Put away your purse & become debt-averse

HairyHandofDartmoor

£3K to a stranger's account :eek:. It doesn't bear thinking about :eek:.

I hope the floods don't reach you Foxgloves and that you managed to get to town for your financial stuff.

foxgloves

Thanks HHoD, CCL & CLF for your kind thoughts re the floods. Yes, the river has over topped in our village & for the third time on a major route in & out of town, but it hasn't come as far as us & most of the very local flooding is onto farmland. It looks quite eerie seeing such big swathes of normally green land or plough soil underwater.... a bit like 'Waterworld'.... you kind of expect to see Kevin Costner floating across simultaneously trying to trap food while attempting to distill his own wee!
However, after two days of being pumped, the floodwater which had closed our usual route into our county city centre had finally cleared, so we drove in with no problems. And what a useful trip it's been! I was finally able to pay that cheque in. I had been getting quite worried about it sitting around at home, so was very relieved to get this task done.
Some useful progress on Christmas shopping too. I tried on a big snuggly cardi & liked it so much that Mr F bought it to put away for me for a Christmas present. I like useful presents these days, but useful things which are also lovely. I'm so glad we didn't buy youngest nephew's game in the first shop we saw it, as we found it elsewhere for £5 less in a shop where we also get loyalty points. I found the book I wanted for Mr F & my B-in-law at £3 off & they were signed copies too. I also hit 'F*pp' with Mr F's festive wishlist & was pleased to find a lot of items on '2 for' deals, which cut the cost by a decent chunk.
Finally, two free rolls of sticky tape from WHS courtesy of our O2 Priorities app & a free coffee from Wa*trose on our way back to the car, rather than being tempted to call into a cafe for lunch.
So I felt this had been a useful morning.
And no rain, apart from about 5 drops of cba drizzle, which made a welcome change.
Hope everyone is well & avoiding the seasonal lergies atm,
Love to all,
F xx

DawnW

foxgloves wrote: »

... a bit like 'Waterworld'.... you kind of expect to see Kevin Costner floating across simultaneously trying to trap food while attempting to distill his own wee!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

foxgloves

CLF - Yes, you have remembered correctly, I did make sauerkraut....... or rather I followed an online recipe for said fermented delicacy to the absolute letter, but ended up with a smelly bowl of distinctly 'off' shredded cabbage! Before it started crawling to the bin unaided, I washed off all the brine & added it to the compost. I added the stated amount of seasalt & did all the weighting down, etc, plus everything was kept very clean. I know about the importance of that because I do a lot of preserving. The salt seemed to release very little juice, so there was next to no brine & definitely no bubbling or fermentation.....just a distinct whiff of an old wheelie bin on a hot July day, not really the vibe I was wanting to add to my salads.
Intend to try again next year.
F x

foxgloves

Yes, the £3K transfer error was entirely my fault & I was lucky to get the money back, especially as quickly as I did. I thought I'd shared this sorry tale, but if not, then here it is in all its scary glory.
It was a good few years ago now. We changed to a new bank (Co-*p) & our new current account had a savings account attached to it which allowed the account holder to transfer funds between the two. I can't recall why I had £3k knocking around, but I did cash in a useless rip-off life assurance policy around that time, so it was probably that. Anyway, I decided to move this £3k to the savings account. I'd never done an online transfer before. I set it up, moved the money & didn't really think anything of it.
I hadn't realised that amounts transferred between these two accounts show up immediately as transactions. I'd assumed the process would take a couple of days. I checked on the Sunday afternoon & while £3k had certainly been moved out of our current account, it definitely wasn't in our savings account. Horrible cold feeling inside. I couldn't wait for Monday morning to ring my branch & find out what had gone wrong. So Monday rolled round & I had almost got my hand on the phone to dial, when it rang. It was our designated customer advisor at the bank. She asked me if I was aware of a problem concerning our bank account. I said I'd been just about to ring & did it involve my missing £3K.She said it definitely did. Apparently (& I don't know why, as I'm usually very good at double checking things), when I set up the transfer, I transposed two digits in the savings account number & had thus managed to transfer the money into a complete strangers bank account!! Aaaaggghhh!! Fortunately for me, she had seen the transaction on her online banking that weekend, found out it was from another Co-op account & had rung the bank in a strop to find out what the eff they were playing at, as it wasn't her money & why did someone have her account no, etc, etc. So once the bank had spoken to me to ensure I had made an error & hadn't gifted this stranger the money, they were able to facilitate transferring it back.
It could have been very different, couldn't it, had it been someone who took the line that the money's in their account therefore it belongs to them, couldn't it?
I am usually so careful with this kind of thing, so I did feel absolutely stupid. The bank could not have handled it better. I must give them - & my unintended accidental recipient - the credit for that.
So there, m'ducks, is a bit of a cautionary tale for you.
F x

carrielovesfanta

foxgloves wrote: »

CLF - Yes, you have remembered correctly, I did make sauerkraut....... or rather I followed an online recipe for said fermented delicacy to the absolute letter, but ended up with a smelly bowl of distinctly 'off' shredded cabbage! Before it started crawling to the bin unaided, I washed off all the brine & added it to the compost. I added the stated amount of seasalt & did all the weighting down, etc, plus everything was kept very clean. I know about the importance of that because I do a lot of preserving. The salt seemed to release very little juice, so there was next to no brine & definitely no bubbling or fermentation.....just a distinct whiff of an old wheelie bin on a hot July day, not really the vibe I was wanting to add to my salads.
Intend to try again next year.
F x

Cheers foxgloves! I won't trouble you for the recipe though :rotfl:

foxgloves

That's good, CLF, because I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, lol!

foxgloves

Hi Diary readers,
A rather gloomy day of relentless drizzle for us today - not that it was gloomy indoors, only every time I looked out of the window at the interminable mizzly greyness. It feels as though it has barely got light. We had planned to go to a festive food fair over in a neighbouring county today. We go every year & always enjoy the atmosphere & being able to pick up a few gifts from local producers. But you know, we decided we've bought almost all our Christmas presents now, don't have much spare money until I do the next budget a week on Wednesday & we also felt we needed to factor in the parking which is on grass, & after the weather we've had recently, likely to be the sort of mud bath in which cars become stuck, so we decided on a late breakfast & to stay home & please ourselves.
I've only stuck my nose out of the door twice all day - once to fill up all the bird feeders, as the fighting over the last of the peanuts was getting ridiculous - & once with the rubbish ready for bin day tomorrow! But what a productive day it's turned out to be! I've had a good tidy-up of 'Foxgloves HQ' & wrapped all the Christmas presents we bought yesterday plus a few others. I've sorted wrapping paper supplies so as to prioritise the large sheets I managed to recycle from last year. I keep a wrappings box all year, filled with recycled wrap, gift bags, ribbons & home made gift tags and it is so useful. I wrapped the big present I hand knitted for my sis & felt really pleased with how luxurious it looks. Yet I used a roll of gift wrap I brought back when we were clearing out Mum's house, the last of a roll of gold ribbon I got from the pound shop & a Christmas tree gift tag I made from an old green cardboard folder & threaded onto some of the gold ribbon yarn I brought back from Mum's yarn stash. I think you'd have to say that was a good bit of shopping from home!
I also asked Mr F to fetch our big Christmas storage box down from the loft, so I can acccess stuff as I need it. Today I rummaged through to find our fabric Advent calendar which Mum stitched for us years ago. I opened the free box of chocs we got recently from Th*rnton's when we bought some for gifts & found they were a 'Buy 2, get one free', wrapped 24 of them in tiny squares of foil & have filled the Advent calendar pockets all ready for Dec 1st, instead of doing it at the last minute, as has happened in previous years.
I've done my online German practice, dug out my festive piano music, loaded the washer & put it on timer for cheaper laundry overnight, entered 3 competitions & I'm now intending to work at a tricky row of my jumper. Mr F cooked sufficient lasagne yesterday to feed us tonight as well, so no cooking required!
I am aiming for a productive week ahead. This should hopefully be the week when I contact the building society & request a settlement figure on the mortgage. It makes my innards feel a bit wobbly just thinking about it, which seems so pathetic, but this is a huge thing for us.
Right, out with the knitting needles. Have lit the fire & a candle and it's looking very cosy.
Peace & Love,
F x

DawnW

foxgloves wrote: »

This should hopefully be the week when I contact the building society & request a settlement figure on the mortgage. It makes my innards feel a bit wobbly just thinking about it, which seems so pathetic, but this is a huge thing for us.

It is a huge thing Foxgloves. We took out our mortgage late in life, in our early 50s. It wasn't a huge mortgage by any means, as by the time we got round to buying a house, we had paid off all the debt and I had prioritised saving for a big deposit, given our age. We had spent most of our married life in accommodation tied to my husband's job, and once we did buy our house, we initially had to rent it out, as he was contracted to live in this accommodation. In an ideal world, which as we know, does not exist, we would have waited and bought a better house in a nicer area, but we were pushed into buying when we did due to both being on notice of redundancy and having quite a lot of savings (our house savings). Had we been made redundant, we would not have been able to get a mortgage, and would have had to see our savings slowly dwindle as we had to live on them, renting privately as, had OH lost his job, we would have to move out of our home.

As luck would have it, we kept our jobs, but after struggling for years and paying off debt, I was very apprehensive about this huge new debt :eek: so went from prioritising saving to a big push to pay it off. We finally got there almost 6 years ago. It felt a bit flat when I actually went in to make the last big payment. We didn't celebrate or anything, maybe we should have. But I have been so grateful since. OH and I were both able to retire early with savings (once again prioritised after the demise of the mortgage) and our very modest occupational pensions, and move into our own house. It meant a frugal lifestyle, which isn't for everyone - no expensive holidays or cruises, and our house is a modest terrace, but the freedom to be able to choose to do this has been incredible.

foxgloves

That's interesting, Dawn & I completely agree about the feelings of gratitude regarding owning a house at last, instead of being in a situation where another redundancy (given that we've had one already - me!) & in our case, demise of our professional sector, could easily result in losing the roof over our heads,should we find ourselves unable to meet our monthly mortgage payments. So I do feel very grateful to have the opportunity to get shot of the mortgage almost 9 years early. I know many people who have paid off their mortgages by the time they are my age. The mortgage I took out on my first little city suburb terraced house would have been paid off this July, had I still been there. Once Mr F was on the scene, we decided to buy a house together, which we did, when I was 38, so unlike some of my friends who bought in their early to mid 20s (I doubt there are very many people able to do that these days), we are still paying ours & had I not lost Mum & Dad earlier than I'd have liked, we'd have been paying it until into my 60s (The Beloved is a few years younger than me). We were talking about this last night, how every time there are yet more government cuts implemented at Mr F's work, we've said, if the worst comes to the worst, we will just have to request a mortgage payment holiday & just pay the interest for a while. To know we very shortly won't need to do that is such a huge thing - I don't think I've really taken it in properly yet.
F x