Dreaming of financial freedom!

ch4rly2002

Morning guys! The weather has been lovely for the past few days but it's starting to look a bit overcast now. I'm hoping it'll cheer up later in the day as everything feels better when the sun shines!

Yesterday DH and I did a big shop and stocked up with plenty of items to keep us going through the week. I planned my meals in advance, thinking about what I want to use from the freezer and cupboard, so lots of veggies and dairy but not much meat or sauce. I'm going to try and make a spag bol from scratch, which I've never done before as I always use a pre-made sauce from Dolmio. I always use pre-made sauces but I want to start to try making my own with herbs, spices and bases (passata, white sauce etc.). Meal plan is up on the fridge too as I'm a bit rubbish at remembering to take out food from the freezer in advance to defrost!

DH's car is in the garage to be looked over. The guy said it would be better to go through insurance (assuming new bumper, paint job etc.) but DH said he's not worried about the cosmetics, just wants it to be safe to drive so if it's a couple of hundred to replace the bracket(s) and fix it into place vs a couple of thousand to make pretty, he'd rather just pay the couple of hundred to get it safe to drive. Anyone who knows DH knows that this is out of his character and a big change for him. He's spent a fortune on his car in repairs in the past, but I think he's feeling a bit beaten up by it all. He's always had second hand cars with loads of miles on and this was the first time he could afford to buy one brand new. He had a say on everything, from the specs to the colour, and has always been so proud of it. It is his baby. So, we'll wait to see how much it costs to just put it right, but I am shocked he didn't ask for the full works. I guess the car's a bit older now, and will be replaced in a couple of years, so facing the choice of sparkly new bumper or holiday, he prefers the holiday....

... so, we booked our flights to America yesterday. That cheered him up after the whole car business. DH looked at the flight prices for the dates and times we wanted to travel and it came in at £2,600 for the two of us :eek: but he rang VA and asked how much if we use some points, got it down to under £800 for the two of us to fly premium economy. Much more like it :beer: That will get us from a northern airport (Manchester I think, if I recall correctly) to San Fran. That means we don't have the expense of travelling down to one of the London airports and potentially paying for a hotel We'll have a week with the BIL and his wife, then a week in another state (her surprise to the BIL) and then fly back to California for the last week. It should mean we get to have a nice amount of time with them (although they will be busy with work, but it'll just be nice to be with them). The internal flights will cost us a few hundred, but DH is researching the most cost effective way to do it. We then have hotels, so the week away will be the most expensive part of the trip, but will be so worth it to see another area of America. We've only been twice before, and have only seen Vegas and California (barring a quick trip to the Grand Canyon). It's on my bucket list to visit every state eventually so it'll be another ticked off. While we're in CA we can cook in their home and make packed lunches so we can keep the rest of the costs down to compensate for the expensive bit. Mum is also going to stay at our house to look after 'the boy' (our cat) so that will save a couple of hundred in cattery fees too. I can't wait!!!!

try_harder

The holiday sounds fantastic and what a great price you got on the tickets .Sounds like everythings going to plan apart from the car although even that was a good result on the whole .Its beautiful here again today it definitely does make one feel so much better .

ch4rly2002

I forgot to add some small wins / good news:

I won a free box of Hotel Chocolat chocolates from British Gas' Nectar rewards. I was very excited when I received the email notification that I'd won it as I know they only had so many to give away and I rarely win things so this was excellent news.

I also got accepted for a 3 month dishwasher tablet trial and I got the first free 30 tablets today. I need to read through the instructions and test the hardness of the water and see what kind of things they're wanting me to report back on but it seems all I have to do is use the tabs they send, make note of anything good or bad (and take photos) then answer a few surveys. Not bad, I love sharing my opinion on products and I get freebies to boot. Marvellous

We were having problems with our new ensuite (it was only put in 6 months ago) with the toilet blocking and the shower overflowing so we rang British Gas and they sent out a few people from Dynorod. We had three visits and they tried plunging, CCTV etc. to no avail until the last guy who took the air admittance valve off and it immediately solved the issue. He said the valve had stopped working so was creating a vaccum, which didn't let the water flow as it should. Sure enough it all worked perfectly without this valve on. Luckily the valves aren't expensive (they cost around £25) but the one I bought didn't fit. I returned it for a refund and contacted my plumber to ask where I could get a compatible one from. It's taken a little while as they're busy, but yesterday they came and fitted a new one for free, just in time for our friends visiting this weekend as it is off the guest bedroom. Happy days!

Thistlewhistle

Hi Ch4rly,

Been following your journey with interest! Hope you don't mind me tagging along. Love your free style of typing. A fab read!!

Thistle

themadvix

US trip sounds fab and great wins (flights, chocolate and free valve)!

Don't be scared about making your own sauces - it's dead simple and so much healthier too You sound like you're really organised with your meal plan for the week. I'm rubbish at remembering to take things out of the freezer too and I'm at home all day so no excuses! (Have just remembered to put cat's chicken on to cook - meant to do it after lunch!!).

ch4rly2002

Hi Thistle, welcome to my thread. It's great to have you along for the journey, and I'm pleased you're enjoying reading it I'm never quite sure if I ramble a bit too much and if I should keep my posts shorter, but I'll carry on as I have been doing

Thanks TMV, you're right I have been afraid of making my own sauces, which has put me off in the past but now is the time to give it a try so I'm not going to let it scare me any more! Thank you for the encouragement Lucky kitty having fresh cooked chicken, I'm sure he/she? won't mind it being a bit late - although if anything like mine may be a bit vocal about it when it starts to smell of chicken in the kitchen. A colleague of mine used to cook whole turkey legs for him cats then strip them from the bone. He said it was a lot cheaper than chicken and the cats seemed to really enjoy it as they always left the plate clean.

ch4rly2002

Morning all... it's Friday!

Yesterday evening we went to the in-laws' to discuss holiday plans with them. It was so relaxing sitting in their conservatory with a cup of coffee and dim lighting. We're going to have an all inclusive with them later in the year, probably from mid September, and they've been talking to travel agents, picking up brochures etc. The main focus of the conversation was a) how much do we (us, the in-laws and BIL) want to spend - they often charge a ridiculous single occupancy fee, sometimes over double the price even though there is one less set of flights and mouth to feed!, and b) where do we want to go. We started off vague; somewhere warm with lots to explore and have narrowed it down to Mallorca or Corfu. They'll go back to the travel agent with the dates and look for a deal. We said we weren't going to do all family holidays this year as we haven't been away just the two of us for many years, but when BIL's wife invited us over we were really pleased because we take any opportunity to see them with them being so far away, and when the in-law's asked us to go away with them we agreed because we know that FIL thinks he may not have an opportunity for us to have a family holiday again. He has had kidney cancer, and although he has been operated on and, as far as we are aware, all is stable now, the experience has made him reflect on mortality and how long he has left with us so he is even more keen to make memories with us. He was told that even after operations and treatment, those with this type of cancer typically have a life expectancy of under a decade (around 6 years). DH was devastated when his dad got cancer and I know he still worries that "this could be the last time to ...". I totally get that. With my dad being terminally ill I would give anything for one last family holiday with him, so I'm never going to say no to spending time with them. They're on work pensions and savings only and BIL doesn't earn much so we luckily are all in agreement of finding an inexpensive all inclusive so we don't have to worry about meals and drinks when we get there. It's nice to be in sync money saving wise

While we were there we discussed going to a car boot sale soon. We have all been putting things to one side for a while now for a car boot sale and we're all fed up of this mountain of belongings taking over our houses so we'd like to get one done sooner rather than later (indoor boot sale if it is very soon as the weather still isn't great for an outdoor one) and it will help with the holiday fund. We just need to get a couple of paste tables. It will be an initial outlay, but as we anticipate doing more car boot sales in future, it should mean that we get plenty of use out of them and it will end up being an investment. I've tried Freecycle and Gumtree with no luck, so I was taking a look at eBay and DIY shopes and although you can get cheap decorating tables for £10 or £15, they look fairly flimsy in the middle and I worry about it collapsing under the weight. My mission next week: find a reasonably priced and sturdy folding table.

Did you know that the old £5 stops being legal tender after 5th May? I didn't. The in-laws told us last night. Luckily, when I had a stall a few weeks back, I had dug out my old money box that I used the last time I went to a table top stall (I kept all the money in there so I'd be able to give change at the next event) and I'd taken out all the old £5 notes to use, but I still had 3 in my purse. I wouldn't be happy if I found a pile of old £5 notes on 6th May! I'll now have a search through my old handbags and purses in case there are any lurking. I sometimes open an old 'empty' purse to be surprised by a £5 note I had forgotten, so I will do a good search to make sure I'm not throwing away money with forgotten notes.

We have friends coming this weekend for a games weekend. One drives down from Manchester and the other gets the train to Wakefield and we pick him up. On games weekends we normally order takeaway and have lunch out etc. so we can all relax and also to make the most of the time for catching up and playing games. This time though, we've decided to be good and cook more. We're focusing on meals that won't take too much time to prepare so hopefully we won't notice a loss in time. The slow cooker will be our friend this weekend We stocked up on mixers last night too in preparation. DH used the mysupermarket app to compare prices and ASDA were the cheapest for Pepsi so we went over there and stocked up. We also got some love ingredients that were well priced. I was very impressed with ASDA's offering. We don't go there often as, although it's not far away, we have to pass 3 other shops to get there, but it was worth it last night. Hoping to have a fun weekend that doesn't cost us the earth and isn't too unhealthy I'll scan the receipts into receipt hog before I forget as well.

Still no word on DH's car. He isn't travelling until 18th April so they still have a bit of time to get a quote and for any work to be done.

Surveys are up-to-date, but I will keep checking. I'm at £27.40 on OnePoll, so almost at the 3/4 mark. I can't wait for the payout! I've also created a Prolific account and have done a few surveys on there. The balance is currently at £13.65 but is pending approval, so who knows what I'll end up with. It sounds like it takes a few days to be verified o I don't know when I'll find out the actual amount, but I'm so impatient! Hopefully all will be approved.

Right, I think that's enough of an update... enjoy the weekend!

ch4rly2002

We had a lovely weekend with friends this weekend. Lots of board games were played, many drinks were consumed and we all laughed a lot! DH and I cooked a few meals so we could relax and enjoy our time together more, and it helped out everyone's budget by not all having to spend a fortune on takeaways or eating out. It was just what we needed

I've introduced mum to surveys, just OnePoll and Prolific for now. Hopefully she'll be able to earn a bit of spare cash in the background. She has plenty of spare time and I know the extra money will come in useful so I'm hoping she gets sent lots of surveys

I've just requested my first ever cash out from Prolific and Crowdology. I haven't been with Prolific long at all and have just requested £10.90 payout. £5.75 is still waiting to be approved and £1.70 has just been confirmed so I will probably have another payout soon. The confirmation said it takes up to 5 days for payout to be received, so hopefully I won't have to wait too long. I requested £4.88 payout from Crowdology but I haven't received confirmation of that one. I hope it's gone through ok. I have no idea how long that one takes to pay out. Still, it's free money so I'm happy to wait! Up to £28.30 on OnePoll but it seems to have gone a bit quiet recently. So close to 3/4 now for that one.

I've had another win from BG. 1000 Nectar points, which is worth £5. I'm very happy with that!

My FD regular saver has just been topped up with £300 from the FD current account. I need to keep the current account balance at £1000 to avoid paying a fee so I am trying to make £300 each month from surveys, selling or whatever to cover the amount that goes out for the RS. This month I have been paid £125 from FD as a joining incentive, so that goes a long way to making up the amount. I will also move across the survey payouts. I suspect I will have to top it up to get to £300 every month, but it's definitely an incentive to keep me thinking about making a bit extra

The BIL fancies going to Pizza Express tonight as he has a gift card to use there, and I just happen to have a voucher for money off mains, so we're having a treat this evening. Afterwards we're going to go for a nice long walk while the weather is good, and dare I say it, we will play Pokemon Go while we're at it (yes, sad I know, but we like the nostalgia of Pokemon from our childhood and it takes us places we wouldn't think of going otherwise). We will then probably watch a film as there is no Walking Dead or Game of Thrones now.

Happy Monday all

Thistlewhistle

Love reading your posts.
T:)

themadvix

It's all sounding very positive Ch4rly!

Re the chicken, I do a month's worth at a time and freeze it. The cats enjoy turkey at Christmas - will have to check out if it's cheaper here too! Thanks for that.