Squirreling Away Those Nuts

Squirrelz92

ruby_eskimo said:

Wow, well done on the trees.  I have no idea how you managed to get the tree out of the fence without damaging the fence or yourself so kudos to you both indeed!  

Sadly the crappy fence had to die in multiple places (hence the bolt cutters) otherwise we wouldn't have been able to chop it down to a decent height. Luckily not enough damage has been done to encourage the dogs or children to cross the border!

Sad times today. I woke up at 12.20am to discover that I had failed my Audit and Assurance Exam... by one mark!!! Scored 49%. Absolutely ruddy gutted to say the least. Made me question whether accounting and ACCA is really for me after all. But you don't learn without failing first so I must pull my big girl pants up and crack on. I have been studying for my next exam being Financial Reporting in December, but now I know I failed AA, I think the best option is to put FR on hold and go back to constant exam practice in preparation for resitting AA in December instead. Oh well, you live and you learn. At this rate, I will qualify at the same time I am due to retire! 

Mr Squirrel was due to return to work on Wednesday after isolating for 2 weeks after his colleague tested positive for Covid. Sadly he began to fall ill with a tap for a nose, loss of smell and a bit of a temperature yesterday afternoon/evening and has since been for a test at the walk through site. Me and the kids have ended up not going to work and school because of this and are currently trying to keep busy at home. Well, I am working from home with severe company server lag making the simplest spreadsheets a nightmare to save or open. The kids are bouncing between their online English and Maths programme on my personal laptop, bouncing on the trampoline or trying to come through the floorboards rolling about upstairs... how the hell families coped to work from home and school their children all at once is beyond me! Pulling my hair out already!

Payday tomorrow! I shall make another £50 mortgage overpayment later on today and place the rest to the emergency fund. After this OP I will have made the £200 goal I set myself for the month. No doubt I will end up throwing a little extra in on the 31st!

Gemma x

ruby_eskimo

Oh I'm sorry about your exam result.  I hate it when things like that happen, I'm sure you'll smash it the next time.

FtbDreaming

Awww never mind at least you wasn’t miles off! 

I hope the covid swab comes back negative for you. DD1 has just finished 2 weeks isolation ur to a positive in her class and it was actually quite a long time. She was good through it but has come back from school today with a terrible attitude 🙄

well done on meeting your OP target too x

Frances13

@Squirrelz92 Unfortunately I didn't get the result I wanted either! 43% for me. Although I did PM and one of the 20 mark questions was on two pages on the entire text book. I was so annoyed at that one! 

Squirrelz92

Thanks guys. Not too far off at all. Hopefully when I resit in March I will manage to grab those extra few marks and get a pass. I was hoping to resit AA and postpone my scheduled FR exam in Dec, but my boss is on holiday so he cannot approve it as without both of us the primary accounts will not be put together for group for the week. Sad times March resit it is. Just hope I manage to pass FR first time as if I fail that also then I will have to resit both together! Talk about stresssssss! @Frances13 are you currently studying for ACCA also? Oooooh yes I have read so much about the PM exam. Soo much hate towards it and so many who haven't passed. Dreading taking that one. Might leave it until last before the strategic ones! How many more have you got to go?

We are still waiting on Mr Squirrels test results but if his current condition is anything to go by, I am not hopeful. He was in bed all day yesterday and he is still not awake as of yet. Not like him at all. Lucky for him I don't mind waiting on him hand and foot whilst working from home and schooling the kids. Busy busy! So sorry to hear your daughter had to isolate for 2 weeks @FtbDreaming
Must have felt like forever for her!

On a monetary note, I paid £7.56 to the mortgage after finally working out how to use Paypal and link up bank accounts! I will have another £5 or £6 to add to this in a few days as the surveys have stacked up again. Pay day was today so I have emptied the remainder of my bank account contents from last night and placed it to the renovation fund (god help me I will need it).

Gemma x

Frances13

@Squirrelz92 Yes I am I have done all the applied knowledge exams and PM was my first applied skills level exam. I have the law books as I was hoping I would pass and then sit that one next but I believe Law I can sit at any time so hopefully can do that one around January/February time.  I read the same about PM which is why I thought I would sit it first and try and get it over and done with. Hopefully going to resit in December but we are completing on our house on Friday so will have to see how that all goes.

I hope Mr Squirrels is okay! 

Squirrelz92

@Frances13 that's great! Congrats on completing all of your applied knowledge exams! You were brave doing PM first! I went with TX for my first... Christ that was a massssssive syllabus. Failed it the first time with 49% again. Passed the second time. Seems as though a pattern is emerging. Fail each exam the first time at 49% and then pass the second. Swear down ACCA does it on purpose to make more money! Ooooooh wow congrats on your house completion! FTB? Is it a reno job or a new build? Exciting times ahead for you Thanks for asking, Mr Squirrel is still feeling rather under the weather but he hopes to be back at work next Monday

Monetary wise, I have just cashed out £6.88 which will go straight to overpaying my mortgage as soon as it hits the bank. I have another £1.63 pending but it wont be granted in time so that shall have to be cashed out with the next lot of surveys. Although I now have a second current account which I had planned on using for transferring all of my 'free' money after bills to, I am rather apprehensive in doing so as I don't want to ever become unexpectedly overdrawn. I have a direct debit for fresh milk twice a week which costs £4.64... did try to ring up and cancel but they offered me the same for half price which works out cheaper than buying at the supermarket so I accepted. Got billed the same £4.64 yesterday so I think I will go ahead and cancel that too. I also have washing machine insurance at £7.49 a month. I bought an exact replacement for the one that died last year as it was a great washing machine, but I now do not trust the blasted thing. As much as I want to cancel it, guaranteed something on it will break and I will be stuffed once more. Shall perhaps cancel after a year of owning it... 

Booked tomorrow off as a holiday off work as the minions break up from school today so I have no childcare (the story of my life). Thankfully their normal holiday club is running all of next week during Oct half term so I can still go to work. Not sure what I shall do with my day off other than plan meals and do a small shop for those things. Walk the canine minions! How could I forget... study Financial Reporting for December exam of course!


Gemma x

Squirrelz92

Evening Well it has been a good productive few days. Was lovely to have Friday booked off work to allow me to get a few things done about the house. It of course came with the children in tow as they had just broken up for October half term. Me and Mr Squirrel managed to paint the whole of the landing and the children's bedrooms in white emulsion after the plaster had fully dried. We also decided to go ahead and paint my daughter's room her chosen colour (light purple) in preparation for the plumber coming on Halloween to central heating upstairs in every room. Can't believe I didn't notice the lack of radiators on the first floor of the house when I viewed it several times! 

Finance wise, my £6.88 paid out from Prolific has finally hit the mortgage overpayments! £59 was spent on the food shop after using my meal plan list so this should last us 10 days roughly, although I will go out and buy a few extra bits for the roast dinner next Sunday. Sadly as mentioned above I am having to schedule in £1000 to be paid to install central heating upstairs. It has to be done... had to make the decision sooner rather than later as the carpets go down on the 4th Dec so I would hate for them to be ripped up shortly after Better safe than sorry by installing them now as once they are in, they are in I shall make the balancing amount to my mortgage overpayments on or before the 31st bringing my monthly OP total to £200 once again

Gemma x

Grogged

I'm sure everyone will appreciate being toasty for Xmas!
It's really an investment, so will pay for itself at some future point.
Must be exciting all round, it will feel like a new place all over again for everyone.
Does the £200 OP mean you've smashed your £500 target?
ATB,
G.

jenni_fer

Sorry to hear about your exam result, so very close! I have to say I don't really remember which one was which now, it really is all about question practise though, you'll get that additional mark next time I'm sure.
Hope Mr S is doing ok.