Friday, July 22, 2016

Let's try to focus on the positive

Everything has been so lovely since I moved here (once I started getting over the moving part of moving that is) that this week's setback is kind of knocking me for six a bit. I hate feeling like if I had the financial means rights now, I would prefer to move house. I've all but completely forgotten about keeping up with my list of simple things that make me happy because, well, just about everything has been so great it felt a bit like there wasn't much of bad to be mitigated. So, now that there is negative stuff, I really need to try and put some of the tools I have learned about over the years back into practice.

With that in mind, here are a few positive things from the last couple of days:
  • Got my renewal notice for house insurance. My insurance premium went down when I moved to this area (hooray). The insurance perios runs from August to July and this year's renewal also included a deduction for the difference for the few months since I moved here until 1 August. So as well as the savings for the next 12 months, I didn't have to pay 6.89 of the bill that I did get. 
  • Receiving that renewal notice reminded me that the renewal notice for my personal liability insurance came in last week. That'd be one of the things my guest from hell tidied out of sight out of mind on me so at least I was able to go searching for it and get that paid as well. 
  • I may not have paid off the moving costs yet but I did have money put aside for these two bills and was able to pay them without stressing.
  • Despite an extraordinarily unproductive day in work (spent two hours not actually working, just surfing the internet), overtime that I worked last week means that I haven't actually gone into minus hours. Being solely responsible for tracking whether or not I have worked my 20 hours, with nobody tracking it at all, is just so great and it's really keeping me honest, which is, y'know, one of my favourite feelings.
  • I can hear thunder rumbling in the distance so am hopeful that the heat might break a bit and I'll be able to sleep properly tonight.
  • Tomorrow I'm going to go and buy turquoise/blue paint to paint the remaining bookshelf and get some colour cards to decide what colour red I want to paint my dresser. 
  • There's a half-packet of maltesers in the fridge.
  • I found local, organic produce at a supermarket that's on my way between work and home. So I have courgettes, salad and tomatoes waiting for me to eat over the weekend.
  • This morning started off with a lovely phone call with a good friend.
  • I managed to get through to a podologist who lives just down the road from me and have an appointment next week. I really hope she's good because it would be so convenient. And her rates are very, very reasonable.

5 comments:

James said...

Why insure a house you are renting? I never did.

I didn't want to insure the houses I bought, it was just a stipulation of the mortgage.

Insurance is just another form of tax and I avoid taxes like the plague.

Credit card insurance is another con. The world is full of middlemen trying to separate you from your hard-earned. Keep it in your pocket for the inevitable rainy days.

Moonwaves said...

Welcome to krautland! I'm not insuring the house really, it's more the contents are insured against fire, theft and water damage. Having both the house contents and the personal liability insurances is a requirement of most rental agreements here. Of course you can find places that don't ask for it but not very many and it's hard enough to find a place as it is. The one benefit of these being mandatory for most people is that there are lots of companies offering them and the competition keeps the costs relatively low.

Having said that, I am a sucker for insurance and I have to watch myself and make sure I'm not persuaded to sign up for maximum levels of every type going. It was a thread on the askaboutmoney forums years ago that really made me think about it instead of just falling for every worst case scenario line I was fed. Huge and very interesting discussion about whether it was better to pay for VHI or to save the money and invest it instead, assuming that if you did need to pay for expensive procedures at any stage, you'd have accumulated enough to cover the expense.

James said...

You should be glad if all your possessions were stolen or destroyed.

Less to lug around.

Downsize more!

I didn't do VHI either.

James said...

Another thing. Insurance preys on a person's worries.

Will I have a serious illness?

Will I be burgled?

It's the Western way. Fill the news full of doom and gloom. Offer them crutches during the advertising break.

Statistically you won't have any problems requiring insurance and by investing wisely you will cover the cost of any future problems you may encounter to a greater extent than any claim.

Of course, you might be Queen Out Of Luck of the Kingdom of Lucked Out but that is the extreme. Most people are about the average and the average person has nothing worth insuring.

I do have car insurance because of the law but I have the minimal amount and made sure that I drive an old semi "classic". I am part of an owner's club and pretend to only drive the car minimally to and from classic car meets. That is the only insurance I have and it's less than £200 PA because of my usage "agreement".

I also refuse to pay the bbc any broadcasting tax. I thought propaganda was meant to be free. Most people avoid paying money where possible. If the 1% are at it all the time then so should we.

I downsize to the level of near invisibility. Ready bag and hard drives to go at a moment's notice.

Moonwaves said...

First time I didn't buy travel insurance, three full bags of stuff were stolen on a train (I had returned to Germany to pick up the belongings I had left there, kitchen dishes and so on, hence the multiple bags). So, now I pay a not very substantial price to have an annual travel insurance policy and don't worry about it anymore. But having your sister donate some old underwear because you cannot afford to replace everything all at once isn't the most relaxing thing to do either. You have the resources to replace anything you might need to, that makes a big difference. Although I agree with you in principle, I'm not there yet.