Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy · 14 August 2015 at 8:39AM

i actually don't mind the painting. Its the whole empty the room, clean the room, sand down the room, polyfill the room, masking tape the room, take lights down (if needed), take blinds down that winds me up. As i just see it as time wasted when i could have been painting! Anyhow that;s all done now, apart from sanding down, so once i dry out from a soggy morning in work i can crack on this afternoon for a few hours. Ceiling and undercoat and ill be happy with progress and back on track...

shangaijimmy · 14 August 2015 at 9:20AM

I've done it. Whilst having breakfast in work i've opened a Santander123 and a Santander credit card. Santander will replace our Tesco credit card and it'll be paid in full each month operating as our debit card. current account is for bills (to start with), but i'll then start adding savings to it!

Productive morning - your to blame debtfree for getting me thinking about it again...!

Cashback has tracked so we'll see if it pays!!

[Deleted User] · 14 August 2015 at 9:43AM

shangaijimmy wrote: »

I've done it. Whilst having breakfast in work i've opened a Santander123 and a Santander credit card. Santander will replace our Tesco credit card and it'll be paid in full each month operating as our debit card. current account is for bills (to start with), but i'll then start adding savings to it!

Productive morning - your to blame debtfree for getting me thinking about it again...!

Cashback has tracked so we'll see if it pays!!

Yeah the Sandander123 accounts are brilliant

The Current Account has all relevant DDs and acts as a hub for all our savings and reciprocal SOs to High Int Current Accounts, S&S ISAs, extra pension conts etc.

The 3% cashback on fuel [all it's used for] from the 123 Credit Card pays for ~600 miles of free fuel each year:D

Cheers

shangaijimmy · 14 August 2015 at 9:50AM

I'm thinking the current account will be used more and more eventually and i'll start to drip things away from our FD account. At the minute FD is my hub for everything and as such there's not usually too much money it that isn't earmarked for DD'd, SO's, bills etc...

Our Tesco CC remains from when we used to shop at tesco, but since we've moved away to Aldi it seems less needed now. Shame as they've just sent us 2 new cards in the post!

[Deleted User] · 14 August 2015 at 9:58AM

Yeah I'm trying to get the boss to try LIDL/ALDI but no joy yet

Not just cheaper but less fuel as it's closer too...

shangaijimmy · 14 August 2015 at 10:21AM

From our experience cost has plummeted on food, but we also think that the quality is better than supermarket brands. The meat is a bit of an issue as it seems the dates aren't always accurate. Mrs SJ is convinced (worked in a butchers in her school days) that they over stock the fridges! All it means is any meat for the later part of the shopping week gets frozen, so no major deal! Aldi do these Thai fish cakes which are phenomenal!!

shangaijimmy · 14 August 2015 at 12:50PM

Ooh sounds fab!

ourcornercottage · 14 August 2015 at 1:28PM

I have a santander 123 account and even though I dont have gas and have solar panels so my electricity bill is small I do make a small profit on the account every month that goes to the mortgage. I find there app etc very user friendly.

Most of fuel goes through business so I dont think that the CC is worth it for me yet as I dont use it very often but I am going to keep an eye on it.

I have only positive experience from santander so far.