The march to financial freedom

Ali-OK

Thanks for popping in Purple and your kind words.

The nectar points are adding up pretty quickly - have earnt about £14 just from adpoints, canvass and search bar in a little over a month and spent some too.

Ali-OK

Thank goodness it's Friday, been a mixed day of doing a bit of work, bit of personal and back to work stuff again. Now all focussed on preparing for Sunday - upstairs housework all done, washing all done, most on airers but I have tumble dried the towels.

Sent off the outstanding eBay parcel, so £4.10 spent on that. No other spends today and still need to get the bread sauce. A job for the morning, along with the dogs bones and taking DS to town for his Christmas shopping. He wants to buy for 2 friends and me, but tells me he will be using his own debit card for all of it.

No new progress on adpoints or canvass today
Search bar up to 44 points
Nectar points value moved up again to £14.03
bank account checked
freepostcodelottery checked

Not much else to report on the money front until Monday now when payments to CCs go out of the bank.

I'll probably do the meter readings this weekend at some point to keep an eye on the weekly usage and bill to date - quarterly bill is due 3rd Jan. Temps have been really quite warm here today and the heating is off.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Ali-OK

We are back from town already, DS counted 17 cars in the queue to go in the car park, as we were coming out. :eek: Glad we went in early.

For probably the first time in living history, DS spent more than me in town :j I run a spreadsheet for him so we'll take his spends today off his balance so he is clear what he has left in the bank. It's a pain they don't allow internet banking access until he is 16, but they happily give them a debit card at 11.

I bought the dogs 2 extra large hide bones and 2 large stuffed hooves and spent £5.20. That'll keep them busy tomorrow and Christmas Day. Parking was free.

DS on the other hand bought his gifts for friends and something for himself and spent £25 roughly but did get 10% discount for belonging to a local club. He's asked me what I would like - I have seen a cookbook on the net for about £4, so he's going to get me that on my credit card :rotfl:

The lovely people at HMRC have delivered their Christmas wishes in the form of my tax bill. It's interesting how the July one arrives early July, but the January one always arrives in December! I can only assume they think everyone will spend it over Christmas if they don't remind us early :rotfl: I have that ready to be paid so no worries there. Will do it mid-Jan at the PO and make more interest on the bank account in the meantime.

Time to dive into more prep for tomorrow. Still need to get bread sauce though, just not fancying the crowds at SB so will leave that until later hoping it'll be quieter.

Ali-OK

Sunday evening and the big weekend with 19 for lunch today has gone in a flash.

So proud of DS as he helped move furniture and set the dining tables up, which halved the normal prep time. Only extra spend was going to SB to get the bread sauce, which was on offer, so £1 spent for 2 packets.

Sat watching a bit of Strictly whilst DS was having a bath, only for a power cut to strike. Cue more candles than normal It was off for a couple of hours and is the second time in a week.

The energy usage has come down well on the gas - at the moment the website is saying they'll owe me £140 at the end of the year plan (Jun 14). Electric not so much, just £25 though we're continuing to find items that can be switched off overnight or whilst DS is at school, eg. his laptop, his bedroom tv on standby that he hardly has on anyway :mad:

A NSD today, everyone enjoyed lunch and very little left over - just some turkey and bits of puddings. So meal plan this week is turkey - casserole, sandwiches, make a batch curry . The spare fresh veg will be split between using up and freezing.

Busy week ahead for work planned and last week of school for DS before he breaks up. I need to get fuel but SB have put their price up again to £1.31 a litre and with heading to the west country next Sunday (where it's usually 4-5p a litre cheaper) I'll just get what I need to cover this week and travel down there, then fill up on our return.

Points and financials update to come - CC payments go out tomorrow so I can update my sig then :j

Got a couple of evenings out at friends (Mon and Tues) delivering presents and drinking tea

Looking forward to a relaxing run up to Christmas now the big event is over. Time for bed - am shattered.

Ali-OK

Time for a debt update after payments went out to both CCs.

CC1 - £375 paid today, leaves £675. Will round up the planned extra £95 to £100 and pay that off before the month is out (earn the interest in current account for a while longer).

Old CC2 - £150 paid today, which clears that card in readiness to do a money transfer to bank for the loan in March/April.

A slow start to the week with Nectar adpoints - just 17
Nectar canvass - a small 20 points picked up there today
Nectar card value - £14.47. Not impressed with the eShop time to convert, waiting on 300 points in total to be converted - some way longer than the quoted timescales too.

Bank account checked
freepostcodelottery checked

A lovely evening at friends and also delivered the local Christmas cards.

Spends today, just fuel at £30.01. Typically aim for a round figure and end up with the odd pence :rotfl: No loyalty to SB for the points as Morries were 2p a litre cheaper.

My little cylinder stairs hoover has stopped working too. I've yet to take it apart and see if I can find the problem, but if I can fix will do that. If not, looks like an unplanned purchase to replace is on the cards.

purple_angel_2

Well done on the C/C payments,hope you can fix the cleaner and not have to spend.xx

Ali-OK

The hoover still sits waiting for me to take it apart! Been a busy day with work and been out tonight to catch up with some friends and deliver some more presents.

I've been given a steam mop :j Surplus to friend's needs as she has a new fancy one. Can't wait to give it a try - have one microfibre head and half a bottle of detergent, so enough to get going with. Hoping it'll be quicker (and dryer) than the squeegee mop and bucket way I've done the floors for years!

£32.08 arrived in my bank account from Envirofone today :j
Nectar adpoints up to 30
Nectar value £14.47

A NSD too and more turkey for dinner tonight. A good day all in all.

Ali-OK

Not much to report today.

Busy work day, but a nice relaxing evening at home after being out 2 nights on the trot. I'm getting old and like to stay in more :rotfl:

Managed a NSD :j

We're running out of milk yet again, so last weekly and Christmas food shop will be tomorrow.

It's pay myself day on Friday and it's looking to be quite a bit more than my average month. So much so, I am planning (after the extra £100 to CC1 this month) to pay the final £575 to it in January. :j

I've looked forward to Feb/Mar/Apr too and based on last year's income, I should be able to get up to and keep a £3k emergency fund, pay £650 capital off the mortgage each month and cover car tax, service and insurance. Will be a big bonus if I can sell the sports car during that time.

Not wishing the months away, just finding where the peaks of excitement of debt reduction will be

Back to reality....

Nectar adpoints - nothing there today, so stuck on 30
Nectar canvass - a little 20 points earnt
Nectar search bar - a surprising 58
Nectar card value - £14.75. Going to be a challenge to earn £20 a month without spending money, but lets see how it goes.

Bank account checked - a reminder I must sort our internet/landline package.

Hoover still waiting for attention - will probably be the weekend when I get round to that.

Tried out the steam mop - oh wow, I'm in love . Quick and simple and a clean, dry floor in minutes. Definitely a Girl Gadget :rotfl:

Ali-OK

Today's update.

Work calmed down a bit today, though a full on one tomorrow and alot of admin to catch up on.

Weekly shop done in Ald!, spent £16.12. Not anticipating any other food needs now until after Boxing Day. Month's spend on food including dogs and Xmas food was £110.24 out of £150 I took out the bank last month. I used £30.01 for petrol which was above the budgeted £35 a month as needed 2 lots of personal fuel. So have come almost £10 within budget.

Took my Mum to SB tonight and there's a 50% off TU clothing sale. Much to my amazement, the jacket I saw full price back in October was in the sale and they had one in my size. My Mum treated me to that (£15) and also a half price jumper for DS at £7 and let me have the points too :j

Contemplating taking the car to the hand-wash place, as it's so dirty the reversing sensors are beeping when there's nothing behind it :rotfl: I used to do it myself, but not the best idea with my back problem. I think it's £7 for just the outside. I need to do a tyre pressure check prior to travelling long distance on Sunday too.

Had an email from the dealer today trying to seduce me into changing it with 'no deposit and we might even be able to keep the monthly payments the same'. Yeah right, with a huge balloon payment at the end as well I expect. No thank you!

Still have one lot of Christmas presents to deliver to friends to organise. Must do that soon.

Meal planning is coming back into play as we've eaten all the turkey we could face :rotfl: I made a batch curry last night and froze the excess. Tonight we ate from the freezer with some more fresh veg.

With school hols, DS tends to want hot meals at lunchtime and tea time, so I've checked out the store cupboard and we've several items that will get used up. Corned beef, oxtail soup and pilchards are first up (not together ), will make cauliflower cheese and macaroni cheese too. So plenty of variety amongst the next turkey leftovers

Nectar adpoints - up to 55 tonight
Nectar Canvass - all gone quiet there
Nectar card - showing £14.75 still, but £15.53 on receipt after trip to SB with Mum

Bank account checked
freepostcodelottery checked.

Ahh Friday is nearly here. Looking forward to the first lay in awhile on Saturday. Bet the dogs wake me up early then! :rotfl:

Ali-OK

It's been a long week but rounded off today with paying myself for the month.

Bank account checked
freepostcodelottery checked

Nectar adpoints - now up to 75 points
Nectar canvass - a 60 pointer completed tonight
Nectar card value - £15.64

Had a NSD and tea was an easy fish fingers, chips and beans.

Meal plan for the week:
Saturday - batch chilli, rice and garlic bread
Sunday - something quick (omelettes?) as late home from day out
Monday - sausage casserole and veg
Tuesday - chicken escalopes, chips and peas/sweetcorn
Christmas Day - Turkey!
Boxing Day - Turkey casserole
Friday - turkey pie or curry

Washing mostly done and on airers, left oven door open after cooking too. Candles on too - helps keep room warmer with thermostat still sitting at 19C.

No planned spends for the weekend, have put off having the car washed as weather will dirty it quickly again. Will wipe over lights, sensors and do tyre pressures in the morning.

Housework, work and will look at the broken hoover tomorrow too. DS is going out for the day with DB and his DS - looking forward to slowing down a bit.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.