Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy · 21 July 2019 at 8:51PM

Thanks fortune. Unfortunately not! I've posted our freegle site, alongside our freecycle one. Suspect it'll all be the same people on there, but hey ho, worth a go!!

shangaijimmy · 22 July 2019 at 7:16AM

Right 3 people have asked for the bed through the freegle site, so we start the rigmarole again waiting/hoping someone will turn up!!

debtfreeoneday · 22 July 2019 at 10:02AM

Such a pain isn't it when people don't turn up - you would rather they just said they didn't want it!

shangaijimmy · 22 July 2019 at 9:27PM

Correct debtfree! Well someone is due to collect at 9am tomorrow, so we'll soon see!

This morning didn't quite go according to plan. 8.30am (5mins later than preferred) the car is loaded with kids, a dog and an overly full boot of stuff for the charity shop following school run. So far so good.

And the car wouldn't start...battery flat as a pancake!

Emergency call to my dad who luckily lives 2mins away, and he dashed round to take 2 of them to school. I then set off on a walk with DD and pooch to drop them at grandma's! Only a mile or so, but a mile is enough with 3 bags, a dog and a 3yr old that wants to dawdle and pick flowers/weeds. I've been ridiculously busy today in work and sorting the car hadn't even crossed my mind.

Tomorrows plan then is Mrs SJ to do school run whilst I get homestart recovery out to charge the battery enough to get it to the garage. I have a dodgy relay to the indicators and the light now won't go off (until the battery was flat!). Its my own fault as its been dodgy for a few weeks. I've investigated and typically the relay box in my car is in a terrible place to get too and I have no tools for such job, and I've been delaying sorting it. Lesson to be learned I suppose.

shangaijimmy · 23 July 2019 at 8:46PM

Successful day. People showed up to collect the bed. I got my car started and deposited at garage and its all fixed for £75 (which i think is very reasonable, i am really fortunate to have found a garage I like and trust). Its lovely and hot which I really enjoy (sat outside now with a cold beer on a school night :eek:). Work was busy with some horrible tasks but I got them all done!

Moneywise it's not great as we are overdrawn but only for 1 day as I get paid on Thursday and in August we get Mrs SJ's catch up 13th pay! So i've transferred some cash from savings to avoid penalty and then set it to transfer back on Thursday.

Tomorrow is a tough day as I'll only get home at 1am on Thursday due to where I have to work from but hey ho in 14 days we will be on our hols so I don't really care! Also I have an eye test to slot in at lunch tomorrow. Now everyone in my family has needed glasses at the age of 30 (the numbers are spooky), except me. I'm 11 years overdue...! But I think my left eye is now faltering. So we'll see what the outcome is. I've prepped Mrs SJ that she will need to pick some glasses as I don't really have a face for glasses... My nose is flat, squashed and wonky...I really struggle to get sunglasses to fit right, or look right... So much so that my current pair where a free pair from an exhibition as I refuse to buy glasses that make me look even more ridiculous (have I mentioned that I have a large head as well...think Frank Sidebottom...one of my teases growing up)! So it will be interesting, perhaps contact lenses are my only solution!

Right kids are shouting to get out the bath, so I'm off... I'll report back on eye test outcome

themadvix · 24 July 2019 at 6:44AM

Glad people showed up for the bed... Nothing worse than freeglers who waste your time! Good news about the car too

Today sounds like it'll be tough - take care in the heat!

Moneyfordreams · 24 July 2019 at 8:39AM

bit harsh on yourself there SJ,

My eyesight reduced around age 44 . apparently the eye muscles that work on focus get lax around that age. You may only need readers.. cheap ones are just as good. Mind you I have in the past spent hundreds after rogue optician sold me glasses I didn't need. Then a few years ago when I started to stitch people up I realised I need to were for close up work as I couldn't see the thread. My husbands work place free staff eye test said I only needed readers and I paid £40 for the supermarket pair. I've since manged on home B ones, bulk buying 2.0+ online for nice ones. I do think I'm due a proper test. I'll wait until after my hols I think

Karmacat · 24 July 2019 at 9:31AM

I'm about to start facing eye tests - I'm mid 60s

one of my eyes is long sighted, the other is short sighted, so I've always been able to have both (but stereo vision in neither, everything always looks flat to me, and I can't judge distance).

shangaijimmy · 24 July 2019 at 10:09AM

Time will tell... Its inevitable that I'll need glasses, just a case of when. I'm happy with Money's idea of cheap readers. I'm sure I could use one of Mrs SJ's Home Bargains visits!!

shangaijimmy · 25 July 2019 at 9:02AM

Well no glasses needed so thats an outlay not required for a few more years! Long day yesterday as headed into work at 12noon, and got home and in bed at 1.00am with 5hrs of motorway travel built in! So feeling a touch jaded when DD surfaced at 6.30am.

Anyway, payday for me today and the first month of new pension/mortgage arrangements. I've done all the necessary money shuffles, paid back my dad who had to do an mercy dash to collect my car keys from the garage before the it closed and he had to pay! Got one more mortgage shuffle to make on Friday when Mrs SJ gets paid.

I've also freed up a further £100 to go into miscellaneous spends. We seem to have had a surge of kids birthdays parties and school clubs in the last 6 months which is making our budget too tight to be comfortable. So life has intervened somewhat!! Any of this cash that isn't spent we're going to spend on beer, gin, takeaways or the pub! Although i expect I'll op some out of it to 'scratch the itch'!

Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free