EH - Keeping on track. (AKA focus Woman! FOCUS!)

EssexHebridean

Enjoying_life_more wrote: »

have you seen the 5% savings current account in the MSE email -it's a basic current account and you need to feed in 500 per month - this can be withdrawn too - max you can earn interest on is 2000 but every little helps

Ooh cheers for that ELM - I must admit I skimmed by that but because I already have one of those with Nationwide...the problem with the current accounts though is that to maintain the interest rate you have to pay in the minimum amount each month - and in the case of this, once we've hit the limit for the interest we'd then have to transfer it out again to somewhere else....still worth a think to see if we could juggle it though.

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

EH - Hal1fax do an 18month ISA at 2% that allows transfers in - you can set it up online, for 2 yrs its something like...... um 2.05%... I *think*.

Worth doing a bit of digging though - just don't think about how many hoops we're jumping through to *get* 2% though......

Greying

Definitely NOT thinking about hoop-jumping! We talked a bit about this last night - MrEH rightly pointed out that the concern about a fix now is that (and it does seem like we've been saying this forever, but bear with me...) interest rates have GOT to go up before too long, as we're wary of being stuck in a fix and seeing interest rates whizz past it. Not sure there's a right answer to be honest!

The next step in any case while the Nationwide FD offer stays is to convert our Joint Account to one of those - I was wary of doing so initially as although we don't often go overdrawn even a bit, once the first year passes the penalty for doing so is considerably higher with that account than with the ordinary Flexaccount. I guess as it still pays 1% even then though, the answer is just to leave a small "known quantity" buffer in there to avoid that risk.

Small Money Saving Thing - again more "making" than saving - I'm ploughing on with Survey Network...I've been a member for AGES and still haven't quite made the £20 payout threshold - however I am now only a whisker away so once I've got there, that'll be me done. I need to focus back on OnePoll too - although each survey earns pennies, they are so quick to do it's not a problem. Might set myself some May challenges including a minimum number of those to complete, maybe.

starnac

I don't think there'll ever be a right answer financially tbh. As long as what you decide is right for you.

EssexHebridean

Brilliantly put Starnac - yes, right for us is the key. :T

So - thinking around some little May MSE Money Challenges...

NDS's - 10**
Food - 3 x shopping trips needed*
Food : Meal plan right through the month**
Grocery Budget: No more than £70 spent
Survey Network: Hit £20 threshold and request payout
OnePoll : make 50p a day average in answered surveys
ISA : get them sorted - 1 new, 1 for transfer
Electricity : Get it changed to new supplier.


*For regular weekly shops, and before our holibobs come calling. If we head off camping for the weekend we'll be doing odds and ends more while we're away.
** Until holibob time.

That's a start. Not going to start well on the NSD front though as I suspect it's going to be at LEAST next Tuesday before I get my first of the month! :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

EssexHebridean wrote: »

NDS's - 10**
Food - 3 x shopping trips needed*
Food : Meal plan right through the month**
Grocery Budget: No more than £70 spent
Survey Network: Hit £20 threshold and request payout
OnePoll : make 50p a day average in answered surveys £2.95/£15.50
ISA : get them sorted - 1 new, 1 for transfer
Electricity : Get it changed to new supplier.

*For regular weekly shops, and before our holibobs come calling. If we head off camping for the weekend we'll be doing odds and ends more while we're away.
** Until holibob time.

:T Some decent opportunities on OnePoll at the moment for anyone who's a member - LOTS of 25p ones, and I've just done 5 of those and a 10p one with NO screenouts.

**and updated** - No more left to do though!

Just a thought also - if anyone isn't a member on OnePoll and wants to be, give me a shout and I'll DM you re referral - yes, it pays me and yes, I am that shallow!

EssexHebridean

My invoice has been paid. Money shuffling all done too -

- Tax account now should have enough in it to pay tax/NI in July
- £50 put across to my "fun" account - although it will come out again to pay for tickets booked for things
- £100 shuffled into my savings - was looking somewhat thin in there after camera-purchasing exploits.
- £20 into my present account

After I transferred the basic "we need this much to pay all the bills" amount into the joint account there was a spare £14 so that's been dumped into the mortgage OP account. I've also shuffled the £8 odd interest from my account into the VSP, along with odd pennies and pounds from both current accounts. :T

Just had a message to say that speedway is off tonight - which is good in one way (means I ought to be able to score a NSD) but bad in another (not seen speedway pals in AGES and was really looking forward to it. Not sure when I'll get up there next either - no meeting next Thursday, and the following week I'm meant to be at RAF Coningsby the day after....Hmmmm.

cazmanian_minx

Ohhhhh, that camera was worth it though, I've just seen your latest blog post with the St Magnus pictures (I have a very similar shot to the last one!) - the lack of noise is amazing.

*wants one*

EssexHebridean

I was honestly astonished when I saw how noise-free that was Caz - I'd been a bit twitchy about it's performance shooting against a bright sky - so was half expecting the worst when I was going through those, but definitely no need to worry! I now just need to sort out the problems I'm having with servo-focus and we'll be away!

EssexHebridean

Update:

NDS's - 10** 1/10
Food - 3 x shopping trips needed*
Food : Meal plan right through the month**
Grocery Budget: No more than £70 spent
Survey Network: Hit £20 threshold and request payout
OnePoll : make 50p a day average in answered surveys £2.95/£15.50
ISA : get them sorted - [STRIKE]1 new[/STRIKE], 1 for transfer 1 new opened and first deposit made
Electricity : Get it changed to new supplier. done - going to Flow Energy - no exit fees so if they're rubbish we'll leave again!


Tried to do meter readings to Sc0tt1sh P0wer this evening - the second time I've tried in the past week. Couldn't do it online....again, and the automated phone system also refused to play. Also (again) couldn't access usage data or old bills online. Rang up only to be told that apparently there is a glitch from where their systems transferred over - some of the data didn't migrate properly from the old system, and they're trying to sort it out but this is going to take up to 4 weeks to get straight. :mad: During which time I won't be able to access bills, submit meter readings, get usage data....etc. You get the picture. :mad::mad: Because of this they also couldn't amend the DD - we've come out of the winter in credit to the tune of £70 and only use around £30 per month of electric through the summer, so a £57 DD is somewhat higher than we need..... I'd been thinking about switching to another of their tariffs, but instead told her we'd be leaving to go to a different provider. Oh, and that I was cancelling the DD as if they couldn't give me any control over it, I wasn't leaving it in place. Fingers crossed it will work out nicely that at the point the account switches over we'll still have a teeny bit of credit with them.

[STRIKE]Tomorrow I will have to call back to get the wretched MPAN (meter) number as needless to say it's not on any paperwork I've got here, and[/STRIKE]

:j:j Just occurred to me to wonder whether there was any "back door route" on Scot Pwr's site where I could get at the bills....and sure enough, they send me a message on the account every time when the bill is ready - and the link to the bill there is still in place AND working! :T Application submitted, and email confirming it already received! :T

EssexHebridean

Update:

NDS's - 10** 1/10
Food - 3 x shopping trips needed* 1/3
Food : Meal plan right through the month**
Grocery Budget: No more than £70 spent £27.90/£70
Survey Network: Hit £20 threshold and request payout
OnePoll : make 50p a day average in answered surveys £4.30/£15.50
ISA : get them sorted - [STRIKE]1 new[/STRIKE], 1 for transfer 1 new opened and first deposit made
Electricity : Get it changed to new supplier. done - going to Flow Energy - no exit fees so if they're rubbish we'll leave again!
Tax Return - complete and submit DONE! :j

Can't BELIEVE I forgot to note the tax return on that list! Done now anyway - with just the one income stream these days it takes hardly any time - that's the benefit of keeping all my income & expenditure in one place I guess - the only think I had to go elsewhere looking for was the interest figures on the bank accounts.

Also rang Virgin Money this morning so the regular OP on the mortgage is now stopped. Once the ISA shows on my accounts list I'll set up an auto transfer for the amount we were OP'ing to go directly to that on the 1st of each month. :cool:

Decided we're definitely going to take the tent and do a couple of nights camping over the weekend - campsite is £20 a night so that will take care of the remaining £20 in my purse. I'll take £30 from my account for spends but will aim to come back with some of that intact.

Right - off to cobble together something for lunch. Eggy bread maybe. I blame Pippi! :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Lovely fabby fun weekend - and not TOO bank-breaking although I can't realistically count any more NSD's - but then I didn't expect to be able to! Lots of nice walks, a lovely pub lunch (treated by MrEH) on Sunday, and just generally lovely and relaxing. LOVE having the tent so we can just do things like that! :T Called into Morrisons yesterday to get some oddments for lunch (which doesn't count as food shopping) and had a quick shufty at the YS'd stuff - scored two bags of baby new potatoes, a bag of sweet pointy peppers, and a bag with two ordinary peppers (all @ 19p) and a pack of 6 toasting teacakes (25P) So £1.01 to add to the shopping bill.

Meals for this week then:
Tue: Salad: New pots with honey & mustard mayo dressing, sweet peppers, and the usual leaves/toms/cue etc.
wed: Salmon & soft cheese pasta
Thur: Jackets with beans & cheese
Fri: Fry up.
Sat: Pasta & Pesto/Cheese & Crackers
Sun: Lamb tagine/toasted crumpets

After this week meals may have to start getting more inventive.

Purse situation is £10 remaining - thanks to MrEH for being generous with treatiness over the weekend. There is no reason whatsoever why I can't manage 3 NSD's this week - I don't need to spend anything until Friday. (and might manage until Saturday).

All good - off to check the bank! :cool: