2742 days until Retirement

Lrimas

"It never rains but it pours"

I don't really think that is true. Things go wrong all the time but if there is only one thing wrong it is easy to deal with. You sort what is going wrong and forget about it. It is only when lots of things go wrong at the same time that you take notice.

I've had one of those weeks.

1) The boiler we had installed 2 years ago (and paid our final payment on last month) is broken. The warranty is void as we had it serviced late (hey, it is our first house. How were we supposed to know you had to do it every year? )

BG said they can't fix it so we are getting a second oponion from a local company. And my sister is visiting with her 2 year old twins for the weekend...

2) Dropped my phone yesterday and screen is cracked all over. I bought a replacement screen but after watching a 25 minute youtube video on how to replace it I decided that there is no way I can do it myself. Online repair shops charge £100+, and can't find anything locally. It still work so I put a cover on it while I save for a new one.

3) Realised we didn't have anything for sister or children to sleep on after getting rid of our very old spare bed. Luckily they do 24 hour delivery on sofa beds so I'm having two delivered tomorrow

4) My mom asked me to get her a new phone to send with my sister which I did, but it is delayed and will only arrive Tuesday. (Maybe I should steal it ). Contacted company to see if they can speed it up at all.

Most of these things are really my own fault and easy to deal with on their own, but together it is a bit overwhelming. It's going to be a super expensive month as well. I'm just grateful that I can get the money together to buy a new boiler if needed. 2 years ago it was an issue (which is why we got the loan)

On the plus side my bike and electric bike conversion kit arrived :beer:. We just don't have time right now to convert it.

Lrimas

£400 later and the boiler and phone is still broken. At least we have a heater and electric shower now. OH got really annoyed at me as I asked the latest boiler engineer we got around if he can just replace it. At this point I'm tired of throwing money into a bottemless pit for him to try things that aren't working and I'm tired of being cold. Boiler engineer is going to try a few more things tomorrow. Fingers crossed that it works. (On a more positive note, he is called Mario. How cool is it that we have a plumber called Mario!? )

Budget got completely decimated by a few more disasters. OH is in America forgot his lisense. I couriered it over next day delivery but my sister's boyfriend (I was in the shop when they came to pick it up) wrote the zip code wrong. It didn't arrive in time and he now has to use Ubers. Expected damage is $400. (As well as the £59 postage fee that we can't claim back as the fault was on our side)

The two babies (and family) we had over the weekend generated an insane amount of rubbish and the bins were not collected as the lid wasn't closed (I didn't even know that was a rule. Sometimes I really wonder if we are really "grown up" enough to live on our own considering how much we don't know ). It should be fairly easy to resolve as we generally have lots of space left..

Then I considered buying myself a tablet from my matched betting money. My theory was that I would use it mostly for matched betting and it is a work expense. But I think the truth is that I'm feeling sad and I'm looking to cheer myself up by wasting money on a new toy. If I still think I need it a month from now I'll get it.

On a more positive side, the house is silent . While I love my sister I'm so happy that she took the two screaming (two year old) monsters away. Why anyone would want children is beyond me. I won't see her for two years as she'll be in America (which is sad) but hopefully her monsters will be more manageable when she gets back.

Lrimas

Boiler is fixed :j:j:j:j:j:j

I had a hot bath and I feel warm for the first time two weeks. Things are finally looking up again.

We are £120 over budget now and I still have to move some plane tickets which will be another £600, but at least I we don't have to buy a new boiler yet.

Moneyfordreams

Yay to heat :T:T

We have a granddaughter who is nearly 3.... I keep saying "she'll soon be nearly 4 "

Lrimas

Thanks moneyfordreams. They are terrible at that age . But if I remember correctly with my nieces and nephews they do get better.

Phone is on its way to be repaired. I decided that this is a business expense so used my MB money. I also didn't realise how much I depended on my phone in my day to day life. Things that used to be easy is difficult now.

£20 extra on phone bill due to constantly chasing OH's licence. So not only did we have to pay £70 for delivery, but also £20 for phone and $300 for ubers/taxis/buses.

Changed my flight ticket and managed to bring excess down from €700 to €300 by changing the return flight by one day. Good result there

And I lost my account at one of the big bingo operators. I started chasing my losses and played way too many offers so it is my own fault, but it still sucks. I've emailed them to at least get the money back I have in my accounts. Hopefully I'll succeed (I see there is currently an investigation on whether casino's are treating customers fairly so hopefully they will be a bit cautious and will return it).

Other than that I think I am getting a tiny bit depressed. (I'm mostly writing this down to reflect on in future). It is getting very difficult for me to deal with any setback and I'm struggling to motivate myself to do anything more than to sit and watch Netflix. The house is an absolute mess and I haven't been on a poop patrol in ages. I don't remember when the last time is that I saw a veggy never mind ate one. I also get the occasional urge to just run away from it all - to get in my car and keep driving.

All this is completely ridiculous. I am incredibly lucky in life with a bf who adores me, two amazing dogs and the means to retire in a few years time. Since I've started working I have not had money worries as I've always been able to afford anything I wanted (within limit ).

Off course knowing that I should be grateful when I feel miserable just makes me feel worse. Just like the fact that I'm sad because I'm spending too much makes me spend more.

People are weird...

Lrimas

Budget day is done and despite having a super expensive month last month I have earmarked another £1899.31 for savings. I made £893.81 with matched betting and another £626.83 was paid into my pension making my total savings for the month £3419.95.

This is a permanent pay increase of £136.8 per year or £11.4 per month for the rest of my life!

I've also increased the 'percentage done' on my goal by 3% and if every month is like this month I'll be done with goal 1 in 17 months :j

Goal 1: Become Mortgage (and money promised to Nieces/Nephews) neutral for my half of the mortgage.!
This will ensure that no matter what happens, I will always be able to make my mortgage payment.
Need (my half mortgage): £149069.155
Need (nieces & nephews): £12000
Need (total): £161069.155
Saved: £77711.17
Percentage done: 48.25%

Goal 2: Become semi-financial independent.!
In other words, have enough money to sustain me if I leave my job, but I have to continue to make a second income via matched betting/etc. Another way to look at it is that I'll be saving 100% of my income at this stage. Scary.

Goal 3: Become financially independent!

Goal 4: Retire

Lrimas

Things are starting to look up and I am feeling much better again. My entire family suffers from depression (most of my brothers and sisters are on medication most of the time. Dad has bipolar disorder - bad enough that he has to go to a Psychiatric hospital from time to time). I'm the lucky one and it's had only a small influence on my life some of the time.

Anyway, on to good things:
1) OH stopped drinking and I have my partner back :j. It gets a bit lonely when he is at his worst (as he's been the past few weeks)
2) Boiler is still fixed :j
3) Phone is fixed :j
4) Bingo company agreed to pay the money back I have in my accounts. My account is still closed, but at least I haven't lost that.
5) I cycled in on my new electric bike this morning saving £3.5 petrol :j. The bike is amazing and it is loads of fun to cycle past other people (especially on hills). A few things went wrong but I managed to duct tape it back together (and will fix it completely tonight)
6) I'm recruiting a new graduate who starts in 2 weeks time. Teaching smart new people is one of the perks of my job and I'm really looking forward to it.
7) Despite having a super expensive month last month (that destroyed our emergency fund) I managed to save loads. I'm still on track for early retirement. Lesson learnt: Bad things will happen. Don't feel sad if you have to use your emergency fund. That is what it is there for.

Lrimas

Whatever chemical imbalance was wrong in my brain is now corrected and life in general is good again.

OH is drinking again (it was a short sober stint) but I'm finding it much easier to deal with.

I'm eating healthy again and I am on a mission to organise our home. I've started with the chest of drawers in our bedroom and we now have (labelled) places for loads of stuff (including a charging station so we don't constantly have to search for our various batteries, and medical stuff in case of emergencies). Next weekend I'll sort out our tools as they are currently all dumped in the airing cupboard (meaning we spend loads of money buying things we have but can't find). I've ordered a large tool cupboard, an organiser and some racking for the bigger things.

I've also cycled to work a few times but I've decided to hang up my bike for winter. I enjoy the trip to work but I find the trip home in the dark just too stressful. The problem is that I'm struggling to convince myself that it isn't dangerous because I know full well that it is . £3.5 per day is not worth that stress.

I've also received a job spec for a job in london for £700-£1k per day :eek::eek: that is a perfect match for me. So far I'm not sure what to do. That is soooooo much money and would mean that I can accelerate my retirement plans drastically, but:
1) I will have to work in the city and I seriously dislike that. Is it really worth retiring earlier if you hate the last few working years of your life? Commuting will take a long time and I won't be able to see the dogs much or walk with them. I will live for work for a few years before I retire.
2) I don't think I am worth that much money and will feel guilty as I'll feel like I'm taking advantage of them. I appreciate that means someone else will take advantage of them who is probably not worth it either, but at least I'll be able to sleep at night if I ignore it.

OH is putting a lot of pressure on me to apply for it but at this stage I'm leaning towards "no". I'll think about it for the next few days though. Maybe I should apply and leave it to fate :rotfl:

Lrimas

Budget day is done and I have earmarked another £1838.62 for savings. I made £0 with matched betting (I made about £800 but I wasted it all on a Surface Pro. I'm not regretting it yet, which is a good thing) and another £771.48 was paid into my pension making my total savings for the month £2610.10. A bit disappointing compared to previous months but still a huge total.

This is a permanent pay increase of £104.4 per year or £8.7 per month for the rest of my life!

I've also increased the 'percentage done' on my goal by 1.28% and if every month is like this month I'll be done with goal 1 in 39 months. Hmmmm. Way too long. I have to stop spending my matched betting money.

Goal 1: Become Mortgage (and money promised to Nieces/Nephews) neutral for my half of the mortgage.!
This will ensure that no matter what happens, I will always be able to make my mortgage payment.
Need (my half mortgage): £148169.615
Need (nieces & nephews): £12000
Need (total): £160169.615
Saved: £79326.23
Percentage done: 49.53%

Goal 2: Become semi-financial independent.!
In other words, have enough money to sustain me if I leave my job, but I have to continue to make a second income via matched betting/etc. Another way to look at it is that I'll be saving 100% of my income at this stage. Scary.

Goal 3: Become financially independent!

Goal 4: Retire

Lrimas

Made a bit of a mistake this month and transferred my salary to the wrong account . Luckily it is an old savings account so I'll be able to get it back (I have to go into the branch though) but it was really scary!

I also realised I've been making a mistake with my outstanding mortgage amount. No idea how I got it wrong, but if someone realise that the figures don't match last months that is why.

Anyway, onto the stats:

Budget day is done and I have earmarked another £2809.29 for savings (thanks to £1k company shares that I received in December). I made £653.58 with matched betting and another £771.48 was paid into my pension making my total savings for the month £4234.35.

This is a permanent pay increase of £169.37 per year or £14.11 per month for the rest of my life!

I've also increased the 'percentage done' on my goal by 2.83% and if every month is like this month I'll be done with goal 1 in 17 months :T

Goal 1: Become Mortgage (and money promised to Nieces/Nephews) neutral for my half of the mortgage.!
This will ensure that no matter what happens, I will always be able to make my mortgage payment.
Need (my half mortgage): £148682.835
Need (nieces & nephews): £12000
Need (total): £160682.835
Saved: £83432.53
Percentage done: 51.92%

Goal 2: Become semi-financial independent.!
In other words, have enough money to sustain me if I leave my job, but I have to continue to make a second income via matched betting/etc. Another way to look at it is that I'll be saving 100% of my income at this stage. Scary.

Goal 3: Become financially independent!

Goal 4: Retire