ATB's £171k quest begins.... NOW!

Luckyinlife

Hi atb i dont know if i missed it but why did you get a card to pay the tax bill in jan ? if you dont mind me asking

Im self employed and have the tax bill + payment on account for jan booooooooooooooooooooo

atypicalblonde

Hi friends,

We are all feeling much better thank goodness. Today sees me tackling the last few bits of Christmas shopping, then it's all done and no need to go near the shops in December :j:j

Next years OP plan is coming together niceiy, I'll post it when it's finalised :) We have an air BnB guest tomorrow night, a chappy who is filming locally, so another £25 in the pot

Lucky - my tax bill isn't huge compared to some, but rather than use precious savings that are designated for OPing, the 0% card is being used to pay the tax as the small % fee the revenue charge for paying by CC is nothing compared to the interest we will save using that money to OP instead. And it's interest free for 27 months There is a short article on this topic on MSE :)

Right, best get on, have wonderful days all xxx

PrincessLou

Glad you are all feeling much better

Very much looking forward to seeing your OP plan - no doubt the start of wonderful things to come! :j

Karmacat

Love the tax planning and the Christmas planning, ATB - I haven't touched Christmas yet ...

Hollyboll

:rotfl::rotfl:Christmas? What is this C of which you are all speaking? I'm sure it's a very long way away ….

ATB - hope you are feeling better, and all getting some sleep Yet again inspired by your ideas, including the putting tax bill on c-card - must have a look at that (and indeed at tax return argh, although I'm sure 31 Jan is AGES away:rotfl::rotfl:)

Frugalwannabe

Hi ATB

I've just read your diary from start to finish over the past few weeks and all I can say is WOW.

Yours and a few others inspired me to start my own MF diary and I can't wait to see you smash your targets.

You really are inspirational. Thank you x

atypicalblonde

Good Morning friends,

Thank you all as ever for popping in and for your lovely comments. OP plan has been drafted and will be typed up and posted in the next week or so, once I am happy with the figures. There are a couple of lifestyle adjustments in there too, making it very much something that I would appreciate your comments and input on

I have my 2016 business planning meeting later today, so the outcome of that will contribute to the OP plan as well, naturally

I have to say not being able to OP daily as I was doing due to the 10% cap is frustrating, it's not quite the same buzz stashing it in the savings pot as it is directly paying down the mortgage!

Well I had best get on, have lovely days all and keep at it xx

hiddenshadow

atypicalblonde wrote: »

I have to say not being able to OP daily as I was doing due to the 10% cap is frustrating, it's not quite the same buzz stashing it in the savings pot as it is directly paying down the mortgage!

I feel the same way (which is why I'm glad our mortgage has unlimited OPs). I have seen people count the savings as a "debt", so if your goal is to save £1,000 to do a one-off OP when your cap resets, you track a £234 payment as if your debt-to-self had gone down to £766. I suppose you could track the interest as well, which should go up as you save more (and, I suppose, could be counted as mini-OPs towards the fake "debt"). I haven't tried it, so I don't know if it would trick my brain into being excited about adding mini-amounts to savings, but it might be worth a shot.

shangaijimmy

Totally understand the 'buzz' of OP versus savings. I even used unlimited OP's as a strict remortgage criteria that I wouldn't budge on (fortunately it had no impact on the rate, but it did rule a couple of banks out of my selection list straight away).

atypicalblonde

Good Morning friends,

I hope everyone is well today. I have given myself a proverbial kick up the butt this morning. I have allowed myself to become a little flat and jaded with my MF journey, simply because I haven't been able to OP directly.

I have also had a few "agggh we have still got such a long long way to go" moments which, whilst inevitable, will just not do. We have made such fab progress this year - when I read back over some of my wacky challenges I can't quite believe what we have achieved, but indeed we have, so I must regain the same level of focus.

Savings pot is at £3,000, and I think this should be nearer £5k by year end, enabling us to make a nice chunky OP to kick the year off in January taking us into the 30s. The aim is still very much to be in 5 figures by this time next year.

Have wonderful days all, ATB xx