The march to financial freedom

Ali-OK

A rare weekday afternoon diary update as thought I'd work from home today with DS on half term. Amount of work done by 2pm - zero :rotfl: Work to do by tomorrow - lots :eek:

Instead, I've cleaned all of downstairs, have windows open and fresh air piling through the house. Wonderful . Thought the hoover might still pick up without the hose attached (where it broke recently), all that happened was another bit fell off the back :rotfl: It did expose a screw that I was going to remove and try and fix the hose back into it's housing, but the needed screwdriver is in my office drawer. Me and hoovers have a difficult relationship and this one looks like it doesn't want to be fixed :rotfl:

DS has a friend coming over for the afternoon and evening to work on a school project. I'll be feeding them batch chilli or spag bol from the freezer.

Had a letter through from the bank this morning - my TT Pot interest rate is being reduced from a measly 0.75% to an even more measly 0.25% in April. So that's that then, account is going to be closed and I'll move my pot to my current account and do something better with it. Add to next months reg saver amount, put it as part of £2k for a TSB 5% account or something else.

Need to pop out and fill up with fuel and also get 2nd class stamps for some of the March birthdays. I have to drive on a fast road tomorrow - the first time in months - so relevant pills at the ready. Really want to do it, but can feel the anxiety creeping in just when I think about it . Will try the dc nearby as a test today.

All the usual checks done and ticking along nicely.

Happy Hump Day all

liltdiddylilt

Happy hump day! But did you buy stamps? If not, PM me address, work, home - not fussed. Have a mass bunch of stamps here for some reason and you're welcome to them. So rare I send anything in the post, and so often I do it from works franking

Hope you managed ok with the driving testing on the DC. My mums best friend refuses point blank to drive on a motorway. She absolutely cannot do it.Freezes up and starts a panic attack just coming up to islands that lead off to the motorway even if just crossing them. Very debilitating

TT pot is abysmal indeed! Don't forget you may have a pension fee to pay sometime soon. Maybe it can go towards that? x

Ali-OK

I didn't get my stamps (I forgot ), so I shall PM you Lilty but please let me pay you for them. Thank you :j:j Filled up with petrol and also forgot the double nectar points voucher :mad: got it out and left on dining table to pick up, put coat on and off I went. Spent £26.50 there.

Dual carriageway test went well, excepting a little anxiety hot flush just as I approached the slip road onto it. Told myself I was being silly and cruised along for the 8 miles to the exit I wanted for food shopping and came back that way too. Tomorrow is going to be a test and a half, but I know the road and area well, so am hopeful.

Lilty good point on the Pension fees, brain like a sieve here and hadn't thought of using the TT pot for that :rotfl:. IFA is due tomorrow too and I've got my 'Pension Box' out in readiness. I did look at the statement to try and answer your questions as well.

There is a final bonus payable, yes. Can't find anything on guaranteed rates and the transfer value is same as pot value. My 'Former Protected Rights' is quite a sizeable pot too as I contracted out for the most part in employment. Does that help?

The food shop spend was £26.01 in Ald!. Bought a ton of fruit as DS won't go near that so I'll have snacks left when I get in from work :rotfl:. He might not even go in the kitchen if the bananas start to smell too strongly - got it all worked out

There are chicken pieces defrosting in the fridge for dinner tomorrow night with various veggies and the freezer is now restocked with salmon and more meat. I do need to meal plan properly again - been getting lazy and throwing 'use up' foods together quite alot.

Was hoping for (and needing) an early night, but DS's friend isn't being picked up for a good while yet :eek:. At least I got all the necessary work stuff done and am pretty much ready for tomorrow.

Hump Day has been quite productive

in_need_of_direction

It's weird given that I don't really like driving but I prefer dual carriageways and motorways. At least everyone on my road is heading in the same direction if you know what I mean. Best of luck with it. Take lots of care.

Ali-OK

Thanks INOD. I'm pretty sure it started with my weird vision last summer causing the first one. Since that seems to have settled down again, I am hoping it's just a case of getting onto fast roads again and driving a bit further each time.

I've got the anti panic attack pills at the ready to take before I leave - they do work and stop the symptoms, so feeling reasonably confident.

Will update tomorrow night (will be late as out for the eve) with hopefully a positive experience.

Skinnylatte

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

Don't forget you may have a pension fee to pay sometime soon. Maybe it can go towards that? x

I've just had a bill for managing my pension, I wasn't expecting it, did I miss something, has there been a change in the law or something?

Ali-OK

Skinny - I'd say that's a Lilt question. Only thing I know is there are capped charges on Stakeholder pensions that came in a few years ago.

My IFA meeting went well and my pension is worth quite a bit more than I thought...I forgot to add the Contracted Out bit to the contributions I'd made. Doh! Upshot is it likely I'd be better off moving it and having a different split on funds (for more aggressive growth). Now waiting on his recommendations and costs/fees to do it.

He recommends a 3 prong balance to finances of Cash - Property - Pension Plan. So need to save a bit more cash (he reckons £12k pot), but perhaps the biggest turn would be not OPing the mortgage but adding that to the Pension pot and using some of the lump sum to pay it off...but I don't plan to be accessing my pension that early.

So still a bit unclear/undecided. Property he sees nothing wrong in a BTL. So it's all a case of choice where I put spare money (after debt free date ). The only thing I'm probably going to do is a) move my pension for a better return/lower charges hopefully and b) make a higher monthly commitment - will still have the option to pay a lump sum each year which will help me avoid 40% tax bracket.

The dc driving didn't happen as I've come down with the lurgy and didn't feel well enough to do much let alone drive . Feels a bit like an excuse and wonder if some of it is anxiety. Sofa with honey and lemon, paracetamol, ibruprofen and a drop of whisky in the bedtime one to come . Not going out tonight either now. Thank goodness it's Friday tomorrow and I can mostly rest over the weekend.

Financials all look as they should and for what is normally a quiet month, I'm looking at a good pay myself amount next week.

beanielou

Having had the blooming lurgy for more than a week I do not think having the lurgy is an excuse.More an exercise in good judgement.
Take care.

Ali-OK

Beanie - I feel for you, glad you back home and getting better. I'm in mega sore throat stage today and hopefully over the worst of mega-hot. Haven't slept well for the last few nights and was up reading on here between 2-5am :eek: Still, stuck it out for a client facing day today.

A few financial bits to report today:
- Another Qu!dco payment of £3.99 is on it's way to me (that was part of the £11.98 cashback for the washing machine)
- Got a P!necone survey in today for £3, so will do that shortly
- Resisted the urge to TT my current account after I did expenses reimbursement - found that really hard and shows how addictive it is.

I've bought myself some music tonight - Jack Savoretti - looks good for accompanying my spring cleaning (when I get that far :rotfl:) and need to pop out and get some throat sweets as DS ate his way through 2 packs (even after his throat had cleared up :eek:).

Will start on a few housey bits like the washing and emptying bins. Downstairs is still nice and clean (less so tidy ) so only upstairs to tackle at a pace to suit how I feel. Which means slow I think

Hope everyone's weekend gets off to a good start.

Ali-OK

Morning Diary and quite a sunny if chilly start to the day here

Finally a good night's sleep :j probably helped by a generous hot toddy so a few more jobs conquered :

- Gas and elec meter readings done and spreadsheets updated
- Business banking done plus £10 in 20p's banked from the change bucket
- All washing finished and on airers
- Another kitchen tidy up and dishwasher on

Lilty's stamp collection arrived this morning - thank you so much for those. Shall be indulging in luxury posting with the 1st class ones

Also in the post was:

- Pension auto increase letter from 1st March so a budget spreadsheet update has been made
- The annual mortgage statement :j:j:j Disappointing though that it takes them between 2-4 days to apply it to the account even though it's shown as received on the correct date before it's moved as a capital payment :eek: That has got to be a money making scam, costing me @ 30-40p for each day they don't apply it. :mad::mad::mad:

And made a decision on March's mortgage payment - it's set up for £780 on 3rd March. Going to keep an overpayment going, but only around the £100-£120 mark, the rest I'm going to save and see if a BTL deposit grows enough to buy by this time next year.

Pottering and resting today, letting the lurgy do it's thing. Equipped with balsam tissues, throat lozenges and the laptop, I will be happy