The march to financial freedom

beanielou

Oh & remember to post on the DFW Debt Free Roll of Honour

Ali-OK

I daren't even allow myself to think it was going to finally happen until they arrived after last time.

I never really thought about the running costs of the sports car until I got the new runaround:

Runaround:
£0 Tax Band
£0 MOT (for 3 years)
£180 Insurance
£130 Servicing (on plan as part of monthly payment)
Returning @ 50 mpg (petrol 1.0L)

Sports Car:
£265 Tax Band
£35-50 MOT
£174 Insurance
£200 Service (probably more with each one due to wearing parts)
Returning @ 30mpg (petrol 2.0L)

Blimey - saving is now £674 ish without putting petrol in :eek:

So the only cheaper thing on the sports car was the insurance - how bizarre when that had 3 years NCD, the runaround donkeys years protected :rotfl:

Ali-OK

Back to the daily stuff, don't want to fall off the wagon.

A long work day, but fruitful so all good there and a good billable week financially.

Financials then:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery (both) - checked
- Nectar adpoints - no new, still on 51 points
- Nectar Canvass - not looked today
- Nectar Search - up to 23/100
- Nectar Card - up at £65.39
- Inbox Pounds - up at £13.87
- Qmee - another 5p today
- P!necone - points credited, will convert to £3 and send to Paypal

What do people think about paying all the CC off or spreading it over the remaining 0% months? On the one hand, would be good to get rid of it totally so I can concentrate on savings and mortgage reduction, on the other, I can make some extra interest in the bank account, but only up to £5k I think.

Talking of which, I think I'm going to convert my Lloyds Vantage Current Account to the Club Lloyds - which means I need to keep £4k in there to earn the 4%. Vantage drops to 1.5% on £3k on 1st July.

Sounds like some number crunching needs to be done

Ali-OK

Another day done and with sunshine too, so took all my tea breaks on the patio

Car money banked after interrogation by staff and them then trying to sell me a savings account at 0.5% interest rate! No thanks Still got to upgrade the current account - can do that online and also open a 4% regular saver for 12 months.

Spends kept to the £45 for Hygienist appointment, love having sparkly clean teeth --->

Financials:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery (both) checked
- Nectar adpoints - another 7 and now at 58 points
- Nectar Canvass - 2 surveys done, 1 x 20, 1 x 40 and another product being sent out to me for testing, woo hoo :j
- Nectar Search - up at 30/100
- Nectar card - no change at £65.39
- Inbox Pounds - up at £14.48
- Qmee - another 5p
- P!necone - £3 in Paypal, so now have £6 from them and 92p from Qmee to withdraw and send to CC :T

Have made a decision with regarding to how to pay off the CC - for June's payment, I'm going to stick with what I had in the budget at £424, plus the £6.92 made and then send whatever else I can make this month. I'll see how that goes and then make it up towards the end of the 0% period from the car sale money.

Really hoping we can advertise a few bits on eBay or Gumtree from the next round of decluttering (DS old playhouse and bedroom) and get a car boot sale in. However, we're out for lunch this Sunday with family, likely to have the other side coming up the following Sunday and that just leaves the 22nd, as we're away for the last weekend. So that's what we'll aim for in terms of preparing and checking the weather forecast

Hope everyone has had a good day and Friday tomorrow. Yay! :j

supersaver1000

Hi Ali, I would definitely pay off the 0% over the remaining time and keep the money in the bank.

4% in your pocket is better than theirs, though I guess it depends how much you will make and whether its enough to delay the satisfaction of paying it off - and whether you trust yourself not to use it.

I think you've already made your mind up, but just in case.

I'm paying £25 pmth for our current account and I need to sit down this weekend and work out whether we still need it (no foreign holidays this year, no need for RAC for a year - so probably just gadget insurance and £300 a year seems an awful lot). Will look at it seriously this weekend as that could be an extra £300 pa off the credit card bill.

Ali-OK

I do agree with you on this SS. I'm definitely not tempted to spend it - the insecurity of SE makes me want to hang on to as much of it as possible, I just need to somehow separate out the figures on my budget spreadsheet so I can get a true picture of 'my' money and the destined for CC money.

I might get bored waiting to pay it off, that's the potential 'just do it' moment that might rear it's head.

:eek: at your account fee. Sure you could get all those cheaper separately if you need them. Check your Home Contents Insurance for gadgets - mine covers gadgets lost/stolen (cameras, iPads, phones, laptops) outside the home. I've had a fee free bank account for years but looks like decent interest is falling away from those. Club Lloyds charge £5 a month unless I pay in £1500 a month - which I normally do by quite a bit more - back up will be transferring more from the business account and then transferring it back. That's the only bit holding me back from doing it but think I've got it covered.

When do you start your new job and how has giving in your notice gone down?

millionaire_in_training

How did I miss this news??? Woop woop. Well done you. Am so pleased for you.

I would pay the card off as I know I would dip into the money but if you can trust yourself then keep it in bank and earn some money. Well done again and yip jump on the enthusiasm from DS and get his room done first

Ali-OK

Thanks MiT - am pleased it's done now and one less worry. :j

I can hang onto it without the fear of spending it, am fairly confident of that.

Good news on the car insurance refund, it's arrived in my bank account already - £89.04 extra.

So CC payment this month:

£424 - budgeted
£6 - from P!necone
£0.97 - from Qmee
£89.04 - insurance refund

Let's call it £520 with my liking for round figures Will set the payment up to go out on Monday as the CC statement is in.

Daisychain1

Good afternoon Ali-Ok

Just wanted to pop by and say great diary and congratulations on all you have achieved. Your diary really strikes a chord with me and I have taken inspiration to start my own debt free journey. It's going to be a long one but I feel confident I can do it.

One thing I noticed from your earlier entries is your low grocery spends. How do you manage to keep it so low. There are two of us in our house and I seem to spend double, sometimes triple what you do :eek:

DC1

Ali-OK

Hi Daisychain and thanks so much for your lovely comments. It's great if anything I've written can be of help - I was spurred into action on several things by reading others diaries when I started this one.

I guess DS and I do not eat that much! He won't go near fruit but eats plenty of veg, we don't have desserts/puddings and our portion sizes are quite small I think, so food goes much further. A bag of say 24 new potatoes would last us 4 meals - 3 each per meal. A standard can of baked beans would go with 4 meals for us.

I usually meal plan by going through the cupboards, fridge and freezer first, then work out what we need to make that happen, so what I buy isn't a full 7 days meals at all. If we're low on pasta for example, but it's not in the meal plan for next week, I will not buy it until another week. However, if we're low (like last week) on mince based batch cooked meals, I'll add a large pack to the shopping list.

There is about £7 of groceries each week that are standard for DS lunchbox, breakfasts and snacks and 12 pints of milk. I don't do top up shops as I freeze half the milk. I shop in Ald! too - though use Sburys Basics for a few things, FF00ds for loo rolls and sugar, WIlkos for Stardrops - as those things I find cheaper than Ald!.

I keep next to nothing in terms of store cupboard stock now, the only exception is YS bargains (occasional evening trips to SB or Morries) that I'll pop in the freezer and work into the meal plans over the following weeks, so that also reduces what I buy in the weekly shop.

We usually have a roast on a Sunday - that will last us 3 days of meals, so where I've overspent in some of my months that tends to be £20-25 of YS meat!

Does that help at all? It's hard to pinpoint exactly how I keep the shopping low - but I know I save @ £10-15 a week from when I used to shop in Sburys. It's been a good 18 months since I swapped to Ald!. My spends have slowly gone up towards £25 a week since my early entries though.

Good luck on your journey too