Busy Mee's Last Leg

Busy_Mee

Morning,
Thanks everyone for popping by. SL you do have amazing knowledge of pensions. To be honest and probably like most I didn't take much notice of my pension for many years. I knew I had a good civil service pension, so wouldn't  be relying too heavily on SRP. I have now factored it into my planning and realised last year that we would have to pay some additional NI to get a full SRP.  Mr Mee's SRP is the one that feels more certain, being that much nearer.  Mine feels still feels a long way away and feels less certain. I am just glad I am not relying on it. If I had to carry on working until age 67 I would have worked for 50 years, which feels far too long.

I am also a beneficiary of the Mc Cloud judgement, as my Civil Service pension was changed in 2015 from Classic to Alpha. I think I will be offered a return to the Classic Pension for the years 2015 until I retire. Classic is a final salary pension, whereas Alpha is career average so will be better for me, so hopefully this will improve my pension a bit more. 

Anyway enough of the pensions talk, must be boring for the young 'uns. This is my last day of holiday, so back to work tomorrow. I have had such a nice week of work and it has been great to get some headspace so think about our finances and also my health. I find the first thing to go when I am busy at work is exercise and diet, and I have got myself back on track this week. I have started C25K again this week, have walked everyday and sorted a healthy eating regime out. I now just need to stick to it when I get back to work.

In financial news, I am rigorously Tilly Tidying and have also claimed £27.67 from TCB towards the £500 I want  to chip off the Mortgage this month. I am hoping the H@lifax pay out the £200 switching bonus this month to go towards it.

I have taken back a bit of control of the food shop from Mr Mee this week too. He doesn't shop around like I do, or change things according to what is on offer or pick up any YS. He just buys what is on the list and a few extra bits too. It has been great through lockdown but now shopping is getting a bit back to normal (no queues) we need to start cutting back a bit on our food bill. I think he will still do the @ldi run for basics , but I will do the more discretionary food shopping. I have also investigated the new Sainsbreeze nectar rewards thingy ( thanks to South Coast) and there are some very worthwhile deals on there. 100 bonus points (worth 50p) for buying a 28p fin of chopped tomatoes and other offers on things we use. I did really well last year with Nectar points using till spits, so I need to start building them up again towards the double up offer usually in November.

I think the mandatory wearing of face masks has made things much better. It feels so much safer to go about normal business. This week I have been to both the doctors and opticians for routine stuff, and it all felt very safe.

The weather doesn't look as nice here today. It is a bit grey, but I am hoping we can finish painting the garden chairs today. They look great, completely transformed (paint is Cuprinol pebble for anyone interested). 

I think that is all. I will try not to disappear again once back at work 

Suffolk_lass

I told the girl at the Morries checkout that I had had to take back the shopping because my DH does the same as yours (and my bill was £20 more for each trip) - he had also got his confidence and was going rogue "I fancied some (triple price) cheese instead" (we only cook with it mostly grated!!!). She said I was the third person that day (it was only 08.00).

themadvix

Suffolk_lass said:

I told the girl at the Morries checkout that I had had to take back the shopping because my DH does the same as yours (and my bill was £20 more for each trip) - he had also got his confidence and was going rogue "I fancied some (triple price) cheese instead" (we only cook with it mostly grated!!!). She said I was the third person that day (it was only 08.00).

😂😂 That’s the advantage of online shopping - I maintain control! Unfortunately our food bill is still higher than normal - it’s the lack of DH eating away with work and us eating out so we’re still buying more meat and fish than normal (and booze, although less than we were!)

savingholmes

I too feel safer now more people are wearing masks in shops

Busy_Mee

Happy Saturday. I feel like I have had a busy day today.  I am running again in a bid to lose weight. I find that running and dieting together is the most effective way for me to shift any lard and even then it tends to be a tedious 1 lb a week. Anyway I am back on the c-5k programme, and the good thing I now find is that having  done it a couple of times before, I don't have to start from the beginning again. I started at week three to get me going, then did a second run from week four and I moved on to week five this morning and it has all been reasonably comfortable. I now need the bigger circuit so that I can avoid running up the cardiac hill that I live on. I walk up it as my both my warm up and warm down.
After a shower and breakfast I went into the nearest small town to collect a parcel from Next ( new white shorts after ruining my existing pair with sun cream) and a quick nip into Sainsbreeze for a few bits using my Nectar bonus points. I also collected some bits for DS. It almost felt like a normal pre Covid Saturday morning ( except for the masks).

Called to see DS and drop his shopping in and ended up having a big chat. He has been offered a new job that he applied for and is in a real dilemma as to whether to take it. On the face of it, it is a salary drop but actually when I set down a like for like comparison (45 hours in current job v 37.5 hours in new job) = more per hour in new job + nearer home+ better T&Cs + better pension + paid qualification. The new job is better on paper. However it is a big change for him but will give him much better career progression. I am not sure what he will do but we all think he should take it, but I am not sure whether he will be brave enough to make the leap.
In financial news the Halifax Switch has gone through, so just waiting for 2 x £100 to drop in.

I think that is all. Have a great weekend x

edinburgher

Congrats on the Halifax switch - @Suffolk_lass mentioned you had taken advantage. I'm tempted to go for it as well as I have a sacrificial Natwest account that could be switched. The only problem? I opened it after switching from Halifax! I have looked at the T&Cs and I don't think I'm precluded from applying, it just feels a bit "wrong".

I have just finished C25K for the 3rd? time. It's such a great way to get back into exercise, although it can be a little tedious grinding out the miles. I find that a good pair of headphones and some upbeat music helps greatly.

Busy_Mee

Oh hello Ed. Good to "see" you around again. As it happens our 2 x Halifax switch bonuses have dropped in today. It was the quickest £200 I have ever made and we have had bonuses from them before.
I am evangelical about C25K. I started running at the grand old age of 51 and am not exactly sylph like and yet I built up to running 5 k with no aches and pains or injuries. I agree about decent music, I have made a running playlist that really helps.

regularsaver

Glad to see another runner on the forum! Its great isnt it, running? A good playlist makes all the difference too doesnt it! Although sometimes I do like to just hear the wind through the leaves in the trees and the birds singing. 

Good news on the Halifax switch bonuses too! From what you have said about the potential new job for your son, I hope he goes with it, it does sound good doesnt it! I guess with the current circumstances, its a funny old time changing jobs etc. 

Busy_Mee

Hello regularsaver. Thanks for popping in. I wouldn't exactly call myself a runner, but I am getting into more and more.

 I really like the efficiency of being able to run from the house, rather than having to drive to the gym. I always liked the community spirit of Parkrun before Covid and hope it will return soon.

The jury is still out for DS. He has been thinking about it all weekend and spoken to someone doing a similar job. He has to decide tomorrow. I hope he will take it.

Busy_Mee

Good morning. It is a grey blustery morning this morning, but it has been like that pretty much all week. The garden has been battered by the rain.

Lots of financial bits to report this week. The £200 in H@lifax switching bonuses dropped in and were duly chipped off the mortgage, along with another £200 from the odds and sods account and £100 robbed from the annual bills account. The annual bills account is looking fairly healthy at the moment but we have Mr Mee's expensive car tax due at the end of the month and he is also treating himself to a new tyre this month. Anyway the upshot of all of this shuffling is that an extra £500 has been chipped off the mortgage and the IO mortgage is down to a nice round £160 k.  I am really pleased as we have chipped off the IO mortgage, a total of £9k since Mr Mee retired  Our finances have felt very comfortable and we are living on the amount that would be my pension if I retired. This reassures me that we will be fine if I take the plunge and retire fully and in the meantime we are continuing to feather the nest.

Our flights to the US for end August were finally cancelled by BA and I have spent all week trying to get through to get a refund. They are making it as hard as possible to get through the telephony automation if you want a refund and driving you to take vouchers instead, which I really didn't want. There was also a lot of Avios points used in the booking that I wanted back. Anyway I decided to try early on a Sunday morning (lines open at 6am) and I got through to a very sleepy sounding operative straight away and got the refund of both the cash and Avios points 

I have boobed on a couple of small vouchers though. Lidl currently have a £5 off £25 spend if you download their app. I thought I had claimed it yesterday but it didn't work. I can probably retrieve it by spending another £25 before it expires on Wednesday. Annoying but not the end of the world. I also realised that one of my M&S reward vouchers expired at the end of July, but when I checked M&S have extended the expiry until next March. Phew ....anyone else beat themselves up over such small amounts or just me ?

In other news DS decided to take his new job. He found it a really difficult decision to make, I think because on the face of it because it was a lower top line salary. However the new job  is actually a better package. A better hourly rate, with a DB pension, 2 weeks extra leave  and a funded qualification and much nearer to home. I am certain he has made the right choice and I am really glad he won't be working such long hours with a long commute.

We are hoping that the tiling is going to start on the deck this week, I am just hoping that the weather settles down or the tilers will get blown away

I think that is all the news this week, we are going to our local outlet mall this morning to return some jeans for Mr Mee that don't fit. I am just hoping it isn't horrendously busy.