Dreaming of financial freedom!

ch4rly2002

Morning. I'm not feeling too cracking today and it's year-end so everything is hectic at work, but on the plus side I work from home so I can go and have a 30 minute lie down in bed if I get any worse.

Things are looking good on the MSE front as I have just requested a withdrawal of £21.21 from Prolific, which should turn out to be about £20.39 after the fee. OnePoll has been stuck at £24.90 since yesterday and I expect it to be that way for a week or so based on previous occasions.

While writing my update I got a call from the letting agent. The DPS has made their decision and every penny of the deposit has been awarded to us! It is such great news, mainly because we've already had to pay quite a bit to put things right in the house, but also it's great to vindicated that we were right that the tenants didn't respect the house and should not have cut down trees and plants or have been running a childminding business from the house without our permission. I've read the comments that the tenants submitted and they were upsetting that they lied about looking after the house and calling us liars so I feel so happy that this has all been sorted and put behind us.

In other good news, we used our last Old El Paso Smoky BBQ Fajita sauce last night. It is one of my favourite sauces and it's getting harder and harder to find. I checked on MySupermarket last night and it looks like none of the large supermarkets are stocking it anymore, so I did an online search and found that ocado still sell it. It is £1.99 a jar but they have a special offer on at the moment oh 2 for £2.50 :T We've ordered the maximum 20, which is a fairly big spend for jars of sauces, but I consider it good money saving as we would buy it anyway so I'd rather buy them on offer.

I had my 1-2-1 today and my manager said that next week he and his manager will start looking at the priority people to request pay rises for so I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I'm near the top of the list (I don't think he would have told me that, or that I am under-band if he didn't intend to try get me a pay rise) and I really hope that it gets approved.

themadvix

That's excellent news about the deposit Charly and so very true that you deserved it all back!

I reckon you'll get comments from the driver for your Ocado order - have ordered 6 boxes of organic weetabix before now and he said something about 'not telling anyone about my obsession with them'! (All meant in jest, obviously )

Fingers crossed for the pay rise.

ch4rly2002

Success! I went onto OnePoll in the middle of the night and there were 3 surveys available. Luckily I clicked on a mobile friendly one so I was able to complete it and request a payout. It will take about 4 weeks, but at least it's on its way now :T

Vix, I was expecting some kind of comment about all the jars, but he didn't say anything about it. I'm happy to take comments if I get a bargain though, totally worth looking like a weird fajita obsessive for 20 jars of my favorite sauce

I used my Shopmium account for the first time last week. I had set it up over a year ago and not done anything with it (otherwise I would have used KK's referral code) and wasn't really sure what to do, but I read the instructions and gave it a go. I ended up with some good discounts and a couple of freebies. They paid quite quickly too and it was minimal effort so I think I will keep using it now

It's Friday! Last working day of the week, woohoo. Also, it's year end so work is going to be crazy today! We're going to our friends' house tonight and they are cooking for us and we'll book the car hire for the holiday. Exciting times.

ch4rly2002

I've received the payout from Prolific already - I can't believe how quick they are! Straight into the savings account for now.

I've also finally found some motivation and listed some items on eBay, which I also put on Facebook selling sites so fingers crossed they sell.

I'm feeling really motivated now to have a productive weekend

ch4rly2002

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. The sun was shining, which always helps, and I had a great mix of relaxation / time to myself and spending time with family. DH went up to Yorkshire on Saturday in preparation for Mother's Day and had his hair cut at the barbers in my hometown. He and B-I-L have gone there for years (even when we lived in Nottingham before moving up a few years ago). To say he doesn't have that much hair on top now, DH is very fussy about where he goes to have it cut - maybe it's because he has little hair that he likes it there! They know how to cut it and he's comfortable with them, so although it is a pain driving over there, he makes sure he always has it done there and tries to tie it in with a pre-arranged trip up north where he can, which works out 9 times out of 10. I stayed in Nottingham and had some time to get a few jobs done in the house and had some alone time to chill as well. On Sunday I gave Mum her Mother's day card and her gift was afternoon tea at a lovely historic hotel in Wales, which we will make a day trip out of when the weather is nice. I then drove her up to Yorkshire and we went to visit my Grandma. She'd already had her card and gift but we got her a nice bunch of flowers in a metal jug type vase from the Co-Op, which should work out great for her to keep and use in future as it's light weight and has a handle and she's been struggling with the weight and lack of grip on her other vases. DH, B-I-L and I treated our Mums (and F-I-L) to a meal at our favourite Chinese restaurant up there. I bought M-I-L a bunch of flowers and a bottle of pink gin, which I know she likes, and DH turned up with some daim bars, which she also loves, some with mint chocolate coating and some with chocolate orange coating. After the Chinese meal we drove to the Out-Laws' house and had coffee and cake in their conservatory and watched the wildlife. There were lots of birds in their garden to keep us entertained but we also had a love triangle straight out of a soap - 3 ducks (2 male and 1 female) flew over the house and landed on their pond. The males were fighting with each other over the female, who got unceremoniously shoved into the plants at the edge of the pond while they fought. The males flew off after one of them caught it's wing on the electric wire that runs round the pond and then the female eventually flew off in the opposite direction...I don't blame her!

Our friends are coming round tonight to finish the last bookings ready for the holiday. I'll be glad when it's all booked

ch4rly2002

Good news and bad news today. I'll start with the bad. Yesterday I found out that my friend with the abusive boyfriend had forwarded some of my text messages to her solicitor to use in her upcoming court case to show that her ex was a chronic liar. Long story short, as it has been submitted as evidence, the ex's solicitor sent him a copy of everything that had been submitted and he now knows what I think of him and that I see through his act - he was not happy. He came knocking on the door and told my Mum to tell me to stop spying on him and texting his ex etc. I had told my friend she could use some of my messages as there were a lot where he'd text to say the dog was dead and other nasty things and so she'd ask if I could hear the dog barking, things like that, but unfortunately one of them contained my personal opinion of him, so it's unfortunate that he's seen that as the court case isn't for another 2 weeks so it's going to be awkward for a bit. Anyway, it's worth the awkwardness if it helps her get her house back.

Other good and bad news is that we had our friends round last night. They'd received their projector so they came round to test it and the viewing quality on our wall looked good, but he couldn't figure out how to play anything through it so he's gone away to read the instructions and have a proper play with it. We also discussed the merits of 2 small cars vs. 1 large car but didn't actually come to a decision. Other friend has said she wants to research a bit further and we'll get something booked on Wednesday.

Good news, I logged onto the NS&I app this morning and I've won £500 - happy days! I've only won a couple of £25 prizes previously so this is massive. I am very happy with that DH and I try to keep our bonds at the same value, which isn't too difficult with a £25 prize as we can just add £125 to the other person's account, so I think when we get the money from the house sale and decide how much is going into bonds, we'll just make sure it balances at that point.

ch4rly2002

Woohoo, we've received the £750 deposit money today. That helped to pull us out of our overdraft which we went into after the extra council tax and bills from the old house. Still no news on a completion date

I've updated the balances in my signature. I always find it satisfying to see the change in the balances. I'm hoping the house sale goes through soon so I can knock off debts and see a huge change!

I completed a Pinecone survey today and they've already credited it so I've requested a payout of £3. I also requested a payout from TCB. TCB had an offer on their Snap & Save section for £3 off a box of chocolates and it's DH's birthday coming up in a couple of weeks so I bought a box of Malteser truffles (he loves them) so it ended up just costing me 50p as they approved the cashback amount very quickly and I've already requested it to be paid out. I also booked us 2 nights away for his birthday with 10% cash back through TCB and the money has tracked now, so it will be nice when that gets confirmed.

themadvix

Fab news about the win and the deposit return!


Not so great about the friend's ex - I hope it doesn't cause you too much trouble.

ch4rly2002

Just a very quick update today. We exchanged contracts on the house yesterday and complete next week. We're working out what we owe the in-laws so we can clear that debt and then we will decide what to do with the rest of the residual money. Hooray!

In other news, Friend's step daughter can't go to court with her on Monday as she has a new manager and can't take time off. My friend was so close to giving up and I could see she was at rock bottom, so I am going to court with her, and mum has offered to go too so she doesn't feel outnumbered by the ratbag's side.

Other good news is I have an interview tomorrow and potentially another one in the running.

Can't spend too long typing as I have the in-laws here but I will update further when I get chance

themadvix

Great news about the house and interviews Charly! :j :j Good luck with both!

Well done for stepping up for your friend. I'm sure she really appreciates it and court will feel less intimidating as a result. I hope it all goes well for her.