EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

peb · 17 November 2022 at 1:42PM

With you Lucielle. Finally opened a bond with Leeds building society but I don't like having my money not accessible. I'm a disgrace to mse as I don't even have a decent interest paying current account.

EssexHebridean · 18 November 2022 at 7:46PM

Peb we’ve not got current accounts that pay interest either - well, theoretically one of mine does but it’s literally a few pence a month as we never have more than absolutely needed in the current accounts! 😂 Limited access savings accounts can sometimes be a good halfway house account for people who don’t feel fully locked away fixes are right for them. Good for emergency fund savings too as it deters you from touching it unless it’s definitely an emergency!

Milann - that was our thought too - although at the moment they do seem to be holding so we’ll have to make a decision on it next week whether it’s worth letting that one go and seeing what else happens. L - I think it’s easy to feel a bit daunted by it all. Moneyfacts is a good site where you can compare all the offers of particular types of account that are available and even sort them into order of the interest rate (uncheck the quick links box) and of course there is good info on the main MSE site too. Plus of course for a lot of us here, actually having savings feels like a bit of a strange state doesn’t it! I know MrEH and I still struggle with the absurdity of that one!

Fairly standard Friday here really - apart from the fact that it’s flipping COLD ! With hindsight we should have put the heating on a day earlier than we did - and probably both heaters too, the first charges they each get are always a bit rubbish and so although the hallway one is producing some heat, there’s not much of it! I popped the dehumidifier on I the front room earlier on mind you and that has actually done an astonishingly good job of warming things up a bit as well reducing the humidity quite a lot. We went for a walk this morning - and collected the ordered tube of adhesive from Scr3wf1x too. I headed to the gym and then to Sainsbugs for the shopping as planned - managed to get everything I needed and thanks to a handy £4.50 off £30 voucher it came in at just over £30. This afternoon has been general pottering, baking a tray of flapjacks as weekend treats, hopefully they will be ok as I adapted the recipe a bit to use up the last of the stewed apple and mincemeat I had in the fridge. I’ve also made daal for tonight - the red lentil and coconut one I made a few weeks ago. Tasting very yum!

Tomorrow we’re off to the London wetland centre at Barnes using clubc@rd vouchers - and will travel via. “Straight through” on the Elizabeth line - albeit only from Whitechapel thanks to the train strike. Then late afternoon we have another of them Hidden London visits - Shepherd’s Bush this time, which will be fun. I’ll have a look shortly to see if we need to switch up any more vouchers to get our entry fee pretty much covered.

Spendiness: My Mum’s birthday card, plus a pack of the longer lasting tealights from Sains this morning - £6.25 in total.

Other MSE stuff: I’ve opened a shorter fixed rate account paying 3.55% and switched a chunk of my personal savings - the money from my Aunt - to it. I’ve still got the money I’m considering/planning to spend on the camera, and possibly a Lens and a new laptop sitting in easy access, but I’ve got no plans to use any of the rest of it any time soon so it seems sensible to earn a bit more interest on it.

savingholmes · 18 November 2022 at 9:21PM

Well done on the cooking and the savings shuffle. Sounds like you've had a nice day.

Cheery_Daff · 18 November 2022 at 9:49PM

Sounds like a very productive day!

I need to investigate savings accounts i think. We did have regular savers, then when Mr Cheery took his pension we put the whole lump sum in premium bonds, which were pretty much the best option at the time, and because we had loads, we won quite often 😂😂 But then we paid for all the building work... Savings are all still in premium bonds, but we never win anything any more 😂 Now that we're in a position to save a bit more regularly, I want to see what's out there.

We also have probably more than is recommended in the current account - partly out of paranoia in case I died and Mr Cheery was so distraught he didn't think about money and the house got repossessed 😂 Or at least so there would be a couple of months worth of bills payments in there, just in case. But now savings rates are better maybe it's best to stick wages etc into a saver and feed enough back for bills? Does the shuffling outweigh the benefit, I wonder? Will ponder...

EssexHebridean · 18 November 2022 at 11:10PM

We’ve got what most people would consider a slightly odd set up I suspect Cheery - MrEH gets paid straight into the joint account and his personal spends are transferred to him out of there. Meanwhile I get paid into my own account - a hangover from my self employed days when my account was also the business one, we’ve just never changed it - and I then transfer my joint account contribution to there…I work our joint account to be at effective zero when MrEH’s salary’s hits - but then we don’t have a mortgage and in fact his money would technically *just* cover everything if needed… fiddly-ish but it works for us. As you know we also have PBs but realistically may not add much more to those now there’s far better interest available elsewhere.

in other banking news - my F1rst D1rect switch incentive has been paid- easiest £175 I’ve ever made and now transferred to the new 6 month fix to earn itself a bit more too.