Eating a Vegetarian Elephant

LadyWithAPlan

Cheery_Daff said:

Laughing at you lot and your robot vacs! 😂I'd almost be tempted myself with the way you're all raving on, but we have so much clutter and so many steps I'd be moving it up and down steps all the time 😂

Baltazar my robo vac has arrived and he is actually changing my clutter -  I am in love!. I vacuumed and mopped floors before his arrival and it is a joy to watch him at work. You get these boundary strips with the kit so it stops them from going into rooms or areas with loads of wires. They are movable but I may just get a few more  strips (they are magnetic) as he nearly got stuck under a low wardrobe.  I did not go for a huge techy version but some of them do map out areas.  Mine comes with a remote so I can ask for max cleaning, spot cleaning, single room cleaning and even edge cleaning. 

 I dont have broadband at home but they also come with  an  app so you can set off whilst you are out (!)  and alexa  only connects if you have broadband. I use my mobile data at home to save on an extra monthly bill. 

I have not tried the mop function as yet

As you have to be aware of whats on the floor etc, it has made me tidier already and think about what is on my floor. Early days as yet but Baltazar seems to be a positive impact.  I am trying to declutter  and ebay anyway so it is further motivation. 

Chiglepig

Morning all, been absent because the Pup is a bit of a time vortex, but I have been reading your diaries and here's my end of month round-up, regular OP (£444) went out today with the minimum mortgage payment, so we are now at:

• Outstanding Mortgage - £119,548 (out of the 20s and into the teens - whoop, whoop)
  
• Overpayment Reserve - £10,468
• SIPP regular payment went in today and will be invested tomorrow, I'm also taking £500 from a small regular saver to add to it today (the account doesn't have any particular purpose other than taking advantage of the interest rate, but the extra from HMRC in the SIPP will beat that). The monthly gains were much better than last month.
• S&S ISA regular payment goes in on Thursday. Gains there have been solid, but not as good as July.
• Nectar Points - £85.44 (aka Christmas food extras!)

I've got £20 bank account cashback for an extra mortgage OP, and should get my cashout from Populus in Sept, an extra £50 OP there too.

August salary was up (back to 4.5 days a week plus very small payrise), but more importantly, that's extra going to my main DB pension.

Aims for September - survive the first week of teaching!

Karmacat

Good luck on surviving the teaching!  And yes, monthly update still does its job, excellent news  

Chiglepig

I have a confession . . .

. . . although I am a reasonably intellegent, tech competent person with multiple degrees, for the past year, setting up one off payments from my current account to my mortgage account has eluded me .  The intsructions from the mortgage account didn't match what the current account asked for. Anyway, yesterday, I finally worked it out, sent a £1 test payment, and it worked! So in addition to my regular £444 OP, I've sent the £20 current account cashback, and Populus have confirmed I'll get £50 from them this month, so I can pay that in too.

I've also added the £500 from the regular saver to my SIPP. It's lovely to see the £900 I have put in become £1125 thanks to tax relief - because my main pension is DB, the mechanics of this rather novel! And then there is the potential for investment growth.

themadvix

Hooray to ad hoc overpayments being possible!

I too love watching the tax relief be added to my pension pot 😊

Cheery_Daff

Took me a while to figure out ad hoc mortgage payments too 🙄 but then it got quite exciting! None now of course, everything's going into the kitchen fund, but one day!

Karmacat

When two websites give conflicting instructions, or there's a gremlin at work, it's horrible!  I closed down my Virgin accounts for precisely this reason - don't feel bad!

Chiglepig

Another Populus survey yesterday evening - £2 for some very basic questions that took less than ten mins. but the invitations come in fits and starts - I seem to remember there were loads in October last year, just when I was too busy to do any. So I have £6 already towards my next £50 cash out.

Orangetoes

Ooh congratulations on being in the teens 😀

Chiglepig

Goodness it's been a busy month. The new academic year hit with a vengeance, and the sheer number of students on campus is a bit overwhelming - it won't last, there is absolutely no mask wearing apart from staff and a few international students.

Anyway, I've stayed as MSE as I can, brought in my lunches evryday, no extras when I'm so stressed that I've eated it before 10am!

My £50 cashout from Populus arrived, so that became an OP,  that was an additional £70 over and above our regular £444 OP. I haven't had a recalulation from Nationwide yet - every time I check my preferences default to reduced term instead of reduced monthly payment so I have to change it again (job for this morning).

Investments have had a poor month, down on the month although still up on the year.

• Outstanding Mortgage £118,570
• Overpayment Reserve £10,986

All that's left is to see what the Premium Bonds do on Saturday