Southernman's steps to freedom!

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

I am a firm believer in the fact that you on,y live once and would never presume to offer advice on people spending on holidays, outings and socialising as they are what life is for.... But if you really want to be mf sooner rather than later, do you really need the clothes and jewellery.....? Or quite so many? If you saved the approx £500 or so that you seem to have spent this month, you could really make significant inroads to your mortgage. How about shopping in the charity shops for some wackier stuff if a new clothes fix is a priority for you? Please feel free to ignore me, we all have our extravagant moments, myself including, but if this month is typical for you, it seems you could be mf a lot sooner.

All the best on the journey,

Squirrel

Southernman

I agree, i never spend money on extortionate things but this month with my bonus, i had to let loose!

I've bought a coat, but now i won't buy another for a couple of years at least.

I bought 2 pairs of earrings but i won't probably for another 5/10 years! The reason being is that i hardly change them but i need real gold otherwise i suffer from a lumpy, diseased ear (i sleep in them).

My next major expense from now until December is going to be Christmas presents.

With that in mind i shall save £200x6 +£1000 (bonus)+ £700ish for a rebate amounting to £2900. There's no way i'm going to be frittering all that money. I'd say £2500 potentially will be going on overpayments.

At 23 i do have to enjoy life though too and not walk around like a scruffy little tramp woman and never leave the grimy depths of Manchester!!

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Hello,

Sorry, I hate to nag! And it is important to look good in order to feel good, I quite agree. Good luck with the future planning,

Squirrel:j

Southernman

Haha it's ok!

My dad is very money savvy. If he understood forums/the internet he'd be on here with a lot of advice and if he knew i'd spent that amount he'd have a fit too!

Alas he just about understands the wonders of Google 'Goggle' as he calls it and how to navigate to his favourite websites...Rightmove and The Telegraph.

My boyfriend introduced him to Spotify recently and don't even get me started on his despair when he accidentally logged himself out of it and i wasn't around to get it up and running again! I got a phone call saying that when i got the chance, i had to come home as it was urgent. I thought it was something major initially until i realised that he couldn't play Julio Iglesias on the computer anymore!

The parents got a new flat screen television recently too because the old one (15 years old) wouldn't switch on. They're too scared to use the remote in case they press the wrong button and can never switch it on again. It came with 3D glasses too and i'm wasting my time asking how to get 3D working!

Southernman

Payday tomorrow. Apparently it should be in tomorrow but not officially cleared until Monday.

Will be interesting to see if my wage is back onto the 810L taxcode once more!

An extra £70 a month would be a great help and i would consider increasing my official overpayment to £100 from £75. Not doing it quite yet though until things are definite. Would be awful to get caught out financially.

Southernman

Alas, checked my bank account this morning and i am still on the old tax code. Rang up and the payroll had already been done before i contacted HMRC a week ago. Not to worry, hopefully July 18th pay packet will be more fruitful!

Turns out the HMRC woman i initially spoke to gave me the wrong information, stating i had to send the P11D to PAYE in Liverpool but in actual fact it could have been done on the phone and that there's a 3/4 week backlog by post! The woman i spoke to this morning was helpful though and got things sorted for me. Should have a cheque in the next 28 days for rebate.

Paid off £75 today as my usual overpayment anyway. I do also have £17 in change, once that gets to around the £25 mark i'll head to the bank. Soon will have made £20 in online surveys too.

I have also bought myself a money box that can't be opened unless i get a tin opener at it. Planning to put in all my £2 coins in there and build it up and eventually cash that in also. So far i only have one :rotfl:

Southernman

Work has been crazy today due to Natwest being down for people due to be paid/due to have d/d out. Even my own d/ds didn't come out until late afternoon! Literally none of the systems were working and there was very little we could do. Some people took an unpaid days holiday! We had the choice of going home!

I just know it's going to be red alert all day tomorrow if things are back to normal!

The calm before the storm so to speak!

In other news, i'm having a few MS few weekends ahead of me where i'm just going to be chilling which will mean less money spent. The £2 box so far has £14 in total in already! It's not even been a week! The tinny rattle will soon be replaced by a satisfying clunck!

It's also my brother's birthday next week. I have no idea what to get him though. No clue at all. I would have got him alcohol but he's had liver issues recently so it's best not. He's turning 20 so it's the worst age too! Money seems like a cop out...

Southernman

Well i was actually sent home from work on Friday because of the systems going down still. I'm going to be in at 8 tomorrow. I still have no idea if anything is up and running but they seem to think (understandably) that all the lines will be flooded. There may even be room for overtime!!

In other news, one of my dad's investment bonds is up for maturity in the next week or so. It's a total of £13,000. He said that he'd like to give me £1000 to do as i please and the same goes for my brother. He's putting the rest into both his and my mum's ISAs as they haven't done anything for this years tax allowance and want the instant access incase the car goes kaput. It's over 15 years old and my dad tends to drive them until the wheels/engine/gear box dies.

(only today the automatic window went down and wouldn't go back up again, meaning a very drafty hour on the motorway!!!)

Either way, it's very generous of him and i plan to put it towards my mortgage. My little brother plans to put his into his ISA (aren't the two of us a sensible bunch!).

After using an excel spreadsheet, my next aim is for my mortgage to reach £83,000 by December 2012 thanks to both overpayments and the usual monthly payments i make anyway. See how that goes! Could be a stretch but i'm up for the challenge!

Currently standing at £86,200.

Southernman

Just overpaid £20 from surveys and i got a HMRC letter saying i'll get a cheque shortly. This will mean a £400 overpayment (with a tiny bit for myself)! Can't wait to physically have everything and chuck it straight at my disgusting debt!

Southernman

Wow i've been working hard. By the end of this week i'll have down 21 hours overtime!

Should be a few pennies in the pot. Get half in my July pay and the rest in August. There's no rush for it though.

Been given an extra day's annual holiday from the top management to say thank you which is nice. Sometimes it's just nice to take a random day off work mid week so i think i'll be doing that in December.

Cashed £25 in Natwest over the counter today. All my 10ps etc. Irritatingly it didn't go in automatically like it does usually. Not sure if it's because of the Natwest disaster of recent times. I have a receipt though but my beady eye will be watching that. It's annoying because it was just going on the mortgage but i can't even overpay :mad: My cheque will also probably be delayed.

Interest is accruing :mad:

I have some other plans cropping up but more about that later