Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

WannabeFree wrote: »

Hope you didn't think I was being nosey - I was just aware how much time you're putting into the house with travel etc

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Not at all - feedback is helpful and it's helped me think through what I can do to push the project forward.

Super day today - DD and I had our 'birthday' celebrations a little late: lovely lunch and the ballet followed by some shops in which we didn't buy anything. I discovered a new wonder - raspberry mocha - this seems to be espresso, chocolate and raspberry couli, and is delicious.

DH and I had a run this evening: just a short one but I enjoyed it. It burnt off a tiny fraction of the calories consumed earlier.

Spends:
Entertainment (lunch and programs) £33.40 (tickets bought a while ago).
MS stuff:
Resisted a perfect shirt that would have been £35 but which I wouldn't get to wear much.
Confession time:
Nobody needs as much chocolate brownie as I managed at lunch time (though it did save on dinner later).

parsniphead

I think it's fab how you manage two houses, especially with the added travel. Bit of a wonder woman.

I'm glad you enjoyed your birthday treat. I love the ballet but it's been many years since I went. My favorite was seeing the Bolshoi in birmingham. That was 1988/89 I think. :eek: so long ago.

Cherryfudge

I really don't feel I am managing, to be honest! This afternoon I've sorted through a couple of piles of paper but only got rid of a couple of handfuls, though I did find the notes I'd made on getting premium bonds put into my married name, so that will save having to go through a series of phone calls again. I also found an old Christmas card in with an almost illegible email for some old friends, so DH and I have found the two most likely interpretations and I'm going to try to drop them a line.

I am in awe of you for having seen the Bolshoi - I would so love to see them. I can recommend Matthew Bourne's Cinderella which we saw live but is also going round the cinemas now, and A Winter's Tale which I saw in the cinema in March but I think is still available or being screened again, not sure which.

Off to tackle a few more papers. :eek:

Cherryfudge

Tackling papers went okay - not amazingly but there aren't as many as there were. DD contacted us to ask if we'd seen a gift card she was sent for her birthday: I remember her opening it, but not what she did with it. We've searched our post and all through the recycling and I found the receipt that came with it with a reference number,, so we're hoping that if it doesn't show up, she may be able to use that number to get it cancelled and refunded somehow.

DD came over and while looking for her gift voucher, found one of mine which I've now attached to my @m@zon account - no chance of losing it again!

I've been a bit down in mood today, possibly as I had some work responsibilities looming, but a colleague messaged me to say it was all postponed so I felt better! My piano teacher has cancelled for this week, so that's £10 I'm not spending (though I think I would prefer the lesson, but clouds & silver linings...) DDiL was very complimentary about the new kitchen cupboards although it's still an unfinished job. Then DD and I talked over our unusually high payslips with the family and, while I'm not sure I've yet accounted for everything, there really is a genuine pay rise in there! I also feel better because we've had our usual Sunday tidy-up before hosting the family meal so while the house isn't ideal home, it's more orderly than usual. I also have two days off in this coming week... so what with one thing and another, plenty to be thankful for.

Nothing spent today.
MS stuff:
Voucher applied to my account
No piano this week so £10 to remain in my pocket.

I noted a few upcoming expenses:
The piano desperately needs tuning.
My phone is getting slower and harder to keep useable.
The bills for Mum's old house are getting to me - but I had a chat with DH about sorting out the meter readings for the electricity and we are going to tackle it together. Turns out they had been estimating based on previous usage and for some reason had used an estimate instead of a reading to start the account in my name. It's all done in my name and all paid from the estate account, but the transfer should really have been done on an accurate reading and till we sort out that starting point, they can't accept my current readings. However, the good news is that we haven't used meanrly as much electricity as they think we have. Phew.

Cherryfudge

I got paid this morning and celebrated by paying the milk bill almost as soon as it came through the door! Then I went to work, and having worked, fell asleep for a couple of hours this afternoon and of course am now fairly awake. Topsy-turvy household, this. DS2 is on nights so there were two of us snoozing the afternoon away today. I have two days off and I have a feeling DS is on days off from tomorrow too.

I have been reading 'The richest man in Babylon' and would be interested if anyone here has read it too, and if so, did you gain anything useful from it? I am bearing in mind that some of the language is figurative, and that when he talks about saving the first tenth of your income, that's probably what he means, but I decided to try saving one coin of every ten in my purse, each day. Part of me is saying that's stupid and there are better ways to save. I've been doing it a few days and so far have 92p. the idea is that it goes into savings. For the last couple of years or so any money left at the end of the month from my personal earnings has gone to the mortgage because my ISA pays so little. I suppose even a small amount of savings is going to add up. I'll see how it goes.

I got my £40 housekeeping money out this afternoon and spent a goodly chunk of it straight away. That's the trouble with not having a plan. I prefer not to eat much meat but DH has meat or fish most days and DS2 detests the smell of fish and mutters about leaving home when DH cooks trout. :rotfl: So off I went with a short shopping list and no ideas for dinner, not wanting meat, put off fish because of the grumpiness and not prepared to cook separate meals. We ended up with a very nice 'breakfast for dinner' of sausages, bacon, baked potatoes with cheese, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and peas, which probably cost more than most of our usual meals. I also bought some lamb that had been reduced, which we'll have with a box of pre-mixed Moroccan flavourings that we already have in, and some venison sausages for a treat some time. DH did say he doesn't mind a vegetable curry so that might be Wednesday's meal. I'm back at work on Thursday so will probably have some form of pack-up Thursday and Friday and DH pays for the weekend meals.

I had a bit of extra time so went to various shops so as well as the reduced meat there were cheap cappuccinos and reduced veg, crumpets, peaches, pate and tomatoes. That's how I came to spend such a lot.

I also remembered at the last minute that one of the April gardening magazines had an offer for 2-for-1 entry which I've used the last couple of years, so I got myself a copy. Expensive magazine but should pay for itself in a visit or two (if I manage enough visits - we never get to as much as we'd intended). That reminds me - 77p for another e-book too though I think that comes off the gift token I added to my account the other day.

Spends:
Magazine £6.50
Housekeeping £23.45 + milk bill £8.52
MS stuff:
Assorted food bargains
2-for-1 gardens entry (only counts when used!)
Saving 10th coin 92p.
Bought tinned peaches at 35p instead of DH's go-to baked apple at about 85p!

Cherryfudge

I was having a nice calm day - no rush and clear head so I was hoping to get things done. Things other than impersonating a headless chicken, that is. Laundry is on the line, piano is practised (a bit), mortgage overpayment made.

Now I've had a phone call with The Man Who Repairs Roofs and Gutters and am all of a flap again. He is talking about getting an employee to look at it and see if they can do it in the next couple of weeks as he is too busy to do it himself earlier than three weeks' time. I desperately need that done! I asked if it would be better for me to get a quote elsewhere (I have someone in mind who did a super job on the same area a few years ago) but this just seems to prod him into trying to get his own man onto the job. I've asked for a quote, anyway - and am wondering about getting another from the man who fixed the roof as it's his old work they would be dealing with. (It's an old design of roof with a structural problem that means all the run-off congregates in a small area, basically I think it will always be prone to problems but if we fix larger gutters it won't be so bad).

The mortgage overpayment on our house: I can't be absolutely sure the sums are right as I've just noticed the monthly payments are being based on the agreed DD which the bank managed to lose and never implemented, rather than on the minimum basic payment (which they seem to have skated over in March when due to their error I didn't make a payment at all). However, I've paid off what seems to be the outstanding amount on the smallest subaccount, so that is either gone or all-but gone! Yay! A ball park saving of £24 over the remaining course of the mortgage.

Next target is the smaller of the remaining subaccounts which is £1,951.24 - hopefully gone by the end of January.

I will log back in in a couple of days and pay off any difference so as to be sure it's gone.

I'm now in a pause between listing a few bits on Marketplace. Cherry is not only taking the reins but has the bit between her teeth as well - probably a physical impossibility. :rotfl: Don't you just love mixed metaphors.

WannabeFree

Well done on the sub account being gone

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Cherryfudge

WannabeFree wrote: »

Well done on the sub account being gone

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Thank you Wannabe

I was going to update last night but thought sleep might be better for me than more time online. Today I seem to be getting a cold so I am chugging the hot ginger drinks. I seem to have an instinct for them with colds: maybe it's the anti-inflammatory properties of the cinnamon? Maybe it's the sugar!

Yesterday's planned meal of lamb tagine using a packet mix that turned out to have passed its best before and lamb mince that had been reduced... actually turned out really well, so I need not have qualms about using mince in it next time. I added a large onion to make it go further and there's another portion for me to take to work for tea one day.

I weeded the garden for a few minutes... it needs a lot more! I also noticed we had too much milk so DS2 got a rice pudding which went down well. DH has assembled the next kitchen cupboard but there is work to be done on the wall before it goes up. Meanwhile I bought sugar so I can make a few jars of marmalade (I used the tinned oranges and discovered three tins in various cupboards!) That may be a job for today. I've also made a bit of progress with labelling large glass jars for various dried goods so I don't have messy packets. I write the BBE dates on the base in marker pen which can be scrubbed off when the jar is empty, and to my mind glass is by far the nicest container both visually and for the environment... mind you I still have messy packets, but that's a work in progress.

1/5/18 Spends:
Mortgage overpayment £260.99
Download £1.52
Housekeeping £8.69
MS stuff:
Saved about £24/25 mortgage interest due to overpayment.
Good use of food I had in.
10th coin pot 5p

Cherryfudge

Today has got more productive as it went on - I definitely have a cold but it's at the sore throat stage and quite manageable so I decided to go for a run, which wasn't very long and wore me out more than it should have.

I was thinking about this as I went to the shops later, all bundled up in my big coat despite the sun, and came to the conclusion that it may not be simple lack of fitness - I think I need a meds review so I detoured via the doctor and booked a blood test before I could put it off. Then on the way back an elderly lady ahead of me had a fall and I ended up staying with her till the paramedics had patched her up, then I bumped into an old friend a little further along and ended up exchanging phone umbers so we can go for coffee sometime. So all in all quite a full afternoon!

Tea was chickpea curry which is nicely MS.

I've also spent a lot of time on the computer trying to understand pensions. I got quite into it - am I a nerd? It seems my work one is pretty good and I just have to make a decision about AVCs. At the moment quite a chunk of my income goes into mortgage overpayments with the thought that once the mortgage is gone I will have that money to put into a pension - but what I can't work out is whether a lump sum payment into a pension is as valuable as payments on the drip. I understand there is a £40,000 p.a. limit to how much I can put into a pension each year (and the possibility of claiming three years' unused allowance) but I don't think I'm in immediate danger of breaching that limit. :rotfl: There isn't much in my pension pot so it will help if I can make a good decision here. I do bear in mind that money in an EF is also essential but we have the EF in joint names and connected to the account into which DH's pay goes, so there are some accessible savings.

Spends:
Housekeeping £0.75
Pets £2.00
Gifts (greetings card) £2.25
MS stuff:
Cheap, healthy meal this evening
Lots of pension research (though, like the 2-for-1 gardens entry, this only counts if used)
10th coin pot 20p

HairyHandofDartmoor

I've read The Richest Man in Babylon. What I got from it was that you don't need a big windfall to get rich, but if you save regular amounts and then invest the savings in something that will make money, then eventually you could get rich. Very oversimplified explanation but I think that's the gist of it. It's worth a read because it does make you think.

I don't understand pensions because I don't have one, but I approve of mortgage overpayments .