Ding! Ding! All change, please... (now replaced with new diary on MFW)

EssexHebridean

Morning all - Foxgloves, glad it's not just me with the surveys - although I did just reach cash out on Ipsos so that's something!  Sarahwithlove - I think you're right - we seem to be seeing a bit of movement on the housing market around houses, but far less on flats at the moment. I keep trying to remind myself that all we need is one person =- the right person - and all will be well! Milann - you're not wrong - I also said something quite rude!   Fingers crossed for things moving on fast for your DD now ES - if they are approaching exchange now they should be OK I'd suggest - and hopefully otherwise the lender will agree to an extension. You're right about the uncertainty slowing things down, sadly - we're feeling it at work, too.

Well a little flurry of MSE-eyness this morning - 
As mentioned above I snuck Ipsos up to cash-out level at just over 1000 points - have already exchanged 975 of them for a big river site voucher and that in turn has been exchanged for a £10 credit for  my fruit based device as usual. I'll add it to my account at lunchtime. 
Also just got a call from the manager at the gym to mention that I'd expired - which I knew, it ran out yesterday. He's said that he's happy to knock the renewal price down to £300 for me for the following year so I basically had his hand off for that - I'd been prepared to pay full price but clearly a discount is better! 
EPC man has been to do the EPC on the flat although annoyingly he didn't measure for the floorplan - we might have to do the measurements for that ourselves now I suspect. it can't be helping matters that there are no room sizes up currently! 

Other than that - banks are checked and all OK - with the end of the month creeping up now I'd love to see how much of the remaining £150 cushion I could retain in the joint account - I know £50 of it will go to feeding the Oyster tomorrow though, and we'd probably be foolish not to top the car up at the weekend, although how much that will be depends on where we do it - if the cheap place it'll be a tank full, otherwise probably £30 worth. 
A small CC shuffle done this morning clearing a small spend from the New House Fund for the plants and the cost of the DW tablets as those are dealt with outside the grocery budget. 

Food all under control - and I decluttered half a bar of Wh0le nut last night too so that's one less thing to worry about... It was packed full of nuts too - a great improvement on the last one I had which was very scant on the nut content!  Got a tub of ragu out for this evening so that will make a nice quick tea with spaghetti on a night that we have voluntary role work to get done - tonight should be checking and responding to emails and then cracking on with starting to get a long-list of beers together for the areas that we cover ourselves - our home area of East Anglia plus the South West. Also dealing with any queries from our team of co-ordinators who cover the rest of the UK's long-listing for us. This is the "fun bit" in many ways - albeit quite time consuming! 

That's it - just now trickling things along to the end of the month...and payday early next week - when I can immediately transfer £180 over to the NHF for the council tax and water rates that we won't be paying next month - yay! 

 

RelievedSheff

Fingers crossed things pick up on the viewings front for you.

Cheery_Daff

Excellent news on the gym front - that's your cost per visit down before you've even started! 😁 Glad you've had the epc done - annoying about the floor plan though 🙄

CL21

Hope the viewings pick up for you. I think January is grim in general for viewings (and everything else!). Good work on the decluttering of whole nut - that’s my favourite kind of decluttering 🤣🍫

milann

Not had whole nut for AGES…..mmmmmmm

lucielle

Hope you get some viewings soon. 

L

Sun_Addict

You might strike it lucky with someone looking to downsize or a FTB looking to get a foot on the ladder. Fingers crossed for some interest soon. When I worked in estate agents things always picked up in February, in fact we marketed our last house in February and it sold a couple of months later after an initial period of no viewings for 3 weeks. Great deal from the gym. 

EssexHebridean

Sigh. Tricky times here sadly. MrEH's Dad died unexpectedly late last week - although his health wasn't the best, and realistically we weren't really expecting him to see the year out, the actual timing was a shock, as was the fact that it was very sudden. MrEH went straight down to Devon later the same day and spent a few days down there with his Mum, and brothers, which I think did them all good. Lots of to'ing and fro'ing now with the family as you can imagine - thank goodness for WhatsApp which is proving an absolute godsend for keeping everyone in touch. 

In the meantime I've been keeping things ticking over at this end - no feedback from the viewing yet so I think we have to presume the buyers have looked elsewhere - we did know they were looking at a good few, and one HAS disappeared from listings so we assume they have gone for that. And yes - everyone is saying the same about January just not being a busy time for selling - let's hope February sees more activity! 

MSE Stuff:
- MrEH topped his car up at the cheap petrol station on the way back from Devon - and we'll use that one again when we're next down there too as it's a tiny diversion for a decent saving.
- MrEH also didn't feed his Oyster this morning either - I have £50 reserved for that in the joint account currently so if he's not going to need to do that today now at all I will shift that amount to the New House Fund. 
- MrEH (it's all about him today isn't it!) has been paid - I will hopefully be likewise tomorrow. 
- Shopping weighed in at £45 this week but that included a reasonable amount of topping up of stores so stands us in good stead going forwards. Meals are at least roughly planned for the week ahead - although may be subject to change at short notice depending what is going on.
- My gym membership has hit the credit card balance so I will shuffle that today - I have £129 against it in my "Gym Neutral fund" - yes, in spite of my signature saying different! £151 to find - I have £85 surplus sitting in my "budget" account which may as well be moved across to cover some of that, plus £40 in an old personal savings account I don't use any more and was intending to close...Hmmm...I could just cover the balance from the surplus in my spends account to be honest rather than needing to raid "proper" savings at all....that idea appeals.
- I have chased up the amount we still owe against the hotel bill for last year's beer festival and hopefully our financial person there will let me know how much that is so I can get that transferred. 

Stuff that needs done:
- As at tomorrow I'll be able to shift this month's CT & WR money across to the New House Fund. I like this time of year!
- MrEH's two reg savers have matured and money will need moving - no rush but as and when he gets the chance he'll shift them to somewhere I can access and I will do the rest. Those will both be heading off to form part of the savings against the cash part of the house deposit. 
I still need to get a new Coventry Reg Saver sorted - might try to do that today/tomorrow.

I'll be leaving all "regular" surplus from the joint account in place until the end of this month as inevitably there will be additional expenses to cover. Thankfully my lovely bosses immediately said if I needed two days out for the funeral due to distance this was fine - I thought they would and it's one of the benefits of working for such a small close knit company - they know MrEH too, he used to work with Mrs Boss's brother in fact (who also worked here for a while). That at least means I won't have the faff of trying to get down by train after I finish the day before - that would have been difficult to organise and would have needed someone to come out and collect me from some distance away as well as there'd have been no transport all the way by that time. I'm assuming that there will be a fair amount of running about to do so extra diesel spending plus whatever else comes up and I want to make sure that the money is just there for that without us needing to remember to shift it from elsewhere. 

That's about it I think. I bet as usual I'll think of something else as soon as I hit post though!  

lucielle

So sorry for MrEhs loss. You sound as if you’ve got everything covered. Hope it goes smoothly. 

L

Crazycatlady2

Sorry for your loss. You sound very organised which is good. When my MIL was sick and then passed away and my DH was supporting his dad the only thing I felt I could do to support his was keep our house running and offer practical help where I could to prevent additional stress, take care of yourself too x