Holding On and Letting Go 🎈

Cornish_mum

Sorry to hear about your boiler, CM

Moralpanic

Sad news about the boiler but at least you won’t be cold.  

greent

Glad you discovered the leak quickly - that could have been a nightmare otherwise! And as everyone is saying - at least it's nice weather so no heating is required - it's never nice being chilly! (Althoughbi suspect - sadly - that many people will be this Winter... 😕 😥)

Fortune_Smiles

Disaster Averted

Thanks for all the messages of support guys 😘 I'd forgotten to mention that the boiler leak was where mains water enters the system so, if I hadn't noticed it when I did, it could have been a disaster! 😲  As it is, we have a small amount of water damage to the floorboards which I think we'll be able to fix ourselves.  The plumber was able to get hold of the replacement part yesterday and came out lunchtime to make the repair.  So, we are back up and running.  Just waiting for the invoice to arrive now 😢 But that is what emergency funds are for after all.  STOP THE PRESS!  Invoice has just come in as I've been typing - £264.00 😲 Two call outs and it was an expensive part.  Blimey.

Mr F needs a new razor too as his has just died.  It's old and repairing it will cost more than replacing it.  I'd planned to buy new bedroom curtains this month but that will have to wait a bit now.

Our new R!ng doorbell was delivered yesterday and Mr F has set it up.  One of our goals this year was to fit some kind of home security so we've made a start.  We got a 6% discount through Mr F's company and I had a £15 voucher for Christmas I put toward it.

It hasn't all been spend, spend, spend though as I did the meal planning and grocery shop yesterday and think it will come in about £11 under budget 😆

We had Courgette, Potato & Cheddar Soup for lunch yesterday with a buttered roll.  The recipe makes loads so there'll be enough for lunch today and some for the freezer.  We have lots of courgettes in the veg patch at the moment so they are likely to star in the menu plan quite a lot this next few weeks.  Supper was salad with courgettes in orange dressing 😂 and poached salmon.  There's loads of lettuce in the veg patch too so salads are also going to feature a lot.

It's Book Club tonight so I've just done the preparation for it.  It will be nice to have a night out.

Hope your week's going well all.

Fortune x

savingholmes

Enjoy book club.

Ouch to the plumbing bill! 

Moralpanic

I don’t really like soup but that one sounds amazing! 

Fortune_Smiles

savingholmes said:

Enjoy book club.

Ouch to the plumbing bill! 

Thanks SH. Plumbing issues, etc are just what emergency funds are meant for aren't they.  I just hate taking money out of pots once I've put it in there.

Moralpanic said:

I don’t really like soup but that one sounds amazing! 

It's a favourite of mine MP.  Brilliant for using up courgettes that have languished a little too long in the veg patch plus, makes loads so there's always some leftover for the freezer.  It's low calorie and delicious too.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Fortune Smiles

I was actually feeling grateful after the boiler incident - it could have been so much worse.  It's made us think that moving the boiler outside when we replace it is definitely the way to go.

And to make up for this little bit of bad luck the universe sent us some good to restore the balance:

• HMR( finally recalculated Mr F's tax for last year using the correct benefit amount for his company car.  Incorrectly it would seem and then correctly 🙄 We received two calculations in the post, both dated with the same date but with one figure differing.  Fortunately they were numbered so I could tell which was the most recent and the most recent appears to be correct 🥳 And... the refund is about £250 more than I expected 😁  It's money we've paid out when we shouldn't have of course and it's just being returned to us but it does seem like a little windfall.  I've used some to cover the boiler repair cost and squirreled the rest back into emergency savings
• our new fixed rate mortgage has started and our overpayment allowance for this year has been restored which I wasn't expecting.  It's also been restored to 10% of the amount outstanding at the beginning of the year before we made any overpayments 🥳  So we could make another significant dent in the mortage before Christmas if we wanted.  This would make financial sense but would put a dent in the emergency savings at the end of the year.  I think I'll overpay what I've ring-fenced so far right now, continue with the planned monthly overpayments and, if there's anything else available, throw that in as well in December.

We had leftover soup for lunch yesterday and Smoked Haddock Gratin with salad for supper.  There's enough haddock leftover to have for lunch today with some new potatoes.

Young Decorator did some repair work on our wood floors whilst he was here - sanding out water marks and re-oiling.  He sanded the dining room floor but I asked him to leave the oiling to us as the area was the bit we walk across all the time.  I've now started the oiling but am doing a bit at a time so we can still get from one room to another without too much trouble.  The oil takes about 12 hours to dry.  It looks good so far and has given me the confidence to do the work myself in the future.

The Book Club meeting was fabulous.  We've invested in a book to work through now and, although the first story was difficult to read because of the 18th century language, it did lead to some interesting research and discussion.  Our host provided some lovely treats too.

The veg box has arrived already.  I've been cancelling my order for the standard box as its contents duplicate what I have in the veg patch but we were almost out of fruit so I've restocked.  The grocery shop is also coming today and has come in £13.87 under budget 😊

Very excited about being able to pay more off the mortgage.  We were planning to overpay less from now on but, the way things are going, it seems sensible to pay off more.  This is probably the only place I can post that sentence and know it will be appreciated 😆

Fortune x

beanielou

That's good news on the mortgage

Moralpanic

Fantastic mortgage news!