The march to financial freedom

Ali-OK

Ooh you'll have to share the site for the soap nuts Lilt, that sounds a bargain

There are good deals for Mac Books at the mo - £100 off (as new one coming out that is gold :eek:) and 30% more off for biz customers...was tempted, but unless I went Air am no better off in the weight/size stakes.

Apparently mini laptops are the next in thing. It'll make my work bag lighter and that's good for my back/shoulders. Mine was £399 originally and charts in at No.4 from reviews/best of etc. Need to buy a 64Gb micro SD card to slot in (about £10), but will be the perfect bit of kit going forward for work. And yes, tax deductible

Pretty chuffed to get savings up by £200+ given holiday and vets and a £250 mortgage OP, but then no CC to pay anymore

liltdiddylilt

Sorry I went off to look for it and got distracted by shiny £46.83 payable status :D

https://www.topcashback.co.uk/ethical_superstore/

Go via TCB to that place and google soapnuts 1kg bag :j I think it works out cheaper than amazon although I found a £8.99 amazon bag, so might be worth weighing up le maths.

The best thing I did for my back was get my geek on and get a rucksack. Its small and girly and has galaxies on it so I have got my geek on, but my back has been much much improved at work since I swapped the handbag for that!

Am very impressed with the savings.. especially considering you paid off the CC good feeling not to have it sat there eh xx

Skinnylatte

Just catching up with your diary. Glad you had a lovely holiday, and I'm dead impressed with all your savings.
Very sorry to hear about your Mum though, she sounds a special lady.

There's many debt free badges on your thread, you need to get one Ali

Ali-OK

Lilt that was a good distraction with that amount payable

I did the maths and Am@zon came out @ £2 cheaper after cashback for the soap nuts, so I've ordered those

No need to buy a Micro SD card for the convertible thingy (it must have a proper name :rotfl:) as I've got one in my old camera that is sitting doing nothing (as the camera is broken and needs getting rid of ) so that's saved me a £10 spend.

I invested in an Osprey rucksack (in the sale ) a few years back, have to agree it's the best thing I did too. Distributes the weight and is brill. Still not bought a Better Back Bag though, that I was meant to with my Christmas money .

The savings figures is mostly down to banking my birthday money last month and spending about one third of it. I'd got nearly £6k in the current account last month with everything over £5k going towards holiday spending money and of course the remainder of the CC. It'll just scrape in at £5,0041 end of this month if I can keep to budget and no surprises

Visited Mum this morning and although she's still in bed, she's improving a little each day which is great news. Appreciated the flowers too.

Had a lovely time at the family birthday bash, popped in to Mum's again on way back with birthday cake - something hopefully for her to look forward to once her breathing/chest can take more than liquid.

Cousin is organising a couple of in-depth blood tests for when I'm next at the London hospital to follow up on the basic thyroid one that GP had done. Might reveal something.

Ready for DS's return to school tomorrow and I need to do a bit of work stuff to be ready as well! Not feeling motivated though :eek:

Financials:
- Inbox Pounds up at £9.24
- Nectar value at £33.05
- Freepostcodelottery and associated draws checked
- Bank account checked - £350 going to Reg Saver tomorrow, which leaves just May's one before the 12 months is up. That's flown by :eek: but should be a nice £3,950 plus interest that will need a new home to earn even more interest

Think that's all the news today. Still playing with figures for next month's mortgage capital payment, it'll be a minimum of £700 I know that much

Hope everyone's had a good day

Ali-OK

Happy sunny Tuesday

It's all about the small things today:

- ISA has been credited with 16p interest and is up at £172.66
- Qmee yielded 11p - pot up at 36p
- Completed a Nectar Canvass survey - first one in months - 30 pts and card value is up at £33.29

Ooh and I have my DF badge (thank you MSE) :j

Downloaded and populated the mortgage spreadsheet that I accidentally deleted - guess where my spreadsheet fiddling will most be done now!

Lunch with a friend using her T3sco vouchers at P1zza Expr3ss meant a lovely 2 course meal and drinks cost £7 :T. Had a GF meal to keep my diet in check.

I need to find out if I can just add to my ISA as the same product is on offer this year with the same rate. Not the best (1.28%) but a handy pot to TT to.

Scores on today's doors:
- Reg saver sits at a lovely £3,550 - I keep looking at it online and smiling :rotfl:
- Inbox Pounds - up at £9.32

Dinner is pork steaks from the freezer with fresh veg and going to try the GF gravy.

Been back on the exercise bike too, managing a daily 6-7km and aiming to stick with it

Mojo back for work, so all back to normal now. Counting down to the summer holiday :rotfl:

Ali-OK

The mid month slump is being avoided with more small things

- Noodle free credit report checked and all good there. Still showing CC at £903 with no March update though :mad:

- ISA I can still deposit money into, albeit a new tax year and new allowance, it's like a new one just same account details. I can start TTing to that then

- Paid DS's Easter money in finally to his Young Saver - he's got a nice £2k+ of his own money earning 3% tax free

- Soapnuts have arrived :j Shame I did a load of washing this morning which has dried on the line already, or I could have tried them.

Opticians this afternoon, so will have parking to pay and for the eye drops too I imagine. They gave me them free last time though so can't hurt to ask

Beautiful sunny day, but not got jobs to do outdoors. Been doing admin stuff most of the morning and taking tea breaks in the garden

in_need_of_direction

i keep telling people, they are welcome to come work in my garden

Ali-OK

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

i keep telling people, they are welcome to come work in my garden

:rotfl: Half hour stints are my max, a bit of raking the gravel, moving a few bits and brushing. Nothing to weed or cut back here at the moment

- Elec and gas readings now taken and spreasheet updated. FU (current elec supplier) have sent the 'you can leave without penalty' email so I need to instigate my switch to iSupply and get the cashback from Energylinx.

- Letter from Sky in - £2 a month increase from May :eek: Not again, only had one last August. It's got to go, just need to persuade DS he doesn't need it - at £25.50 it's a waste of money as far as I am concerned.

- Washing from today all put away with just one top for ironing

Visit to optician didn't reveal anything new and cost me £12.55 for the drops and £1.60 in parking. Back in 3 months.

Still managing to be Gluten-Free, though as I don't want any of our food to go to waste, I may have to eat my way through stuff slowly over time. It's mainly dry cupboard items like cous cous and cornflakes. Eating more fruit rather than biscuits and crisps and when I do the weekly shop will get lemon and lime so I can swap out tea (full of flouride, no good for thyroid) for filtered hot water with a slice of lemon and lime in. DS has been having the fresh stuff I'm avoiding now - namely broccoli of which I usually eat lots.

Exercise bike to get on next. Look at me sounding all healthy :rotfl: If only!

Hope everyone's had a good day

Brogden

I got the letter from Sky too...£2.00 per month increase........my bill is twice as much as yours though because of the DD's football obsession !!

Nothing I can do and stay alive at the same time

Hope your mum is doing OK.

Broggers x

Eager_Elephant

Ali-OK wrote: »

Dinner is pork steaks from the freezer with fresh veg and going to try the GF gravy.

Just butting in to say that Bisto Best is Gluten Free but is not advertised as such but does not contain any gluten.


I have seen gravy in the GF section but I think it is quite expensive plus I only have vegetarian gravy and no where seems to stock that so I stick with Bisto Best.


How are you finding cutting out gluten?
I was gutted when I realised cous cous contained gluten, I used to love it!