Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

I have been quietly tickling QM33 along in the background (only when I am bored or it is a good minutes to pay ratio / a single digit minutes questionnaire, no weekly targets, cash out when I get to £10) and have just OPd £10.79 😊

NSD today too 😊

Enjoyed work today as well! 🤩 Been something of a red letter day! 😂

KK

KajiKita

Worked from home as had to go for my six monthly check up this morning. 

The check up went well 😊 My blood pressure is perfect (115/65) and my weight is half a kilo down, which is a pleasant surprise as I have been feeling like a bloated lump for some months and have only recently (post funeral trip) had the mental headspace to be able to start doing something about it. The nurse managed to get blood out of me on the first attempt as well ❤️

Just got in from the not very Irish, but sort of Folk night. It was good fun - I haven’t smiled so much in ages. 😊👏

The cat is missing Mr KK (on a mission looking for auto jumble until Sunday) so I currently have a purring lap warmer ❤️

KK

MissRikkiC

Hi KK! I’ve been quietly reading along from the starts since you pointed me in this direction a few weeks back and I’ve just got up to date. 

A few things that I can remember I wanted to comment on. 

I have a recipe for you for tofu marinating and you will not look back!  

Also another for eggs given you wanted extra protein. I’ll dig them out. 

I’m sorry to hear of your Aunt. As you described the situation It did get me wondering if maybe that was the case and it sounded very similar to a story I was told by my best friend about her mum but I’d hoped not. Your daily check ins are a lovely thing to do. 

I haven’t ever known of or heard of increasing pension contribs to effectively increase your take home by reducing the tax you pay. Genius and something I now need the time to review. Thanks to those on your thread discussing it. 

I’m curious about your method of using veg peelings etc suitable for the composter, in the soil prior to it deteriorating. Has it worked as well as without or have you directly compared it to other methods like they do on beech grove  

You mentioned something else garden related which was new to me/got me wondering but now I can’t remember. I’ll have to go back searching. 

Your relationship with Mr KK is lovely to read about. You seem to have a wonderful partnership. 

Your enthusiasm for all things financial is inspiring. I’m gaining a lot from you on this front as well as your reading goals. I’m still on my first book of the year as struggle to find downtime with my 2 littles but I’m motivated reading how much you’ve been reading. 

Lastly and you don’t have to answer this or with any level of detail if you don’t wish to but prior to Mr KK opening his own savings account and making his very own mortgage OPs … how did you feel about just you doing it, towards your joint life’s together and joint mortgage when he wasn’t. I ask as I manage all of our finances for the household and essentially allocate pocket money. My OH wouldn’t do the things I’ve done in the past to earn more such as surveys or seeking out the best deals so when I do, I feel reluctant to pass that over to joint debts because it’s been my own time that’s been spent on it. I’m curious on your thoughts that’s all. 

MissRikkiC

I remembered just now as I went to check for snails and slugs that it was your copper slug deterrents you mentioned I wanted to ask about. Do you have any that you’ve tried and tested 

KajiKita

Good morning @MissRikkiC, what a lovely long set of responses! 😊 I will try to answer in order ….!

Looking forward to the egg and tofu recipes 😊👏

My aunt…. well at some point some way, she has to own her way forward for herself. I’m way too far way to actively help her, but at least the daily check ins are a thing she can rely on to happen every day to make her feel thought about. 

I know what you mean about the increasing pension contributions to reduce the amount of tax paid - it’s like magic! 😂 By my calculations it won’t increase my take home pay but the amount I lose in my account will be massively offset by the amount piling up in my pension thanks to my employer matching it. It does mean you can’t easily get your hands on it as cash, so I wouldn’t do it unless I had EF savings in place (still amazes me that I can write this about myself tbh! 😉), but this month, now my salary has settled down after increases, bonus etc I will review what I will increase to. Probably 8% so half way between the minimum 6% and the maximum 10% as I want to leave some slack whilst I am still getting used to YNABing and also for OPing.

Re using veg peelings in a trench under where the runner beans would go, it’s the first time I have ever done it. I should have done it in autumn rather than late winter, so we will see how well it works. My soil is not very fertile and doesn’t have much humus so if the runners look less starved and dry I will count that as a win. 

My relationship with Mr KK is definitely not perfect! 😂 We both have ‘scratchy’ times with other, often due to outside forces such as work or politics (politically we are at opposite ends of the spectrum which can be challenging). But he is a genuinely kind and caring bloke who is incredibly soft hearted when it comes to animals and slowly becoming kinder to humans. He attributes the latter to me, whereas I know that I have become much more confident and certain at asserting my boundaries thanks to him - he’s a Forester (Forest of Dean) born of a cockney so he takes no sh## from anyone! 😉 The other thing I have learned from him is how much is possible if you try - he is always encouraging me to have a go, to try, to try again a different way because that’s just the way he is. 

I will answer your question about how I feel about me being the lead in the partnership on all things financial as I think it’s important. 

Firstly there are times it frustrates me! 😉 It feels like the whole weight is on me and I am the only one working for it when he is the one who will need to retire long before I will partly as he is six years older than me but also because he is physically wearing out after 40 years of working as a carpenter. 

However, there are balancing factors. 

I have always earned more than he has, so although we contribute proportionally based on salary I have more spare cash than he does. 

He does a lot of jobs and task around the house that otherwise we would have to pay for, thanks to his skills he’s picked up over the years - the whole lounge rebuild that we are doing this year including some structural elements will be done by him.
I kind of always knew it would be this way …. When we first moved in together, I thought he was very brave to say “You will have to tell me what to do, I’ve never done this before” about chores etc., as he was moving straight from his mum’s in with me. Also, years and years ago, when I was saving up our first house deposit, he was spending all his money on restoring a 1942 military truck. That bit him badly, as he spent 5 years restoring it (it was a rare, big truck with lots of missing bits) and then when he finally drove it he hated it …. 😳 I did actually feel quite sorry for him at that point. But offset against this, I have been to Japan three times and India twice, and done a year’s training on the Q’Ero medicine wheel, pursuing my spiritual journey, which took both significant funds and time. He’s never stopped me or complained about any of this. 

Also, recently, I have noticed that he is more aware of how we are spending money. He has always been conscious of recycling, recovering and maximising building materials to reduce cost, but now he is also on-board with only having one takeaway a month, batch cooking to save buying so many ready meals, buying his own alcohol (I didn’t drink so object to having it in our grocery shop) and has sold some military kit to pay for the lounge changes that we are doing, so I can carry on with the OPs. So he is finding his own way through it. I think me talking (regularly!) about OPs, the strategy for how I want to get the balance down before we come off our fixed rate, etc is having an effect. 

Debts is a harder one though. I personally would not pay someone else’s debts. How do conversations with Mr RC go around debt? Does he accept that they need clearing? Is he still adding to them or are they just sitting there looking at you? I would recommend that you read Foxholes22’ diary from start to finish - she is in a similar dynamic to you (apart from she gets a housekeeping allowance rather than her own wage which she seems to stretch to a remarkable degree!) but Mr FH has had a slow realisation over the years. I have noticed when reading around here, that it is a common theme that the partner posting on here is often the one taking the lead financially, it’s kind of self selecting! 😉 

Oh, and I think reading epic threads counts as ‘book’ reading! 😉😂

I will dig up some links to the copper rings. 😊

KK

KajiKita

@MissRikkiC, slug ring links:
https://www.greengardener.co.uk/product/copper-slug-and-snail-rings-starter/

The copper bands on the same site are okay, do the same job but are flimsier. The rings are structurally stronger and last for years - some of mine must be 15 years old or so?! They dull down over time but still work. Just be careful that there are no leaves touching from other plants nearby as slugs will use them as a bridge to get across the copper ring barrier. They are expensive but make excellent Christmas/birthday presents ….! 😉 Maybe try the starter set and see how you get on. 

The other thing I use a lot of is:
https://www.greengardener.co.uk/product/slug-gone-wool-pellets-1l/

I actually tend to buy this from the big river as you can buy in bigger quantities. It’s a bit smelly to apply, but fades quite quickly and again is effective against slugs. You do have to check it periodically if cats have been digging / furtling in the area! 😉

KK

KajiKita

I mis-named Foxholes:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5509124/22-foxhole-east#latest

😊

KK

SandyShores

KajiKita said:

@MissRikkiC, slug ring links:
https://www.greengardener.co.uk/product/copper-slug-and-snail-rings-starter/

The copper bands on the same site are okay, do the same job but are flimsier. The rings are structurally stronger and last for years - some of mine must be 15 years old or so?! They dull down over time but still work. Just be careful that there are no leaves touching from other plants nearby as slugs will use them as a bridge to get across the copper ring barrier. They are expensive but make excellent Christmas/birthday presents ….! 😉 Maybe try the starter set and see how you get on. 

The other thing I use a lot of is:
https://www.greengardener.co.uk/product/slug-gone-wool-pellets-1l/

I actually tend to buy this from the big river as you can buy in bigger quantities. It’s a bit smelly to apply, but fades quite quickly and again is effective against slugs. You do have to check it periodically if cats have been digging / furtling in the area! 😉

KK

Thanks for these KK, they are really useful and just what I need.  SS

skint_spice

Skimming and trying to catch you up! Which language are you learning on DL? I am doing Italian.

KajiKita

skint_spice said:

Skimming and trying to catch you up! Which language are you learning on DL? I am doing Italian.

Morning 😊
French! It’s a bit weird translating things into American English (portable is a cell phone rather than a mobile) and learning new French words that didn’t exist when I was at school (ordinateur = computer) 😉😂

KK