The march to financial freedom

OrangeFairy

Hi Ali,

You are doing so well with keeping up with all the small things which really make a difference. I am looking forward to getting back to this in Jan.

I hope you have a lovely xmas!

OF x

Ali-OK

Thanks OF, I feel quite obsessed about the small things whether we can continue them over Christmas is yet to be seen, but I shall try

Good news on the gas bill today is a refund of £115 coming as we've used so much less than predicted and will still have a large enough credit to add to the DDs to cover the winter bill. :j I sure haven't spent anywhere near as much as that on candles either :rotfl:

After eBay fees, there will still be 33p left in Paypal, so shall be moving that to the bank account too.

I might hold that money back in the bank account, so that when I do the money transfer from MBNA for the car, I won't need to borrow so much and therefore the fee will be less. I might not need to borrow any if I can sell the sports car in time and use that money instead. There I go, wishing the months away again...or is it good planning!

Today has been a really lovely day - no rushing around but still got lots done. Housework all done, work all up to date, ironing done (and switched off for last item), popped to friends and dropped off last lot of Xmas presents, all ready to go tomorrow with headlights and sensors cleaned, windscreen wash topped up, tyres to correct pressures. Only thing that I didn't get done was looking at the broken hoover.

DS came home rather wet from his day out, but a bath, chilli and hot chocolate have warmed him up nicely.

Nectar adpoints - still at 75, guess that'll be my lot for this week
Nectar canvass - nothing in today
Nectar card value - a slight increase to £15.94

bank account checked - car payment goes out Monday :j
freepostcodelottery checked

Whilst I'm now meant to be off for 2 weeks with DS, I've got 2, maybe 3 days of work that I've agreed to deliver - first one on Monday. All extra money and will see January's earnings off to a good start.

A NSD day today too :j Tomorrow I will fill up with fuel before our return journey home as it's cheaper there than here, so expecting another £30 bill for that.

Time for bed, where do the hours go? Lots on here I think :rotfl:

Ali-OK

A quick update to cover yesterday and today whilst I remember!

Had a really lovely day out and as I thought, petrol was 4p a litre cheaper in the West Country, so filled up before the return drive last night and spent £19.50. Although there's another 140 miles of driving over the next 2 weeks, shouldn't need to buy fuel until January now. :j

And today - the December car payment has gone out as has the £100 extra payment to CC1 from eBay, envirofone and change bucket, so more sig updating to come too. :j

Nectar canvass - looks to be some more surveys to do, but heading to a work meeting shortly, so hoping I can get at least one done later today.

Nectar card up to £15.99
Nectar adpoints - new week but nothing there to do as yet.

Supermarket queues of cars onto roads were causing traffic chaos before 9am around here - so pleased I don't need or want to visit one before Friday for my normal weekly shop!

Right, work for me - have a good day all.

Ali-OK

And postman has just brought the first pension increase letter (1 of 3 due each year) so budget will change from £93.72 to £95.60 going out from 1st Jan.

Ali-OK

Today went to plan workwise, though travelling tonight to collect DS was pretty awful weather wise and glad to get home safely again. 60 miles driven today.

Dinner was meant to be sausage casserole, however, I seem to have lost the sausages :rotfl: and also a loaf of bread that I thought we'd got in the freezer! So we had pork steaks with veg instead.

Tomorrow I can finally relax and look forward to an extra long walk with the doglets. DS and I will keep up our Xmas Eve tradition and head into town mid afternoon, it's usually fairly quiet. I've put my P!necone Luncheon Vouchers in my bag in readiness for payment for hot chocs with cream and marshmallows.

Nectar adpoints yielded 51 points
Nectar canvass - I didn't suit the profile, nil points

Turkey for Wednesday is out of the freezer - only 38 hrs defrosting compared to the 88 for the big do!

I was thinking which food treats for Xmas I haven't bought this year:

Cheeses and crackers
Smoked salmon
Salad stuff (except Cucumber)
Tubs of Twiglets and Cheeselets
Ham on the bone
Big honey glazed gammon joint
Selection of dips

We do however have:
Aldi iced christmas cake bar
Chocolate fudge log (Sburys courtesy of Mum)
Tube of Aldi brand Pringles
Large bag of Aldi peanuts
Small box of Cadburys biscuits
Whole duck

We'll have as much a feast and plenty of tv nibbles for alot less money and the duck is versatile. Can't find any pancakes for it though - might have to look up how to make them!

To those travelling, stay safe and to everyone - have a lovely Christmas. xx

Ali-OK

Spent a few pounds in town, so it's all got to be noted here

£2 in Wilkos (dog treats half price so stocked up)
99p in The Works - pack of pencils for DS for school
£5.15 in Tesco Express - YS beef brisket and tub of dip for the Pringles at DS's insistence
£3 in Farm Foods - 4 bags of sugar, 2 for me, 2 for Mum
£1.60 car parking
£4.90 Costa Coffee - they don't take Luncheon Vouchers which I was hoping to use :mad: But it is my annual treat to DS and I couldn't disappoint him.

DS bought my Christmas presents :j So proud of him, his first year buying his own to me and he wanted to spend more but I wouldn't let him. So I have a lovely pair of fluffy slippers and very thick fleecy PJ set (both Primark) to open tomorrow as he insisted on wrapping them too

He's growing into a lovely young man. After a very difficult 2 years for him in 2011 and 12, through no fault of his own, he has come such a long way and it's wonderful to see him settled and blossoming, with a hormonal grump thrown in here and there :rotfl:

Just enjoying time together tonight with the doglets in candlelight, bit of tv, bit of computer time and looking forward to tomorrow.

Ooh, I found the sausages and bread :rotfl: So we had good old fashioned bangers and mash tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Time for bed shortly. :xmassign:

Ali-OK

:xmastree:

I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas Day and evening.

It's been a chilled out affair here - 4 for roast turkey and trimmings lunch, Christmas pud and custard and present opening late this afternoon because we didn't have time this morning with our slow-coach attitude

A NSD too. However I have been rather spoilt with lovely gifts including 3 beautiful candles that are already alight and quite alot of money. I've yet to decide how to divvy up between spending a little, saving a little and paying some off of debt - it's all going in the bank on Friday though, whilst I play around with my spreadsheets.

Mum also gave me £41.50 - £1.50 for the 2 bags of sugar and the rest is a thank you for running her around with hospital, shopping and towards the Christmas lunches. I'll use some of it to take DS to the cinema over the coming week and I'm finally going to treat myself to a bottle of whisky so I can make an Irish coffee. :j

There's not too much turkey left, so casserole tomorrow and then a curry on Friday will finish it up. The nibbling has begun - few peanuts and a slice of chocolate fudge log.

Being an avid DFWer, I've still checked

- bank account
- freepostcodelottery
- nectar adpoints
- necar card value

No advance on any of them! :rotfl:

Really looking forward to tomorrow when we've decided to have a PJ day (aside from dog walking) and I plan to clear and clean out the bathroom cabinet and airing cupboard. Start small is my motto!

Ali-OK

So having ventured out this afternoon to our local SB, I picked up milk and roasting bags (half price) and spent £1.79.

DS and I have sorted our Christmas money and cheques ready for paying in at the bank tomorrow. I have an embarrassingly large amount of £495.

Quidco has also flagged a payment going to my bank today of £26.94 which was the £26 Debenhams code I won and spent on the £31 sale purse which gave the additional 94p cashback on the whole amount :j

What with a good 'pay myself' amount this month and the energy company refund, then minus my monthly CC spend, the bank account looks like it should be left with £3,366.01 after everything at the end of January. :j

I want to keep £3k as my emergency fund, so it looks like there is the remainder spare, however, looking across Feb and March, I have car tax, service and insurance to pay out and it will dip below the £3k if work is quiet. I think I will carry forward all the balance for now, plan being whatever is over the £3k come the start of April will be taken off what I borrow from MBNA to pay the car to lower the BT fee. Is that a good plan?

Oh, I still haven't looked at the broken cylinder hoover either, but am using the upright one. Not good for my back problem, but better than nothing.

I'm pleased with my clean and clear out small steps progress. Today I have cleaned and cleared out:

- bathroom cabinet
- cupboard under bathroom sink (still without working pop up plug though)
- airing cupboard

Resulting in finding DS's once worn karate outfit - you know it's still like new when it's as hard as board :rotfl:, some bedding, curtains and kids character towels that all can be car booted in the Spring. Another bag of stuff to store for the time being.

I also sprayed the bits of mould that are starting to appear and cleaned the light fitting. Need to attack the shower screen next as we have such hard water, I've got some Viakal spray for that.

I need to do a food shop list and meal plan for next week, as other than bare essentials I don't think we need much. Certainly no treat stuff, we both have piles of goodies that should last us until Easter :rotfl:

Tomorrow, the next small steps clean and clear out is the dining room. Just a coats/hats/scarves/shoe cupboard and the sideboard type dresser. Out of interest, where do people keep table mats, table cloths, vases, Argos catalogues, phone books and such stuff? I think I probably have too many of each - I now have 3 cupboards of vases, but they all seem to get used at some point. Had another one for Christmas too - it is beautiful and I do sometimes treat myself to a bunch of flowers in Aldi.

Saturday I should be working - need to check that all out tomorrow to make sure it's still on.

Not quite the fleecy PJ day I planned, but still relaxing and DS happily occupied with his new DVDs and films on tv. No sign of his thank you letters written though. I have some chivvying along to do

Ali-OK

A very blowy day out there, but great for drying washing so there's a load on the line at the moment. Keeping a close eye in case anything takes off in the wind. Don't fancy having to retrieve undies from next doors or the single storey pitch roof which is more likely :rotfl:

We were in town for 9am and banked our Christmas monies and cheques. DS wanted to spend his gift cards, so it meant going into shops...and rather than looking in the sales for stuff for me or DS, I looked for discounted gifts. I did rather well, but spent alot.

Waterstones - 1 book, £20 half price to £10
Superdrug - 4 small gift sets, 99p each
Boots - 14 various sized gift sets - £168 half price to £84
Accessorize - 2 scarves - £31 half price to £15.50
Debenhams - 3 presents - £50 reduced to £28.60 (2 half price, 1 at 20% discount).

Total spend £142.08 :eek: Full price should have been £280.96, saving £138.88.

That's upset the spreadsheets a bit :rotfl: and now need to find somewhere to store them! I may use a few for birthday presents, but still it's over a third of the Xmas gifts needed.

The food shop was more expensive than I thought it would be, but I finally bought that bottle of whisky I've been harping on about for weeks and I can enjoy an Irish coffee later

So food shop £14.24 (including yet another geometry set for DS at 99p), whisky £10.99.

I did a freezer inventory last night and have spreadsheeted a meal plan for the next 5 weeks. So for this week it is:

Today - Turkey curry, rice and naan bread
Sat - Chilli, rice and garlic bread
Sun - out for the day
Mon - Baked potatoes with cheese and beans
Tue - Roast duck and trimmings
Wed - Duck pancakes and noodles
Thurs - Duck with an unknown as yet sauce and vegetable rice

I think the garage freezer will still be in use for some time to come, as I'm planning spare turkey curry, spare duck possibly and a batch of spag bol and will need the space.

We have 3 vanilla ice cream tubs too, so off to research what I can make with it. DS only likes choc ice cream and I don't like ice cream at all, but I don't want it going to waste.

Work is confirmed for tomorrow, so I have 60 miles of driving to drop and collect DS and 40 miles of driving on Sunday as we're off out for the day to rellies for lunch and tea.

Time to not spend any further money, irrespective of whether the stairs hoover is past repair. Dog walking and dining room de-cluttering are free, so that's my focus

mooomin

You've reminded me to go back to Accessorize tomorrow and look at their scarves. I was looking yesterday, but for me rather than for anyone else! I'm going to update all my spends in my Christmas planner and see how the plan for 2014 is looking