Where are we now?

Where indeed!

Well dad is doing as well as could be expected I think. I been out in the evening a few of times, for a fitness class (Clubbercise, anyone tried it. Its bonkers but fun) and for some Indian Cookery lessons which I organised with my friend. We managed by going to dad before and after the fitness class, and before the cooking and then lovely Jamal popped down there for a couple of hours as we cooked. Dad seems to cope during the day as he is still shopping, cleaning the house etc, even ironing but the long lonely evenings of winter dont suit him a bit. I think once he can get into his garden to keep busy until early evening it will be better.  He is doing everything at thouse as mum did, like he thinks she will be checking on him. I guess thats why he prefers to stay in the house instead of moving in with either of us. Lucky that we all live close together as it wasn't always like this!

I have been running numbers on my pension to see if I can stop my job early. I think I might have just realised I am mortal. The amount which they say is in the fund seems a lot but if you start to take it early then it doesnt seem like very much at all! I guess i'll just have to suck it up for a few more years yet!

But anyway my idea for retirement was to just do different work, not no work, so might as well keep going at this and maybe start a side job too. We shall see.

ooh and I nearly forgot. Fahed and I were married 30 years last Sunday. 20th Jan. The kids organised a party in my house. It was lovely and i didnt have to cook at all. I knew they were coming round but didnt realise what they were up to. It was very lovely. Someone must have photos but not me!

Actual plans for 2019

Am I blogging a lot? I because i want to talk but at the same time I dont think I do actually want to talk. So you, the universe and anyone who reads my ramblings, are bearing the brunt!

Financial:

Mortgage under £155k

Invest £15k in Crete property

Save towards big holiday in 2020  (I dont think this will happen though as I dont feel I can leave dad).

Allbrook:

Complete upstairs bathroom

New kitchen floor

Bedroom carpet This happens on Thursday :)

New mattress Got it! Arrived yesterday

Stair carpet

New boiler - I have one quote so far. 

(This all looks quite good until you realise roughly the same thing was on last years plans and didnt happen, oh dear)

Crete:

Retaining wall

Furniture

Flu less fire (from Uk)

Health:

Lose 20kg (again :( )

10000 steps a day

Healthy diet

2 x activities each week

12 weeks BSD

Trips:

Mallorca - super economical week from the local airport - all booked and paid for

Crete for Easter - booked and flights paid for. Will require car hire.

Long Crete holiday - Wait and see how lovely Dad is

France weekend - We were going the weekend after we lost mum. They kindly refunded us when i phoned up to say we wouldn't be travelling. We plan to go again when we see a good offer advertised. 2 nights in St Malo, all of us plus sister and husband and dad.

2019 plans

So i had a look at where we are with my 'balance sheet' side of things. Well its all good except I am 56 and still have £165,000 left on my mortgage. I have only been overpaying a small amount lately as I am trying to get the place in order and also crack on with the old house. So whilst my balance sheet looks pretty good my profit and loss account isnt so great. We are being pretty frugal I think in order to get the mortgage paid and the rental house sorted before I retire, hopefully in 4 years.

So we shall continue to be our usual fairly frugal selves going into 2019. A good thing in our favour is we dont buy 'stuff' really. Or go shopping except when we need something. We never walk around the shops unless we are looking for a specific item. And we don't eat out much. Well I don't but Fahed has been lunching with dad a couple of times a week as my dad seems to enjoy it.

Also we are fortunate that Fahed and the kids are able to do 90% of the home maintenance. This Christmas Fahed renewed the upstairs bathroom. New vinyl flooring from the discount warehouse, new toilet from work (they sold off some new but unwanted stuff, like windows, baths and of course toilets), basin from ebay, cupboard from ebay and actually the bath also from ebay. A woman had bought it and had it plumbed in wrong but the plumber did it wrong so she was selling it again. The bath tub was apparently £597 new but i paid about £50, although we did have to go collected it in the car which costs maybe another £30 in fuel. Oh and I got a new electric shower for £69, reduced from £150. Its super.

So I cant help noticing these are not 2019 plans at all, its just me rambling. So i suspect i have to do a bit more thinking!

Balance Sheet as at 31/12/2018

What can I say. Its the accountant in me!

Value of house in Allbrook (from Zoopla so not especially accurate)            £341,000
(this was £387,000 last year but am not crying about it as I suspect very fluid until you actually sell)

Less outstanding mortgage (sigh, still so much)                                            (£166,000)

Value of Greece House  approx 250,000 euro                                                £225,000

Value of old Greek House that we are renovating as a holiday let
100,000 euro - we have been offered this for it but value very fluid.             £  90,000

Value of my Pension Pot (as per the statement as I left the scheme)             £600,000

Value of other fixed assets (cars etc)     
I dont think i h ave anything else. Cars are virtually valueless,                         Nil
we dont have jewellery etc


Fixed assets less liabilities                                                                             £1,090,000

Actually I am pretty pleased with that.
I have just remembered I have a balance of about £1500 on my credit card from flights and major car repairs but will be cleared by about March so not so bad.

Hello 2019

So somehow we made it through New years.  |Obviously still missing lovely mum like crazy and there are many tears but keeping dad well and as happy as possible is taking most of our time. So anyway I am trying to go into 2019 more positively. I have a day off today but plenty to do here and it gives me chance to information gather about where I am in life. I am going to look up all the numbers to see what my net wealth is, look at pensions and budgets and when i can retire! Look at my 2018 plans and how they went and my 2019 ones to come.  See you later!