We will get this debt down & the savings up

foxgloves

You are doing fantastically well with your survey earnings.

An old colleague of mine would always tell anyone endlessly moaning about their health, "Well it's better than the alternative".

badmemory

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81922048#Comment_81922048

Whoops! That is what I always say.

Makingabobor2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81922048#Comment_81922048

Yes indeed, I quite agree with her.

Sun_Addict

That’s exactly what a friend of mine tells anyone who moans about being another year older. It’s true, what’s the alternative.

Makingabobor2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81922274#Comment_81922274

I quite agree, they say growing old is a privilege denied to many.

Makingabobor2

Hope all the mum's among you had a good day yesterday, I had 2 lovely cards and DD gave me 2 fancy cup cakes and a garden planter with compost and a packet of bee friendly flower seeds. So that will be lovely when they get sown and come up. DS never gives pressies, which I don't mind as its not about the gifts, but it would be nice to actually see him sometimes….visits are few and far between these days as they are always too busy.

So yesterday we finally moved the new greenhouse/coldframe thingy to its new spot, after it almost got blown across the garden the other day, and the top came off. DH has sorted it and all seems to be well and it is in a much better spot. Got some hook things so we can anchor it into the ground as well which we wouldn't have been able to do if we'd left it in its original spot. So while we were in the garden, DH started dismantling an old pallet we had rescued from a skip a few months back, and he is going to make me a planter from it. While he was doing that I had a good tidy up of pots and bits and pieces, and set aside 6 old pots that I took to the local garden centre this morning to recycle.

Logged into our banking app and discovered a transaction on the joint account that I didn't recognise. Messaged DH at work to check if he had used the account…it is really the one for paying bills only, so shouldn't be used unless in an emergency, and if it does get used, the money gets transferred back straight away. He hadn't used it. So I rang the bank, to say no I had not spent £16.50 on D00b**s garden centre website yesterday! She checked and told me what time the transaction had taken place ( it was using my debit card, not DH's), and asked if I knew what I was doing at that time….yes….we were sat on the sofa watching the F1 grand prix. So they said they would get the card stopped, and talked me through how to do it on the app….stupid me went and stopped the wrong one, the one for my personal account and not the joint account!! So now they are having to send me 2 new cards and I can't spend any money for 5 days…so that's actually a good thing. I commented I was surprised only £16.50 had been spent, and she said they often take a small amount to start with, to see if it will actually go through! They are investigating and will let me know if they discover how it happened. In the mean time they have already refunded us the £16.50…took them all of 30 mins, that's excellent service. So I have no idea how this happened. I can only presume that someone skimmed the details from the card when I was out and about, by getting close to my bag. I will definitely get one of those RFID protection wallets now to keep the cards in. Its just lucky that I check the accounts on a daily basis, otherwise I might not have noticed it.

So that was my very frustrating afternoon, and now I think its time to get some dinner started….yesterdays left overs on a Monday. Then to write my To Do list for tomorrow and Wednesday.

Sun_Addict

Good job you spotted the fraudulent purchase. I'm in my banking/card app every day. I get so annoyed about these scammers.

It sounds like you're making good progress with your garden. We have a mini greenhouse as well as a proper one and have to be careful where we position the mini one as it gets blown about if it's windy (which is most of the time around here).

It's a shame your DS is too busy to visit you more often, he's going to regret that one day…

Makingabobor2

That's what I keep thinking about DS @Sun_Addict . He never used to be like this till he divorced & got with his new lady about 12 years ago. We offer to visit them, but they always have an excuse. Admittidly he is in RAF & a lot of travelling etc, but even so, we are only about 65miles or so. Luckily I live down the road from DD

Makingabobor2

So, it turns out that someone didn't actually get hold of my card details, but D0bb**s took the money for a membership that I had cancelled, over a year ago. To say I was angry is an understatement! I rang them and the girl was very unapologetic and just said she had no idea how it could have happened and they would refund it. So I said couldn't she see from her computer screen, that I had cancelled the membership over a year ago. She said yes, she could. So I then asked if she could email me to confirm that this account was closed and no more money would be taken in the future as they had caused hassle for myself and the bank. She said she didn't have an automatic facility to do that! I said I don't want an automatic email, I want he to physically type me an email confirming it. "Oh", she said "I don't know how to do that"!!!! So I asked…."what sort of a Mickey Mouse company do you work for"?! About 10 mins later I had an email from someone in the Data protection dept, apologising and confirming that the account is definitely closed. I then had to ring bank back to tell them as D0bb**s are refunding me, the bank now needs to take back the money they had already refunded! Still waiting for the new debit cards to arrive, so had a right hassle of a few days, having to use credit card if I needed anything, as I can't even get any cash out of the bank at the moment!

Apart from that, things are ticking along quite ok. A few seeds started and on the windowsill, not sure if anything will happen, I am not very accomplished in planting seeds off indoors. Seed potatoes are also chitting on top the tumbler dryer, by the dining room window. Been out in the garden the past couple of days, doing a few bits.

P/fc is still going well this month, although I can see the amount of good paying ones looks to be slowing down a bit now.

I really must ring the optician as had these glasses over 3 months now and I seem to be struggling more and more on phone/laptop and also distance, so not sure what the problem is, or if I'd be better with 2 pairs instead of varifocals. I'm also struggling with piano playing as well. So I must give them a ring and get back over to talk to them. I've had to turn up the zoom on my text on laptop to help see it better.

Think that's about all there is to report at the moment, so off to get a few more jobs done.

Makingabobor2

Quick update, after a busy weekend in the garden. We managed to get the pond cleaned out and refilled…..dread to think how many litres of water we used. DH emptied the 2 water butts into it first, but we still had to use the hose pipe! Hopefully it is the only time this year and next year maybe we will have extra water butts, as we had been talking about getting another one if we could. So that was Saturday, and then came down Sunday morning to discover that the pump had stopped working and the waterfall wasn't flowing. DH moaned, saying he had only had it about a year. I asked if it was still under warranty…..oh no….silly me, he bought it from the Bay of E! So no warranty! So he has found another one, but still insisted on getting it from the Bay of E again. He will never learn!

So Sunday we were outside again, as DH was doing an oil change on his motorbike. I was doing some tidying up, and put the 1st lot of early potatoes in the huge big pot. Also sowed some carrots, and beetroot. I see now that it is likely to go down to -1 over night on tomorrow, so will be putting bubble wrap over the top of them for a while yet. Seeds indoors are not doing much yet, but the raspberry canes and blueberry bush are looking like they have fared well over the winter, as do the strawberry plants. Strangely I am getting very excited about my gardening now. Never realised how much I would enjoy it. BTW, does anybody know much about Microgreens? Saw an ad for some seeds, which seemed very expensive TBH, but don't know much about them…..any opinions, good or bad?

So this morning I went to the gym then nipped to Mr M and snagged some yellow stickered broccoli, noodles, strawberries, bread rolls and a loaf. Always find good reductions in there.

This afternoon was a quick hair trim and then home for a few P/fc studies. Still doing well on those at the moment…..long may it continue.

Tomorrow I have to go to the optician for them to check my new glasses…well not that new, as I have had them since November. But my distance just doesn't seem right lately, so we'll see. Also want to ask about if I need single vision lens for piano playing or not, as I seem to be struggling with my varifocals.

So off to get dinner now, yesterday's left over chicken and veg, with the reduced noodles, and half a jar of sweet and sour that is sat in the fridge.