Bricks Not Books

VintageHistorian

Thanks Amarylis, hope the house purchase goes well and you'll soon be part of the north Essex lot!

VintageHistorian wrote: »

About an hour after I got home my neighbour popped round to let me know that she thinks there's a rodent in her attic.

Guess what I got woken up by at 07:50 this morning? :eek: Exterminator coming Wednesday and as predicted I'm now jumping at every little noise in the house.

VintageHistorian

The numbers are in!

OP for December - £65.26
Total overpayments for 2018 - £949.73

So didn't quite reach the £1000 target I'd set for the year, but I'm happy with how much we did OP. If I'd continued in my old job then we probably would have reached it as I would still be claiming back expenses from work. Having that money separate in my head worked well, but I haven't had much time to sit and think about how to rejig my budget to replace that money.

2019 has started with the pest exterminator coming round. I ended up going back to my parents house after my last post as it had really freaked me out. Bonus was spending NYE with my family! DH was at his parents as he was back to work straight after Christmas but we didn't have trains running (engineering works). Only spent one night at my parents. Second night I slept on the sofa, which wasn't brilliantly comfortable as it's only small, but I managed to make it work.

Exterminator came and confirmed there was rat poo in the loft. He's put down sticky traps, snap traps, and poison, and chucked some poison pellets in to spaces that he couldn't reach. Hopefully between us and the neighbour we'll have managed to get rid of the horrid thing. He's coming back Wednesday to check if anything has been caught, or evidence the poison has been eaten, DH is taking the day off for it.

This afternoon I've taken down the Christmas decorations and packed them all back up. The Christmas tree will be collected next Saturday, there's a hospice that collects them in return for a donation, and then transports them to the council recycling centre without being charged by the council.

I've also moved my money around. No council tax this month so I've diverted the money to other pots, including £15 as an OP. Combined with the standard monthly OP we make we're already at £52.70 for the month, so that's a nice start to things. I've also listed some things on Facebook selling groups and need to sort out more in the coming weeks. I also did my first ever freezer inventory so I can finally see properly everything that we have! Should stop me running out of bolognese without realising it in the future :rotfl:

Back to work on Monday. Looking forward to getting back in to a regular schedule again. Also need to rearrange my annual leave. I've booked the first week of March off to use up my remaining annual leave since it ends on 31 March. Sadly DH's grandmother passed away just before Christmas The funeral has been arranged for later in the month, so I need to turn the 5 days in to 4 days, and then book the day off for the funeral. She was a lovely lady and had been very kind to me from the moment she met me, so I'd like to say my farewells to her. And I was only taking the time off in March to use up the leave, otherwise I'd have just waited until our holiday in April to have my next week off.

Dinner tonight is chicken kievs and dauphinoise potatoes, need to use up some spuds and a pot of cream my Mum gave us that didn't get used over Christmas. Have a good weekend everyone!

Goldiegirl

I had mice in my loft abut three years ago, it was really unnerving.

We had a pest control guy in three times, and although he was helpful, he never did resolve the problem completely.

He couldn't work out how the mice were getting in. However, my husband noticed that there was a gap near the soil stack pipe, and wondered if the mice were coming in from there, so he blocked the gap, and no more mice.

We still keep traps in the loft as a precaution, but touch wood, we've not had any more mice.

Hope you get rid of your visitor and also sorry to hear about DH's grandmother.

savingwannabe

VintageHistorian, I am so sorry about DH grandmother. I hope the whole family can all spend some quality time saying adieu to her at the service. It sort of stops you in your tracks and makes us evaluate things especially at the start of a new year.

May this year be filled with happiness and blessings and no rodents of any kind. Bless you my friend:grouphug:

VintageHistorian

Thank you both GoldieGirl and SW!

Exterminator came back today to check on the loft. DH took the day off to let him in.

Good news - There's no new evidence of the rat in the loft.
Bad news - There was also no corpse, in a trap or otherwise (I know they stink when they're dead but I needed to know it was dead).
Good news - More poison has been put down and some of the traps rearranged, just in case.
Bad news - Neighbour came round again this afternoon for a rat update and told DH that she's still hearing movement on her side. Her uncle is now going to set up a motion-sensitive camera to see if they can spot it.

It sounds like the guy was quite puzzled at the lack of success as he was quite thorough. DH is comfortable going up in the loft so he and the bloke had a good old poke around. They also went outside to check obvious entry points such as the gutter drainpipe but apparently that's already got an "out only" cap on it (didn't spot that before!). So he's going to come back one more time in a week and a half, and if there's still no signs then he'll take away the traps and leave the poison.

DH is now querying if I'm sure I heard a rat. Suggestions have included birds and squirrels. I'm still fairly sure it was a rat, but it'll be interesting to see if my neighbour catches anything on camera!

VintageHistorian

Sat down this evening for a little money shuffle. Led to a TT of £2.86 going to the mortgage.

I've decided to try and find a bit more of a balance in my weekends. Normally I end up spending both Saturday and Sunday doing chores and working on the website and it means I don't really have time off. I need to get used to using my evenings more productively (now that I don't spend 2 hours driving home) and freeing up my Saturday.

With that in mind I did the first round of laundry on Friday night in between doing the food shopping and getting DH from the station. I did the second round on Saturday, but that isn't common as we don't get through many whites during the week. I also refrained from doing any blog writing or website work, and instead played on the Nintendo DS, played on the PC, read my book, and watched some DVDs.

It was a bit difficult to persuade myself to not do things and I spent a lot of time worrying that I was storing up trouble for today. However today I have baked a cake, finished a long blog post ready for tomorrow (damn royal mistresses and their controversies), made packed lunches for tomorrow, and cooked dinner, and I didn't feel particularly pushed or stressed by it all. So I shall try to stick to this "no real work Saturday" rule for at least two or three Saturdays a month. That will include going out on dates with DH as we didn't really do any dates last year and we only realised in December.

That said DH is working next Saturday so that won't be a date weekend :rotfl: Once the exterminator has been I'm going to pop in to town to look for something to wear to DH's gran's funeral. I haven't been to a funeral in a decade and my wardrobe is full of colour, I need to find something in black!

Oh also had someone pop round to buy a bag of craft items, mostly blank cards and patterned papers, that I listed on a Facebook selling group. Got £7 for the lot which I've chucked in a variety of loose change jars, it'll come off the mortgage eventually I'm sure! Need to sort out a few more bits to list next.

Have a good week everyone!

VintageHistorian

Well we're in a new month and new opportunities to OP!

January's OPs came to a total of £61.65, so a nice start to 2019 overpaying. I've just paid our EDF bill and our mortgage will come out on the 4th so I will do the money shuffle on Monday night.

This evening I've sorted out our EDF tariff to last until March 2020. I know I should really shop around but it's always me that organises these things and I just want to get it done easily. So stick with the current provider but at least sign up to a deal with them.

During the week I also sat own and sorted out a new regular saver with Halifax. Last year I had one with them where I saved money for a maternity leave fund (or a "let's go on a cruise" fund if we end up not having kids). It matured in early January so I got the interest and an easy access saver. It had over £2000 in it. I still want to keep saving for maternity leave this year and can put away £200 a month. So I've opened a new regular saver, which can have a maximum of £250 a month added to it. I'll move in £200 from my wages, and then top it up with £50 from the easy saver to maximise the interest. I won't need to take the money out before next January so it can just tick over for another year.

Still no sign of rat being caught so the exterminator has taken the snap traps, but left the sticky ones and the poison. I'm feeling calmer now, last noise I heard was a few weeks ago and I'm fairly sure it was a bird (either that or the rat fell off the roof as it landed with a thud!) so we'll leave the poison up there and hope whatever it was just !!!!!!s off.

We had the funeral DH's grandmother the other week. Managed to get myself a nice black dress from Fat Face for just £25! It was the last one in the shop and in the sale, a size 10 which I would never normally fit, but it was a wrap-around style so had a lot more potential! The waistband was sewn in and was a little tight across my ribs, but apart from that it was fine. Also managed to get a lovely soft black cotton-esque cardigan in a charity shop for £4, so it all came in under £30. Funeral and wake were sad but very nice, in-laws insisted we take some food back from the wake so I had some sandwiches, and DH had sausages rolls and a large chocolate muffin.

This week I'm planning on paying my subscription to the WI and becoming an official member! That'll get me out of the house one evening a month.

Lazy Saturdays are working pretty well. Managing to get things done on Sundays. Still struggling to have motivation in the evenings after work though. I've clearly forgotten the frustration of trying to squeeze in everything in the brief hour I had between getting home myself and DH getting home. Oh well, I'm sure it will come to me in time.

Have a good week everyone!

savingwannabe

A great OP. Well done on bargain price black dress sorry it was for such a sad occasion. So Ratgate is continuing. I hope he goes v soon.

The WI sounds like it will keep you busy. I am just too tired to do anything at the weekend so I do envy you. If you get any cheap cakes send some to me as I am dreaming of the WI cakes I used to get at my old house!:rotfl:

Mkaa

Hi vintage historian

Was just looking through for some inspiration to be MFW( new account but lurked around before).. looking to buy soon..but have a question...

I know the thread goes back to 2017, but wondering after paying deposit and fees etc, How much did you actually keep for bills etc??? As I see you mentioned building an emergency fund of 1000£.

I just am not sure, how much minimum or maximum to keep aside as would love to chuck max at deposit.

Really admire all you guys , determined to do well with mortgages

VintageHistorian

Mkaa wrote: »

Hi vintage historian

Was just looking through for some inspiration to be MFW( new account but lurked around before).. looking to buy soon..but have a question...

I know the thread goes back to 2017, but wondering after paying deposit and fees etc, How much did you actually keep for bills etc??? As I see you mentioned building an emergency fund of 1000£.

I just am not sure, how much minimum or maximum to keep aside as would love to chuck max at deposit.

Really admire all you guys , determined to do well with mortgages

I'm really sorry this is such a late reply Mkaa!

To be honest I'm probably not the best person to ask as our situation was so chaotic at the time! We knew we had to get the bathroom ripped out and replaced before moving in as it was absolutely disgusting (black mould), so budgeted £6k for that, and we were simultaneously saving for our wedding at the same time as it was only 4 months after we completed on the house purchase, so a lot of money went on that.

I will say though that I had £1k tucked away as a "furniture fund" and that was nowhere near enough. We had no furniture of our own, and my assumption that I would just find the extra money in between the wedding saving and bathroom renovation was hopelessly naive My parents and DHs parents gave us a few bits they had in storage (microwave, dining table and chairs, and a chest of drawers), and we also put a bunch of small household things (slow cooker, nice kettle and toaster etc) on our wedding list. But really we've just had to buy things as and when we've had the money.

We were also lucky in that while the bathroom was a nightmare the gas boiler was only around 2 or 3 years old. So we knew we didn't need to spend on replacing it quickly.

I'd say depending on your circumstances (and how much furniture you have or can get off family) then maybe set aside around £3-5k for household spends? That should cover anything you need to do urgently, or alternatively buy you some nice new curtains and carpet should you be fortunate enough to get both a new boiler and a mould-free bathroom!