The march to financial freedom

in_need_of_direction

Isn't it irritating when real life imposes on your MSE time? Well done on the payment.

Ali-OK

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Isn't it irritating when real life imposes on your MSE time? Well done on the payment.

:rotfl: It is indeed! Money is a priority...after earning it of course INOD, brilliant reading you've knocked £10k off your mortgage. Well done!

More financial news in the post - another distraction to my 'working from home day on admin'. Ah well, it's good news in the form of the much awaited monthly mortgage interest letter - down this month to £386.99, a reduction of £2.71 on last month and down £23.35 compared to Jan. A saving of £121.99 year to date. :j Daily interest is £12.73, down from £13,44 in Jan.

OPs now total £1332.41 YTD - an extra 2 months capital off this year so far, it'll be at 3 after 1st December payment. :T

Love all the figures side of it, can you tell? :rotfl:

Back to work stuff. Boo hiss!

Ali-OK

Evening Diary,

A catch up post tonight. Work all good, nicely busy, should be another good month for income.

The garden is slightly behind the plan for Phase I but not an issue. Stump grinder wouldn't start and with only a few hours left before it needed to be returned, that got left (and of course no hire charge). That led to a discussion on the raised area where the stumps are - I've always wanted that to be levelled with a retaining wall at the boundary and now we're going to do that :j Instead of one sleeper high all the way around, it'll be 2 sleepers high as a retainer - works out perfectly. Means we won't need slabs/gravel too, but more artificial grass and the chance to design a curvy border.

The gravel is beautiful - the procrastination was worth it and SS, your comments about light and bright made me seek out different websites, which is where I found the one I ordered. Thank you :T We haven't been able to get that down though, as the grids didn't arrive on time - one pack arrived today, 3 more are still due which are tracked so I'm avidly following them. They may arrive tomorrow whilst I'm at work unfortunately and need signing for. It'll get sorted.

The next working day in the garden will be on a weekend to be organised. Great progress and very happy with it all so far.

The financials:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - at 25 points
- Nectar Canvass - nothing done there
- Nectar Search - at 20/100
- Nectar card - value at £119.07
- Inbox Pounds - up at £16.12
- Qmee - nothing in the pot

CC payment and mortgage for the month all done/sorted, so it's about the small things for the rest of the month.

Not done the food shop this week as yet, as haven't had time, so it's meals out of the freezer at the moment - spag bol tomorrow, chilli on Saturday as usual. Good job there are batch stocks in there.

Still all the refunds to come back, so need to chase those again. So frustrating and it actually puts me off paying out for anything now, guess that's not a bad way to save money actually!

Edited to add - Just checked and I've had a full refund of £123 from AAT today against my monthly use and pay off CC. Excellent news. 1 down, 2 more to go!

Ali-OK

Hang the flags out, it's Friday evening But am working all day tomorrow, no rest for the wicked/busy/mad person :rotfl:

I've chased up the mobile phone refund again (£21.72) - Orange insist they've tried to pay it back into my personal bank account early September, but it's not there. So, they're going to offset it against my business mobile bill next month and I'll sort the accounting side. 2 refunds done, just the college one outstanding which depends on the hospital letter that I don't yet have. :mad: Time to phone the GP surgery and get a copy of the referral I think, though that will probably cost me.

The 3 packs of grids - courier tried to deliver 2 items today (they were given 2 according to the tracking record)...so next attempt will be Monday. Fortunately I plan at work at home day, so that fits nicely. However, I was expecting 3 (as I ordered 3 and they're quite large boxes), so will have to see if the supplier got them all into 2 parcels or if there's still 1 outstanding after I get the 2. Follow me? :rotfl:

Financials (much easier to follow!)
- bank account checked, a TT of £5.81 to savings done
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - 4 more and up to 29 points
- Canvass and Search - no advance
- Nectar card value - £119.07 still, though need to get petrol soon
- Inbox Pounds - got a long awaited £1 for a survey, so now standing at £17.18. Need to make getting to £20 for payout a priority goal
- Qmee - nothing there

Still need to do the food shop! I did pick up 4 litres of milk at the corner shop for £2.60 tonight as we were very low. Might get to Ald! tonight, if not it'll be Sunday.

Aside from working tomorrow, a quiet weekend is planned..and hope it stays that way. I've not done much spreadsheet fiddling this week and sure I'm getting withdrawal symptoms of irritability with wanting to look at next months mortgage capital payment and the effect on interest.

Happy weekend everyone

Ali-OK

Food shop done, with a helping hand from DS and only some chocolate eclairs mysteriously found their way into the trolley! Total spend £19.66, plus the £2.60 for milk earlier, total £22.26 for the week. Will update sig and looking good for being within budget this month. Pleased with tonight as we were out of so much stuff.

The Christmas foods are now out in our Ald! too - was very tempted to start getting a few things, but now have that dilemma of all those nectar points to spend in Sbugs vs. the low prices of Ald!. Guess I have to go with the free food in Sbugs really or change my plan entirely and use the points to get something big (electrical maybe) as well as the XXL turkey.

Meal plan is almost identical to this time last year with Toad in the Hole, stew and dumplings and casseroles making a winter comeback.

Filled up with petrol, nice to see the per litre price dropping locally - now at 124.9p, spent £39 and the typical rogue 1p again! 31 litres and 31 nectar points.

Must get some washing on tonight too. Have also washed the utility room floor as was the worst for mud from earlier in the week.

No spends planned tomorrow, but Sunday will need to buy another New Home card and also a sympathy card - the sad unexpected loss of a neighbour.

Ali-OK

Yay, my weekend can begin after working today. :j

A No Spend day, chilli con carne from the freezer, washing dried on the line and a warmer day means the heating is off.

Financials:
- bank account checked - deposited £20 in £1 coins this morning en route to work along with the business banking done
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - no advance on 29 points
- Nectar Canvass - not looked at
- Nectar Search - up at 25/100
- Nectar card value - up at £119.23
- Inbox Pounds - up a tad at £17.22
- Qmee - Yay, 11p picked up and in the pot

I dug over the front garden before dinner, where some old bits of paving slab were removed and put in the skip last week, also cut back further the lower part of the clematis, so that all looks neat and tidy and will probably leave that as is until next Spring.

Tonight is infront of the tv, chilling out. Town first thing tomorrow, then lots of jobs to do at home to catch up. No looking at work stuff until Monday now.

beanielou

How much are 100 necter points worth do you know?

in_need_of_direction

50p Beanie. Ali, glad to hear you're drawing a line under the work.

Skinnylatte

Glad to hear things are ticking along nicely, I'm amazed how many nectar points you've got, is that just from this year?

Ali-OK

I've been to town, might as well rename it Tinsel Town as all the Christmas stuff is prominent in the shops :eek:. Whether it's the warm weather or something else, I'm not ready with a list of what I need or feeling the slightest bit festive. However, I started to pick up little bits, so here's how the spending went today:

Superdr0g - L'Oreal skin care is on half price and I'd been looking for the Collagen wrinkle filler for awhile (had run out) - got it at £5.73. Last one, otherwise I'd have got another, plus Mum always put face cream in my stocking and I usually have to get it for her.

Card Shop - £1.77 on 3 cards, new home, sympathy and get well (ex-MIL having surgery this week). Only 1 November birthday to buy for and I have a card for that already.

P0undw0rld - spent £9. So many things are expensive in there - sugar for £1? No thanks it's 59p in Ald! . But Xmas tree chocs, Family Guy Advent Calender for DS, Large Colgate Total toothpaste, sock/knicks hanging dryer thing (mine has half the pegs broken on it but such a great item), plus some stocking filler chocs (After Eights, Maltesers, Choc Buttons tube, etc)

The W0rks - £1 on 2015 calender. A little annoyed as then found it was 85p in Wilkos :mad: Need to set aside time to shift all the birthdays etc onto it next.

W!lko's - £14.40. Broken down into £3.50 for a new broom and dustpan and brush (replacing the one I broke helping in the garden!), £3.60 on dog treeats, £6 on 4 Choc Oranges for stocking fillers, 90p on 3 packs of face cleansing wipes.

Car parking - £1. From 2nd November it's going to be free parking on Sundays so will take advantage of that and avoid going in until then hopefully.

Total spend = £32.90. Not too bad considering what I got for my money.

I need to replace the front window net too as DS caught it when closing the window in the summer, has looked dire with a rip now half way through it since then, so am off to Dun3lm shortly for that. 2.5m of the cheapest plain stuff is fine for that.

Trying to do all the 'going out' jobs today, so I can stay home tomorrow for when the grids arrive *crosses fingers they do*

I'll catch up again later as yet to do the financials, except have already checked my bank account whilst bleary eyed and in my PJs (no heating on still ). Ahh, reminds me must do energy readings and update my spreadsheet as well! Ooh I also put stewing steak, sliced potatoes, carrots and stock into the slow cooker first thing this morning - that's our dinner for tonight and tomorrow sorted. Dumplings to add. Yum.

Onwards and upwards as lunch will be calling soon.