Cheery's country living adventure

rtandon27

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

...Country houses always have mice, right?! :rotfl:

...and spiders, usually as big as your palm...

...just be thankful it's not a rat!:eek:...

...spotted one yesterday under our bird feeder with a piece of a fat ball - he's so round and fluffy I think he may be making regular trips from the barn to that part of the garden!

...at least the neighbouring farm's ferocious mouser has also been making regular trips to both the barn and our garden so let's hope he "scares off" the rodent!:D

Karmacat

I like mice and in my first house, one of the lodgers had a little girl, and the little girl had a tame rat. I was young and ignorant, and I let her let it out in the living room, then when I moved the sofa a few months later, there was a neat little pile of rat poo
:eek: at least I knew where it had come from


Interesting about the spreadsheets, Cheery - I'm thinking of taking up the matched betting once the garden is de-brambled, but I have so many very old accounts - even though my address and my bank are different, I do wonder how I'll do it. I guess I might ask for a "lost password" link - if I don't get anything, I can presume I never had an account. Or maybe it's all so long ago, they're in the dormant/ deleted section. Good luck with yours, anyway, not that you need luck, not with those spreadsheets

Cheery_Daff

I like mice too (I'd just prefer they weren't running over my guests! :eek: ) :rotfl: But yes, I'm grateful they're not rats!

No idea what happens with old accounts KC. I suppose you might get away with opening new ones! But chances are they'll figure you out anyway and just merge them or something.

Right, sorted out the YNAB confusion and now just checking the savings account to make sure everything adds up as it should.

NW regular saver has max monthly payment of £250 - don't know why I thought it had an overall limit, it doesn't, just has a limit to the amount you can pay in each month (which is effectively the same thing - but means I won't get to the point where I've paid in more than I'm allowed in a year as it's fine to just keep putting in £250 a month if you see what I mean). Seems to suggest it's still 5% interest online, although I'm sure I had a letter saying otherwise (maybe that was the other one?)

TSB regular saver also has £250 a month going in - both of these now up to £1750

PO account is the one that will run out of money - that's the one that's drip feeding into everything else... I've just transferred the 2x£250 for this month, and there's now just over £700 left in there, so basically I'll be able to transfer to regular savers in September from there and then I'll have to stop.

At that point, it would make sense (I think) to transfer from the NW and TSB current accounts into their own regular savers - except I MUST remember that I have a £1000 DD going between them (and back again) to satisfy their requirements for paying £1000 a month in :rotfl: So no going below that amount! :eek:

The NW current one I use for MB, so that balance goes up and down quite erratically depending where money is being moved to and from.

(Gosh, I SO get why people don't bother keeping track of their money, it's scrambling my brain today!) :rotfl: :rotfl:

Right. Need £500 for regular savers til the end of the year (I think they reset in January, but it might be the end of January)

August - already done
September - still enough in PO account
October - take £250 each from NW and TSB current accounts
November - Take £250 each from NW and TSB current accounts
December - Take £250 each from NW and TSB current accounts BUT check balances as will be getting dangerously close to not having enough for the £1000 DD at that point

Right - that will work.

In terms of MB money, not paying any more of it off the mortgage until we know how much the building work will be (hopefully this week!) and if it's going to use up a substantial sum of savings, then we'll build those back up first (actually, that's a good point in relation to all these regular saver shiftings!)

But thinking about it, MB money will (hopefully!) cover the regular saver payments for the rest of the year anyway.

Just need to come back to this in September as I might need to change which DDs go from/to which different accounts..

Did you follow all that waffle? There'll be a test later :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Right, might go and clatter about in the kitchen - we have guests staying and there's no sign of them yet and the sun is shining and there's fun to be had!

Dobbibill

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Right, sorted out the YNAB confusion and now just checking the savings account to make sure everything adds up as it should.

NW regular saver has max monthly payment of £250 - don't know why I thought it had an overall limit, it doesn't, just has a limit to the amount you can pay in each month (which is effectively the same thing - but means I won't get to the point where I've paid in more than I'm allowed in a year as it's fine to just keep putting in £250 a month if you see what I mean). Seems to suggest it's still 5% interest online, although I'm sure I had a letter saying otherwise (maybe that was the other one?)

Well done on keeping track of all those pots Cheery
NW have pulled their RS now so when yours gets to 12 months old it will convert to a flexclusive issue something or other - the interest rate is dire on that (0.75% IIRC) but it still is at 5% until then which is good. I know mine matures in December and that will be the end of that and will need a home for it. I think the lesson for us all here is make hay while the sun shines because it doesn't last


PS - did I pass the test?

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: Dobbibil, you definitely passed the test :rotfl:

Yes, good call to keep an eye out for when the regular savers mature - I think mine are end of January. Let's hope there's something else out there to replace them with by then but I won't hold my breath :eek:

At least I'm not daunted by the switching and messing about process now though thanks to you lovely lot :j

Had another builder round to quote this afternoon. He was a bit... vacant? Not quite as focused and professional as the other geezer? Seemed to think they could do it in a couple of weeks (the others said 3-4 weeks) and could probably start within 6 weeks or so (the other guys said after Christmas)

But we'll see what their actual quotes say. If there's not much in it, I'd choose the first guys for definitely - far more professional vibe. But if there's thousands of pounds difference... maybe the clipboard and high vis jacket and appointment time and named van and spark in the eye might not be enough... :rotfl:

Meant to have another guy quoting this week so we'll see what they all say...

teapot2

Karmacat wrote: »

Interesting about the spreadsheets, Cheery - I'm thinking of taking up the matched betting once the garden is de-brambled, but I have so many very old accounts - even though my address and my bank are different, I do wonder how I'll do it. I guess I might ask for a "lost password" link - if I don't get anything, I can presume I never had an account. Or maybe it's all so long ago, they're in the dormant/ deleted section. Good luck with yours, anyway, not that you need luck, not with those spreadsheets

When I was opening accounts for the matched betting, they all seemed to do some background ID checks so I imagine they would be able to match you up with existing accounts. I imagine they wouldn't look very kindly on you opening another account and getting the incentives they offer if you already had them last time??? Most of the bookies seem to have a chat facility so don't know if it would be possible to ask them what is best to do rather than getting closed down?

themadvix

It does look so complicated when you write it all down, doesn't it Cheery? But at least most of the time it pootles on of it's own accord. I do have a monthly 'to do' list for my money shuffles though, as I don't automate mine in case I don't get paid enough/don't pay myself on time.

Dobbibil, hadn't heard that about NW RS, how rubbish. thanks for the heads-up.

Busy_Mee1

I've got eight regular savers running and just have them automated. This usually involves a bit of adjustment at the beginning of the year ( when a couple of our DDs change amount ) but then I just forget about them.

I hadn't spotted that NW have withdrawn their regular saver either, luckily I can replace one with a FD account. I hope the other banks don't follow too, I quite like the windfall from these accounts every year.

I really need to try the matched betting, but I am slightly nervous about getting it wrong. I have earmarked this as a new hobby for when I am retired and have a bit more headspace.

Enjoy your visitors Cheery and hope you don't get an uninvited visit from Mickey :eek:

Cheery_Daff

Ha, thanks Busy Mee, fortunately our squeaky pal did NOT make an appearance while guests were here!

I was terrified starting MB too - just read everything several times, go VERY slowly, and don't do it while you're likely to get distracted! You'll get there! Team Profit have made videos that literally walk you through everything you need to do for the first couple of offers

Speaking of MB, I literally didn't do any at all yesterday. Found a bit more balance with it now I think - it took over for a while there while I was learning :eek: But now my job form is taking over :rotfl: (although ironically even if I do get this promotion it will 'only' get me an extra £200 a month at the start - far less than MB does :rotfl: )

Anyway, got two meetings about it tomorrow so want a draft of the form done to send off today (preferably before we go to the cafe at 9.15 but that's unlikely given I'm not even dressed yet!)

Right, onwards...

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums :hello:

So I have had an excellent day meeting up with our resident MFW Fortune Smiles, who I confirm is an excellent host and baker of cakes :j Love meeting forum pals in real life :j

Got home to the first building quote - roughly £2000 labour, £4500 materials plus VAT so coming in at £7800 altogether :eek:

That was from the slightly vacant builder (first to get his quote in though!) so we'll see what the others come back with. He did say it'd take about a fortnight and should be able to do it within 6 weeks or so.

On the one hand it seems quite reasonable... on the other, it'd wipe out a very significant portion of our savings :eek: :eek:

Dread to think what it'd cost to have it all done and finished - this is literally for replacing joists and knocking through windows - we'll be doing all plastering (including the ceiling), flooring, decorating, finishing etc ourselves :eek:

Hoping the other two come back slightly cheaper but sadly I predicted this guy would be the cheapest so I'm not holding out much hope

May well be tempted to go with the ones who couldn't do it til after Christmas, give us a chance to save up a bit more! :eek:

But have to keep reminding ourselves this is the only thing we're getting outside folks in for, we did put dosh aside for this (although not quite that much ) and I reckon I can make that much back with MB dosh by next summer so by then we'd be back to where we are now with savings but with a functional kitchen &upstairs rooms etc...

Anyway, need to turn brain (and phone) off and stop listening to the mouse running round the attic :rotfl: