Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all! So glad we persisted (and I am claiming 98% of the credit here 😂) 

Just making a note to myself - I never did set up that co-op regular saver at 7%, and figured it wasn't available any more, but I've just checked and it is, so I'm going to do it now before they withdraw it. Got a nice wodge going into regular savers at the minute.

£50 at 5.5% (ends Jan 2025)
£250 at 7% (can't remember when that ends, fairly soon I think)
£250 at 8% (ends September 2024)

Co op is £250 at 7%, and we can have one each I think so we'll do that. We've got some in a normal savings account at about 3.65% so I'll drip feed that across, and use the other regular saver amounts when they end. 

Raining today so I might have a bit of a financial sweep this afternoon. I check main accounts regularly but will do a full check of savings, end dates etc, and get these set up, and do some more work on my 'here's all the accounts in case I die' folder 🙄 Need a better name than that! 😂

Before that though, I've booked swimming at 9am and Mr Cheery is going to come with me and go to the gym. Best get a wriggle on!

Baileys_Babe

If you come up with a better name for the folder, please share. I need to start one for OH, I'm not even sure what to put in it, any suggestions?

Cheery_Daff

I've started by making a front sheet for every account we have. So, for example...

Name: Co op bank
What is it? Main joint account
Account/sort code
Contact details: (website in this case)
Online login (yes, I know, probably shouldn't store, but far more likely to be electronically hacked these days!)
Notes: We both have cards for this. Main account - all bills go out if here. Credit card (Amex) is also paid monthly automatically.
Linked accounts: (eg if there's a regular saver - I'll update this when I open one!)
Start & end date (not relevant here - just for eg regular savers, fixed mortgage etc)

So far I've done one of these for:
* main joint account
* joint savings account
* joint account for overseas spending
* accounts I've set up as a switch (and looking through I've now closed a couple of these so my folder needs updating!)

I was planning on also doing for mortgage, electricity, LPG etc - but those are more straightforward, all details already in folders, just with no front sheets.

Lots of filing still to do! In fact as I pulled the folder out to make that list, all the unfiled stuff fell out of the bottom 🙄😂 Hoping to have it all done by the end of the year (and to not become incapacitated before then!)

In the meantime... Had a little visit to a new cafe with Mr C, and a jaunt into town, where we had a nicely successful charity shop trawl. Mowed the grass, did some washing. Made some granola, and spent 2x15 mins slots sorting in Flylady Zone 1 (in our case what we refer to as the 'offshot'- the utility room that we use as a main entrance to the house, which is always overflowing with shoes, recycling, compost waiting to go out, and things on their way to the garage/tip 🙄 NOT a pleasant place to bring guests into 😱

It also houses our pantry - big IKEA shelves with stocks of tins, pasta etc, as well as gloves, overalls, small garden implements, oversized plates, and beer 😂

I would LOVE this to be a beautiful peaceful entrance but that won't happen any time soon. For one thing, Mr Cheery put his hand through the ceiling when in the loft once, and so the awful plastic panelled ceiling has been held up by two bits of wood for almost 3 years 🙄 It's on the list, but nowhere near the top of the list 🙄

In the meantime, I will settle for 'relatively clean', 'doesn't smell', and 'no evidence of mice' 🙄

(The only evidence of mice I found on this occasion was a very nibbled bag of paprika, of all things! 😱) 

I did chuck some open and very out of date olives 🤢

beanielou

Baileys_Babe said:

If you come up with a better name for the folder, please share. I need to start one for OH, I'm not even sure what to put in it, any suggestions?

I have one for DS.  Copy of will, the POA.s, deeds for house.  Information on where to access my funeral dosh as stopped life insurance ater he finished MRes.  Information on my bank account, on hse & blds insurane, boiler & other stuff I cant remember.
Mine is in a ring binder with DS's name on it & marked important!! I can do no more.
Oh & a note emphasising a simple funeral & how much I love him & how proud I am of him.

Cheery_Daff

Oh that's a lovely set of stuff Beanie, well done. Yes, mine is more of a general household organisational folder in comparison. Useful, but not quite a 'death file'. Lots to ponder. 

More pottering here. Lots of washing up, and I also scrubbed the sink and drainer with pink stuff paste as it was all looking a bit grubby. That, plus clearing off the dining table, took forever. Where does all the stuff come from?! Constant flow of bits of paper, things to put away etc.

Since spent a happy half hour sat with a candle at the cleared dining table transferring things into my new notebook 😁 

Olympics now I think! Local woman was in a final tonight so I need to see if I can find out when without finding out in advance whether she won or not 😂😂

Baileys_Babe

Thanks you @Cheery_Daff and @beanielou for sharing details of your death file. I particularly like that boy have included a message of love to your son beanielou ❤️

Tescodealqueen

I have a folder and have written everything down in an orange notebook, named somewhat imaginatively “The Orange Book”. All kept in a red metal file also aptly named “The Red Box”

JGB1955

My father had an icon on his computer desktop linked to a file called 'Winding Up Orders'.  It detailed all his finances and last wishes.  i have a single, double-sided sheet of A4, kept in our safe, with similar information.  I update it every month or two.  Our children know how to access it and that our wills are in the same place.  I also have a 'playlist' of music I would like to accompany my non-religious cremation service.

rtandon27

Cheery - your simplicity is key! - Thank-you so much for spelling out how your system is set up.  Also Beanie - thank you for sharing the idea of an afterlife file - so well thought out!  It is just so very important that we all plan for when we can't take care of it all for our loved ones.

My paperwork is meticulous & I thought that OH could figure it out if needed.  Two years ago I was proved wrong when I unexpectedly found myself very ill, in and out of hospital and OH was in a panic.  There was no need to be as I had set up a failsafe of automatic payments for everything but food, and enough funding was ticking into the main account to cover all the bills for a year.  Did the man even bother to put some effort into figuring it out in case there was a point when he needed to pay attention? NO! - typical man (insert curses and grumbles here)  I can remember one instance when I was laying in a hospital bed, unable to move half my body and he showed up with the laptop as he could not figure out if his credit card needed attention!  I was beyond frustrated and angry!  To his credit, he did however manage to find the power of attorney paperwork when needed and wave it in their faces, so there was no pulling of plugs and he got to make the decision that means I'm here today!

All that to say - even after that hard lesson of two years ago, I still need to get around to putting a simple system in place like yours Cheery, and OH really needs to get it together and learn about how I manage the finances!

Cheery_Daff

Crikey RT, that is indeed a lesson and a half!! 😱😱 I am very glad you are still here too 😱 Mr Cheery is not at all daft, but before he met me he did just set up house insurance and leave it auto renewing for over 20 years, so my switching and shuffling does confuse things... All accounts are listed easily in YNAB, but that's quite a learning curve and not one to go through in a crisis, so everything does need simplifying. 

I am going through quite a period if both mental and physical clearing and decluttering at the minute, feel like I'm very willing to shed things so trying to take advantage and simplify what I can! 

Today's activities, in no particular order:

* another load of washing
* couple of rows of scything
* gym with Mr Cheery
* 15 mins in the offshot
* prepare for holidays tomorrow 😊😊
* get photos off phone - there are THOUSANDS, I always used to do a clean sweep off my little old pocket camera, so no real reason not to do that off the phone. Get them onto the laptop, mostly deleted, and the rest onto the external hard drive, and then keep on top of it.
* blog post
* check YNAB for Mr C's old NI payment

That'll do for a list for now - I imagine othher things will crop up...