Sepa seeks freedom

Sepa74

Thanks Julieff, who is your business savings account with? Mine pays ridiculously low interest, but they all seem to - much lower than personal savings accounts.

I am miserable today because I have a nasty head cold and a touch of sinusitis. However, I am pleased because the editor of the online magazine I have started writing for is very happy with my first article, so I will invoice him shortly. Hooray! I've got the second article written, but the 3rd one isn't flowing - not sure if that's because of the cold, or if it's because it's a rubbish article!!

I was very good this week, 3 out of 5 days were NSDs, although I did treat myself to a coffee from the local coffee shop on Thursday in a desperate effort to keep myself going through the afternoon! I also rather splurged on gardening stuff from Van Meuwen... was so carried away, I completely forgot to go through Quidco! What an idiot.

They were having a sale, so I got a grow bag each of asparagus, rhubarb and a potatoes, 3 other grow bags of potatoes and a hanging grow bag for strawberries for £15ea, so a total of £45. There is no way I will make my money back, but gardening is my biggest money-saving vice!

The sad news is that the lunch club at work has folded, so it's back to cooking on a Sunday evening and taking food in for the week. I was thinking I might make more use of the freezer and freeze portions - that way I can have several different dishes in the freezer that I can eat through the week so I don't get bored eating the same thing everyday.

I have really noticed the difference that not buying lunch makes. It dramatically increases my NSDs and removes temptation to open my purse for non-lunch related purposes.

Well, I'd better run, I have an appointment at 3. I hope everyone is well.

julliff

Hi Sepa

You are absolutely right, the business saving accounts pay next to nothing. however, taking the money out to a personal account would have it's own tax impliactions, so they have really got you. I was cahtting to another of my contractor fiends, who told me he is meeting upwith his accountant to look at some low risk investment vehicles, into which this money can be set aside (probably only good for corp tax, as VAT etc has to be paid too often. If I get anything usefulbackfrom him. I'll be sure to pass it on.

I have been thinking about getting one of those strawberry planter thingies. I know the amount of strawberries we will get won't cover the cost of it, but I lovethe idea of growing our own. Also, maybe one of those potato planter buckets, and a hanging tomato planter or too. I need to have things that are not too high maintenance, as with my full time job, and having two teenagers, I would struggle otherwise. Quite like the idea of growing onions too.

Well done on writing the articles! I struggletopost on the forum :-)

Sepa74

Hi Juliff, I'd really appreciate it if you could pass on what your friend's accountant suggests. I'm going to talk to mine too at some point too, so I'll let you know if he says anything interesting. It's not a priority for me because I'll have to pay corp tax soon, and will take a dividend shortly, all of which will make the balance drop considerably.

One other option is to increase my pension payments. I'm currently paying £450 a month, but before I do anything I want to get my financial advisor to look at my options and make sure I'm making the most of them. Pensions are an important investment, but I don't think I should necessarily pump huge amounts into them without getting advice first.

lol.. you definitely have more time to do things like write articles when you don't have kids. The cats need a bit of care and attention, but it's not exactly in the same league! I'm also fortunate that I love what I do, so writing articles doesn't really seem like work.

I got my quarterly mortgage statement today, so have had the fun of working out my current balance. It's come down just over £1000 since the December statement, which is quite impressive. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because it's the time of year where you have a council tax holiday?!

Because I've started paying off £650 per month, the current payoff time is 25yrs and 4 months - which is June 2036. It feels like a VERY long way away

I'm currently only paying interest on £124,827 because I have £15K in the offset savings account.

I would feel quite pleased, except that I am still sick as a dog and feeling very miserable for myself at the moment! I've done the typical contractor thing and struggled to work even though I've been ill. It's partly because I don't want to lose any earnings, but mostly it's because I'm at a critical point at work where if I don't plough through the next 6 - 8 weeks I'll lose the benefit of a years worth of work, which would be very disheartening.

The other piece of good news is we've organised a roofer to do the garage roof. He's hoping to do it in the next couple of weeks, which means I'll be able to start buying kitchen and bathroom furniture on special and store them until I get them both renovated. Hurrah!

Sepa74

I've had a minor moneysaving disaster over night. I decided to cook up some cauliflower, some old sausages and some beans in my slow-cooker. It's a disaster because a) it was only after they were thawed that I realised they weren't old at all, but they were lovely expensive organic sausages from my local farmers market! Luckily there were only 4, and I ate one last night, so I've only wasted three.

I also used up 3/4 of a cauliflower, plus a tin of aduki beans, an onion, tin of tomatoes and some old spices.

It's a disaster! The cauliflower smelled TERRIBLE!!! to the point where I woke up in the middle of the night wondering what the dreadful smell was! Because they were pork sausages I put it on high over night... so it's also horribly overcooked. I have thrown it all in the compost!!!!

It's only a minor disaster because the ingredients probably cost a fiver... but I've now got every window in the house open trying to get rid of the smell, except for my office where the computer is... fortunately I've got an electric radiator to keep that room warm, so I'm not actually shivering!

Oh well, we live and learn.... and the moral of the story is don't slow cook cauliflower!!!!!!

Radish72

Cauliflower is pure evil along with carrots and broccoli


Except that if the broccoli is sprouting I can eat it and if the carrots are roasted I can eat them


I think I'm going to have to un-subscribe to your thread now as your not the person I thought you where, giving house space to evil :rotfl:

Sepa74

lol... Oh Radish, I'll miss you... broccoli is one of my favourite veg, and I often eat a carrot as a snack while I'm cooking dinner! but I can see there's no future for us!

Radish72

quietly sneaks back in .......................................shush

katsu

:rotfl: thanks Sepa, your pain is my amusement

Sepa74

Ooh! I saw you sneaking back in Radish! Can't fool me!

Katsu, I live but for your amusement

Have just been out to buy milk and a small packet of minstrels. I wanted some yesterday, but resisted temptation, so when I wanted them again today I decided that my need was real and I would treat myself after the cauliflower disaster. Minstrels are great because I play with them as I eat them - taking the crispy coating off - so they last for ages. They're good value chocolate!

I've going through a using up stores blitz - partly as an MSE thing, but also because I'm going to get the kitchen renovated sometime in the next couple of months so want to empty it out. I'm starting to run out of the staples like tins of tomatoes, though, so am thinking about doing an internet order. But I know that I'll buy lots of stuff and then not use up all the old stuff because it's things like barley and herbal teas that have been sitting there for years because I only use them when there is nothing else in the house!

It's very satisfying finishing something off that's been sitting around for ages, though. I love it!

mortgage_girl

Hey Sepa, just thought i'd stop by for a nosey and see how you're doing. I grow my own fruit and veg too but i'm quite lucky as I have a fairly big garden so I can grow quite a large selection of goodies. I've actually converted one of the veg plots into a strawberry patch as they were all mixed in with the flowers before and spread like crazy. One word of warning with strawberries - make sure you cover them with a net or the birds will have a feast! This is the first year of trying to manage it on my own so i've planned meticulously and made a list of what needs planting month by month - hopefully i'll find the time to do it. I love courgettes too - they're such good value as each plant produces loads.

I'm going to subscribe to your thread and hopefully i'll be able to pick up some tips from you...although, as a fellow chocoholic, I suspect you might set off my chocolate cravings every now and again!