Arrietty's Acorns

Arrietty

Good morning,

isn't it lovely having a 4 day weekend 😃

I had a lovely productive day yesterday; pottering about, doing laundry, tidying & sorting and rearranging living room furniture for its 'summer setting'. I went to the yard early afternoon and spent a few hours there, walking HRH , trying to remove his winter fluff and generally enjoying being out in the sunshine. I then popped to Waitrows on the way home to return a couple of curtain rods that I'd bought in excess of requirements and to get an Easter Egg for my GS. £12 later I was nearly on the floor with shock 😮. It's a decent sized egg but it's still hollow.

Little GD is not needing any chocolate at just 16 months so I bought her some egg shaped chalks in a cute little egg box which she can have fun with on the paved area of their garden. A pack of mini lindor eggs for my SiL and an EcoEgg for ED 😀. I have been using these for laundry for years and I bought her one a while back but she claimed to have lost it when they moved house… said she didn't want any chocolate as on healthy diet for wedding so I thought I'd help her save money too 😉

Going over there for family Easter lunch today as ED is working tomorrow so Sunday will be the regular yard day with YD I expect. And then I get another day off on Monday 😁

I have now sourced a painter/decorator but my goodness that was quite the experience. I put an ad on Checkatrade on Friday and a nice chap responded almost immediately and offered to come and survey. I said I'd be at home for the next few hours and he offered to come round within half an hour. I agreed and despite the place being in utter chaos due to scaffolding and roofing people outside, he seemed unphased and calm and just very knowledgeable but in a very understated way. Estinated the work would take about 6 days. When I said roofing works were due to begin in a few weeks he immediately advised not doing any decorating until that was complete and said he'd send me a quote. I checked him out and he's registered at Companies House and has many many 10star reviews.

Then another chap got in touch and asked to come and survey, wanted to come on Sunday but I declined that so we agreed on Monday evening. (By this time I'd had the quote from 1st chap which was bang on the average price I'd researched but I said I was waiting for other quotes so would get back to him as soon as I had them and he was fine with this).

So, second chap rolls up and immediately starts saying how big the place is and what poor condition the walls are in and how much needs to be done to repair them…🙄 I tell him I'm not looking for perfection and about the impending roofing works in the next 4 weeks and he was very quick to say he could get his team in before that as they were looking for work to fill the next couple of weeks. I ask won't that be a problem and he assured me no and that he could get the work done in 5-6 days. I don't trust this one at all. He says he'll send me a quote…

Later that night I receive his quote all broken down into segments but client name is different. A few minutes later he then messages again saying he put the wrong client name on the quote but everything else is correct. I don't reply to either message because it's 9:45pm and I'm in shock. His quote is £1400 more than the previous chap, he has said it'll take 8-9 days and he wants 20% up front to 'secure' the job 🤔.

The next day I message him to say thank you very much for coming to survey and for the quote but that I'm astonished. Not only has he said that it will take almost twice as long than he'd told me in person, but it's also considerably more than the average that I've researched and other quotes I've had. I tell him I appreciate his time but that I won't be going ahead with his compnay.

He then replies that yes, it might be more than other quotes but there'll be a lot of work repairing the cracks (they're minor & I'd said I wasn't too bothered because they reappear after a couple of years anyway) and that it takes time to move furniture!! I'd already asked other chap and he said I only had to move personal items - they do everything else. I don't reply and he then messages again and says he understand that I "don't want to pay his price" but could I please tell him the price of my other quotes because they're new to that platform and don't know how to price jobs!

I resist the urge to suggest that 1) they get the client name right, 2) if they get it wrong, to redo the quote rather than just message to say it's wrong, 3) look up the average price for similar work before sending a quote and 4) don't ask for 20% up front because it just looks like you've got a cashflow problem and that you'll be using my money to fund other jobs you've got on… I just don't respond because I've already told him I'm to going ahead with his company.

I message other chap and say I'd like him to do the work please and he thanks me and reiterates that I need to wait until after the roofing works are complete to get the best possible finish. I like him.

I'm withdrawing Premium Bonds to put in a Cash ISA so will divert some of the money to pay for this. I want to get it done properly but a professional while I'm still earning a full time salary as I figure then it can just be freshened up every few years as needs be. Hopefully with the same chap so I don't need to go through that again!

To the money…

So, there was a £50 win on the Premium Bonds this month which won't get me either a Four Day week or the home fully decorated but it's still free money so thank you for that. I also received £37.55 interest which is also free money so thank you for that. I also did a couple of scoops.

HRH Fund = £136.06

Trips & Treats fund = £1000

Car & Christmas fund = £500

Water / Linked Saver fund = £ 378.55

FDF = £ 11.543.97

91 weeks to target date….

Have a lovely day

x

Skint_yet_Again

First chap sounds great Arrietty. Good luck with it all. Wouldn’t even bother replying again to the second. They are the ones who give other tradesmen a bad name and the ones that I dread.

Enjoy your family Easter lunch

Arrietty

Good morning,

and a rather grey drizzly one it is too. We had frost Monday and Tuesday but now it's about 10 degrees so HRH was left naked last night and will no doubt resemble a hippo by this afternoon after he's spent all day rolling in the mud 😄

Despite not having a job, he's been shopping again; it's been so long since we had hot weather, we'd both forgotten how annoying flies are and we've yet to find a fly spray which actually works for more than an hour so he treated himself to a new fly rug and fly mask for £67.89 and then had his feet trimmed on Monday for £35. The money for feet trim did come from his own account and there's cash for another bale of hay when he needs it there is almost enough in there to pay for the fly rug & mask but I'm trying to build up a buffer again & I haven't forgotten that he still owes me for his feed!

HRH acct: £86.06

I have now withdrawn half my Premium Bonds and opened a cash ISA. Spent ages looking through all the different ones; fixed, flexible, bonus rates, app only… and ended up choosing one with the same organisation I have the Four Day Fund saver with and I opted for a fixed interest rate which pays monthly interest. Fixed because I like to know exactly what I'll be getting and monthly interest because I still need to see regular 'action'. True - it's slightly less than the maximum interest I 'could' have earned but it suits my criteria.

I haven't completely filled the ISA as I decided to leave myself with a bit of cash in an easy access account to use for outfit/accommodation/gift the upcoming wedding… so I have a bit of a target to achieve to fill the ISA which should keep me motivated.

Trips & Treats Fund = £1500

Car & Christmas Fund = £503.39 earned a little bit of interest 😊

Linked Saver / Water fund = £ 378.86 tiny amount of change saved since last time

I had a win of £50 on April Premium Bonds (before withdrawing half of them) and also received £33.29 interest on the Trips & Treats fund so both those amounts were transferred to the FDF. I've also done a few scoops which have helped to boost the balance. I have lost count of how many weeks left though 🤔

FDF = £11,651.49

It's been a while now since I started scooping over untidy amounts in my current account and it is now a daily routine - I check my balance every morning and automatically scoop over and whilst I have noticed that I have less money to spend each month, at least it's not being frittered away!

Have a lovely day x

Arrietty

Hello,

almost 2 weeks since my last post but it has been deliberate this time as I was waiting for payday so I'd have money updates to declare!

I got paid on Friday and have already blown through half of my monthly budget which is quite frightening but seems to be the way these days. It was a friend's leaving drinks and dinner on Friday night so that was £41.00 gone and then yesterday I had a lovely trip to the Savill Garden in Windsor Park with my Dad. He's a member so doesn't have to pay to park and also got me in to the garden for free so it seemed only right that I should buy lunch which was £25.95. The azaleas were just glorious and then we sat and watched a trio of fluffy ducklings whizzing about and causing their parents to be constantly trying to herd them in one direction while they had other ideas 😂

I filled up the car for £56.76 on the way home and this morning I popped to Waitrows to get some flowers fro my friend and top up with fresh bits and bread, milk and carrots for HRH.

HRH is moving to his summer field next weekend and I have to say that our attempts to get him to lose some weight ahead of that have not been very successful as the grass is now coming through in their winter field! I haven't ridden much the last week as we had a lot of windy days which makes the woods very scary and then on Friday ( about 2 hours before the dinner and drinks) I tripped over a root causing HRH to startle and leap into air and unfortunately hbefore I could move back he landed on my right foot. I now have a fat foot and three purple and black toes and am hobbling a bit. Thankfully YD is coming over today to give him a bit of workout and when they've moved fields I can start lungeing him a bit until I feel safe to ride again.

To the money…

HRH account = £246.06

I've paid in £50 each for both the Car & Christmas funds so that total balance is now = £603.39

I dipped in to the Trips & Treats fund for some new underwear so that now = £1400

The interest on the Linked Saver/Water fund has now dropped to 0.75% and I really don't know why I bother to keep it other than for the convenience of having somewhere to save any change into as well as for the water bill. Anyway, I added another £50 so that now = £431.30 but I don't think I'll keep any more than £500 in there at any point because it's just not with it.

Cash ISA remains the same as interest not due until the beginning of May but I am looking forward to seeing that every month. It will be interesting to see if have any wins on my remaining Premium Bonds now I have half the amount or whether they just sit there.

The FDF has had £10.18 of scoops this week and I also added my regular monthly £200 payment so that now = £11,872.30.

There may be some changes to my FDF plan coming soon. I fear that my calculations for what I will need to save have been rather underestimated and also did not take into account the considerable decrease in pension contributions it will mean. I have been really worrying about this but still need to make some kind of change.

Manager and I were chatting on Friday and laughing at how we are rich for a few hours each payday and then we send money to all our various funds and are poor again for the next few weeks ( I am using the terms 'rich' and 'poor' only in the context of this particular post and am of course aware how other people's circumstances vary)

I said to her about how I wanted to give up working Friday's in the future as they 'kill' me but when I worked it all out and how much money I would lose, I couldn't see how.

She strongly advised against putting in a formal request to change or reduce my hours this far ahead of my retirement due to both the decrease in pension contributions (not just mine but the organisations' as well) and she also said that each department is fighting for every penny in their budget and due to current extreme cost-cutting and a ban on hiring any new staff, the organisation would bite the hand off anyone wanting to reduce their hours but it would be near impossible to reverse it as the savings would immediately be reallocated.

She admitted that this wasn't just for my benefit but also for the department and her budget because if I'm only working 30 hours a week and then eventually retire … she would only have a 30 hour a week job to offer the next person. She first suggested working longer hours for four days week but I reminded her the reason I work my current hours is because of horse/darkness in winter time and also I just can't face longer days 😞She thought again and asked if l could cope with an extra half hour for 4 days a week and then leave at lunchtime on a Friday…

Essentially, there would be no change to my contracted hours / pay / pension / annual leave entitlement and as 'flexible working' is agreed within the department it doesn't need to be an official change of hours so she keeps her budget.

I used to finish work at 12:30 on Friday's in my previous job which was lovely but I did shorter hours overall. Yes, it will mean I still need to get up early for 5 days of the week but my weekends will start earlier! I used to immediately do my groceries shop after work on a Friday or arrange any appointments for then or meet friends for a drink or go home and get laundry and chores started so I had a proper 2 day weekend.

I think it will make quite a difference to how I feel on a Friday (usually fed up and exhausted) but am very open to hearing the thoughts of anyone who may read this and have an opinion …

..and at the back of my mind I'm also wondering if I do this now but keep on saving as I have been then maybe, just maybe, the Four Day Fund could become the NO Day Fund or the Early Retirement Fund ( maybe I could bring that forward a couple of years instead 🤔)

Have a lovely day x

Skint_yet_Again

Your day out with your dad sounds lovely Arrietty 😊

Sorry to hear about your foot, have had my foot stamped on before so I know it huurrrts 😫 🐎

Not sure about how your hours will affect your pension. It might be worth posting on the pensions board It may depend on whether it’s final salary or career average and how close you are to retirement