The march to financial freedom

sashybo

All sounding good with the garden Ali, must be a good feeling to be nearly there. :j

Well done to DS on his awards. :T Hope you get his school transport sorted though.

Am enjoying the cake recipes, think I'll need to try them.

Ali-OK

Hi Sashybo - thanks for dropping in and I knocked up another cake yesterday for friends last night - all gone again :rotfl: Realised I posted the buttercream icing with caster sugar - it should have read icing sugar :o. And well done Alex on your cake making too and loving the salmon en croute - that's one I've never tried to do from scratch

The end is in sight for the garden - the grass arrived whilst I was out and DS did a good job taking the delivery in. How many weekends left for the DIYers, I don't know though! In time for Mum's birthday in August would be fab as she'd like to come over anyway.

School phoned and they've given DS a place on the minibus :j Soo pleased - different pick up point due to the new route they're doing, so waiting on a letter to arrive with the details. But one problem solved. :T

My party animal of a Great Aunt (age 95) is unfortunately in hospital and is having 2 lots of emergency surgery. Fingers crossed it goes well - I have fabulous memories of the parties she held when I was a child and she comes to my big pre-Christmas family lunch. Wish I could drive to visit her in hospital but she's about an hour away.

Saw the GP yesterday and went through the ups and downs of all the health stuff. I've agreed to be referred for some CBT as he still thinks stress is a major factor and it's true I don't have people to talk to - colleagues, partner, etc so this might help in several ways.

Saw the optician today and Eureka - he's found that my eyes aren't working together and going to try a prism in my glasses to see if it makes a difference before going headlong into contact lens changes. I possibly went at the best time - after a few hours of laptop work and height of my eye tiredness in the afternoon. My lazy eye/dodgy muscle has got very lazy indeed it seems and started there originally with the pain in that eye back in March last year. An unexpected cost of £107 though and that's putting new lenses into old frames :eek:. Worth it if it solves the problem - will get me back driving too I hope :j

Financials:
- bank account checked - I think plundered is the word for how it looks at the moment :eek:
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Inbox Pounds - up at £17.41
- Qmee - just moved the 95p to PPal and then I'll transfer the P!necone survey £9 with it to my bank account

Probably more to report but I can't remember :rotfl:

Hope everyone's had a good hump day

beanielou

Happy new specs :j
I get pain behind my lazy eye when I get tired
Take it is to do with the muscle.

Ali-OK

Yes, it's the muscle - left eye has always turned in when tired since a young child plus was long sighted, but contacts or glasses have always corrected it until the shooting pain last year - double vision started happening in bouts but nothing was found - seems to behave itself at the opticians :rotfl: Until today! And even with the sight tests, though my prescription stays the same, there were things not right that I was able to describe, rather than saying 'it's not right' but couldn't explain it. All came together in the right place with the right professional

Now to hope the prism is the answer - everything crossed for 10 days time when they should be ready to collect and try out. :j

Ali-OK

Evening Diary

A quieter day today - just work and the weekly food shop tonight with a spend of £24.80 - back to a more normal cost. I've not gone mad on school hols extras - just swapped out DS packed lunch for home lunch items and going to try making some cookies again at the weekend - he didn't like the ones I made in the early days of my diary. I did though and ate them instead

Financials:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Inbox Pounds - up at £17.47

Qu!dco email in with some old cashback confirmed - waiting on @ £6 to be paid. With that and Qmee and P!necone I'm adding £10 to the mortgage capital payment and making that £950 on the 29th July.

Work tomorrow, garden DIYers here at the weekend, reflexologist also on Saturday and Springy for a haircut on Sunday. And some more items need to leave the garage

Ali-OK

Afternoon Diary

What miserable weather we're having and the garden work has gone on hold today due to heavy persistent rain. Hey-ho, let's hope for 2 dry days next weekend

Friday was work, the weekend has been fairly spendy what with Reflexology at £33 and today Springy cost £42 for his groom. I've finally decided to spend out on a clipper/trimmer dog set with all the bits and pieces needed at a cost of £42.99 - it'll pay for itself with one use, especially as doodle will set me back £60 for her haircut next week. I'll get some practise on Springy first as his coat should be easier to learn on and it should reduce the malting and clogging up the hoover with longer dog hairs

Made another cake yesterday which has now all gone. The one dry day was good for drying washing on the line and I also banked £20 in £2 coins. Fiddled with the budget and mortgage spreadsheets and have upped the capital payment to £975 for Wednesday.

Still not found another office as yet but plenty of time to do and planning all work either side of the 4 weeks off I've diaried - well 3 weeks and 1 week for clearing up/moving out.

DS's transport letter arrived and shows the same pick up point as last year - I have to pay the £84 for the first half term by early August anyway, so will pop in and check on that.

I'm kind of concerned at the outgoings but they're manageable and in the budget, after pay myself day next week and August's outgoings, I should be looking at the savings pots totalling £9,684 - pleased that I've managed to stand still after all the garden costs.

Decided not to buy plants for the borders until next Spring too, just get the soil ready with hopefully some of the new home made compost and a bit of sand/grit to break up the clay. Saves another spend for now.

Got work stuff to catch up on later and a busy week ahead. Then I'm planning the spends of next year so I know what I need to have saved by when and can work towards those goals.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and hope it's warmer and drier than here!

Ali-OK

Evening Diary

Observation of the day - I've been eating too much cake :rotfl:. I wore a skirt that fitted fine for all the years I've had it - today could just about get it over the hips but could I sit in it? No!!!! :eek:

I could blame P!necone as I've received another survey and just completed that :rotfl: Sat on my backside too much but another £3 on the way to the pot :T

Picked up and paid for the dog trimmer/clipper set, so after doodle's groom on Wednesday I can look forward to saving £200 a year for 4 haircuts. A few online tutorials to watch before I use it though .

Fuel fill up cost £39.00 exactly.

Busy work day but popping home inbetween stuff to check DS is ok - he is. We need to plan in a few things to do really so trying to get him to come swimming later in the week, but he's typical teenager now I guess and 'not bovvered' a la Kevin & Perry.

Financials then:
- bank account checked - I've moved mortgage capital payment to tomorrow and it'll be my fave update post of the month to write :j
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Inbox Pounds - up at £17.84 - talk about slow and steady, been working on getting to this £20 since November :rotfl:
- Qmee - 11p in the pot again

Home To Do list is quite short for a change:
- write and send a birthday card
- second coat on the remaining fence panels (still)
- few bits to iron

Early night as well - am up at 6am again tomorrow.

Skinnylatte

Good news on the transport, and how impressive is that, planning next years spends already!! :beer:

Ali-OK

Got to fund the business for the car payment in April Skinny and the main side path of the house will be the only bit left to revitalise in the garden and with enough of the matching large slabs to lay down there (that were half price), DIYer is going to do that - but means the fence on that side needs to be sorted too, so a few more concrete posts and gravel boards will be needed, but panels are ok.

Mortgage Update Day :j

Capital payment of £975 has been sent :j of which £302.07 is OP

Taking last month's £117,850 down to £116,875

Split:

Part 1 - £95,550 - stays as is
Part 2 - £22,300 down to £21,325

LTV drops from 45.33% to 44.95% - I own 55.05% of my house Another stair coloured in on my picture :rotfl:

Total paid off to date now at £16,569 with £3,620.39 being OPs - 5.5 months off the end date and aiming for 6 next month. 11.69% paid off goes up to 12.42%.

Interest should come down by a round £3 - should have those figures online in a few days .

Just need to phone the bank at 8am to complete the picture

Igamogam

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