MFi3 & before I am 40 + my MB journey

TallGirl

Back from France and it was a great trip. I am so glad we went in the end really nice and quite relaxing actually. Set off on the tunnel at 12.20pm straight to Sainsbury and Auchan. Sainsburry had a really good offer on 3L box pinot grigio so we got 9 of them (£6.40 each 1/2 UK Price) Then off to Auchan to stock op on Cheese and a few bits for dinner last night. Got some really lovely stuff and best of all it was so empty. Then off to Tesco at CitiEurope via a pub to have some lunch and a nice pint of larger.

Tesco was great, lots of offers our favorite Pino was BOGOFF, £10 for a case of 6, that is so so cheap. We also got 30 small largers for £5 and some great red wine. In the end we ended up with 130 bottles of wine at about £2.50 each. That will keep us going for such at long time.

We then went to the tunnel and got on straight away so in the end we spend less than 3 hours in France but we got everything we wanted. DH got cigarettes as well and I found my favorite Danish sweets so really happy. Was home by about 7.30pm and no trafic problems on the old M25.

Cost us £54 to take the tunnel but we definitely saved quite a bit and had a nice time too. So glad we did not waste another £50 by staying overnight.

Move_To_Portugal

Sounds like a good trip TG!

aliportico

Sounds great - am jealous - need to go soon! Am feeling the need for lots of cheap pink fizzy stuff as summer approaches

TallGirl

Afternoon, jsut back from playing golf. Got delayed by 1 hour due to lightning so took forever but still nice to see everyone and did not play too badly.

And finally we have news about the bathrooms. Fitter is coming on Tuesday to do the final tile choices and make sure we have ordered everything and then he is realy do start 2nd week of May maybe even on the 6th May. I can't wait now, we picked up some of the tiles yesterday and they look really really cool.

Going to read the papers and chill out now as I am so tired. Take care all. May even watch some golf, I have a MB on Sergio and he could actually win it.

TallGirl

Morning
Sorry I haven't been around had to go to HQ and spend a couple of days but back now and as we are now in a brand new month it is time for a proper update:

Wages
Just got my wageslip and my tax code is now K58 instead of K396 as I have finished paying off some overpayment due to my company car. I have also had a payrise of £105 so in total I am getting £157 a month more which is a great help towards the mortgage and paying for the bathrooms.

Mortgage:
Still paying £1000 a month around the 18th of each month and balance is 22K. However I also pay off any interest added after the 1st to keep the number nice and rounded. Last month we were charged £61.65 in interest but this month it was only £55.61. That is a reduction from £1.99 a day to £1.86 which although not a lot is still nice to see.

Offset Savings/Current Accounts
I try to keep as little in my current account as I can and actually got down to 97p just before payday. I transfer £600 a month into my savings account and then anything I can spare from the current account. I have been using this account to make the overpayments which is why I now only have £2600 left in savings. As I have now had a payrise I shall increase the amount to £750 to reflect this. However as it is all offset it doesn't matter where the money is and we can borrow it all back. I think DH has about £9k saved and his is offset but we have seperate current accounts and savings accounts.

Match Betting
Taking it quite slowly now, been doing the offers on Skyb*t which are great. They had two offers on horseracing where you had to bet and then anything you lost you got 25% back to use in the casino. However if you won it had to be offset. I tried to do both offers but told I could not do them however they both paid out. I got £33 and £37 which had to be turned over once to be withdrawn. DH played roulette and we got £160 out - very nice thank you SkyB*t. Profit is now £1388 :T

That is all for now, better get on with the days work.

TallGirl

Hope you are all enjoying the lovely bank holiday weekend, I am suspose to mow the lawn, got 2/3 done so I am having a rest. Been out looking at tiles again again. Gone off cream and brown in bathroom so going for monochrome in all 3 now.

Black natural slate on the floor in 2 of them, glass tiles as splashback in cloakroom and livetiles behind shower in bathroon. White tiles on walls. Ofcourse it is more expensive than what we had gone with but labour cost are a lot so spending £10 more per sqm is not a lot as the rooms a so small. Just emailed a seller on Ebay about some white tile samples, he is selling them at £10 sqm and the ones we have seen are £36 so would be a nice saving.

Still match betting going for two horses in the race at 3.20 today, I will loose about £4.50 on a £100 but if any of them come second I will get a full refund so worht the punt I think. I have to 2 favorites at the moment.

Well better get on with the lawn before the race.

setmefree2

Must be a big lawn if you're having a rest;) The tiles sound lovely:D

TallGirl

setmefree2 wrote: »

Must be a big lawn if you're having a rest;) The tiles sound lovely:D

It is not that big and its done now so going to settle down to watch my horses come 2nd hopefully.

Also tidied up the garage to make room for some of the bathroom stuff that is arriving on Tuesday from the bathstore. Really hot and bothered now - who needs the a gym when you can do gardening. :rotfl: :rotfl:

Update: My horses did come second, happy days £55 free bet on its way to me.

TallGirl

Quick update:
Stuff from the Bathstore is being delivered today and I am having to go out in 1 hour which is not good. I spoke to the store on Saturday and they were not very helpful. It will be delivered between 7am and 7pm and no they don't know if they call before hand.
I am going to leave a note with OH mobile number on when I go out and then they can call him while they start off loading. I will also leave the garage door unlocked. Hope that is OK, deliveries are such a pain.

Going to West Sussex today for a short meeting, will be nice to get out as my home office is realy hot and I am having to have the blinds shut in order to see anything.

On the MB front I got £55 from the horse racing offer and £20 from Jaxx with £25 from Quidco still to come. Balance increasing slowly but not really doing that much. Still enjoying it though.

Update it is now 40 min until I leave and still no call from the Bathstore delivery people and the shop can't help either. Just done the note hope they call DH.

TallGirl

Morning
Bathroom stuff arrived without any problem, driver called DH but was happy to unload without him there and actually left before DH got back. We checked everything last night and nothing is broken and all is correct expect for.....ofcourse...the largest item......the bath.....

Got tap holes and antislip neither of which we wanted. You only get 48 hours to notify them so need to do it today. However have now realised that fitter is planning on a design that needs a double ended bath and the one we have ordered is single ended. I am going to speak to him today to see what he thinks before I speak to the shop. They might swap it for the one we want since they have delivered the wrong one but the waste thingy will also need to be changed. So typical. Anyway thought I would put some links in so you can see what it is going to look like.

This is the sink and cabinet for the main bathroom. We are not having black tiles and to be honest the picture is not as nice as the last catalogue but it gives you an idea.



The bath I need to swap to is like this
http://www.bathstore.com/bathstore_catalogue.html?id=bathstore_vol56
There is no taps as the overflow lets the water in and it is controlled by the 3 way valve you can see on the back wall. We are going to have the control valve lined up over the overflow so there is only the shower attachment on the back wall. It also stops your hand getting wet when you tunr on the shower. We are having the same showerscreen as in the picture. It is less obtrusive and if it needs to be used as a proper stand up shower we can fit a shower curtain. This is only going to be used when we have visitor as I would shower in the wetroom.

So the reason we need the double ended bath is so there is less clutter on the back wall so you can see the tiles. They are made of glass and look like this:

http://www.ncdirect.co.uk/livetile/index.php?p=en_projects_bathrooms
They are grey but really do look like a bit like a hollowgram. It is only a small area 70cm x 1.8m so quite funky but plain enough not to be mad.

I think that is enough for now will get you know more when I have spoken to the shop.