Lois_E begins a long MFW journey

Lois_E

Ooh - lots of people commenting and thanking on my diary. How encouraging. Thank you everyone - and a special welcome to Polkadot Dress. :wave:

If I'm getting all this attention I'd better do something worthwhile, hadn't I? So here are some goals for 2013:

1) Get my savings account and ISA up to £10k between them (currently £4,566.29 + £2,500.00 = £7,066.29 but will need to spend some of that on building work)
2) Get all building work finished and paid for (well, apart from the one major thing that I'm leaving for a few years until I've got more money)
3) Declutter so that there are no boxes of stuff in the house (but OK to have some in the garage and loft)

*Jellie*

Lois_E wrote: »

3) Declutter so that there are no boxes of stuff in the house (but OK to have some in the garage and loft)

and under the beds, and in cupboards and in sheds...:D

Lois_E

Lois_E wrote: »

Just thought of something else I can add to my many mortgage graphs.

Now the graph showing the mortgage coming down (and projected into the future all the way to the MFD) also shows the ISA coming up to meet it. That way I can have graph joy even when I am sensible and put money into the ISA rather than off the mortgage or loans.

I like the graph joy, but it's not enough. I need a date that gets earlier when I put stuff in the ISA. Hence the addition of neutral date to my sig. Had to rejig it though, to get under the max characters for a sig.

*Jellie* wrote: »

and under the beds, and in cupboards and in sheds...:D

Well, of course.
Although actually all our beds are divans and don't have space underneath, but cupboards are fair game, and as for the shed, that's lower down the list than the garage!

Lois_E

Woohoo! I have found £12.14 in an account that I emptied last summer, but which added some interest to itself in September, when I wasn't watching the account because I "knew" it was empty. I only looked at it today to check what interest rate it would get if I put anything into it.

Email request for gas/electric meter readings has come. Better go and do that then.

edinburgher

I used to set myself a phone reminder for the meter readings, but then some swine pinched my phone. Like all financially OCD individuals, I'm struggling without my calendar

Congrats on the unexpected account cash - do you have any other old accounts that might have unexpected interest etc. sitting in them?

Ps. Thanks for the thoughts on my diary - MFW is like a great big collective of sensible friends that you never have the fortune to meet in real life!

Lois_E

Thanks Ed and welcome to my diary. It's so encouraging to know people are reading.

I have reminders on outlook for most of the things I need to do monthly, or on my phone for weekly things. But my meter readings get requested by email, so I don't need to organise my own reminders for those.

I am hopeless at remembering things unless I've got some kind of reminder, though.

Lois_E

Had to buy printer ink today - expensive, but I saved £4 by checking prices in more than one shop before buying. Also, got present for next door (couldn't give it to them for actual Christmas because they were away) reduced by 60% of original price. Go me!

Lois_E

Just moved almost all my savings (apart from what's in the ISA) from an account earning 2.8% to one earning 3.02% (but which takes 3 days to get out instead of doing FP).

I'm planning to put at least a little into the ISA in advance of the calculations for the end of the tax year, but can't put anything into the ISA for a week or two because I've just updated which bank account it's linked to and that means you can't do anything for a while until the changes have all worked their way through the system.

Lois_E

Happy New Year to everyone who reads my diary, and a big
THANK YOU
for keeping me company along the journey.

*Jellie*

Happy new year Lois :beer:

I live by reminder too- I forgot things all the time before I started using my calendar on my phone!