Learning to walk before I run

elantan

edinburgher said:

Hi elantan - yes - there's another cute wee redhead in the house   We're doing well bar the stress of having a newborn and getting the attic done   How are you?

Vanguard absolutely allow you to pay in small amounts, I've added £1 to my SIPP many times. They can be a bit funny about switching single digit amounts between funds (although this won't affect most people). They do pensions now and I believe drawdown as well. HL are charging you an extra 0.3% a year for the privilege - better off in your pocket. Or put more forcefully - their platform charge is treble Vanguard's!

Wonderful another wee yin to keep you busy were doing not too bad trying to get back on track after the last few years of life. 

MIght be worth my while opening an account then, its been easy dealing with H&L for years, i knew it came at a cost but i need to get back on top of things and sort this out, time to open an account with Vanguard me thinks, Thanks Ed

edinburgher

Just looked at car insurance quotes - for some reason we have jumped from c. £500 to over £900?! I have once had a renewal declined because we had two at fault minor accidents in the space of a year. It's been 18 months since either of those, so not sure why the massive jump?

savingholmes

Ouch at the renewal costs. Did you have protected no claims?

Cheery_Daff

Crikey, that's a big jump! Have they got a glitch in the system that lists you both as being 17 or something?!

edinburgher

Cheery_Daff said:

Crikey, that's a big jump! Have they got a glitch in the system that lists you both as being 17 or something?!

Lord knows!

Today I have done a bit more clearing up in readiness for the builders arriving on Monday.

• I emptied our spare room (including moving a big Kallax through to our bedroom). I'm not sure how I feel about a tiny bedroom effectively becoming a study, but you'd get a single in at a push once they move the wall. Bigger picture - the attic bedroom will be the biggest in the house and is new space.
  
• I threw out an old standing lamp that had some damage to the switch and is of no real use to us now (old fashioned and bulky, was great in our tenement)
• Broke down various big cardboard boxes (I'm a horror for hoarding old cardboard boxes)
• Found the cardboard box for our bean to cup coffee machine (to be eB@yed now that Pr1me Day is over and people can't buy it at a deep discount)! I also found a working filter coffee machine and 2 wallpaper steamers that could possibly be bartered on our local FB group for a 4-pack of beer each or similar. Or given away if no takers  
• I emptied the aquarium, moved it downstairs and added 60l of clean water to it (keeping it very full helps to stabilise both the temperature and the good bacteria wot eat poop)
• Washing machine and dishwasher cleaned
• Removed the old smoke alarms (which had died at exactly the same time spookily enough). To be replaced with 4? new smoke alarms, a carbon monoxide detector and a heat detector. Unfortunately becoming compliant with the new regs will cost IRO £400
• Desktop monitor boxed up for my new office (in-laws garden adjacent dining room)
• Two suitcases of clothes and a few boxes of random nonsense moved to in-laws
• Earned £5.15 from Prolific (including a couple of multi-part studies)
• £1.52 OPed and £1.52 paid into my ISA (cashback for buying a voucher to buy DD1's new school uniform from emandess)

Totally unrelated, but I am cross with Covid and my GP. Got prescribed antibiotics for lower back and groin pain a week ago, they haven't worked. Phoned up again to ask to see a GP, the best they could offer was a phone appointment in a week, at which point the GP may ask me to come in for a face-to-face appointment. I realise how busy they are and the need for safety, but it should not take potentially 3 weeks from reporting pain in a risky area to seeing someone.

elantan

So many are frustrated with GP's just now Ed, I work with some people that are married to GP's and they tell me their partners are coming home crying every night exhausted, i cant quite figure out what the hell is going on as i know so many people can no longer get an appointment unless they go through the fires of hell at reception and then a phone call to see if they are worthy of an appointment, but something must be up as this person wouldn't say that for no reason.  The NHS is on its face being dragged across a volcanic stone floor just now, it would be nice if it got so good that it would just be back to being on its knees again

edinburgher

I hear you El, I was perfectly polite, just held my frustration inside 

I work in social care, it's much the same

elantan

edinburgher said:

I hear you El, I was perfectly polite, just held my frustration inside 

I work in social care, it's much the same

Aye its not easy there either, you have my sympathy, and yep i feel your frustration, many many do, i do know A&E and all nurses and dr's etc are near greeting every shift and the amount of missed MI's etc are high, new strokes are high, cancer treatment behind, operations cancelled or running really late, lists are through the roof, but none of that helps when your unwell ... 

There is a mass exodus out of the NHS, people have had enough

badmemory

I had to call in the surgery last week, the first time for a long time.  They have 2 big boards with all the GPs names on.  Instead of being virtually full they were barely two thirds full.  They've been taken over by a company & anyone over 50 is gone.  So basically no-one to keep them grounded.

elantan

badmemory said:

I had to call in the surgery last week, the first time for a long time.  They have 2 big boards with all the GPs names on.  Instead of being virtually full they were barely two thirds full.  They've been taken over by a company & anyone over 50 is gone.  So basically no-one to keep them grounded.

Can i ask do you live in England?