Edinburgher gets cracking!

misscousinitt

Happy Friday!!! and have a nice lunch.

MCI

BlueMoo

Without going into a big complainypants recap, I applied for my job under the
belief that it was very different from what it was, since then I've been trying
my hardest to be a square peg in a round hole. It has to change, I have
refreshed my CV today and will be applying for a new job tomorrow morning

I agree with this 110%
I am in the same boat as you, but need to get a couple of things out of the way before applying for new jobs unfortunately. I want to get a signifcant piece of training completed before I can move on, but agree on feeling like a round peg in square hole.

****

Sounds like the running is going great!

SuperSecretSquirrel

Good luck with the job application ed, and good job on stepping up the running efforts!

Laura2014

Hi Ed

I have been reading your dairy for a few months with interest.

OH and I having been overpaying a flat amount of £300 since we purchased our house in 2007. I am now realising that we could do such much more with our money. I am researching our pension options more savings. :money:

Your different pots - Freedom Fund, 2017 has really got me thinking

The last year we have been saving for our wedding, and I didn't realise how much we could achieve. It is amazing what a goal can do to motivate you. We get married in the summer so I don't think i can put my plans into action until after that. Weddings are expensive :eek:

Your dairy really struck accord with me as i think we are a similar age - early 30s. I want to start a diary after the wedding.

Each month i put a lump sum into savings, the rest of the month is the normal outgoings and then any TT I have left over at the end of the month.

Can I ask please how you manage to move your quite high amounts into savings each day? e.g. £17. I bet they soon add up.

Do you not do a regular lump sum?

Sorry for the long post

Laura

edinburgher

Weddings are expensive

They absolutely are! Mrs E and I were lucky in that we a) got married in Greece (1/3 of the cost of an 'average' UK wedding) and b) Mrs E's parents did the dutiful parents of the bride bit and paid for almost all of it (thanks!)

Mrs E's sister is getting married shortly and Lordy, getting married in this country is extortionate :eek:

Can I ask please how you manage to move your quite high amounts into savings each day? e.g. £17. I bet they soon add up.

Do you not do a regular lump sum?

My savings are largely spreadsheet savings, I don't actually move any money in real terms. Every month once we've both been paid, I move the max possible into the highest rate account I can find. We've currently got £7,500 in N@tionwide Flex Direct accounts and we keep £3k in the S@ntander 123 account. We've run out of room, Clydesd@le Bank are next.

The 2017 savings etc. are just moves on the spreadsheet from 'spare' (i.e. unassigned) money to assigned money (i.e. in a pot). All the money sits at the best rate for as long as possible.

Laura2014

Thanks Edinburgher!

I understand - that a different way of doing things. hmm it certainly gets you thinking.

Do you, once you are paid and move the money over to the highest rate account, leave enough money in to cover the monthly bills then?

edinburgher

Our monthly bills are all paid from the S@ntander 124 account Laura and there's usually £3-4k in there to make sure that we get the headline interest rate of 3%. It feels like hard work to earn something on your savings these days! We also get cashback for paying the bills, which is nice, but will dip quite a bit once our mortgage moves to W0olwich.

D'oh! Missed this one:

Good luck with the job application ed, and good job on stepping up the running efforts!

Thanks SSS, running goes well and we'll wait and see on the job front. I am casting my net a lot wider than previously, thinking outside of various boxes

Laura2014

Thank you.

I think that is my problem I am not getting anything on our savings. I am strict in putting the money away, but it is not working at all for us.

We have saved up over the past two years £15,000. £5000 in an Isa earning £5 per month interest and £10,000 in our Everyday Saving Account with First Direct earning 1p a month. :eek:

I didn't really know what to do with it as I needed easy access to it.

Definitely going to sort this out.

Good Luck with the job hunt.

I got reading some of your old DFW diary and you have achieved so much.

Laura

gallygirl

Laura2014 wrote: »

£10,000 in our Everyday Saving Account with First Direct earning 1p a month. :eek:

Well as a minimum the PO are doing an instant access account at 1.6%. Online, so get cracking! The best bet though would be to move to Santa 123 as your main account and keep the 10k earmarked in there - I switched last year, it was very easy and that was before the new easy switching process.

Good luck.

Back to you Ed .

edinburgher

Laura,

You are losing money every single month. Has that got your attention? Inflation (CPI) for December was 2.0%, in reality it's probably higher than that.

Unless you are making 2-3% after tax, you are losing cash. Unfortunately we need to be as diligent protecting our savings as we do saving them in the first place

You can get £7.5k in 3 N@tionwide Flex Direct accounts at 4.89% gross for a year (one each, one joint) and £9k in Clyd3sdale/Y0rkshire Bank at 3.93?% gross until April 2015 (one each, one joint). After that, S@ntander 123 at 3% gross is your best bet for balances of £3-20k (only use them for over £3k, rates are pathetic below that).

How about setting yourself a challenge to get at least 3% on all your savings by the end of February? :T