Tales from The Shire

Fortune_Smiles · 30 March 2021 at 10:35AM

Poor me

I am feeling poor as my bigger pension has still not hit the account. I checked with the fund on Friday and it was definitely scheduled as a BACS payment that day plus I checked this morning that I'd sent them the correct bank account details. Apparently BACS payments usually appear in the early hours of the morning so, if it hadn't hit my account by 7.30 this morning it probably won't arrive until tomorrow 😠 If it doesn't arrive tomorrow I shall be straight on the phone to them. I want to buy premium bonds with some of the money and you have to have them for a full calendar month before they are eligible for the draw. That means, if I buy them in April they won't be eligible until the June draw. So I want to buy them now so they'll be eligible for the May draw. Humpff.

Apart from humpffing about the pension, I spent yesterday doing the usual chores and prodding people by phone. The garage that did the service and MOT on my car this month have not returned my locking wheel nut key 😠 (I've phoned them about it 3 times now). Our boiler is losing pressure again and being extremely noisy 😠 (boiler man is coming on Thursday). Our relaid patio is lumpier than it was before 😠 (builder is coming out after Easter to have a look).

My what a lot of 😠 faces 😆 I'm really not feeling that grumpy about it all. Although the boiler is a bit of a worry. It is about 16 years old now so I wouldn't be surprised if we have to replace it soon.

Lunch yesterday was Roasted Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup and supper was Root Vegetable & Borlotti Cobbler left over from Sunday lunch. I did the meal plan for the week and grocery shop yesterday. I've managed to do without a veg box this week so that's shaved a little of the budget which I've added to this month's op.

I'll just give the garage another ring and then I want to fit in some yoga - I think I'm going to need it 😆

Hope your week's off to a good start.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff · 30 March 2021 at 12:14PM

Ooh, that is indeed vexing about your pension, and yes, you do want to be hitting the May draw! I think I'd be impatiently on the phone today in light of that, just so they've got a day to sort it out if they've done something stupid. Although having said that, what a lot of other annoying things you have to sort out!! Why can't people just do things properly the first time?! Grrr. I hope the universe aligns and everyone does as they should, swiftly and without further chasing on your part!

beanielou · 30 March 2021 at 7:19PM

Hope that your pension hits your account tomorrow.

Fortune_Smiles · 1 April 2021 at 11:51AM

Good news... and...

Thank you Beanie and Cheery. The pension did hit the account yesterday and I got my premium bonds in time for Agent Million to call me in May 😁

I've shuffled the money around into various pots. The current account is looking very healthy though as this month's overpayment is still sitting in there. I'll transfer it in a few days time so it doesn't interfere with our standard payment. That will take us up to the maximum overpayment we can make this mortgage year so any further overpayments will be ring-fenced in the savings account until the next 10% overpayment period starts.

However, in one hand and out the other. We'd sent our little tractor in for servicing and I got a call to say the bill was over double what I'd been quoted 😲 I'd only been given the figure for the service itself and it didn't include the collection/delivery fee, parts costs or VAT. So that added an extra 50% 😲 Whilst doing the service they'd also discovered a big repair was required which they carried out without agreeing the costs with me beforehand. This should have been covered under the guarantee but we are out of guarantee by six months. And we couldn't put the mower in for service prior to that six months because the shop was closed due to the pandemic. Anyhooo we negotiated and the repair fee has been taken off the invoice. The pandemic is not the company's fault of course, however, I wasn't quoted correctly for the service, a large repair bill was not agreed with me before the work was carried out and the repair is not something that would have arisen through normal use so the mower must have been sold to us with an existing issue. So it seems fair that we're not charged for it.

Plus, boiler man arrived today and carried out repairs to the boiler. A valve (replaced as a matter of course during the service in January) had become very dirty and was causing the boiler to mis-fire. This is an unusual thing to happen. The boiler has been noisy since the last service but I put this down to 'kettling' which often happens in older boilers working with hard water. I wish I'd called boiler man out when we'd first heard the noise as then it could be directly linked to the service. But I didn't so I can't reasonably prove this. I'd asked boiler man to replace some dodgy valves whilst he was here and he also did a thorough check of the system. Hopefully that will keep things going for a bit longer but we are looking at a big bill. Good job my pension did arrive 😆

I spoke to the garage yesterday and they can't find my locking wheel nut key so I've asked them to provide a replacement. The engineers are insisting they put it back in it's little nook in the boot but Mr F and I have checked and double-checked and it is not there or anywhere else in the car. It's going to take about two weeks to sort out apparently so let's hope we don't have any need for it before then.

Relieved to get some issues resolved though - the list was growing.

Plus we have some Easter socialising to look forward to. What a shame the warm weather arrived a few days too early but we shall wrap up and light the fire pit and enjoying seeing people properly for the first time in aaaaaaages. Can't wait 😁

Happy Thursday all

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff · 1 April 2021 at 12:41PM

What a load of faff Fortune!! Pleased the pension has arrived though, and the mower is now working, and the heating. How lovely to be looking forward to visitors! We enjoyed ours SO much yesterday and the day before. Going to see my sister tomorrow - first time I've seen any of them since July so very exciting! Will wrap up warm 😂

savingholmes · 3 April 2021 at 10:54PM

Glad the pension got resolved. Sounds like you negotiated the bill down beautifully too - but scary when you get unexpected bills like that.

Fortune_Smiles · 5 April 2021 at 9:09AM

Cheery_Daff said:

What a load of faff Fortune!! Pleased the pension has arrived though, and the mower is now working, and the heating. How lovely to be looking forward to visitors! We enjoyed ours SO much yesterday and the day before. Going to see my sister tomorrow - first time I've seen any of them since July so very exciting! Will wrap up warm 😂

Most of the glitches have been sorted out now @Cheery_Daff - I find them irritating but they are small issues in the big scheme of things so I should take them more in my stride. Yes - wonderful to see real people again. And we have had summer weather in The Shire for the past couple of days. It's been fabulous 😁

savingholmes said:

Glad the pension got resolved. Sounds like you negotiated the bill down beautifully too - but scary when you get unexpected bills like that.

It's silly really @savingholmes. We have an emergency fund for such emergencies but once the money is in the savings account I hate taking it out again 😆

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles · 5 April 2021 at 9:51AM

Visitors!

What a wonderful weekend it's been. The weather gods smiled on us here in The Shire 🌞 It's been sunny the whole time and, although there was a cool breeze blowing, we set up in our little courtyard garden and were sheltered from the worst of it. Some of our company resorted to shorts and flip flops yesterday!

On Saturday we had some friends join us for afternoon tea and had a delightful time (although Uncle F dozed off several times 😂). Yesterday, the Younger Fortunates joined us for Sunday lunch. It was a belated birthday celebration for Mr F and so I'd bought a couple of bottles of sparkling wine from the vineyard in Kent that supplied our wedding and a huge, indulgent chocolate cake from the local cafe that we buy our afternoon teas from. We talked and laughed, played boules and inspected the orchard trees and generally had a fabulous time. The costs were met partly from March's and partly from April's fun money. It's been a very restorative weekend... although diet will have to start tomorrow... after we've finished the remains of the chocolate cake 😆 We only drank one of the bottles of sparkling wine so I'll save the other to have on our wedding anniversary.

So that's the spends. Savings wise, I made the maximum overpayment I could to the mortgage this morning. This means we have now paid off 31% 😁 The money we have ring-fenced in savings for mortgage overpayments would take us to 54% 😁 Feels like we're really making some progress now. Our next mortgage year starts from August so I will be able to make a further lump sum overpayment then.

Our emergency savings stand at 101% of target at the moment but Mr F has requested a roller/aerator for the garden so that will drop the total down a little. We're waiting to hear whether Mr F is getting any bonus this year. If he does, we'll use that to get some more of the windows done. If not, we'll use some of the emergency savings for that.

Isn't the British Weather amazing - we've had sun, cloud, hail and snow in the space of two hours already this morning 😆

Hope you've all had a fabulous Easter weekend

Fortune x

ruby_eskimo · 6 April 2021 at 9:08AM

Sounds like a lovely weekend and it's good to know that you have the money sitting there ready for the OP's which will also hopefully accrue a little interest while you wait for August to roll around.