Lois_E begins a long MFW journey

Lois_E

Glad you're enjoying them, Tilly. They're having a beneficial influence on my attitude, so I think I'd better keep going with them.

I was hoping not to have to spend any money today, but have run out of butter, so had to get some, and then got cucumbers as well, and succumbed to the lure of a cinnamon whirl. It tasted great, though, so I am not going to waste my time and energy regretting it.

catshark88

Ooh cinnamon whirl.....

NOW I know what I want for supper!

pammyj74

Loving the thankful lists, I did think of doing a little poem type thing to put in a frame to remind me I should be thankful but I am a pessimist and would have to 'but' on the end of every sentence lol

Lois_E

Pammy, you have to have the thankful list as the "but" on the end of the pessimism, rather than the other way round.

Last night I thought of 5 things to put on the list but never got round to posting them. They were:

1) The sight of my online bank balance looking extra specially flush because my salary’s arrived a few days ago and the DD for my CC hasn’t gone out yet (although it will soon)
2) The abovementioned cinnamon whirl
3) Not having to get up early for work because it's Saturday
4) Good news for some of my friends with kids in Y6 who got their first choice of secondary school allocated
5) My kids

Today I need to do lots of PPA - I am NOT ready for Monday's lessons yet. I also need to catch up on laundry. The MSE-type activity that I have planned is renegotiating my breakdown cover. What an exciting life I lead!

PS Thanks for posting, Tilly, catshark & Pammy. Thanks for thanking, Courgette, GG, MCI, pink poppy, Radish, tattycath & Tilly :wave:

Radish72

All I wanted yesterday was a cinnamon whirl but I resisted even when I did the food shopping

Now I want one, stomps foot and sulks as the apple strudel muller rice I have just eaten doesn't cut it anymore

skint_spice

I think we're all there on the laundry Lois - it's neverending!

v1ckyt

cinamon whirl,yum yum, must resist, must resist!

pink_poppy

I don't even know what a cinnamon whirl is, but I want one!!

QB_Wolf

Lois_E wrote: »

Pammy, you have to have the thankful list as the "but" on the end of the pessimism, rather than the other way round.

Last night I thought of 5 things to put on the list but never got round to posting them. They were:

1) The sight of my online bank balance looking extra specially flush because my salary’s arrived a few days ago and the DD for my CC hasn’t gone out yet (although it will soon)
2) The abovementioned cinnamon whirl
3) Not having to get up early for work because it's Saturday
4) Good news for some of my friends with kids in Y6 who got their first choice of secondary school allocated
5) My kids

Today I need to do lots of PPA - I am NOT ready for Monday's lessons yet. I also need to catch up on laundry. The MSE-type activity that I have planned is renegotiating my breakdown cover. What an exciting life I lead!

PS Thanks for posting, Tilly, catshark & Pammy. Thanks for thanking, Courgette, GG, MCI, pink poppy, Radish, tattycath & Tilly :wave:

Hope you got some of your work done and enjoyed your cinnamon whirl.

Lois_E

Now you've all got me wanting another cinnamon whirl, and there weren't any in the Co-op when I dropped in this evening in time for the reductions in the bakery section.

Anyway, I did catch up on my PPA, but I haven't dealt with my breakdown cover yet. Will have to do that tomorrow. There's still time to do a load of laundry before bedtime.

On the plus side, I have made myself get round to applying for a Santandr 123 account, and done some thinking about what changes I need to make before the end of the tax year. I was feeling miffed that the best ISA rates are only available for new money and not transfers from previous years' ISAs, and then it occurred to me: my ISA only has £2,500 in it, and I only have about another £2,000ish to add to it, so the total is less than one year's ISA allowance. That means I can just withdraw the cash from the old ISA and put it into a new one without bothering with the whole transfer business, and then it can all go into a Covntry one at 2.8%.

So here's my plan:
1) Apply for Santandr 123 account - Done
2) Wait until 15 March when existing ISA gets its interest added and then its interest rate collapses. Then close it and get the money out.
3) Open a Covntry ISA and put the money from the old ISA in it. (It's a 60 day notice account, but ISAs aren't meant for getting money in and out of, so that shouldn't be a problem. If the worst came to the worst, the money can be withdrawn immediately but 60 days' interest is lost to make up for not giving notice - not worth worrying about since it's unlikely to apply anyway.)
4) Send £500 to FL1.
5) Close existing "everyday savings" and "emergency fund" accounts. Put £3,500 into the new 123 account (£1,000 in "everyday savings" spreadsheet column and £2,500 in "emergency fund" column) and put all the rest of the money (probably somewhere in the region of £2,000+) into the new ISA.
6) Transfer cashback-qualifying DDs to 123 account. Leave everything else still happening in my Halifx current account, which will still be my main account. It's got several DDs that wouldn't qualify for the 123 cashback, so it'll keep earning its £5pm reward. I don't want to switch everything over, because I think Halifx's online banking system is nicer than Santandr's.
7) Set up SO to pay £500pm to 123 account. This will more than cover the bills, so any surplus will become part of the "everyday savings" column, which can give money back to the Halifx current account if needed, or to the "emergency fund" column if a surplus builds up in "everyday savings".
8) Close plethora of disused savings accounts.

This does mean that my EF will only be earning 3.00% instead of 3.06%, but that's worth it to get the 123 account balance high enough to qualify to get 3% on all the bill paying money, as well as the everyday savings, currently only earning 2.8%.

Does that make sense? Please let me know if I'm doing something stupid without realising it.

Thank you to Radish, skinty, v1cky, pink poppy and QBW for posting :wave:
Thank you to Alchemilla, MWC, natty, Peonie, pink poppy, QBW, Radish, skinty, tattycath and Tilly for thanking. :wave: