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"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it."

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  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,746 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Slow start today, but at least it involved plenty of veg for breakfast - I roasted asparagus, PSB, mushrooms, tomatoes and red peppers with some bacon.

    First lot of laundry nearly done and the rest sorted.

    Weather is miserable, so a day of tidying, putting away and filing is on the cards. If I'm home for 3 weeks the place needs to be habitable, and I'll need to be organised for packing as the next two trips are back to back (thankfully with different climates which simplifies things a little).

    Guess I should make myself some coffee (since I have milk for once!) and get on with it!
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,746 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 29 April 2018 at 5:49PM
    Filing didn't take long. Laundry is drying, roses are tied up, fire is lit.

    I've eaten too much chocolate and feel sick...

    However, I've also checked my bank account and not only have I been paid but my bonus has gone in. I'd forgotten it was paid quarterly and guaranteed for the first 6 months. I've transferred it straight to savings.

    I've also done a rough SOA and worked out that I'm 2/3 of the way to having 12 months' expenses saved up. I need to find somewhere to put the money where it will earn a bit more interest than it does currently, and give myself a date to get to my target. Then set a budget for the kitchen and a date for doing it (really needs to be sometime this year, despite how much I'd rather not have the builders here...)

    Very tempting to spend on replacing ancient tech (ipad and phone need replacing, and I need some way of playing all my CDs - I don't want to upload everything to the cloud and then forget about it as my broadband is rubbish....)

    Feeling much better about money, and happy that the filing has been done an things are relatively tidy

    Just need to get some work done now...

    I've done a bit more working out. I need to check my new work pension and find out how much is going into it. Then I think I need to up my contribution to my existing SIPP and put a personal contribution into the SIPP that I had my last company pension in. And I should increase my S&S ISA contribution. I need to build up the long term savings as well as the emergency fund, and those are all things that once they are set up I can forget about. I know I can live very happily on what I used to earn, and once the house is done anything over that is for savings and OPs. Some bits of life are more expensive in the new job (nails, clothes...) but I'm away from home more which makes other things (food, heating, electricity, water) cheaper. I don't want to restrict myself so I feel that money is tight - it's crazy to earn well and create stress by pushing myself to be too frugal, as work itself is fairly pressurised. But I also want to make sure I get myself to a stage where I know I'm making important decisions for the right reasons. I absolutely LOVE my new job right now. But if there's ever a time I don't, I want to make sure I feel free to look at my options and reassess, as it's not fair on anyone to stay in in a job not giving 100% and being miserable.
  • Woo hoo to bonus payments.
    Outstanding mortgage: £23,181 (December 19)
    MFW 2020 Challenge Member #10 0/£2318
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,746 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Cash ISA opened with a lump sum. Just need to decide on regular contributions to the S&S ISA and the set up regular inputs to this one so I end up hitting my annual allowance. Feels like ages since I did anything about proper saving.

    It will mean I have to fund any work on the house from cashflow, but also means that anything over my ISA limit not spent on the house is destined for mortgage OPs. So although today feels as if it's been lazy, it has helped to clarify some of what I need to do.

    Now I just need to work out how to change the S&S ISA and pension contributions!
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,746 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    My work pension has started, and I've now seen how much is going into that, so I have no excuse not to sort out the other savings and pension contributions over the next week or so. Then hopefully I can forget about them.

    Electrician has put up the dining room lights and given me some additional sockets in the kitchen and utility room (so I need to get the microwave and icemaker out of storage and stick them on the fridge and freezer) as well as putting up the CCTV fixings so the cameras are now outside rather than inside.

    My mum is going to be staying for a couple of days, although I'll be working while she's here (in the office) but it might mean we get another shelf and the odd picture up as there will be someone to hold the hoover while I drill!

    My brother and I are planning a shuffle round of furniture at the end of June, so we'll be taking a van up to my mum's and bringing it back. I need to get the logpile, garden furniture, blinds, garage and greenhouse sorted before then!
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,746 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    No shelves or pictures up, but my mum did get some weeding and tidying done in the garden, and we had a nice long walk on Thursday evening. We also got some garden furniture out. Saturday was taken up with seeing the kids and driving her to the elderly cousins she is spending the BH with. And yesterday wasn't hugely productive - a couple of plants finally got into the ground and some reading done in the garden. And some laundry.

    Today so far has been better - I've potted up a whole lot of plug plants (am now out of compost, so contemplating going out to get some shortly, along with rose food, chicken manure and petrol for the mower), planted another shrub, done some laundry and split a barrow-load of logs. Like the weeding and mowing, I need to do a bit of this every day. It'll mean I don't need to buy any logs for a year or so - and if I did buy them I'd still have to stack them!

    New work laptop and bits have been sorted out - I just need to check that I can run both monitors at the same time without needing any additional cables, and then my office is all set up.

    Summer clothes need getting out and hanging up - this should stop me buying more. Or at least make sure that what I do buy is what i need.
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Greenbee! Good Lord! I'm in absolute awe of your achievements. The house, the garden, the upkeep of family relationships, advancing in your career .... fantastic. Love what you're doing.
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,746 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thanks KC. I feel I should be getting more done, and find it hard to remember that sometimes it's a good idea to rest. I'm a bit stressed at being behind with gardening and house stuff as it starts to build up, but need to focus on work. Then again, I can be a lot more focussed if the other stuff is under control - hence the need to get the kitchen done.
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    You're very welcome! And ... tell me about it! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

    That need for control is exactly how I feel, at a much lower level of everything - I'm retired, I'm not totally renovating my house, and I'm not landscaping my entire garden :)

    I've just been realising the thing about being able to be more focussed if other stuff is under control - in my case, the stuff that needs to be under control is the tidal wave of papers about genealogy that descended on me. Some of it's useful, most of it is complete duplication of what I already have ... and the effect is that I don't know what's in my house. So that's what getting under control is about - knowing what I've got, and wanting it in my house.

    Hope you enjoy a bit more down time while the sun's out :)
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • redofromstart
    redofromstart Posts: 5,810 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I know its a great one coming from me, but you do need to build some doing nothing time into that schedule, especially with all the travel.
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