Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

LadyWithAPlan

Sorry to hear re your dilemma. Given it was a gift to help you through a difficult patch in your life where does she think you are going to get it from suddenly unless you had a huge PB windfall?

Tell her its hard to scrap the money super quick as you used it wisely to pay off debts - rather than saving it  but you are doing your best - make her aware that this is not a little thing and makes you feel uncertain. uneasy and like you cant trust her word/process
If she offers you money again and you choose to take it  I would ask and get clarity on what her expectations are as a gift in my head is that a gift. I am sure she can get it from elsewhere tbh.

Well done on the moving towards health goals - I am sure your daughter is having a fab time.. I still remember all my early teenage travels with friends etc and then they tend to merge into one as I have travelled a lot - in fact a work trip looks likely next month  

Chrystal

Lovely to hear that your tests show such positive results... well done you.

I agree with the others that I'd be inclined to return the 'gift'.  It served its purpose at the time, by giving you an element of a money cushion at a time when you were worrying and needed that security.  You're in a better position now, and can do without the uncertainty of never knowing when it's going to be asked for again!

Your handyman sounds like a bit of a treasure.. do you think he'd 'come up north' for a few weeks???

savingholmes

Thanks Crystal, MF and LWAP

£ / Gifts / Loans etc is an area of vulnerability for me. I auto said yes I'd loan it her before taking any time to think. I think she won't need it as soon as she thinks she does - in which case she'll have more time to save - and I may be able to put the money to one side over a longer period rather than suddenly. Will let you know what happens. I will refund the 'gift' in due course and refuse any future gifts.  

DD is struggling a little (i.e. has already called several times) as they are very delayed taking off which eats into her holiday. The flight should have been tea time and hasn't gone yet. She should be able to reclaim some £ for delays though which she is holding on to. 

@Crystal I think your version of 'up north' comes complete with a different accent... so might be a stretch. But yes I'm very grateful for the things the handyman is getting done. Wish we'd had one more regularly throughout our lives - would have taken pressure off all of us.

I've been and got some cash out so all set for a very early start tomorrow at the hairdressers. It does then give me the rest of the day free...

girlatplay

Chrystal said:

...

It served its purpose at the time, by giving you an element of a money cushion at a time when you were worrying and needed that security.  You're in a better position now, and can do without the uncertainty of never knowing when it's going to be asked for again!
...

These are exactly my thoughts on the situation too and almost word for word what I was going to say.

The handyman sounds really, well, handy.  Great that you are getting all the bits done.

WelshmansDaughter

That's really great about your test results. I'm the daughter of two t2 diabetics and believe me you don't want to go there.

It could be nice to give some of the tins to a food bank if you don't need them all or they get overwhelming.

savingholmes

Thanks GAP and WD.

Ah well life was sweet while I had the £ but will still be sweet after.

DD was horrifically delayed and has only just reached her hotel. At least she is safe.

WD my food stores aren't overwhelming. I am grateful. I will give away food bought for Ex that I don't like. 

I will also put together a basket of stuff now ready for Xmas appeals. It's going to be a tough year for many.

jwil

Great news about the health check!  Your hard work has paid off.

lucielle

Good news on the health check.  Glad DD has made it and hope she has a great time.
L

LadyWithAPlan

savingholmes said:

Thanks Crystal, MF and LWAP

£ / Gifts / Loans etc is an area of vulnerability for me. I auto said yes I'd loan it her before taking any time to think. I think she won't need it as soon as she thinks she does - in which case she'll have more time to save - and I may be able to put the money to one side over a longer period rather than suddenly. Will let you know what happens. I will refund the 'gift' in due course and refuse any future gifts.  

DD is struggling a little (i.e. has already called several times) as they are very delayed taking off which eats into her holiday. The flight should have been tea time and hasn't gone yet. She should be able to reclaim some £ for delays though which she is holding on to. 

I used the Resolver site to start my flight reclaim process. It prewrites your email etc and reminds you weekly if you not heard back. They (EJ) then emailed to say I still had to apply direct as was EasyJ** but i then copied and pasted what I had already written and my receipts were easy to find)

savingholmes

Thanks LWAP . Jwil and lucielle

I played on Z00pl* today to cheer myself up. It reckons my house has gone up £54K since I agreed to buy Ex out last summer. What made me really happy - is that's how much I paid him for his equity!!! So I've regained that back already. That was the mid range value. It helps put the recent £2K shenanigans with relative in context - although I accept house prices could fall again.

If Z is correct - then I have around £119K equity now. I'm due to add around another £34K to that in mortgage principal payments by Dec 2026 - which at current prices could buy me a detached house outright in some parts of the UK. I'm allowed to OP 10% a year though - so the other way of doing it would be to get a temp loan at a future point - use it to OP the mortgage - perhaps do it near a changeover point so could do 2 OPs across 2 different years to lower ERC risk... and then pay off the loan from the sale price... I'd then potentially port the mortgage across. as the ERCs are higher than what I'd pay in interest!!

I do have a tendency to go off on tangents mocking out different scenarios. If DD living here wasn't part of the equation though - there's a house with one less bedroom than this but the rooms seem bigger that looks really nice for slightly less (but wouldn't be considered downsizing!!). Would be a 2 hour commute to work but I rarely go in so not insurmountable.

I'm going to make myself mow the lawn next - and then that's at least done a slight contribution to making my home look better. Half the grass seems dead though so I'm worried it will just expose that bit even more!

I've ordered the special batteries for my garage door online (£13.47 for 4) as nowhere local seemed to sell them and they will only arrive Monday. I've discovered strawberries and raspberries in DD's fridge - so may buy myself some yoghurts to eat with them. She's left various other food that will need to be thrown! She wants me to keep her yoghurts for her return but most of the rest is already manky. I need to fit 7 drawers worth of freezer food into 4 pending the new FF arriving. It has to be clean and dry for them to remove it - and they want a clear path - which is lacking currently. If I can make myself do some garage decluttering it would help a lot. My garage light still isn't fixed - BIL did most of it and just needed DD to finish it off and she didn't.... I need light created by opening the garage door to resolve the clutter. So it looks like Monday and Tuesday evenings could be quite busy!

I'm going to do some batch cooking but again thinking that needs to wait until closer to the time as ideally I want to freeze some after. I do have some minced beef I can defrost.

Other than the hairdresser have chillaxed today listening to B@ref00t inv'str again. I am someone that needs things quite repetitively to help me stick to plan and not get side tracked on the many tangents that present themselves... Still spending too much time on RM which is ridiculous as due to a desire to support DD in her transition towards independence - I need to stick around here for a while longer yet. Once she does flee/fly the nest - with encouragement to fledge if needed - I am leaning towards downsizing subject to there being any affordable property at that point... I do feel for FTBs and young ones with the property market being so high currently.

I also went to MnS earlier and used a £5 voucher - and bought mushrooms, a leek and my fave coffee cake. Ironically I also bought an SW mag which came with a book for £4.35. Having flicked through the book a lot of the recipes are quite pretentious. I hate when they name the type of potato or carrot like it makes such a big difference. I also think that it's not very budget friendly. I've ordered a book mentioned on Tilly's old diary - Economy Gastronomy - I'll let you know how I get on. I already follow similar principles for some of my meals - but meal planning has definitely helped my spend this week. Even with a meal plan - I've not actually eaten as much as I thought - having substituted the odd meal for porridge etc...