Eating a Vegetarian Elephant

Chiglepig

@Cheery_Daff - the response to my report included the line 'as there is no cctv we cannot investigate - There was - I told them there was - grrr! Hopefully the neighbour who actually suffered losses will get a better response - I know of at least four people who can provide video of the gang!

edinburgher

So sorry to hear about your car - should have just left a note on the dashboard saying that you had nothing worth stealing as you were too busy making epic OPs!

Chiglepig

edinburgher said:

So sorry to hear about your car - should have just left a note on the dashboard saying that you had nothing worth stealing as you were too busy making epic OPs!

@edinburgher if it had been daylight they might have spotted that our aging ford is the sort of car you where you wipe your feet on the way out - much less one where they would find anything worth nicking!

Karmacat

Chiglepig said:

edinburgher said:

So sorry to hear about your car - should have just left a note on the dashboard saying that you had nothing worth stealing as you were too busy making epic OPs!

@edinburgher if it had been daylight they might have spotted that our aging ford is the sort of car you where you wipe your feet on the way out - much less one where they would find anything worth nicking!

I love this but I'm very sorry you had a gang like that operating in your vicinity   An frustrating to have proof that the police didn't read your message.

Chiglepig

End of the month (almost) roundup.

• Mortgage:   £115,856  £104,937

The big OP has brought the minimum monthly payment down, which is what we will be paying until the next lump sum drops in (probably August, but I have to work out the maximum OP).

Total OP for the month was £10,458

• OP Reserve (EF): £12,430   £22,910
• S&S ISA: £6,005   £6009
  
• SIPP: £2,043   £2,552

I have other savings pots, and we have MrC's lump sum, but these are the two I think of as my MSE savings, becasue they are inspired by confidence I gained reading the forums, and are there to facilitate early retirement. We won't talk about the ISA this month

• Nectar points  £14.35 -  Random 1000 bonus points helped - I have no idea what for?
  
• Populus £17 ( no surveys again this month).

edinburgher

Agreed - we don't talk about Bruno the ISA

Mine is haemorrhaging blood, think Macbeth with equities

Chiglepig

edinburgher said:

Agreed - we don't talk about Bruno the ISA

Mine is haemorrhaging blood, think Macbeth with equities

@edinburgher, I stayed up for the year (just +.77%), but I've started the month up (2.35%) in the ISA, but growth on the pension is down, but tax relief means I'm still well in the green on my contributions. So we can whisper quietly (I can't comment on Bruno because I'm not up-to-date on Disney, and I don't know what he's alleged to have done ). Small mercies, because we are talking relatively small amounts, (since I only started the ISA last March, and the SIPP in June) the £££ doesn't look quite so alarming.

Oh the perils of home ownership -

• The top oven is still waiting for a new heating element (engineer got covid), so we are still using the big oven which costs more to get to temp.
• DD's shower has sprung a leak, but we were warned by the plumber last year that his repair was temporary and we might need a whole new, whatever (expensive) bit it is.
• We're waiting for a chap to quote on fixing the misting, and broken opening mechanism in the kitchen window.
• Still getting estimated bills from the electricity company - 12 months after the installation of the smart meter, five months since they sent someone round to take a reading and register both gas and elec as 'smart'.
• We thought Vaccy the robot vacuum had died, but life-support was administered and he's better for now, but I suspect it's only a matter of time!

Anyway, it's not all outflow, last week we went to the theatre, for the cost of petrol and a drink - ticket was paid for over a year ago - same for all of our outings over the next few months.

Being February, there's no CT bill, that, generally low spending, and reduced mortgage OP means we should end Feb with a good amount to put to our next lump sum OP.

themadvix

We have two smart meters and yet still seem to have issues... I have to ask the energy company to pull through the data for the electricity meter, otherwise they just bill us for gas (they take the full DD, so it's not an issue in that respect, or should I say it hasn't been an issue so far - still on a fix, just). 

Chiglepig

@themadvix I resisted the smart meter for so long - but our previous meter also gave us trouble because it was non-standard and had more numbers than it should have done - so even phoning them to give a reading was a faff! Our electric is currently around £600 in credit which by my calculations is at least double what we need to be and they've upped our DD.

Cheery_Daff

That's ridiculous they've upped your DD! Hope you can make them put it back down again. We're coming to the end of winter, surely they should be putting it down! 

We had a smart meter installed in the old house, and it was fine. I've been reluctant here because we've had the builders in and I just couldn't face anyone else being here, or the prospect if anything else going wrong...