Travelling On

Karmacat

Thanks beanie, I didn't know that, I might well try it.

Karmacat

Karmacat said:

I need to decide how to fund the Charter ISA,
Yes, just for the sake of Getting It Done, I sent £10 to the new account details.  It will be returned, but the accounts will be linked and I'll know the main money will get there.

I need to keep an eye on the French maintenance company,
All I can do is watch my email, nothing yet.

and I need to finish sending French documents to the accountant. 
I've sent the tax request and proof of payment, the fees paid to her own firm last year, and the bank charges detailed, plus asked if she wants the monthly bank statements as well.

Submitted my dual fuel figures, I'm £90 in debt to Scottish Power.  Totally unsurprising, given the temperatures we've had, their direct debit is increasing by £9 a month.  I've set up the next two payments to my Principality Regular Saver.  I checked my current account while I was doing that, and in the month since I did the Net Worth calculation of January, the amount has decreased by £765.  Seems a lot.  Though that's £125 council tax, two food deliveries, etc etc.  The new accounts aren't funded yet, so there isn't any money that's inadvertently disappeared.  Don't know.

Two extra items I need to do: check cheaper fuel rates (that will take a while: I use so little, the quotes are kind of inaccurate, I'll have to take notes on what the charges actually are) and also check mobile/landline/broadband payments.  Landline and broadband are bundled together, and they're up by a third in one fell swoop.

Suffolk_lass

I find using my fuel usage figures (night and day readings) is the best way to evaluate energy comparisons. We are currently with Scottish Power after Yorkshire Energy stopped trading at the beginning of December. Both have accurate handover meter readings. Still no sign of a final bill from YE and my defunct account still shows £324 in credit. SP are showing a small debit but based on an estimated meter reading that is based on the difference in tariff cost (just over £11 per month). I don't want to read my meter for them yet until the credit from YE is made. Otherwise they will want to put the cost of my DD up by a hundred or more a month - we use almost 85% of our annual electricity from October to April when the range is on (we don't have gas).

Karmacat

Thanks for that, SL - I'm glad you didn't suffer any outages when Yorkshire Energy collapsed.  I'll do weekly readings for now, since at the moment it's just 2 or 3 a year I haven't done the extra checks I mentioned yesterday so they'll be for today.  Might be quite a domestic day today - bit of vacuuming, changing the bed, cutting my hair **again**, I have a phone call booked in too.

apple_muncher

ooh, 'a domestic day' eh? You goddess, you

Karmacat

Right, once again there are lots of bitty things accomplished:
- had the booked phone call, which was nice, and as a result:
- downloaded form from local government to get a postal vote - no point going into a building that I don't have to go into.
- email from Charter turned up, rejecting my £10 establishing-the-link payment, as I'd been advised it would.  So I sent the full £15k just now, all good, and I could do it all in one go, even better.
- dishwasher is on, and stacked to the gills  
- ratesetter have agreed my new bank details for the repayment of all money in April some time.
- nothing from the French maintenance company yet.
- French accountant has replied after I sent the additional documents, doesn't need the bank statements, just needs the maintenance invoices now.
- got an old piece of concrete post underneath my fence, protecting that bit from soil accumulation.  Very, very heavy!

This afternoon is either domestic/ backing up the computer/ or garden navvying, getting more of the old concrete posts into a useful space.  I'm so looking forward to the world opening up again!  Ever so carefully, of course but open.

Staffordia

I can't wait for restrictions to be gone as well. We have had so many "let's do" conversations over the last few months that I don't think we will be able to fit everything in this year!
First on the agenda will be swapping Christmas presents with my sister!  Best of all we are going to be able to have the wedding celebration that we wanted, it's going to be one hell of a party!

Karmacat

A Christmas and a wedding, Staffordia, how lovely!  I have a single set of Christmas presents left to swap, with my nephew and his wife in London, the ones I catsit for.  I want to host a lunch for us all (5 of us) at a pub near my sister's one Sunday in May/June, we can do it then.  I didn't miss any wedding    which is a relief!

And oh, those "lets do" conversations: ordinary ones, like walks on beaches (I'm obsessed with getting a view of the sea!), meeting up with more than one family member, meeting up with my colleague down in the city by the sea, maybe watching him play walking football, my walking group and U3A starting up again, seeing friends who live at a distance, my brother coming down for a proper holiday.  So many things, though I don't know if I could hack going into London to exhibitions etc.  Maybe I'll just go down to the city by the sea.  You've got me going now  

Staffordia

There is just so much, and lots of free MSE things as well.  Like you I am desperate for a glimpse of the sea, so once the stay at home order is finished, our first trip is to the beach 30 miles away. I have been so tempted to go anyway but I know that the police have been patrolling the beach car parks.

greent

I'm looking forward to a proper forest walk - we have a beautiful forest in the county - but it's 40-45 mins away, so I don't consider it local (part of that is down to the roads - the distance isn't *that* far - will make a change from trudging along the canal path at the bottom of our street! (Although I love the  canal path with its ducks, swans and moorhens, squirrels, - and even the rats running along under the bridges!- just would like a change sometimes )

I hope that we continue to realise just how much we took for granted and that nothing is a given - although I suspect i will soon get used to it and take it all for granted again - I think i will try and incorporate something mindful every so often to remind us (our house)