairs for that year

(I think/last time I checked)

f0xh0les

Thanks mark88man, I like the idea of stoozing, it will take him a couple of years to breech the £0 / 0% ChB limit, I think. But then again who knows? Apparently he now earns £5k more than I thought he did, and he will go onto a different pay spine when he gets his promotion. It is not going to be a £10k increase! but could quite easily be a £3-4k rise though. Will wait and see. By £0 time only 3 kids will be on the claim, or possibly only 2, and they will both be in secondary, so then I will get myself a job. I am getting concerned about not having a pension. Very grown up of me (not!).

Only 4 days in and the school run is chafing.

Took all supporting mortgage documents into the local bank and got them scanned - they would not accept their own bank statement as a proof of my address! How flippin' daft is that? Maybe they do not trust themselves? After all, they are not sure where I live.

Went off around the c/shops until 9.30 when the bank opened. Broke the 'no books' rule already - 3 books (spent £1.45) 4 little dipping bowls in a lovely robin's egg speckly blue pattern (£1.20) and 4 recycled glass drinking glasses (£3). Went to B&Q for a replacement door handle bit (DS2 and his door slamming exploits are frankly boring) and it is the wrong size, so that needs to be swapped out on the next bit of the school run, and I noticed yesterday as I drove past, my fave c/s has a £1 sale on this week, so will pop in this afternoon after B&Q part deux. After all, I still have £4.40 of my £10 weekly c/s budget.

But first, tea, and the last load of laundry of the day!