Only freedom will do

edinburgher

... Also no point in paying a mechanic to service your car, never mind fit windscreen wipers.

You know what? You're probably right! Our car is nearly 9 years old, it's dented and dinged thanks to my recently qualified crap driver skills and it can't be worth much. What's the worse that I can do re. servicing? From looking at the manual, it's all pretty basic stuff like air filters. It's not as if I can affect the resale value :rotfl:

Re. the house, there just aren't enough hours in the day when you work regular office hours. You're lucky in that your lifestyle seems a bit more flexible. The tension between what we want to get done and what we are getting done isn't fun. We don't do well in a messy house, we're creatures of calm order for the most part As well as that, we did all the biggest jobs first, which made sense, but drained the coffers. As an example, solar panels were c. £4,000, but they're currently providing nearly 50% of our electricity and earning us some money to boot. So we saw the big picture, but the little pictures (and bank balances) have to be considered as a result.

AlexLK

edinburgher wrote: »

You know what? You're probably right! Our car is nearly 9 years old, it's dented and dinged thanks to my recently qualified crap driver skills and it can't be worth much. What's the worse that I can do re. servicing? From looking at the manual, it's all pretty basic stuff like air filters. It's not as if I can affect the resale value :rotfl:

Re. the house, there just aren't enough hours in the day when you work regular office hours. You're lucky in that your lifestyle seems a bit more flexible. The tension between what we want to get done and what we are getting done isn't fun. We don't do well in a messy house, we're creatures of calm order for the most part As well as that, we did all the biggest jobs first, which made sense, but drained the coffers. As an example, solar panels were c. £4,000, but they're currently providing nearly 50% of our electricity and earning us some money to boot. So we saw the big picture, but the little pictures (and bank balances) have to be considered as a result.

I service all my cars apart from the Land Rover(which is 6 months old and has a servicing plan from LR), it's not difficult. Think it needs to be done by the LR garage to keep its warranty. Anyhow, not my problem for three years and someone else can have the pleasure of that special kind of Land Rover dirt. Seriously, if it's a LR, take it to someone else. Given the age of your car you'll probably need a plug-in to switch the service light off and so long as you keep all the receipts for parts and note when the service has been done, you can prove it's been regularly maintained for the next owner.

Re. the job situation I can emphasise; I have had one before. I think you moved at a difficult time and you've managed to achieve a lot in a short space of time. You've been in that house less than a year and got the bathroom sorted, I've been in my current place for nigh on a decade and am still living with mine in all its 1950s glory. :rotfl:

On a completely different note, how long until the solar panels pay for themselves?

edinburgher

It's probably too early to tell, but my thinking at this point is that they should have returned the capital used to purchase them within 10 years, at which point the government will still provide another 10 years of the FIT. In terms of break even (i.e. FITs + savings through reduced electricity bills), I think perhaps 7 years.

It was never all about the money, but it will be nice to have a small non-work income stream that should last for 20-30 years.

AlexLK

I had guessed it was not "all about the money" for you.

No idea what a FIT is but a 7 year return doesn't sound so bad and I can see how they could be a good idea if you're going to stay in the house long term.

edinburgher

• *Very* small pay rise applied at work (it all helps)
• NW has gone up for the first time in 7 months! :j
• Concluded my 15th successful referral for RateSetter, which is great. That said, it's frustrating that 35+ people have used the link, so only something like a 40% conversion rate. Wonder how I can up this?
• Dribs and drabs of P2P interest withdrawn
• 0% CC statements received, a minimum of £2,000 is going to be disappearing from my current account this month :eek:Target would be to get these down to ££££ by the end of June?
• Received an email about a fantastic bottle of highly awarded bourbon that I *didn't* act on!

hiddenshadow

Congrats on the positive net worth and pay rise!

And well done on resisting the bourbon (unless it's in your budget, in which case why not splurge? )

edinburgher

Hehe - it's very much not in my budget - I'm still sitting on something like £800 of 'drinking whisky' (as opposed to 'selling whisky'). I really can't justify spending any more cash on whisky this year :rotfl:

I'd start a '2 bottles out for every bottle in' policy or similar, but worry that I'd just convince myself to get drunk all the time. That's not a savvy choice :eek:

edinburgher

• Contacted SIPP provider because they keep failing to take my monthly DD
• Sold £300 of P2P loans that were due to expire
• Invested £140 with another P2P provider
• Paid £160 off 0% CC
• OPed £1.36 (I know, I know, I said I wouldn't, but it's been 15 days and it's a really hard habit to break once you start)

DD has started trying to stand, it is adorable

Watty1

edinburgher wrote: »

DD has started trying to stand, it is adorable

Forget the financial stuff - this last bit is lovely

edinburgher

It's a funny thing Watty - moments like that make me forget the financial stuff, but think it's more important than ever at the same time. I suppose it's parental doublethink!