Dreaming of financial freedom!

themadvix

Excellent find with the £1 coin Ch4rly! I found a fiver on the floor last year - I keep looking but history hasn't repeated itself yet!

£30 a head for a Michelin-starred chef meal sounds like a bargain to me, and delicious too It's important to remember life is for living too I think and it sounds like you've got an excellent balance.

With regard to the tumble drying, do you use (white) vinegar as a fabric softener? I don't have a tumble dryer anyway, but I find the clothes are fine with a bit of vinegar in the softener drawer.

ch4rly2002

Thanks Vix, I appreciate the encouragement about the balance. At the time I was a little unsure whether we should do it but I put it out of my mind and enjoyed myself as, like you said, life is for living

I haven't heard of the white vinegar trick before. How much do you put in? Do you put it in the drum or in the draw? I'd definitely give it a try

I've just requested a pay out from Prolific and made my target of £300 this month. When my next payment comes through I will be back at £1000 in the current account, ready to be transferred across into the regular saver. I'm really happy that I managed to make it in only a couple of weeks, but I know there were a couple of one off big payments in there so it will be harder next month. I'm more determined to keep up trying to make a little extra. Next action - car boot sale!

Kittenkirst

Ch4rley- your figures are looking fantastic- really well done :j

Your progress against the regular saver is going great too, keep it up Hun!

Dinner out sounds just lovely and £30 is pretty reasonable too :money:

themadvix

Hi ch4rly, I just put it in the drawer where the fabric softener would go - mine had a 'maximum' level, so I usually top it up to there. The clothes don't smell of vinegar once they've been washed - and I use malt for dark washes if that's all I've got (it's cheaper, but I'm not brave enough to try it for whites!). HTH

ch4rly2002

Morning I hope everyone had a good bank holiday weekend.

Things have been pretty much rinse and repeat for us lately. A lot of visiting family and not much else in our spare time. However, yesterday we had the day off work for the bank holiday so DH, BIL and I had a stall at a local community gala that my Grandma had told me about. We had a really fun day and I managed to sell quite a bit of stock. To cut a long story short, a few years ago I bought some jewellery and fashion accessories from a well known jewellery TV/online seller from their auctions. I bought sterling silver rings with genuine gemstones between £1 and £3 etc. and sold a lot on the Bay quite quickly. Some of the items didn't sell so quickly though so I keep relisting them and the sales trickle through but it takes up a lot of room in my utility room. I've already made back the money I invested in the stock, plus made about £1000 profit, so anything I sell now is profit. The stall cost £15 but I took about £65 so I'm really happy with how it went yesterday. I might be tempted to do another stall sometime. Another £50 in the OP for me

Also, the mortgage payments came out today. I am very pleased to announce that the residential mortgage is now finally under £200k! It is so nice to see that mortgage starting with a 1... even if the next number is a 9. But it spurs me on for the next milestone. BTL also making progress and I think we might make our target next month of £10k down from the original BTL mortgage amount. Both mortgages Tilly tidied to a nice round figure and signature updated

Jessy103

Congratulations on getting under 200K!!! You're right, when you hit a milestone like that it does give you the motivation to keep going to the next one and I'm sure if you carry on the way you are then you'll be there in no time!! x

ch4rly2002

I've been inspired by KK to try doing a proper SOA, so this is my first attempt. Not sure if I've missed anything off so I'll show it to DH later. Just to note, Gas and Electric is dual fuel so I've just listed it under electricity, other insurance is the landlord insurance plus the rent guarantee and mobile is for my mobile, DH's mobile and my mum's which I added to my mobile contract because it was cheaper and it's an ongoing gift for her. Also, I haven't put in our savings or ad-hoc expenses so this is bare bones SOA but I'm happy with the figures. It shows me where we can trim the fat and how much we need to make an actual budget to keep as much of the monthly surplus for OPs as possible. At the moment I am frugal with the spending and look for deals and bargains etc. but I've not actually kept track of the spending. That needs to change. I want to have an actual budget and a log of what we're spending each month. Some time sat down with DH is needed, and I think it's the right time now that he's had some time to get his head around my OP and frugal changes. Watch this space

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1750
Partners monthly income after tax....... 3350
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 678
Total monthly income.................... 5778

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1100
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 1042
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 161.61
Electricity............................. 84
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 47
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 56.45
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 110
Road tax................................ 12.08
Car Insurance........................... 58.51
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 19.58
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 6
Buildings insurance..................... 40.72
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 28.68
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 250
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 3407.63


Assets
Cash.................................... 600
House value (Gross)..................... 425000
Shares and bonds........................ 8150
Car(s).................................. 32000
Other assets............................ 6000
Total Assets............................ 471750


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 199400...(1100).....1.99
Secured Debt.................. 126300...(620)......2.64
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 29000....(422)......4.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 354700....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
In-Laws........................32000.....250.......0
Total unsecured debts..........32000.....250.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 5,778
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,407.63
Available for debt repayments........... 2,370.37
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 250
Amount left after debt repayments....... 2,120.37

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 461,750
Total HP & Secured debt................. -354,700
Total Unsecured debt.................... -32,000
Net Assets.............................. 85,050

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

ch4rly2002

Hi Guys,

It's another sunny day here in Yorkshire - everything's better when the sun is shining!

I thought I'd do a recap of things I've earned, saved, won and found in April and I'm quite surprised at how it's added up:

Prolific Surveys £41.56
Crowdology Surveys £4.78
Survey Total £46.34

Flights worth £2,600 for £800
£100 saving from car insurance renewal
£3.50 for finding free hospital parking
Saving Total £1903.50

£40 for taking Grandma shopping
£100 from Mum when she sold Dad's records
£125 Joining incentive from First Direct
Gifts Total £265

1000 Nectar points from British Gas worth £5
Box of Hotel Chocolat Chocolates (not yet received) worth approx £15
30 Dishwasher Tablets from trial worth approx £5
20p from TopCashBack Easter Egg Hunt
£1 found on floor
Freebie Total £26.20

£17.19 eBay Sales
Sales Total £17.19

We also saved £10k for buying a nearly new car rather than a new car, but as we were forced into changing cars early I'm not going to count this as a saving!

I took my Grandma shopping on Tuesday. I made tea for DH and me for just after 5pm so I could get over to Grandma's early and it really paid off. The traffic wasn't great, but we still got to the supermarket earlier than usual so I managed to find a good parking space and there was a wide aisle open for us to pay at so it was less stressful. I've sent off an application for a blue badge so that when I take my Grandma shopping I'll be able to park in a disabled spot and have plenty of room to wheel the wheelchair right up to the car door. That will be so much better than struggling to find an end spot! Fingers crossed she'll get it, her walking is certainly limited enough, but who knows nowadays - they seem to be making it harder to get one. Afterwards we had a well earned cuppa and a piece of cake. We had a lovely chat and she mentioned that the local council had sent out a letter saying that anyone who receives a single occupant discount must go onto their website and confirm that they are still entitled to receive the discount, otherwise they will lose it (in my Grandma's case that means she would be charged £70 extra). There was no phone number on it and she doesn't have internet or a computer so I'm very glad she mentioned it to me. She had looked in the phone book and couldn't find a number for the council so she was very worried. I went online straight away and confirmed it for her as there is only a short deadline on it. It makes me wonder how many older people don't have access to the internet and won't be able to confirm they are still entitled to the singe occupant discount. This could cost a lot of people money so I rang the local paper to make them aware in case they can help by running an article to raise awareness or contacting the council with some authority and asking them to reissue letters with an alternative contact method. I hope this doesn't end up with lots of older people out of pocket

Yesterday we had our first ever win on the bonds! DH won £25, which we're both chuffed about. I was beginning to think we wouldn't win anything so this was a great boost to morale. Today DH received a £54 refund from his car tax on his previous car so I'll drop that off in the bank later. He said to put it into the joint account so that will help with bills etc. He also received the LP, CD and T-shirt from an independent band we like in America. They ran out of money while recording their second album so we kick started them.

Overall, it's turning out to be a good day!

SuperSecretSquirrel

That's shocking from the council! Either a terrible oversight, or a devious plan to try grabbing some more cash. Good on you for taking it to the papers, not just sorting it for your own Grandma and leaving it at that!

Jessy103

I don't know how these councils getaway with things like this! Good for you on calling the papers!
Congratulations on your winnings! X