Eating a Vegetarian Elephant

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, phased retirement sounds like an excellent plan. Sorry about your git cats. I got confused when I read on someone else's diary that their cat had swallowed a bit of wire I think that was themadvix? Sound extremely unpleasant (and expensive). I hope your level of cat-gittery wasn't quite that high

Chiglepig

Cheery_Daff said:

Ooh, phased retirement sounds like an excellent plan. Sorry about your git cats. I got confused when I read on someone else's diary that their cat had swallowed a bit of wire I think that was themadvix? Sound extremely unpleasant (and expensive). I hope your level of cat-gittery wasn't quite that high

Oooh I didn't see that, sounds awful. My Puss (singular) is just a regular cat-git, she likes to feed the dog half-dead creatures in the middle of the night just for fun; has the most incredibly accurate internal food clock - breakfast 6.30am, dinner 4.00pm; and the best place to sleep in the green house is a tray of seedlings, that sort of thing (oh and she REALLY resents us for not leaving her house to go to work for the last year)!

Chiglepig

Just got notice that an NS&I fixed term investment is coming to an end - it's been a really good product for the last ten years, but I have a feeling there won't be any match

Chiglepig

In better news, which is sort of MSE. We've had two lots of theatre tickets confirmed for rescheduled performances - one for this July, and one for June 2022! All already paid for in 2020, so they will feel like cheap nights out - well, apart from trainfare to London  and eating out for the second one.

Porridgecat

My cats vary between normal levels of cat gitery and occasional bouts of super git behaviour. The latest example of the latter was having a live rodent in MrP's shoe.
We don't pay a monthly plan for our moggies, mainly because when we got the first one we found that pet insurers are unwillingly to employ a cat that has no history or accurate age, instead we save £25 a month into a vet account and I stop when we have £2000 in there. Over 20 years we have had nine cats (six sadly deceased) and have never been short on vet bills and have made many periods of not paying in.

SandyShores

Just came across your thread Chiglepig, and love the cat conversation.  I too have had a live rodent in my shoe, and we had several (one at a time) living in the house with us until we were able to catch them.  Happily we have moved nearer to town and there's less wildlife available (the rodents at the old house must have had a party when we left).  

Also just wanted to say that I too have suffered occasionally from that 'why didn't I start financial planning earlier in life' feeling, so I totally empathise.  Interesting to hear that misslolu has felt the same in her 20s.  In our 50's we are definitely late to the party, and I wouldn't recommend it as a plan, but we did have a lot of fun doing a lot of pointless spending so can't regret it too much.

Chiglepig

@Porridgecat and @SandyShores, yes rodent in boots - they hunkered down and refused to come out. We didn't have rodents of any sort before we got a cat! The dead rat at the bottom of the stairs was a joy (they bleed a lot ) as was the one in the dog crate, and as for the mole on the kitchen chair, I still don't get how she managed that one. I've also learnt that shrews are the worst for biting.

Love my little psychopath though!

SandyShores said:

Also just wanted to say that I too have suffered occasionally from that 'why didn't I start financial planning earlier in life' feeling, so I totally empathise.  Interesting to hear that misslolu has felt the same in her 20s.  In our 50's we are definitely late to the party, and I wouldn't recommend it as a plan, but we did have a lot of fun doing a lot of pointless spending so can't regret it too much.

I'm excusing myself being as organised as misslolu because MSE didn't exist when I was in my 20s

But to be fair to my younger self, I (mostly) avoided the traps of completely thoughtless spending, and being a student until my late 20s was non-negotiatble for my career - if I started now it would take me even longer to get to a point of financial equilibium.

Porridgecat

We're also late to the financial planning party, in my defence as soon as I found MSE I started lurking and paid of a humongous amount of debt that MrP had. I did help add to it I admit but then realised how stupid it was and paid it all off and am now focusing on the mortgage. I guess I'm fortunate as I'm in the TPS but MrP has a much less generous private scheme so will have to focus on that next.

Chiglepig

Porridgecat said:

We're also late to the financial planning party, in my defence as soon as I found MSE I started lurking and paid of a humongous amount of debt that MrP had. I did help add to it I admit but then realised how stupid it was and paid it all off and am now focusing on the mortgage. I guess I'm fortunate as I'm in the TPS but MrP has a much less generous private scheme so will have to focus on that next.

You've done really well - and your mortgage is almost exactly 100k less than mine!

I joined TPS straight away when I got my first academic job without really being aware just how good it was. I used to read a well-known parenting forum and was always amazed at people's high take-home pay figures on the same salary as mine not realising that they either weren't paying a pension at all, or were in a fairly minimal DC scheme. I've never had it, so never really missed it, and now very relieved it removes most of the worry. And now that Mr Chiggle is going to start claiming his, we will always have an income that will allow us to cope.

Chiglepig

What a glorious weekend - I've started moving things out of the main greenhouse (sounds grand, it's six feet square!) and into the plastic one for hardening off - can't remember when we last had frosts this late down here. Growing from seed has to be to most satisfying MSE thing I do (apart from mortgage OPs ) lovely how just a few pounds can fill a garden - that doesn't always stop me over-spending at the garden centre, but I love seeing plants on sale for five or ten pounds and thinking I grew dozens of those for a fraction of that!

I'm not rushing out of lockdown, so no big spends on eating or drinking out for us - but I have booked an eyebrow wax for Monday. I did take a friend to the Country Park with her dog yesterday though, so making good use of my parking permit!

No mortgage movement to report - have to wait for the end of the month when our regular payment and OP goes out. A couple of very small Nectar Canvas surveys completed (Nectar points £57.25 for the year) and Mr Chigle has changed a subscription from monthly to yearly and saved £50, and tomorrow I'm going to give notice on my gym - three months so I'll be able to use it all summer, then go for a more budget option for the Autumn.