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And now we go again...
Comments
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really annoying about your accommodation. The owners via the same b n b site did a similar thing to us. We'd booked accommodation for our trip to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix - we had a sorry we've cancelled your booking message about 4 weeks before the event but then saw it re-listed for 3 times the price. Presumably the owners realised that their 20 mile distance from the track made the property very marketable for that weekend! We ended up on a holiday park in a caravan which would not have been our first choice but was actually quite fun.
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Oh that's very naughty of them blackcats!
Sounds like a good MSE weekend for you EH! Well done on the insurance renewal. Love the idea of a holiday notebook. We used to have a 'new things' book when we wrote (or drew!) the new things we tried - we often still talk about it but it must be buried in the loft somewhere and hasn't been used for years. We stayed with some friends recently and our dinner got written into their dinner book - who was there, a seating plan, what we ate, what we talked about, and anything unusual (in this case us spending the following couple of hours trying to get an ink stain out of Mr C's waistcoat 😂)
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That sort of thing makes me so angry BC - by all means increase the price in future years but dumping people who have already booked into the mire isn't on.
Loving the idea of those books Cheery - the New Things one will be fascinating when you find it to see of any of the "new" things have become regular things! We started doing the holiday books a long while back now - each trip has a first page with notes about where we stayed, what route we took for the journey up, and the rough timings for the journey up too. Then there's a section of pages for birds we've seen, and a section which gets a paragraph or so written for each day we're there - what we've done, who we've seen etc. I note things like diesel prices too - comparing home, way up and over in the Islands is an interesting one! We usually take the previous and current ones with us and it's useful having information about walks we've done previously etc.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her6 -
I used to write in a holiday notebook too and still enjoy reading them back. I've not really kept this up in recent years, I don't know why, probably because we keep going back to the same places since Mr SA became disabled. It's a great idea and no doubt very useful if you're travelling the same route with the timings, things to look out for etc.
I get knocked down but I get up again (Chumbawamba, Tubthumping) -.literally have been run over by a bike, mobility scooter and a car - still here 💪6 -
My inlaws always kept holiday diaries as well - they have them going back SO far, it's lovely! we do also try to look out nice notebooks for this as well - sometimes we stumble across a suitable one, and other times we have to buy specifically, like this time. It's definitely a worthwhile spend though!
Paperwork dispatched off to MrEH for signing for the building work starting on Wednesday morning - I'm hoping I can put the deposit on a credit card but I suspect they are going to say they don't take them. It will be annoying if not, because we'd ideally like the S75 protection. In "hopefully good timing" though I have a regular saver maturing tomorrow which will perfectly cover the amount needed…
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her10 -
Full marks for sarcy response to sudden renewal matching 🍻
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6466032/an-in-between-phase/p1
'aggressive safety shot' Ken Doherty5 -
It annoys me PiP - why should the best prices only be given to those who are time-rich enough to enter into some sort of dutch-auction between difference insurers. Funnily enough, once I stopped playing the game I found that generally, renewal quotations got a LOT keener, so i guess there is some sort of database flag that picks up when someone stops "joining in"!
The deposit has been paid for the building works - which are starting TOMORROW! This is one of those "needed, but easy to put off" jobs relating to some steps at the front of the house that are rather awkward at the moment - and lacking a handrail which means my Mum feels very unsafe on them, and I too have been wary of the thought of someone falling while making deliveries or whatever too, so it feels good to finally be at the point of making progress. The firm doing the work reckon three days, so fingers crossed on that, our experience of building work in the past hasn't been great, it would be nice to have a job that finally gets done in the programmed timescale!
Deposit (£1200) paid with a combination of CC (for that all-important Section 75 protection of course - where is that spinny Martin emoji when you need it?), the remains of the EF and borrowing a bit from the joint account which we can get away with because…
…One of the Welsh building Society's 6 month regular savers has matured bang on time and been withdrawn, so that is winging its way back to me, at which point I shall replace all the bits of money from whence they came. The balance will be paid using money clawed from the long-term savings which was always the plan, and that will then get replaced by the next regular savers to mature.
Todays' "parking charge" for using Al's car park was biscuits for the builders, plus a new pack of baby wipes for my car ahead of holiday.
The breakdown people have taken the payment for my cover earlier than expected so I will be going with them for another year - £48, so still actually really cheap allowing that I know from experience they are decent. I could have saved a bit by shopping around and changing supplier, but I'm content enough with that cost.
other MSE Stuff:
- My car dieseled up this morning at a budget-tastic 172.9 which is at least 10p a litre cheaper than anywhere else - thanks to school holidays I passed the cheap garage near work early enough to get in before the (very long) queue formed!
- Another pot of tomatoes picked last night - we might have to get another tray prepped and roasted this side of the weekend!
- Tea tonight will be the usual tuesday night couscous with roasted veggies and hard boiled eggs. might drag some chorizo out of the freezer to pop in there as well.
- Did some "housekeeping" while I was logged in to the Welsh building society and closed an old account, shuffling the money across to the newly matured one as the interest rates were the same. I'll leave that sitting until the other one matures now and pull everything out in one go I think.
- Still waiting on the ISA Transfer I instructed last week to happen - I'll need to make a note to check that again in a few days and ask the new provider what is going on if it still hasn't happened.
I think this evening's pottering will mostly be getting myself sorted out ahead of my Eastbourne Air Show trip - I did make a start charging camera batteries last night, but also have memory cards to clear down, clothes to sort out etc.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her8 -
Ooh exciting re the building. We are dusting off our heavy duty gloves to try and get the next phase up and running
L
Total Debt Dec 07 £59875.83 Overdrafts £2900,New Debt Figure ZERO !!!!!!:j 08/06/2013
Lucielle's Daring Debt Free Journey
DFD Before we Die!!!! Long Haul Supporter #1245 -
I'm in awe of those of you who take on building type work yourselves L - that is well outside of my skill set!
Builders turned up bang on time this morning which was a great start. Today's job is just getting the old steps out I gather, and we've done some tweaking of dimensions to suit the slab size being used. So far, so good.
Memory cards all cleared, reformatted and put into cameras/camera bag last night - that avoids risk of "stupid tax" of needing to buy an emergency new card while I'm there! I've started getting clothes together - MrEH will be washing and hanging out a load while I'm at work today and some of those bits will also be going with me/being worn tomorrow.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her7 -
Builders on time EH? You must be residing in the twilight zone! Either that or they are scared of the inevitable heat later today - 😆
4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)Original End Date - Sept 2041 *** New projection - Aug 2040 (reduced by 1 years & 1 month)8
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