Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

Ooh KC - there is a free NGS App if you are content to use a phone or tablet and give up your location - I used it at the weekend and the default is to list them in order of distance so maybe in your caravan, it would tell you what is open (although the majority are at the weekend)

Karmacat

Thanks SL! Yes, for the NGS, I'd be okay with giving my location - I do it for Google Maps, after all (groans loudly ... so convenient though, it saved us a lot of time in Barcelona last year, in particular, finding our way through the narrow streets). Good stuff

Suffolk_lass

I was up early and walked my neighbour's dog (she was off for a birthday treat with an early start) and have well (tap, not from a well!) watered everything outside and had some lovely eggs for breakfast. I really must get out in the garden now. Sun is shining and weeds await!

trix-a-belle

I hope you made some progress in your garden SL? I'm also battling ground elder in my garden in the beds on one side, bind weed in the bed along the bottom fence and a hedge which is totally choked with ivy on the other side so hit them all again today, it was that or the 2nd coat of paint on the living room ceiling which I couldn't quite face.

Suffolk_lass

Well I spent two hours on my knees weeding veg beds and paths (avoiding the ground elder TBH) and then had a break and carried on for another 2 hours when the heat had gone out of the afternoon. My back is a little sore this morning but I will do some stuff outside. Probably planting some sweetcorn out that is well overdue, and one or two other planters that remain empty. Alarmingly, the backs of both hands have reacted to something in the disposable gloves I was wearing (it is probably just perspiration but I need to be careful).

I have done one of life's least pleasant jobs this morning and undone the drain on the washing machine and cleaned it out. Yuk. Enough said. At least it was preventive maintenance and not in reaction to a failure. I now need to order a replacement toilet seat as ours cracked (wooden composite) this week and every time I sit on it I think, "Oh I must..."

Suffolk_lass

Oh yes, in other money news, I received a £2000 "windfall" - my pension lump-sum was recalculated to take account of the indexation for the part from April 2018 to my retirement date in February. It is going to pay for the new oak front door I have a quote for, with enough left over for a little treat for DH or another cheeky OP to the mortgage

Karmacat

Oh wow, thats real money news! Congratulations and spending it on something so longlasting as an oak door is a really good idea

Busy_Mee1

Hi Suffolk Lass just catching up on your diary. The open garden sounds fantastic, although a lot of hard work .

We also have been making a concerted effort with the weeding, I am determined that we will start doing it all ourselves ahead of our retirement. I have been subtlety being trying to teach Mr Mee a bit about gardening...he is no gardener but doesn't take kindly to instruction. Anyway we have had a very productive weekend and have weeded every border. Just need to start from the beginning again :rotfl:

That is great news about your windfall. Funnily enough a friend of mine receive a similar payment from CSP a couple of weeks ago but didn't know what it was for. I bet it was the same, I will mention it to her.

beanielou

Great news on the extra money

Suffolk_lass

Well I have sent the deposit for the oak door so now it is a waiting game.

In other money news, I managed a scrapings OP at the end of May and the mortgage lipped under £32k - more crucially for me, the interest is now showing as £33.01 per month. The regular £500 DD went yesterday - obviously the new monthly interest isn't the amount paid but over £467 capital repayment showing. I am hoping to find another £500 to take us down below £31k this month.

We have agreed to use all of DH's TFLS from his teacher's pension to pay down the mortgage and I am debating how little to leave on it. Currently, without the £500 a month after September the outstanding balance will be just under £8k but I need an early redemption price from the BS - our friends are paying 42p a month for theirs to run its course (not sure if this is IO or repayment spread out) but it equates to a virtual deeds storage fee. Technically, ours runs to August 22 so would have 35 months to go. My concern is that DH's pension will only be under £700 a month - so less than a third of his current take home pay.

So my consideration is whether I reduce or remove the repayment part of the mortgage so that I free up most of that £500 to transfer across to the running costs account, or leave it and see how poor it makes us feel. We also need to consider what fees might be applied if we redeem it early, and whether there are ways to reduce or remove these. There is a deeds storage thing that is very cheap 1% of the outstanding balance which I think can be just £150. More looking into to do first