Dreaming of financial freedom!

ch4rly2002

Well, we still haven't heard anything back about the deposit yet, but we did put the house on the market. It sold within a day! We were fortunate in that it was a case of right place and right time. The buyer tried to purchase a house on the same street a couple of months ago and was gazumped but as their family live round the corner they were very keen to find a house large enough for them in the area. They arranged a viewing within hours of it going to market, viewed the house the next day and submitted an offer in less than hour of starting the viewing. We are so happy that we found the right buyer so quickly as it's really expensive keeping the house empty with the mortgage fees, insurance for an empty property, council tax and utility bills. In the end we got £500 over what we were offered by the nextdoor neighbour, and they can move quickly so even though it's costing us quite a bit in estate agent fees (£1,199 to use Purple Bricks), it will save us a lot in interest and council tax not having to be paid for the extra months. Speaking of estate agents, we decided to go with Purple Bricks because they were so much more interested in the house and we got a much better feeling from them than the local estate agents. We were a bit hesitant about using an online estate agent, but they've been fantastic (and a heck of a lot cheaper) so I would definitely use them again!

Work is still a bit pants, but it does have the advantage of working from home and pays an OK salary, so I'm weighing up the pros and cons of staying vs moving. One thing that's really making me hesitant to move is that DH and I are really wanting to start a family soon and I would get maternity pay from my current employer, whereas if I leave and get pregnant quicker than anticipated I might not get maternity pay. It's a tough one, I'm going to think long and hard about it and do a pros and cons list then see where I stand.

I got an unexpected bit of good news the other day. I'd had an appointment with British Gas to quote for some work at the old house and I'd stayed in the empty house from 11 as the appointment was 12-6. Mum had been outside painting the fence and I didn't leave the house, but when it got to 5:30 I was starting to get concerned that they might not come as they usually ring 30 minutes before the appointment. When I rang BG they said the engineer had attempted to visit at 12:02 but hadn't got an answer! That's complete rubbish though as I was in the lounge with the door to the hallway open and no-one rang the doorbell or knocked. Mum was outside painting the fence at the side of the house so she would have seen them, and they would have seen her, plus no-one rang to say they were on there way or there. anyway, I rang to complain and was told that I couldn't complain as I didn't have an account at that address. I rang the BG complaints department and they told me that I had been misinformed and that anyone could complain so I explained what had happened and they said they would inform the managers of the engineer and the customer service person I'd spoken to. I didn't think anything more of it but then got a call out of the blue last week from BG saying that they had looked into the matter and had informed the managers so they could be re-trained in the matter, which is fair enough, but then she said as a gesture of goodwill they would send me a cheque for £50! I was amazed, I wasn't expecting anything more than the two people to be told what they'd done wrong and how to avoid it for customers in future. I've paid the £50 into my emergency fund now, as they say "every little helps".

ch4rly2002

Still no news on the deposit. The deposit scheme is currently investigating and are past the number of days they state it will take on their website so I have no idea when we will hear back. I'm keeping my fingers crossed we hear soon.

Work is going ok. I'm not really enjoying it and I've started looking for other jobs now. I'm sad it's come to this as I loved the company when I started and I have promised promotion for years now but nothing has come of it yet and I'm fed up of striving for the promotion that's never going to come. It looks like bonuses are very unlikely again this year. It's been a while since we had bonuses, and to top it off I had my end of year review today and got great feedback, but I am under the bottom of my salary banding and am 'on the RADAR' for my manager but he and his manager are going to be doing an exercise to see who deserves to get put in for a payrise first before the senior management closes the window. It's rubbish and I've had enough.

No news on the sale of the old house. The survey has been completed and we took our documents to the solicitor and haven't heard anything for weeks. I know the buyer's solicitor will be doing searches now and they take a while but I have no idea if the survey was ok and the bank are happy with the valuation, so I've contacted the estate agent to see if they have heard anything back from the buyer or either of the solicitors and she said she is going to chase as it normally goes quiet around this time but she would have expected to have heard something. Fingers crossed all is on track.

Another £3 pinecone survey paid into the savings account. It's building up again nicely in there. I'm hoping for a win on the Premium Bonds too. It doesn't have to be massive (although that would be welcomed!) but even a small win would help feel like the money is doing something positive. It's been months since either of us won, so I'm keeping everything crossed!

try_harder

I was just thinking about you today and here you are .

Sorry to hear about work , i hope things improve for you .

ch4rly2002

Thanks Try Harder, that's very nice of you to say. I am aware that I haven't been posting as much as I used to or as much as I would like to. I'm trying to make more of an effort now, not only so you guys don't forget me and to keep it interesting for you, but mainly to keep myself accountable! On the whole I'm doing ok, thank you

DH was working in Bulgaria a couple of weeks ago and they gave him a little red and white yarn brooch, which you put on on 1st March for good luck, called a Martenitsa. I'm wearing it now and keeping my fingers crossed for some good luck!

themadvix

Hope the brooch brought you good luck with the premium bonds...

Good luck with the job search. It's such a pity that they've let you down so many times; it sounds like you've made the right decision.

ch4rly2002

Sadly it didn't Vix How did you do? Did you win?

Still no word on the deposit. It's really dragging now. I'm not sure why it's taking so long but I guess it will pay to be patient as you can't appeal the decision so I don't want to chase the deposit company and get their back up!

The house sale is going slowly. I texted the estate agent on Friday and asked her to check if there were any updates and she came back to me to say that the buyer's solicitor is awaiting the draft contract from our solicitor! That was news to me and I wasn't too thrilled so I rang the solicitor and the woman who answered said that was odd as we'd paid our deposit on account so she said she'd look into it. I got an email on Tuesday saying that she'd sent out the draft contract. It's not great when there are hold-ups, especially a pointless one like this, but I don't think it would have held things up too much as the buyer's solicitor will still have had to do searches, which take a while, and we want the completion date to be in the new tax year so there's still a few weeks left yet.

I've just used the MSE Cheap Energy club for me and my Grandma and we're both moving onto the same tariff with the same provider. They worked out the cheapest for both of us - I love how easy the cheap energy club is to use for a quick comparison. I've rung my Grandma to let her know that I've changed her onto a cheaper tariff in case she wonders why she gets a final bill from her current supplier Next time I'm up, I need to check if she has a smart meter and if not, I'll get her moved onto one.

My 0% credit card offer comes to an end soon so I'm going to the MSE site now to look for good 0% and no transfer fee offers before I start getting charged interest!

kaycastle

I really enjoyed reading your diary. I'm sorry to hear about all the difficult times in the past years, that must have been tough.
I found your point about working in IT interesting. Part of what drives me to financial freedom now is that I'm sure as I get older it will get harder to stay relevant in the work I do as it changes so fast.
Well done on your journey so far

try_harder

You do a great job of looking after your Grandma ch4rly she must be very proud of you

ch4rly2002

Hi KayCastle, it's lovely to know people are still reading my diary, despite me taking quite a bit of time out. Yes, it can be harder to keep up with your industry, IT or otherwise, as you get older and things move on, so it's definitely something I have in the back of my mind.

Thanks Try Harder. I like to make sure she's ok as she lives by herself and doesn't have a computer, which can be quite tricky nowadays as more and more things move online. She isn't very savvy with switching, and I think some industries profit from that by continuing to increase prices if you don't switch or by offering the best deals online. I went to see her this weekend,. she's struggling to hear her TV so DH, B-I-L and I got her a soundbar from Argos and they fit it for her. We warned her that it would probably cost around £100 for a sound base, however as she doesn't use her DVD player I managed to get her a sound bar that sits in front of the DVD player rather than under the TV and it was only £50 in comparison. It's set up now and it gets quite loud so she should be able to hear the TV a lot better now,. It's important that she has that as it's her only source of entertainment/'company' some days.

Speaking of my Grandma, she asked my Mum and Aunt to go to bank for her as they'd sent her a letter saying she had £34k in her ISA, which is a lot more than she thought was in it. So, Mum and my Aunt went to the bank and it turns out the £34k is another ISA that she didn't realise she had! Imagine discovering £34k that you had no idea you had! It's nuts Anyway, at least she is happy now that they haven't mixed up her ISA amount and it'll stay in an ISA until she needs it (she is keen to keep savings in case she needs carers or a care home so she won't touch it for now).

Well, not much of an update I'm afraid. Still no news on the deposit decision/payment. I haven't heard anything from the solicitor since the draft contract was sent out last week, but I'm not expecting to hear anything for a while.

I've had a few surveys through from Pinecone, Prolific and OnePoll recently so the savings account is slowly growing and my OnePoll balance keeps increasing. Every little helps as they say. I don't really dare put much into savings at the moment though as we are still paying for the other house and we might suddenly need money so nothing goes into savings until the house sells and our money risk is reduced.

I haven't won on the bonds for months and months now, so I'm hoping when we sell the house and put the money into Bonds we might win something

shangaijimmy

I'm excited when i find 34p that i can put in my small change jar...