We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
2742 days until Retirement
Comments
-
Ok, not finding my clarity card ended up costing me more than I expected. It was the card I used to buy my train ticket and without it I was stuck. I didn't have time to go back or argue. £11.50 later and I'm on the train.
Not a very mse start to the weekend. Hopefully things can just get better from here.0 -
My HSBC mortgage was approved and from October I'm going to pay £850 less per month in interest :j
I've also started matched betting again but I'm trialling just doing offers (and not laying the bets). My theory is this: The only way to consistently make money from gambling is to play at better odds than the real odds are (that is why bookies always win in the long run). If you only play offers, you increase your chance to win drastically. It has several advantages over real matched betting:
1) It decreases the time and bankroll needed per bet drastically
2) You don't have to pay comission at the exchange
3) You can bet on your phone so can do it during breaks at work
4) All offers (including casino/bingo) offers can be used.
The only disadvantage that I can see is that your bankroll will flactuate drastically.
I've given myself £1k to trial it with.
In other news, I've received my vouchers from bounts
. So far I have made £80.
Have a good weekend other mfw :beer:0 -
Hmmm. I now see why people always lay their bets with matched betting. I played 6 offers without laying it (so 12 bets in total) and I lost every single one.
Logically I knew that this could happen, and that if I just continue I should statistically make a profit, but that does not make it easier to throw away money into a botomless pit at this stage. I think I should call this a failed expirement and go back to doing matched betting properly.
My bingo experiment didn't go much better. I did one of those promotions where you pay £30, get £90 to play with in Bingo and £30 in the casino.
At the casino I lost the money in no time (only slots counted to rollover requirements) and I am now steadily proceeding to loose the bingo money. Luckily I also get £26 cashback so it is just a £4 loss.
How anyone can get addicted to gambling is beyond me. There is just no fun in constantly seeing your money go down and the small wins you get do not make up for it.
All in all a rather expensive weekend, but I did learn a few things so the money was not a complete waste.0 -
After a disasterous restart to matched betting I have now made a profit of £103 :j I also have about £60 worth of free bets that I will play tonight. I would have been up about £400 if I hadn't trialled the "don't lay" strategy, but that is how we learn.
My pact money also paid out so that is another $10 (no idea how much that will be in pounds until it goes into my paypal account)
I need to free up £4.5k before 1 October as my remortgage amount is a bit short to ensure we could get 85% ltv for the mortgage rate. I've paused all monthly investments and regular savings so should hopefully be ok.0 -
I just worked out something amazing! If I work under the expectation that I can make £300 income per month after retirement I can retire in 5.5 years time! :j
I currently make more than that but I wouldn't want to depend on something like matched betting long term so I think I will work the extra 2 years. But... it gives me options. I could take some time off in 5 years time to recharge my batteries. If my boss annoys me I could just resign without really having to worry about the consequences. How cool would that be!? :beer:
If I can also get my expenses down by another £200 per month I can cut this down to 4.5 years.
My personal budget is pretty lean already so I won't be able to cut much there. Our shared budget has a lot of fluff though so I'll see what can go. Only issue with cutting shared budget is I have to do £400 as my partner matches my contributions to it. £400 might be a bit tricky.
Next week I'm on holiday caravanning in the lake district. And when I come back it will be payday and I'll be able to budget more savings. 0 -
Ok, I'm struggling to cut £400 from our shared budget.
Obvious ones to cut:
Cleaning (£200) - but I'd rather work an extra year or two and not have to clean
Groceries (I'm not saying) - we can probably cut about £400 from here alone but I'm not in charge of this. I've managed to convince my partner to cut down rather a lot, but that was a long and painful process. I've had enough arguments about food costs to last me a lifetime
Dog Walking (£135) - my puppies get lonely during the day. And I've already calculated that I won't have to pay this once retired so savings will be minimal
Dog Food (£100) - currently have them on a raw diet and I already buy the cheapest I can find. Hoping this will go down slightly as one of them just turned 1 years old, so she should start eating less as she is no longer growing
Holidays (£200) - Our holidays tend to be cheap, so most of this goes to visiting family which is fairly important to me
All of these are things I would be happy to get rid of (or cut) in the short term if I had dept to pay off, but I'm really not willing to get rid of it forever just so that I can work a year shorter. A year isn't that bad, I'll survive.0 -
i'm new to this site but just wanted to say to the OP that your thoughts really resonated with me. Good luck and i'll follow you journey and maybe pickup some useful tips.
Thanks
Scott
0 -
Hey Scott.
I feel honoured that you post your first post on my diary.
Have you read Mr Money Moustache yet? He set me on this path.
My favourite post is the one that tells you how long you have left to work based on your savings rate:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/0 -
Camping at the lake district was amazing
We went for a hike every second day and spent the rest of the time reading and drinking beer.
But it was expensive. The only shop close to us was a Booths (first time I heard of them) and they were pricey. I budgeted a fair amount so hopefully we are under.
I'm also going to save for a few more camping things:
1) Coveva windshield to keep the puppies safe
2) Artificial grass (we tend to stay on hard standing ground, and I thinking bringing our own grass with us just make sense)
3) New chair
4) Memory foam topper for the bed in our caravan.
These things will make camping MUCH more convenient, but they are pricey.
Tomorrow is budgeting day so I'll see how much I can save next month 0 -
We came in £11 under budget for the holiday. I'm not really happy about it as I budgeted an insane amount to ensure that we don't have to worry. Maybe worrying is better.
OH spent an avarage of £60 per DAY at Booths. Most of this was for alcohol. He has a drinking problem and I have a rule that he is not allowed to use the shared account for alcohol. I lift this rule over holidays as I tend to have a beer or two as well, but this is too much. I'll either have to implement a rule where we each buy our own beer, or stop drinking entirely over holidays as well. I have until Christmas to decide on a plan of action.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 350.6K Banking & Borrowing
- 253K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.4K Spending & Discounts
- 243.6K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.3K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.7K Life & Family
- 256.8K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards