Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

I had a delivery yesterday morning at 09.00 of three tons of aggregate. I already had the membrane and tent-peg things to hold that in place so I made a start on levelling the front garden we have identified for additional parking. I was joined at 12.00 by my neighbour to level the sand (by eye and plank) and we had that done by 12.30, when my cousin arrived to help. We laid and pinned the membrane and having asked them both to help I thought, heck, let's just do it - so we shifted two more tons of shingle and by 13.30 it was all done! - A slightly stiff back during the evening (I reckon I did about half the shifting as I did the first ton on my own) and a hot shower before bed!

Apart from being awake at 03.00 all is well and I am not even stiff!

DH was over at the farm, still working on our van's seams - he was amazed it was all done when he got home.

I have run out of aggregate now but I think I would like to strengthen where the hard wear areas are so I have ordered a bit of gravel mat and I'm going to go for some more shingle to make it all deeper and then I think we will park the van at that end of the house, even though the electric hook up is the other end. I will over-order on the 20mm bigger stuff. Although it is too big to fit the gravel mat it is much better for not getting in the tread of shoes and I could happily spread on my paths where the 10mm stuff has moved around and got a bit thin.

In due course I will get the electrician out to remedy that as I will want a low-voltage heater in my new greenhouse and that means new cables and an outdoor consumer unit I think.

Karmacat

Thats astonishing! Congratulations - did your OH think he'd got the wrong house, that must all look *so* different!

Lemon_Tree

Wow what a difference you must have made, especially nice when you know you've surprised someone with just how much you've got done, and what a sense of achievement.

Suffolk_lass

Thanks both, it is only 5.5m x7.5m area but it does look quite smart. Meanwhile DH has been continuing with the seams on the van - we are doing the lot - not just the ones that are obviously expiring.

Yesterday I drove to Peterborough (allowed 2.5 hours) and found to my delight that a section of the new road on the two main roads has opened early. It meant I was a bit early but so was my Mum's train from Scotland. I had her home about 40 minutes earlier than expected. Lots to do today - I really must put some indoor lights up (I usually have DS to help me with this!) - I might message him to ask him to help me.

Suffolk_lass

I know quite a few people will be having a look around to see what others do to increase their money. So I thought I might look to report some of our bits and pieces)

Selling stuff
I am personally awful at selling things but I am always a candidate for it. In my plans for 2020 I intend selling at least two tents.

Regular Saver cash accounts
We have three that we set up when I stopped work. All 5% on £250 a month with final payment in January. I will research whether there are any 5% Regular saver accounts still on offer in time for when mine mature in early February.

Bank accounts
I have three bank accounts at the moment (DH has two jointly with me and another of his own. I know we get £4 plus some transaction money (0.80 for November) every month on our joint Coop account, and I get £3.66 a month for keeping £1500 in TSB (various other obligations). The third of mine gives me access to a regular saver at 5% for paying in £250 a month - I can see this drops to 2.75% for this bank when this one matures. It could be time to shuffle things around.

S&S ISAs
We each have one with CSD as the web-platform (more in a moment), and I have an older bundled fund with Frizzell. I put £10k into the Frizzell one about 8 years ago and I'm aware they moved it to a different fund in the last year or two. It has slowly increased and today I received a statement saying I have paid them £237.92 for the year to November - split as Service Fee, Ongoing Charge figures and Ongoing transaction costs. My money just sits there, under their complete management. I has increased over the years to just under £13,500 with their levy meaning my growth figure has been 8.72% but would have been 10.76% without their charges of just over 2%.

The CSD ISA I have is entirely my choice of investments and I have not taken an independent or tied financial adviser's input. I have read the money section of the Times in part on most Saturdays and occasionally (wet Sundays) the Business and Money Sunday Times supplement.

I have not changed my choices since I opened the account with £20k in February. I can't quite see what a year's costs and charges have been but my current balance on Tuesday was £22,172.52 - so it has done quite well so far. I think it is a bit high risk for a person not working but I am using it to learn. If anyone is interested I could report what I have in there.

DH also has a CSD but that is a whole other story. He has three major losses in his account - He had £3000 in the recently closed Woodford fund and this is showing a loss of over £1100 so far (we are expecting that to double before we get our money back). He also has Fevertree shares that have dipped in capital value since purchase and is paying a fairly miserable dividend of less than 1%. The same with Smurfit Kappa. His portfolio is showing a modest increase overall, thanks to some evening out. In both the share cases, we have elected to hold on - maybe these are for the long-term. It was very much a case of naive timing and buying where they were at or near their highest value. The good news is that the cash part of this ISA has increased to over £2000 with dividends. As so much is about the timing of when these packages of shares are bought I don't think it would help to give details of individual share holdings, but he currently has 7 funds and 9 separate equity holdings. I do look for good dividend payers and try not to worry so much about the capital value as we are not looking to sell currently or in the foreseeable future.

There is some other stuff I could talk about but not sure if this is of interest to anybody so I will stop there. Feel free to ask questions or for more but otherwise I might meander back to my Christmas preparations in the chatter on here.

Busy_Mee1

Oo wanders in for a catch up just at the right time. I am very interested in all of this SuffolkLass.

I am going to be looking at ways to make the most of our mortgage money over the next 4 years. Unfortunately I am a complete and utter wimp when it comes to risk and I have only one small S&S, the rest of our money is in cash ISAs or regular savers I am beginning to wonder whether I should get some proper financial advice. I am going to be plotting and planning over Christmas.

Impressed with your hard graft on the drive SL....no need for expensive gyms for you.

Karmacat

Thanks for posting that, SL, I agree with Busy Mee, its a good un. January will be finance month for me in any case: English accounts, French accounts, my first set of regular savers will have expired, and I haven't added up money since I got back from the Russian cruise.

Suffolk_lass

I am going to join the 20 for 20 challenge this year so I think I will record mine here too

1. Complete 20 Sunday Times recommended walks
2. Divide 20 Herbaceous plants
3. Grow 20 different fruit or vegetables
4. 20 Acts of kindness to others
5. Help Son 20 times
6. Lose 20 pounds in weight
7. Combined Savings and mortgage of £20k
8. Read 20 books
9. Attend 20 social events
10. Eat 20 Veggie meals/month
11. Clean bathroom 20 times (properly!)
12. 20 other (proper deep) cleaning jobs
13. 20 weeding sessions
14. 20 local walks from home
15. Visit 20 new places
16. Donate 20 times to charity/foodbank
17. Speak to 20 new people
18. Use our van 20 times
19. Meet up with 20 different friends
20. Try 20 new things

Suffolk_lass

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I am going to join the 20 for 20 challenge this year so I think I will record mine here too

1. Complete 20 Sunday Times recommended walks
2. Divide 20 Herbaceous plants
3. Grow 20 different fruit or vegetables some different seeds have arrived but too early to plant them yet
4. 20 Acts of kindness to others (1/20)
5. Help Son 20 times (1/20)
6. Lose 20 pounds in weight (about 4)
7. Combined Savings and mortgage of £20k
8. Read 20 books (2 books delivered - will start today)
9. Attend 20 social events (met a friend for a walk and lunch yesterday - 3 years since we last met!)
10. Eat 20 Veggie meals/month (lost count)
11. Clean bathroom 20 times (properly!) 1/20
12. 20 other (proper deep) cleaning jobs
13. 20 weeding sessions
14. 20 local walks from home
15. Visit 20 new places (Country Park 1/20)
16. Donate 20 times to charity/foodbank
17. Speak to 20 new people
18. Use our van 20 times
19. Meet up with 20 different friends (1/20 met my dear friend for 1st time in 3 years)
20. Try 20 new things

Quick update so I don't lose track

Suffolk_lass

Been a bit MIA on this diary as I have a fair bit going on. I will come back but not feeling it at the moment (other worries)