Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

Finally done first submission on my travel etc expenses - this has literally taken me c. 5 hours in total. Absolutely ludicrous use of my time!!  Gah!  Let's see how many go through and how many get 'bounced' ....

KK  

KajiKita

Something positive 😊

Went to the parish council meeting tonight (I’m a councillor). I casually asked if I had been paid some monies I was promised (we made a new noticeboard last year and they paid us back for the Perspex - the rest of the materials and labour we donated ) I hadn’t! So this evening I walked away with a cheque for £50 That will get refunded back into my savings.

KK

KajiKita

One of the expenses has passed through the system!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!! Maybe I did them right .... (all 20 off of them!!!!!  <crosses fingers very hard> ??

KK

KajiKita

Expenses are bouncing in and out of the approval system like ping pong balls …. ! 😂 I have received one payment so far, which will help, but I need to log into my work AMEX from my home PC to get proof of PAYMENT for flights (booking isn’t enough). 

Car’s clutch, sump plate, oil filter and oil all worked on today for £632! 🙄

Still, it’s done and the wee beastie should need no further spends for a while, though actually I will check the tyres in the new year as we do tend to get snow here in the early months. That knocks my new car savings pot down to £168 - just have to pay attention and build it back up again …

QM33 for this week is £11.13 which I have just cashed out to PayPal and will be able to OP later or tomorrow 😊

KK 

KajiKita

OP made 😊 I find this a very pleasing way to end the week 😉

KK

KajiKita

OMG …. having a company credit card sounds great in theory, but it’s a whole extra layer of admin, security whatsits, risk of interest, etc etc ! 😢😳

Have just emptied out my non interest earning savings account to pay off what is owed on the @MEX until I can (hopefully!) refill it from getting my expenses paid back. One day over due so I will end up paying interest on this …. 😢 Why do people not tell you all this when they give you a company credit card to use! (Feeling stupid again ) 

I refuse to be defeated!
So, lessons learned:
- I need some kind of separate tracker for the @mex within my admin systems (will let that evolve over time)
- always, always, no matter crud is flying in my return start submitting my expenses as soon as I return from a trip! (Definitely within the first week.)
- if spend happens ahead of trip e.g. booking flights or hotels, submit those straight away
- I have also transferred the details of the c/cd account (in code) to my work email as I had it all in hard copy at home in my financial project book
- start my expenses tracking from the work c/cd statement and then move onto cash payments etc.  

KK

KajiKita

Having a productive, pottering day 😊
One washing load on the line - not drying brilliantly but it will still be better than not putting it out (in November!)

Changed my library books and enquired when their last day before Christmas is - Christmas Eve apparently so I can renew my books just in time for my chill out time <happy sigh> 😊

Went to jewellers with THE ring to enquire about getting it cleaned. He refused to do it on the grounds that the ring was so worn (claws holding the stones and the shank) that there was a real risk of the centre stone falling out 😢 It will cost c. £400 to restore it and I don’t want to spend that atm, so I have tucked it away in the safe for now. Interestingly, it is dated June 1972, i.e. a lot later than you might have expected. I have a *vague* recollection that there is a story in the family that she either didn’t have a ring or only a paste one when they first got engaged and then, later on, when they could afford it, she had a ‘proper’ ring. It think it is really rather sweet, that Hubby’s  granddad got his wife a ‘proper’ ring when they were in their 50’s or so ❤️

Planted up a pot with a birthday present (some kind of tiny evergreen shrub with big pink berries on it) along with a few white and purple pansies - the proportions are a bit queer but the colours work 😉 Sent a photo of the pot to the friend who had given me the plant 😊 Lobbed some tulip, jonquil and crocus bulbs in another pot 👍😊

Made a tasty lunch, from scratch, of homegrown spuds, red lentils, onions, herbs and stock etc. which I had with red cabbage. Not the kind of thing that hubby would even consider eating, so it’s been nice that I get the chance to be maverick in my food choices. 😉

Unplanned spend: our 1952 Austin Champ wouldn’t start and it had to, as hubby is shuffling vehicles around to make space for a mate’s WW2 Jeep that hubby will do some servicing work on (the brakes need going through etc.) before they both go out to France in their vehicles next June. Mate will pay hubby and some of this will become an OP …. 😊 The batteries had been on the vehicle for a decade so they’d done pretty well. I paid for one of the two that were needed as she is my truck (long back story! 😂) so I contribute to her upkeep 😊

After washing up, more gardening and being in the fresh air ❤️

KK

KajiKita

Woke up at 5am this morning, anxious and on edge. Partly due to the impossibility of work atm but also partly because of the fact that my dad is doing a deep and expensive restoration on a1950s Daimler, Barker Sports Special which I coveted as a child but as an adult I really don’t think I want …..

- We’d have to pay to store it somewhere.
- Hubby has some mechanical expertise but it has hugely complex systems in it like a pre-select gear box and I think those would be beyond what he could do. Plus the sheer size and weight of the parts. 
- It’s HUGE - there is no way I could ever drive it. Hubby has plenty of vehicles already that he takes to military shows - neither of us would have a use for the lovely thing ….

I foresee a difficult but necessary conversation looming …. 😢

KK

Merlin's_Beard

They are gorgeous cars but if you've no use for it you've no use for it - if the cost of restoration is more than your dad would get from selling it on then better have the conversation sooner rather than later... good luck!

KajiKita

Had an interesting conversation with Hubby over the washing up at lunchtime. He thinks that I should accept the car if it's offered and depending on the timing he may have sold his Bedford by then, which would allow space to move the Jeep or the Champ down to the Bedford shed and allow the Daimler to be stored at the top of the garden in the garage. 

I have a crazy dream of driving down through France and Italy to visit Herculaneum and Pompeii in her ... If we ever did it, we would probably get a flight out, the car delivered and then tour our way back. That would be so cool!!! 🙂 And then, probably, sell her to someone who would really appreciate her, through the owners club or similar. 

Hubby wanting to make it work makes such a difference! 💖

I’m going to let this pan out ….

KK