Progress is...

rtandon27

phew - I made it to Wednesday and have a glorious wfh day!  Two days in the office was more than enough this week even though I have one more left tomorrow!

It's warm but not too warm and I've spent the morning quietly working in the summer house trying not to get distracted by the butterflies!

Had a doc's appt early this morning as blue-badge bureaucracy means I have to get another letter stating my chronic health-condition and why/how/when it affects my mobility.  You'd think I was trying to steal the crown jewels - SIGH - just renew the dmn pass already!

redofromstart

Boo on the paperwork  but Hurrah for the trellis hardware 

badmemory

I obviously live in weirdland.  People keep saying they saw no butterflies last year & lots this year.  I saw lots more than usual last year & this year I've seen one.

rtandon27

@redofromstart - hardware is in hand, trellis is still not up! - crazy heat is to blame for that, but honestly there is no deadline as such!

@badmemory - our butterflies are prolific this year!  I've even had to start checking for them before shutting up the summer house for the night as they won't get out in the morning and will expire from heat before I get around to opening it up for the day.  An abundance of peacocks and what I think are yellow brimstones, They have even started to land on me while I'm gardening which leaves me with a story-book vibe 😁

Yesterday was a complete write off - it was well too hot to do anything at all so we rested indoors in the shade and kept hydrated - it's been a long time since I had to succumb to a do nothing day!  OH's day was less restful as he's somehow picked up a rotten cold and ended up with heatstroke from wandering down to town with me on Friday.  He's mostly viking (figurateively and genetically) and would do best in a permenantly cooler climate, given a choice he'd move to Iceland!  Cue bad patient modus operandii, so I just let him get on with it, while making sure he was hydrated.

So today will return to my weekly weekend list and work through what I can of it...

looming tasks...
❗ blue badge - modifications - honestly I can't figure out for the life of me why they are asking for things I've already submitted! (lots of cursing was involved when the e-mail arrived) - supplementary letter has been obtained from doctor now needs to be uploaded
💡 do bus pass application - this one may have to wait until the new bluebadge arrives? - I'll double check
❗ renew passports - one is expired - the other will expire soon
🔆 file the paperwork (have sorted through a huge pile that now needs filing)
🔆 my savings need juggling - OH's done

routine tasks...
✅ YNAB juggling 
✅ grocery order
✅ meal plan (last week's plan & this week's plan for reference!)
supplements
✅ Weekly surveys & contests - p!necone was good this week - prolific dismal - one or two contests available for entry
🔱 laundry - one small load done & one larger one waiting to be done (had to wash all the sick cloths and towels and sheets, OH has been feverish all weekend - not good when it's hot!)

not routine...
✅ six sink fulls of dishes & glasses & pots & pans as OH has not been doing any of his chores!
✅ crevice tool vaccuming - again, not a man thing given how full the vacuum was
✅ checked up on vodka vanilla and it's turning brown - another 2 months or so to go!
🔱 purchase and set up digital planner - how-to videos have been watched!
🔱 rice krispie squares - c/o to who knows when - we are eating ice creams & lollies atm
🔱 check when current energy fix ends (Oct 3rd) & diarize 49 days for switch (Aug 15)
* check date for home insurance renewal (august something) & diarize optimal price date (july insurance)

medical follow-ups...
🔱 follow-up on OT recommendations for work assessment
🔱 follow-up on eye specialist (forgot about this one!) - where is the dang referral?
🔱 have a look at nutritionist through healthcare - during the week sometime

garden things...
✅ copious amounts of blackberries picked & a few rasps that escaped the birds
✅ all the plants have been kept well hydrated this weekend with two waterings a day!
✅ transplant two supermarket parsley plants as old ones are close to being done
✅ red chilis strung up to dry - will make them into chili oil later in the year
🔱 new trellis needs to go up for the climbing rose in the front - OH has acquired the hardware! - heat has overtaken us
🔆 finish taming climbing jasmine & add more supports for it to grown on - mostly tamed - but not supported - not in this hot weather
🔱 trim down and rehome butterfly bush - sigh - after it stops flowering! - it's on the way to being finished but again not in this weather
* get gutters cleaned - ask window cleaner if he can do it
* start getting quotes for new felt for flat roof & summer house & shed
* transplant baby trees into their new pots
* transplant sale plants into the vacated medium pots
* order some cactus & succulent soil for indoor plants - these get neglected for years on end and thrive!

Greying_Pilgrim

Cabbage whites seem to be the most prolific of flutterbys in our neck of the woods rt.  I have seen a couple of male brimstones this year, but that was earlier on in spring.  

I hope your OH begins to feel better soonest - colds are bad enough in autumn and winter, we don't need them to strike in summer too!  

Greying X

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - thanks hunny - I'll pass along your well wishes - he's not eaten more than a banana in over 24 hours & has argued every time I try to get him to stay hydrated - I finally told him that if he didn't drink more fluid he'd end up in the hospital being forceibly hydrated & he's been behaving since!

It's so hot here today that the neighbours of the plastic grass have a sprinkler going as the plastic grass is melting 🫠 I've had a right laugh over that as the Mr had a complete fit earlier today & honestly has no one to blame but himself!

edinburgher

I saw a newspaper headline about plastic grass going on fire 🤔

Do you manage to get YNAB to match what your bank says? My end dates don't match. I'm wondering if this is because we voluntarily pay a small monthly OP but this doesn't change end date with bank but YNAB recognises it?

rtandon27

@edinburgher - I didn't use the mortgage calculator within my own regular budget as i'd already set up tracking accounts for the value of the property and the amount owing, so that it would be included in the net worth calculations & projections in my main budget.

Instead I created a separate budget just to play around with my mortgage and model different scenarios  I put in the original mortgage and it did indeed match the original projection.  I then put in regular payments that had been made as well as any ad-hoc overpayments.  This showed me that the end date changed accordingly, there is no option to keep the end date and just change the payments. 

My bank in fact defaults to lowering the payments while keeping the end date the same, I just manually keep topping up to the original monthly payment amount.  What I understood from a conversation with Greenbee is that I would need to contact may bank to adjust the end date & keep the payments the same.  I've had a poke around in my mortgage account and there is a way to change this, but tbh it is currently more trouble than it is worth, as I'll need to renegotiate next year anyway!

To model a scenario just for this year, I inputted a separate budget with just a mortgage account, starting with the figures in December 2024, this showed me visually where I stood at the time and I modelled my current large overpayment year in that.  I've been manually updating this separate budget in YNAB just to see how the end date is changing despite the fact that it's not changing in my actual mortgage account with the bank at the moment.

My original budget in YNAB remains the same with my tracking accounts covering the value of the house and the value of the mortgage.  When I want to know what my mortgage neutral position is, I just uncheck both of these & can see net worth which includes cash accounts, savings accounts and ISA's  When I want to see how much I still owe, then I check both of these on!

I hope that explanation was not too long winded for your simple question!  Personally I always love your detailed explanations over on you diary so thought I might return the favour! 😉

edinburgher

Thanks for the very detailed explanation @rtandon27, it's helpful. I am playing with adding all of our assets to YNAB to simplify NW tracking but it won't necessarily save much time at month end. 

As a fellow fan of Asian cuisine, have you ever looked at eBay for ingredients? I was very pleasantly surprised to find out usual Japanese instant ramen for just under 50p a packet, a good 23% cheaper than supermarket offer prices 👍🏻 I didn't even realise you got food on eBay!

rtandon27

@edinburgher - I'd not thought of BayofE at all for ingredients - what a great idea! I'll have a trawl on the weekend.  We tend to currently find an Asian cash & carry a couple of times a year and bulk by our most used products, but I can definitely see a place for having some top-up bits delivered between shops.

During pandemic times, I did in fact make use of all the catering deals that were on the Big River site - seemed an unbelievable bargain at the time and I did get more than a little carried away.  My mistake was not to realize just how long many of those big sizes & bulk buys last!  We recently finished the last of our dark soy, the last of our Thai rice and still have a jar of red and a jar of green Thai paste to use up.

It's mid-month and time for a Mortgage update...
I've just made the 5th of 10 overpayments for 2025!
This now means that since the January, I've paid off 15 months of the mortgage.
7 regular mortgage payments & 5 overpayments equate to 15 months reduction in real terms.
I have 5 more regular payments due and 5 more overpayments planned this year, so hopefully this will bring me up to at least 30 months (2.5 yrs) paid off by the end of the year.
I'm very glad to have made this decision to overpay, as future me will be very grateful when I actually get to retire at retirement age instead of beyond!

OH has gifted me with his stinker of a cold, complete with raw throat and congestion, so an hour or two of sick time needed to rest later today.

I spent what little excess energy I had paying attention to playing tetris with our grocery order - I think we'll do veg box only next week & our last order of the month the week after - it's a 5-week month so extra groceries/budget needed this month.

Big goal for the day is to finish off that (insert swear word here) application for the blue badge!  If I ever felt a rant about being a law-abiding tax-paying citizen coming on, now would be it.

A couple of smaller tasks to do as well but I've not quite got my head around what's most important.

ETA - docs uploaded (again) & application resubmitted - I can't get over the fact that some jobsworth can't see that I've already filled in and uploaded everything, if not, then the electronic system would not have let me proceed to the next step!!!!!