Paid off the £31,000! BUT - still scrimping!

Seasidegal58

Hi Munchin – I hope you have a good trawl through the pension options this weekend and get some decent ideas.

Finally caught up with my diary after a fraught few days! Been so busy at work – worked late on Monday and Tuesday, had to leave early last night because of nail appointment, but will probably be a bit later getting away tonight as had an awful journey in. Everyone was kicked off the train this morning owing to one that had broken down at the station in front – what seemed liked thousands of us then trying to get onto the tube train. I was lucky and managed to get on the second train going through then someone set off the emergency buzzer on the train in front and we were stuck going nowhere for what seemed liked ages! So I was well and truly late for work!:mad:

I've also had an absolutely grotty week food wise - takeaway fish and chips and bought sandwiches and chocolate for lunch because I've been too tired to sort my lunches out. (Note to Self: Must do Better!!!!). I'm too scared at the moment to go near the scales!:(

Apart from work, not much else going on. Couldn't find anything to see at the cinema this weekend that either me or my friend would like.

I've booked to have my new front door fitted at the beginning of May. Everything came to £410 (door, door fittings, architrave and labour) and he is also going to carry out some remedial work on my flooring included in the price.

Pay day tomorrow though my actual new month doesn’t start until Sunday. Will be working out my budget for the month. I also want to look at some savings options for the "Ad hoc" fund – see if I can find some deposit accounts out there at a reasonable fixed rate.


Cosmetics Update!: I bought my new mascara – I was going to buy my usual Benefit "They're Real", but Benefit have a new mascara called "BADGal Bang!" I tried it, really liked it, so bought it!. Same price as the other one - £21.50 – not particularly cheap I know but really makes a difference as I have rather sparse, short lashes now.

Will catch up with diaries tonight - see you then!

HairyHandofDartmoor

You're having a busy week SSG, you'll need a rest at the weekend.

You must be looking forward to your new front door arriving, it will look lovely I'm sure .

redofromstart

That is a good price on the door with the extra bits.

System

SSG you have had a busy week like me. Thankfully I am on the homeward run, childminding tomorrow then the weekend.

Your journey this morning sounds horrendous, don't like the tube at best of times.

The door is a great price , it will look good when done .

Have a relaxing evening.

brizzlegirl

You are sounding a bit frazzled SSG Sorry to hear that but hope you get a break over the weekend. Stressful commutes are never fun.

Worked from home today. Pretty productive but been manic week. Looking forward to a calmer week next and then holiday with the family. Somewhere with internet but no mobile! Yay!!! Cant wait. But DD1 will be working all the time on her revision poor love.

Off to heat up dinner. Thank goodness for the freezer. Over and out, have a good weekend SSG with lots of sleep

Seasidegal58

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

You're having a busy week SSG, you'll need a rest at the weekend.

You must be looking forward to your new front door arriving, it will look lovely I'm sure .

redofromstart wrote: »

That is a good price on the door with the extra bits.

Cumbria_lass wrote: »

SSG you have had a busy week like me. Thankfully I am on the homeward run, childminding tomorrow then the weekend.

Your journey this morning sounds horrendous, don't like the tube at best of times.

The door is a great price , it will look good when done .

Have a relaxing evening.

Thanks guys. Quite looking forward to having a nice, new door - how sad am I!:D. It was funny though - when I opened the door (old one!) to the carpenter he looked so young that I was peering over his shoulder to find out where his boss was! It's like what they used to say about policemen - you know you're getting old when tradesmen look really young!:eek:

Seasidegal58

brizzlegirl wrote: »

You are sounding a bit frazzled SSG Sorry to hear that but hope you get a break over the weekend. Stressful commutes are never fun.

Worked from home today. Pretty productive but been manic week. Looking forward to a calmer week next and then holiday with the family. Somewhere with internet but no mobile! Yay!!! Cant wait. But DD1 will be working all the time on her revision poor love.

Off to heat up dinner. Thank goodness for the freezer. Over and out, have a good weekend SSG with lots of sleep

Hope you have a great time today with your sister brizzle and that your work week is quieter. The holiday without mobiles sounds an excellent idea. My DD says that why she spends lots of her free time up mountains - no dreaded mobile calls from work! Good luck to your DD with her revision. Your children sound lovely and bright and I'm sure she will take it in her stride!

We all got thrown off the train again last night - on the way home this time - just when all anyone wants to do on a Friday evening is get home quickly. All in all a"Mercury in Retrograde" week for me!::mad: I'll be checking the "delay and repay" compensation I'm due though on my Smart card.

Up early today for monthly pedicure. Came back and did the housework then popped out for milk. Will order monthly online Tesco shop tomorrow when I work out the meal plan.

Have worked out budget and am putting away £500 this month to start up the Retirement fund. I had a look at the various savings options on the main site. I've got four years to build this up till I might move and locking it away at a fixed rate seems the better idea. However interest rates look like they'll be going up so not sure I want to put it away for the whole four years yet. Perhaps one year and see how things go?

Will be catching up with two of my friends tomorrow for a drink and perhaps a bite. Clocks going forward tonight though so I'm definitely going to get my extra hour in bed tomorrow morning. Will be nice to have lighter evenings finally!:j

Seasidegal58

Ended up with a NSD yesterday as one of my friends that I was going out with ended up dog-sitting for her daughter. So my other friend and I went round to see her and took wine that we already had indoors – so no spends there!

Today's looking like a NSD as well apart from ordering my monthly Tesco shop later.

Looking at the rest of the week I've got to buy my monthly toiletries so will do a list tonight when I see what I need. I'm off tomorrow night to the theatre for a charity evening with some of my work colleagues. The wife of one of my colleagues is heavily involved in the charity, but he has very kindly bought the tickets for the rest of us so probably just some drinks to pay for.

On Saturday I have my first pilates session in what seems like ages and on Easter Sunday I'm round to DSis's who is hosting lunch – her OH's family is coming as well. So wine and chocs or flowers here. I also picked up Easter treats for the children last week – all discounted in Sainsbury's – two Cadbury's Crème at £1.67 and a Lindt bunny with a bell - £4.00 for DNephew.

I have a friend's birthday on Friday – have bought her card, but will be taking her out to lunch next month as her pressie.

The pension transfers saga grinds on and on – I was sent an update email from my workplace scheme today – the useless administrator has told them that they now require sight of my original birth certificate plus two pieces of id – but they are also going into their "blackout" period for pension transfers and therefore won't be doing anything anyway until the beginning of May! Why didn't they ask for this before - You couldn't make it up. Plus I'm really not keen on sending in my birth certificate as I don't trust them not to lose it!:mad:

Re. the other two transfers I have asked the workplace provider to get an update on these – I've already sent id in to the one that requested it - this pension is also administered by the useless lot so I'm not holding my breath! One of my colleagues told me that when he did the same thing a couple of years ago it took six months to complete his transfers! So when I do retire, I'm going to make sure that I start the process of applying for the final salary scheme pension at least six months before I need it!


Have a good day everyone!

redofromstart

I've worked in the exiting section of a few big companies, and the advice fairly consistently was minimum three months notice to the pension to retire (or take flexible) if you wanted the first month paid on time. They would backdate the payments so you still retired on X date, but you might not see any actual cash in the first weeks if you don't give enough notice. Also don't assume informing your employer of your intention to retire is the same as telling your pension scheme, even if it as a company pension.

HairyHandofDartmoor

You had a restful and productive weekend SSG .

The pension fiasco sounds horrendous SSG, a complicated process made worse by total incompetence :mad:.