Travelling On

Karmacat

teapot2 wrote: »

Good news that the book sold and a decent return too plus an interesting day out :cool:

Happy garden planning today though eek to the early start :eek:

Yep, it was a good sale: there's no emotional attachment to the thing, so it's better that the money was split between us. The early start has **ruined** me for the day I went to bed for an hour this afternoon and I can't really wake up I meant to phone my brother this afternoon, but I'm not really in a fit state to actually speak to anyone, as opposed to typing!

earthgirl wrote: »

Great news on the book sale!

My mum is coming to visit in a few weeks so I am going to see if we can do something with a few problematic beds. With a budget of 0.

Best time of year for a zero budget, earthie - maybe £1 on some seed compost at a pound shop, and you can take cuttings?

Karmacat

themadvix wrote: »

Great news about the book!

Garden plans sound great too

Thanks! Garden plans are accidentally on hold today because of being dozy but I might manage something this evening.

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Good news about the book sale.

As I've been stuck at home recently, one of the things I did was to go through our bookshelves, and I've got a small pile that can leave the house. They will go to the charity shop.

Thats a good idea. I have maybe a dozen very niche books that any charity would send straight to a specialist bookshop, bought in the days before t'internet, when you had to buy a book if you wanted to read something unusual :rotfl: and I keep getting codes from WeBuyBooks, then not doing anything with them must try harder.

Well, today came to a grinding halt by about 11.30 - had a *very* early lunch and staggered off to bed, I can't wake up properly, can't make a phone call I wanted - I might just walk round the block a few times, I need to do something!

shangaijimmy

Karmacat wrote: »

Best time of year for a zero budget, earthie - maybe £1 on some seed compost at a pound shop, and you can take cuttings?

I look after 2 departments at work, and 1 of them after staffing costs of me has a budget of zero! So really its not a department and there is no budget...:(

Karmacat

That's rough, Jimmy! They've obviously come to expect that you work comparative miracles, blimey.

Nothing to do with a budget (except of energy) but I got astonishingly little done today
- bit of water on the plants
- backed up the computer
- cleared the grid and drain from the bathroom, an annual task.
- opened the post - a few short financial tasks need to be done tomorrow.
- cooked beans in the slow cooker.
- finally woke up by about 7.30pm, and went for a walk to "my" monkey puzzle tree, only about 10 minutes away, but better than nothing.

I really thought I'd get more done, it was supposed to be a work day! Still, its not like HR are going to give me a warning ...

themadvix

Don't forget the heat will have reduced energy levels further Karma - I really struggled yesterday afternoon and I think it was just too hot for me!

Karmacat

Oh thats true, actually, yes - I've always been rubbish in the heat, thanks for reminding me, I was writing myself off a bit there


Today has to be a work day too, to try to catch up - I should've put the dishwasher on yesterday evening, and I didn't even stack it so now there's 2 days worth of stuff to do so its that first, then I've cherry picked from out of my enormous to do list: back in a couple of hours

Karmacat

Right, here we go:
- dishwasher stacked and cycled through.
- been trying to phone my brother, no luck, I suspect he's out on a cycle ride with his eldest son. Will try again much later.
- got the 3 figures I need for the net worth calculations, the 3 small pension funds. Excellent.
- checked diary dates for the horticultural society (sent an email asking for a place on the days out) and for Egyptology - I missed a meeting last week, rats. Ah well.
- I've been taking up the odd bit of space in the dishwasher with some kilner jars that I never brought into use. I've now washed the tops by hand, everything's dry and ready to use, and I've experimented with some leaves from the garden - alchemilla, of all things. Did them over yesterday and today, and they finally went a bit crunchy, so they're in one of the jars now - its part of my ambition to make my own pesto

So, the net worth. First off, I made idiotic mistakes earlier this year. I had subtotals in the spreadsheet, so I double counted some things, and omitted all the pension funds :o:o Moving swiftly on ... kitchen is all paid for, and as of this month I have:
£94034 in cash funds of various kinds.
£92836 in stocks and shares, 95% of which is in ethical pension funds
E 3800 in my current account in France. Amazing how thats built up without the mortgage to pay! I'm due to pay a management charge (anything up to E500, no idea) and the tax will be due soon (just over E600). So the money is already there, thank heavens.


Continuing on from the mid course correction of 1st July, I need to:
- open a new cash isa that I can transfer into, two existing isas need to move.
- when I move one of those isas, the "stocks and shares" component of the above will lessen, and the cash will increase.
- I have the information on my own finances that I need. Now I need to read up on drawdown vs annuity - I don't really think I want an annuity, but if I acted on that now, it would be gut instinct alone, and thats what meant I bought the dratted French property :eek:
Taking a break now :j

beanielou

Your net worth is awesome

Karmacat

Thanks beanie! I'll never work again, of course, and I'm not entitled to any benefits until my state pension, in 18 months, plus more than a third is inheritance - its not really me being toooo awesome :o:o

And I'm a middle child compared to one of my siblings, its really good, compared to the other its hopeless

I know now I could live on a state pension - so thats a big relief that I won't have to sell the house, though if I make it to very elderly, I might well take equity - that'll be okay, as I don't have kids who *need* the money.

Tomorrow, I'll apply for the isa, and budget for future expenditure:
- holidays, a couple of grand a year. Though a cruise would cost that (and probably more) so at first this amount would be higher.
- the boundaries to my property are absolutely shot - every single fence is rickety or actually already collapsed, the front gate has fallen off the gateposts, all the gateposts themselves have been vandalised, the garden gate at the side won't open, the (new) shed door won't shut in summer and won't open in winter, the patio needs to be relaid, I need to decide what to do with the decking at the far end, which is collapsing. Serious money needs to be thrown at all of that. Which is liveable, because I have it.

What I'm really thinking about, though, is this guy, Andrea Camilleri, who just died aged 93: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2019/jul/17/andrea-camilleri-late-but-great-career-in-writing-inspector-montalbano He started writing when he was almost 70 :beer: so I have time :beer:

earthgirl

Yes you do! Great figures and plans!