How to fall in love with saving money

cathybird

OK, here's a question: I've got £100 in premium bonds which I have had for more than a decade and they have never won me any prize money ever. I hardly ever think about them but every now and then it occurs to me that I've still got them. Should I sell them and put the money into my savings account? At least that would make 3 per cent.

atush

probably.

But i confess I have 100 of them too. And won 100 quid the month After I bought them lol.

So I might be inclined to say, if you don't play the lottery to hold onto the Pbs for fun.

Eco_Miser

Premium Bonds: I have £991 and I haven't had a win since i cashed in the other £29k, but I'm keeping them just in case I get lucky.

cathybird

hi Eco Miser! Long time no see

If you and atush have a very small number of premium bonds, then I don't feel so bad about hanging on to my lot (which I might do, just in case). But I do confess I feel unlucky that I've never won anything with them at all.

Eco_Miser

Hi. I keep reading, but I have nothing to say about exercise:eek:, or food, so I keep quiet.
3% on £100 is just £3, so if you get a single £25 prize once every 8 years, you're in profit. Get more wins or a bigger prize and you're laughing :beer:.

WantToBeSE

Eco_Miser wrote: »

Hi. I keep reading, but I have nothing to say about exercise:eek:, or food, so I keep quiet..

Haha, same here! I only need to lose 1st but I have a weakness for chocolate hobnobs My overall diet has improved as I am starting to eat cleaner, but its the snacks which muck it all up for me!

cathybird

It is lovely to hear that people read the thread ... I hope there are people who do, even if they don't comment. I have threads I read but don't post on particularly (the "Save £12,000 in 2014" thread, and the Frugal Living thread, for instance, where I don't feel I can contribute because I'm not living that frugally, just hoping to learn something basically ).

I do hope though that people don't feel they have to stick to the "topics du jour"? ... I do love talking about exercise and food and have had some very pleasant conversations with atush, Lomcevak and others about those things, but am always extremely happy to talk about other things too. But I'd hate to think people were not posting just because the topic had veered to something they weren't so interested in. So, Eco Miser, do just jump in, on any subject that takes your fancy - if you want to post, that is - which obviously you don't have to do - but it's always lovely to hear from you when you do.

WantToBeSE, I love chocolate and find it hard to stay off it, but I do lose weight if I don't eat it so I have to try to steel myself. But a life without chocolate altogether is a very dull life in my book.

cathybird

Meanwhile the end of the tax year approaches and this year I think for the first time ever I'm going to use the full Isa allowance. Yay! Thanks to MSE, obviously.

JoJoC

Well done Cathy! Full ISA allowance? That's a great milestone to achieve!

Husband did another little job last night for a neighbour so that's another £30 into the pot and signature updated!

I'm not really one for exercise either so I've got nothing to comment in that respect! Food, though, I can talk all day about it! I love eating it, cooking it, talking about it! I think that running about after my one year old keeps the majority of the weight off!

Lomcevak

cathybird wrote: »

Meanwhile the end of the tax year approaches and this year I think for the first time ever I'm going to use the full Isa allowance. Yay! Thanks to MSE, obviously.

Well done Cathy, we (Mrs. L and myself) used ours to the full for the first time this year, it's a nice mini-milestone.

I'm still stuck with my finger hovering over the SIPP buy button, I have £3k ready to go now and then £750 a month after that (plus another £250 me/£500 matched into a separate work scheme). So initially it's very small beer, but grows quite quickly over time. Most of the discussion recently has been about much larger amounts where fixed-fee becomes strongly preferable, so i'm still trying to piece together the best options for me. Think possibly Fidelity for a couple of years (percentage fee, no exit fee) then move once fixed-fee becomes cost-effective, but keep going round in circles