Cherry takes the reins

angelpye · 6 March 2017 at 9:59PM

I am pretty sure its Marsala wine Nigella puts into her chicken pie recipe and its delicious! Ultra indulgent! Homemade tiramisu sounds amazing too

Sounds like you had a very lovely birthday.

Cherryfudge · 7 March 2017 at 11:10AM

angelpye wrote: »

I am pretty sure its Marsala wine Nigella puts into her chicken pie recipe and its delicious! Ultra indulgent! Homemade tiramisu sounds amazing too

I think we first came across it in a Nigella recipe... funny story there. DH went and asked in the supermarket and nobody knew what it was. He thought he'd be helpful and suggested it was probably something to do with Tikka Marsala! No wonder the staff couldn't find it! :rotfl:

Cherry's 'how to make people think you are a better cook than you actually are' guide:

Serve baked items still hot
Add marsala

angelpye wrote: »

Sounds like you had a very lovely birthday.

Oh I did, thank you, I did!

MS so far today: cancelled a supermarket order for next week when continuing to sort Mum's house. Saving £1 packing and £4 delivery. Also stuff I wanted but didn't really need. I will have to do some planning though and find stuff I can carry.

A quick calculation makes that a total saving of 11.15 :j.

I haven't managed to find that post about living off the larder and while I have loads of similar resources so I could probably generate my own, I have that tantalising feeling that there was something new and interesting in it.

Day off today and loads to do. If I can fit in a trip to B&M, I will, but maybe that's for tomorrow (also a day off and also quite full). Chick peas and washing powder are on the B&M list, also a tinned pie for DH while I'm away (a lot cheaper than anything he'd buy for himself but he does actually like them).

Note to self: when I can whittle down that list of things to do, I need to make a menu like I used to. It won't be perfect but it will help.

Cherryfudge · 7 March 2017 at 12:24PM

MortgageI'm still trying to get DH to look at whether we can afford to overpay on our mortgage this month before it flips over into the new financial year. To be fair, he's under long term stress at work and the end of March is also the official end of his existing post and the start of the new one that he's been doing for the last couple of months in addition to his old job. (No extra money for doing two jobs at once: it's what the Government gives us in the name of austerity and so-called efficiency).
There's a strong likelihood that I'll be able to pay off a goodly chunk of mortgage next year if we get Mum's estate sorted but to maximise the overpaying I need to shift everything I can onto this month's budget.
Car stuffDH's new job is going to mean a new car as he will have to drive a lot (public transport not normally an option due to time taken and large geographical area covered). He reckons about £5-6,000, which is more than we've ever spent on a car. That money is in the other account, which also pays for nearly everything except food and mortgage, which I pay for. Our old car might last a few more months, give or take. There's an added difficulty in that petrol cars make me feel really sick, so a diesel with that dooberry that makes it less bad for the environment would be a good idea. I used to be able to take over-the-counter medication that helped a lot but it clashes with some stuff I now have to take on a permanent basis. Maybe I need to get to the pharmacy.

Both the above mean that any mortgage overpayment has to be found from the account my wages go into.

This is just for that account. Okay... here goes:
Balance at start of month: £1119.98
4 weeks' food money @ £80 pw £320
Mortgage £282.24
Assorted donations and DDs already gone out £152.00
Insurance payment IRO £150 (need to find details and set this thing up)
Train fare £57.10

So as of now there is a possible £158.64 available to overpay. :T... provided I cancel Amazon Prime (£7.99).

However I am fairly sure there will be other things I can't think of now.

The person who helps care for the house has been paid up to the end of this month and will be doing fewer hours next month. Her next month's pay will come out of my next month's money - so once I've finalised with the other executors what her future hours will be (offsetting my costs in travel and I'm giving my labour for free as it's really doing my own household maintenance), then I send a cheque at the end of this month ready for her to cash once April starts. This month's pay came out of my February money so won't feature in the Great March Budget.

Sorry to waffle on at length but this area isn't my strength and I need to talk it through very slowly and deliberately!

kazwookie · 7 March 2017 at 12:32PM

Hello

Why not for now cancell the £120 or so DD's donations, and use that money towards sorting your mother's house, as it seems you work extra shifts to cover this, if you cancelled the DD, you wouldnt need to work the extra shifts and you could also use the time on your mother's house and get it done quicker. if you see what I mean.

Good luck with it all

Cherryfudge · 7 March 2017 at 12:46PM

Thanks for taking time to look

I do see what you mean though this month's have already gone through so can't be changed. It does matter to me to make donations though... so many people worse off than me and a bit of what I have might make things easier for someone. I guess it's a kind of 'thank you' for what I have, so I'm skimming off the top (if you remember old fashioned doorstep milk!) and doing what I can with the rest. This diary is making me be more deliberate about the choices I make though.

You are quite right about the shifts. I'm reserving a chunk of my days off to work on Mum's house and not taking any extra shifts then. It takes me 4 hours to get to the house and the fare is quite hefty so unfortunately I can't afford to do less than a couple of days at once. No popping in for an hour or so. The only shifts I've taken on in March are sleep in shifts which have very little effect on my availability for house clearing. In the past I would have taken on more, so I'm definitely learning.

It makes sense in my head and by my reasoning - not saying that's the optimum way (which would probably be for me to learn to drive, ferry myself over early on a day off and come back late, but out of respect for other road users I desist

).

kazwookie · 7 March 2017 at 12:55PM

Well once you are all sorted out can always reinstate the donations.

Stb_2 · 7 March 2017 at 1:21PM

Hi, just a thought and I'm not trying to criticise in any way, I completely understand why you don't want the estate to accrue debt, but it sounds like you're finding the additional burden difficult; would you consider using the option to accrue debt against the estate to relive pressure on yourself and husband financially, but maintain the rigorous cost over site you've set up so you know your not being frivolous with the money? I understand completely that you want to be responsible with the estate I just wonder if you could use the ability to accrue debt to your advantage? Is there not also a risk that if you accrue the debt your share of the estate might not repay it in full? Obviously I don't know all the details but it's just a thought. Well done by the way, looks like you've smashed this over the last few weeks!

Cherryfudge · 7 March 2017 at 2:19PM

Ah -new ideas! I always like new ideas!

So as I understand it, the idea is that anything paid out in relation to the estate would go on the estate's bill and come off the inheritance? (You may have to say things loudly and clearly to me.

)

The house and land has a provisional value as it stands (in need of extensive modernisation, as they say) of around 300,000. It's to be split between my sister, me and a mortgage of £91,000 (my sister lives abroad and can't do much practically to help but has offered to help cover costs if necessary. However airfares come to around £1,000 so I kind of want to take my fair share). There is also cash of around £60,000 which can't be touched till we've sorted probate and because of the value of the estate we are going to take every precaution that we don't get into Inheritance Tax.

Without access to the Executor Account (may happen in a few weeks, if no hitches), I can't use that money to pay anything. The insurance are insisting they are paid this month - as with other expenses I can reclaim from the estate soon enough. There is even just a chance that probate could be sorted really quickly but I doubt it will be in time to pay everything off this month!

The insurance covers Mum's house and (as I understand it) means they can't call the mortgage in. No way can I find £91,000 off this month's wages

. I know I can't be held personally liable for the mortgage, but the estate of course can.

Unless I do something really stupid or the house gets trashed by something not covered by the insurance in the next few weeks, the inheritance will cover costs and leave us comfortable for a good few years, so that's not a concern.

The complications in the longer term are around whether we should sell or keep the house. We grew up there and it's in a beautiful and up-and-coming area. It would be great if we could afford to have it done up and rent it out. There is sufficient land with it that, if we could sell some with outline building permission, we could pay off the mortgage and still have enough between us to do the house up. Neither of us has much in the way of a pension so some sort of income like this would be useful. My present pension contributions will never amount to much so keeping the house as an investment has an appeal.

DH, I have to add, is not on board with this. He sees a massive amount of work and a lot of long-distance responsibility. He's quite right. What he doesn't see is the fun of the project and he thinks that because other people let go of their childhood homes, we should too. He is right in that I could look into using my inheritance to buy and rent out something locally to where we live (no option of moving back due to family ties here). We've rented in the past with a very inefficient agent and lost money due to their mismanagement so we don't have the best track record.

Oh crumbs, this is so long. My sister is hard to pin down - not only is their Internet unreliable, but so far she has agreed when I've suggested renting it, and agreed when I've mentioned selling. Obviously it's not a one-person project so if we didn't agree to do it up and rent out, it would be sold, probably at a bit of a loss as lots needs to be done to it.

Edit: it seems we can have an unused allowance from my Dad (Mum inherited his half of the house and because they were married this allowance didn't need to be claimed) to reduce the likelihood of Inheritance Tax - but sorting this will delay Probate.

Cherryfudge · 8 March 2017 at 12:12AM

Busy, busy day.

Spends: £10 piano lesson. Because I like a challenge, because it helps my mental health, because I've come so far I'm not intending to give up now. Having said that, no lesson next week as I'm otherwise engaged. The money for this comes from the original account not the one my pay goes into so it doesn't officially count towards this diary but in the interests of a complete picture there it is.

MS things:
Dinner made entirely from things found in the freezer so no direct cost.
Building up a shopping list rather than hoping I'll remember everything tomorrow.
Found 5p down the sofa

Cancelled Amazon Prime.

Unsuccessful in:
Tried unsuccessfully to check the other bank balance and to change my BACs payment, Seems two websites aren't playing ball.
No meal plan as yet.
Searched high and low for utility bills for Mum's house. What on earth have I done with them?

Macey1510 · 8 March 2017 at 11:51AM

I started piano lessons a couple of years ago, it was something I had always wanted to do...I didn't get very far but I'm looking forward to starting them again once everything calms down. Hope you have a great day.

Cherry takes the reins

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