And now we go again...

savingholmes · 8 November 2023 at 9:17PM

Well done on the radiator fix.

Sounds like you've made a start on Xmas gifts too. I've listed who I need to buy for and that's close to being it so far.

Sun_Addict · 8 November 2023 at 9:21PM

The Etsy haul sounds great for the price. Good that YT solved the radiator issue. The tutorials are brilliant if you need to find out how to do something.

jwil · 9 November 2023 at 8:41AM

Well done on the radiator fix. The baubles sound lovely too.

Great news about the mortgage OP as well

EssexHebridean · 9 November 2023 at 12:25PM

I LOVE a YT video for a bit of help on fixing stuff - MrEH and I repaired a dishwasher several times using them years ago, I learned how to reset the thermal cutout on our immersion heater in the flat, and now the radiators thing too...brilliant!

Banks all checked and fine - and I've dug a bit deeper into the timing for the FD Reg saver and I think that will be out at the beginning of next month.

We're discussing various savings options here - including adding more to MrEH's ISA (he's put nothing into one for this financial year as yet) rather than rolling everything in our fix that is maturing soon into another fix...there is a difference in the interest rate, but that will of course be balanced off by the tax he will pay otherwise. With that in mind (and indeed, by moderating how much is in our emergency fund easy access account, and ensuring that as much other money as possible is in ISAs, we can really make quite a difference to how much tax IS payable, which is handy.) The ISA MrEH has currently is already a mix of his personal savings and our joint funds anyway, and he doesn't have anything in particular to add to that from his own personal side of things at the moment, so I think maxing out his this year's contributions there does make sense. That would leave things standing thus:
Most of the one year fix > new ISA in MrEH's name (and the existing one he has will also transfer there once that is sorted) when it matures next week.
Balance of the fix to go either to a short term fix (6 months) OR just into a Limited Access account for the time being
Once all the regular savers that are due to finish have done so (final one will be Cov, which I think will be February) we gather together all those, plus the balance of the fix money, and stash into a further fix at that point at whatever rate is available for whatever term seems most sensible.
(The alternative is that right now we can get a 2 year fix at 5.5% - and so it just might be sensible to grab that for the balance of the maturing fix, plus my Pr1nc1pality and FD money, and worry about the Coventry money when the time comes...it al comes down to what the likelihood of savings rates either holding steady, or increasing inside the next few months, really)

Etsy spend has hit the CC - that will be being cleared partly from our Christmas/Presents pot, and partly from my own personal Presents pot - I need to work out the split and do the transfers.

I'm hoping to hear from the car repair people today to confirm that the parts still aren't in for my car - if so I will now be asking them to reschedule it to after Christmas as I really don't want to be without the car through December, that doesn't suit us at all. If I've not heard from them by lunchtime I'll assume it is being picked up tomorrow and will drop them an email to ask what time they will get to us. My only real plans for tomorrow currently are a walk with MrEH first thing - our Friday morning walks are something which we have both really come to enjoy - then the shopping, and general house stuff. I quite enjoy a good pottering about Friday as you know, and frankly this week is no exception to that.

I've been thinking about buying a sturdy plastic storage box for various old photos etc - but am struggling with indecision on it at the moment in part because I simply don't know what size I need - daft eh?! We've agreed it makes sense that whatever I buy matches the others we bought for the move as then they will all stack together if and when needed for example, but the more I think, the more I'm wondering if one of those we did actually buy for the move might currently be in use for something that doesn't really need a box that sturdy...I think I will pop to the shed tomorrow to see. I know that one has been designated as our seed box for the garden - and will also take stuff like our new garden produce diary when we get it (we always used a diary system for the allotment and it worked well and created a good reference for future years). there may be another one out there though - if so that will be a shopping from home win! I "might" also bring in the paint I want to use for one wall in the dressing room too - the lovely soft brown we used at the flat which might even cover over the delightful Marilyn Monroe wallpaper currently on that wall...!

earthgirl2 · 9 November 2023 at 1:54PM

Sounds great EH lots of diy fun, had you not considered keeping a Marilyn wall?

EssexHebridean · 9 November 2023 at 5:42PM

LOL Earthie Marilyn doesn't both me over much but that type of wallpaper is definitely not to MrEH's taste at all!

Just had a bizarre set of exchanges with the garage for the car repair. I emailed them to ask roughly what time they were collecting the car tomorrow, only to get an email back saying the insurance company had cancelled the work being done. "Say WHAT?!" thought I, and got on the phone to the insurance Company.... The insurance company were mystified - spoke to a lovely lady called Anne who checked their own file, then called the claims handling company and spoke to them...and no, they knew nothing about it being cancelled either. So she then rang the garage who said "err, yeah, sorry about that, we were looking at the wrong registration!" - oops! Anyway she said she was raising it as a complaint as I pointed out that I was none too impressed at having just lost half an hour of my working time to it - then promptly offered me £15 compensation as an apology. Immediate reaction was to say "goodness no, I I wasn't expecting that" but by the sound of it it basically means they can just close the complaint (that she had instigated raising remember!) straight off - so I'm guessing it's a customer service tick-box exercise. Anyway, talk about efficient - £15 transfer has already arrived in my bank and I have just transferred it to the Mortgage OP pot! Talk about a small MSE win!