The Big Adventure

Goldiegirl

I love the old money shuffle each month :T


I checked how much interest we'd earned this year, and it's pleasantly more than I thought.


But, I'm by no means perfect - I've got about £5000 only earning 0.80%:eek:


But with monthly savers now opened, and more current accounts being opened over the next few weeks, this will be sorted


I have a lamb tagine in the slow cooker - it's slow cooker weather today, it's grim out there!

gallygirl

The M&S saver is a good rate :j. I'm hoping my money is going from my M&S account every month - I transfer it in automatically but it's such a faff to log into the M&S account I haven't done it for a few months . Another one who should try harder :rotfl:.

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Or m and s could try to make it easier. Those little machines are a real pain!

Goldiegirl

I've just googled an image of the M&s thingy. It looks very like the thing I used at work to get into the HSBC account. It was a real pain!

I've found another account that I might go for.

It's a monthly saver, and you can pay in between £25 to £500 a month. The amount is not fixed so you can vary your monthly payment, which is handy. Plus a 4% interest rate.

It's with the Kent Reliance Building Society. However, it can only be opened in branch. Fortunately, there's a branch nearby. But if it was Internet based, I think it'd be very popular.

Goldiegirl

Mr Goldie is on board with this mindful consumption lark.


Previously he used one razor blade a week...... he's now making each blade last two weeks :T


We're off on a coach outing tomorrow to Bletchley Park. We've wanted to go there for ages, so we're really looking forward to it. The novel 'Enigma' by Robert Harris was the Kindle deal of the day recently, so we've both read the book to get ourselves in the mood.


Enjoy the rest of Sunday

Karmacat

Kent Reliance sound interesting! There's none quite near enough to me to make it worthwhile - but it just shows what can be around. As I was blithering on about, I've now given up decluttering in favour of financial admin for a while

Enjoy Bletchley! It fascinates me what they managed to do before our computers ...

Goldiegirl

Bletchley was fantastic - I'd highly recommend it as a day out.


We saw a demonstration of how the Enigma machines worked, how they did the 'cribs' (clues to what the message says) and then how they worked out a menu for the 'Bombe', to see if they could crack the code. All the Bombes were dismantled at the end of the war, but they've rebuilt one, so we saw that in action too. Plus there's other exhibitions and they've styled some of the codebreaker's huts to look like they did in the war. The main house is also open. There's a special exhibition in there, showing props from the recent film ' The Imitation Game'. Although I think the film exhibition ends soon.


A great day, well worth catching the coach at 7am (middle of the night as far as I'm concerned!:rotfl:)


Inspired by something I read on HelenDaveKids dairy, I've been monitoring some things on Amazon.


We still have some branded items, such as coffee and some of our toiletries.


I've put some of the bulk buys on my wish list, and as Helen said, they fluctuate in price. For example, in Boots, I can buy my normal moisturiser at £6.50 a bottle. I put a lot of 6 bottles on my wish list when the price was £17.70 for the six, and a few days later they'd gone down to £15.


The general rule of thumb for the things I'm looking at, is that bulk buys on Amazon are usually at a price equivalent or less than the price in the supermarket when the item is on offer.


If you choose to subscribe and save, then the Amazon price is almost always cheaper than supermarket offer prices.


I'm now seriously considering subscribe and save, to get these items at reasonable prices, without too much monitoring of offers at the supermarket. I don't want to spend too much time looking at and comparing prices - if I can get stuff at less than supermarket offer price then that'll be good enough for me.


But first, I need to work out how often I need to purchase in bulk, so, next time I open a bottle or jar of anything, I'll make a note, and then see how long it lasts.


KC, I think financial admin and de-cluttering are similar in nature. If you don't do any for a while then they both mount up

Karmacat

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Bletchley was fantastic - I'd highly recommend it as a day out.

It sounds brilliant! Thats one for *my* retirement, as well

The general rule of thumb for the things I'm looking at, is that bulk buys on Amazon are usually at a price equivalent or less than the price in the supermarket when the item is on offer.

If you choose to subscribe and save, then the Amazon price is almost always cheaper than supermarket offer prices.

It sounds like a fantastic saving, absolutely.

KC, I think financial admin and de-cluttering are similar in nature. If you don't do any for a while then they both mount up

I didn't think of it that way - you're right! Thats a helpful way of thinking of it, ta muchly

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Hello Goldie,

I also want to go to Bletchley Park but I think it will have to be the Christmas holidays now. thanks for the recommendation.

Re subscribe and save, I know that many people on here do like to stock up on bargains, but I do think that having the sense of plenty that arises when you have a lot of something can lead to quite profligate consumption! If there is not another bottle of conditioner, for example, available then I can usually squeeze another couple of days out of the old one. If a new bottle is on the shelf though, I or oh will open it as soon as the previous one appears to be empty. And the same goes for most things around the house. For that reason I try not to buy any replacements until something has actually finished. And it keeps the cupboards uncluttered.

Maybe others are more conscientious than me about using things up fully though!

Goldiegirl

Well, I have to say that I like to squeeze the life out of a bottle!:rotfl:


Last year, when we were in our planning stage I stockpiled various toiletries, which we've been using throughout the year, so I'm used to that feeling of plenty. I understand exactly what you mean though, if you have a shelf-full of products it's easy to think you can be lavish - hopefully I'll continue to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube!


What's been happening this week


eBaying is doing nicely. My friend's things have been selling well, so I should have a decent amount to transfer to my account at the end of the month.


M&S Account opening. This afternoon we endured a 45 minute phone call when we both activated our cards, set up our interest passcode and started the switch process for our Nationwide account. What a palaver - although it will be worth it when we get our £100 voucher


Talk Talk - my broadband is with Talk Talk. It's very disconcerting to know that some of my details may have been stolen. But, as I pay by Direct debit, there's not much they can do with my bank details except pay money in. I only opened the Talk Talk account a few months ago, and I don't recall having to give my DOB, so I'm hoping that any information that my have be stolen isn't going to be too harmful, but I'll be looking at my affairs closely over the coming months


Apart from that, all is quiet around here