Dreaming of financial freedom!

ch4rly2002

Thanks Vix. Good news - my friend won her court case and the occupation order was awarded in her favour From seeing his nasty side in court, and his family's, I can see why she was so scared and intimidated but I think it helped having me and her step-daughter there (her boss gave her the day off so my mum stayed at home). He was told he has to leave in 48 hours and the judge signed a non-molestation order that was effective immediately (I think that's like a restraining order and they normally come into effect after 48 hours but the judge initiated it immediately). Her ex was not happy and is trying to intimidate us by pacing back and forth outside the house and sitting on the bench outside our houses for hours on end tapping his foot and looking annoyed. He's been making fake phone calls to people to make it sound like he's asking someone to come and 'sort us out', it's all mind games and we don't believe it for a second, but it would be stupid to completely ignore it so I've ordered some security measures that we can fit ourselves when they arrive tomorrow. the next step is for her to get him off the deeds so that will cost her, which I think is dreadful, but it will mean he is out of their lives and she can start living again.

The house sale has now completed and we should receive the money in a few days! Sadly I ticked BACS instead of CHAPS, which means we have to wait 3-4 days to receive our money, but on the plus side it saved us £36. We have a settlement figure from what we owe the in-laws so we will pay that off as soon as the money comes in. Once the solicitor and in-laws have been paid, we should end up with about £42.5k, and we are still debating what to do with it. I think we've pretty much decided on paying off the cars. That would take £31,757.77 but it will mean we don't have to pay out £719.47 each month so that could go towards our holidays and mortgage payment. I told DH that maybe he should save his £432.10 each month for the holiday fund and I would overpay my £287.37 on the mortgage as holidays are more important to him and paying the mortgage is more important to me.

themadvix

That sounds like excellent news all round Charly! So pleased that your friend has got rid of the horrible man and has the law on her side now to protect her.

Paying off the cars sounds like an excellent idea and a good plan for the resulting freed up money too.

ch4rly2002

Thanks Vix. He has to leave by 4pm today so we'll be keeping an eye out to make sure he's gone before she comes round. We'd hate for him to hide in the house or something. Then we start the task of helping her clean the house top to bottom (he hasn't cleaned it in 9 months, but he hasn't been careful or made any attempt to minimise dirt either) and redecorate. Hopefully when it's repainted and clean it will feel like a different place. She also needs to get a builder in to fix a wall he knocked a hole in, but that can be one in due course. I've also ordered some sash jammers and things for her so she can make the house more secure.

The money arrived in our bank account today... £66,000 :T We've never had, and probably never will have, that kind of money in our account before so it's a bit surreal. We'll pay off the loan to the in-laws this week, but I think we'll have to do it in chunks as I think there's a cap on how much you can transfer at once. I forgot that on top of the £719.47 the car loan repayment would make, we're also going to be saving £250 a month from the loan to the in-laws. So, in total we should be £969.47 better off each month :eek: That leaves us with £12,000 to pay for things on our 'to-do' list. Happy days!

themadvix

Wow, £66,000 in the bank and you're being so sensible!

Excellent news about the additional money being freed up too.

You're a very good friend to your neighbour - I'm sure she appreciates all you do for her. I hope that once it's decorated and secure she feels happier there and can put the past behind her.

Subnerter

Someone has mentioned casino and gambling here, I'd like to add that if you are looking for financial freedom you have to forget about such things like gambling because here you can spend a great amount of money without any sense. Of course, sometimes you can make some free spins in some online casino or app like but I recommend you to make it for fun only and don't become an addicted person.

ch4rly2002

I have great news. I have been offered, and accepted the new job. I am so happy and excited. They've offered me £3k more than my current job and there's a £6k per year car allowance and fuel card to cover getting to work and back. I can't wait to start!

The in-laws have been paid back in full, DH has paid off his car in full today and tomorrow I will be able to pay off my car in full (there is a maximum transfer amount of £25,000 in one day and our car loans came to £30,831.15 in total so I'll have to wait past midnight). That will leave us with just over £11k from the house sale money. That's going to make such a difference to our monthly budget.

I finally feel like things have come together and we can really start working towards our future now rather than just constantly paying off debts. Happy days!

themadvix

That's fantastic news Charly!! So pleased it's all coming together for you after what has been a pretty rough year.

When do you start the new job?

ch4rly2002

Thanks Vix. I'm really happy too I start the new job on 3rd June. I've sent back my acceptance letter and am now awaiting the contract. I told work that I had been offered a job elsewhere and my Manager said "I don't blame you, it's not a good place to work"!!! Not very positive about the place considering he is still working there and he knows my husband works there. My mentor and my previous manager were really lovely about it and supportive though, and they both said some lovely things about my work and my ability so I feel renewed with positivity

More excellent news - I won another £500 on the Bonds! I can't believe it - over a year of no wins and then I win £1000 in the space of two months, both from the same set of numbers (remember when DH cashed in his shares and I bought £1400 so our bond balance matched - I think I put it on here - that is the set of bonds that has just won twice). I'm so pleased. DH also won £25, which is great again as he hasn't had a win in a while so it's lovely for him to have a boost too. We're going to top up DH's bonds so he matches mine but we're waiting until we've paid for some of our work on the house as if there is anything left we will split it and put it into bonds, after deducting the £975 for DH's delta.

DH and I paid off our cars with the house sale money (£31k - ouch!) and I paid off the 0% credit card. I told DH I would keep paying it as there is no interest but he wants us to start with a completely clean slate so it's gone now. The only debt we have is our mortgage and my student loan.

My Grandma send me a good luck card for my new job with £20, which I put in the drawer in our hallway. Mum tops it up with money towards the grocery bill and if I get any extras like when I sold the curtains or Grandma's gift I put it in there too. We tend to use it for if we buy anything from the local butcher or baker as they only take cash, but we also use it for takeaways. We had our friend round last night so Grandma's £20 paid for our takeaway - we had fun with our friend and it was guilt free (money wise at least!).

I got the final Gas and Electric bill from OVO and it was over £600! I inspected the bill and realised they'd used estimated figures rather than the readings I'd submitted or the reading the smart meter had pinged them. After speaking to their customer service centre they sent out an adjusted bill based on the actual readings of £127 - much more in line with what I was expecting.

Speaking of Gas and Electric, I moved my Grandma onto a cheaper tariff and got a call from her saying she'd had a large final bill. Turns out E.On had done the final bill on estimated figures too. I rang So, who she is now with, and they told me she could request to be added to the priority service where they send someone out every 3 months to read the meter so she is a lot happier now that the bills will be based on actual readings going forwards. They've also added me to the account so I can talk to them about her bills etc.

Final thought, I've just updated my signature and the zeros are absolutely marvelous!

themadvix

Well done on another win!

ch4rly2002

Well, it's been a while since my last update so I thought I'd summon up the strength to give an update. Things are not good at the moment. The new job is a disaster. It is nothing like what they said in the interview and I have ended up driving thousands of miles each week and working until past midnight most days to try and keep up with the ridiculous workload, but still falling behind. There are 3 of us doing this role, one in the north, one in the south and me covering 'the middle', which is basically the whole middle strip from Derby to Oxford/Cambridge and Telford to Norfolk. The guy in the North is also finding it to be far too much and completely unrealistic. When I spoke to my manager about it, he said he knows there should be another person at least so that our patches and number of clients/sites becomes manageable, but he's asked and the company won't provide funding for it. When my colleague raised his concerns, our manager just brushed over it. It's really affected my mental health. I've always had some anxiety to a certain extent but it has amplified in this role so it is crippling now, and I am always tired. I never want to leave my bed, but I do because I have to but I would love to crawl into bed and cry for hours. To top it off, my car got damaged by a ramp at a car park entrance a couple of weeks ago and it's going to cost over £700 to repair. I was parking in the car park for work and the security pad was very close to the ramp and my bumper is quite long and close to the group, when the ramp started moving down to let me in, it caught my bumper and pulled it down which broke all the clips and damaged the grill. I have been crying a lot around my husband and he has been so lovely and sympathetic. He has said for a while that this job just isn't worth it and has told me to leave. I have finally plucked up the courage and handed in my notice. It's a daunting prospect, but I can't go on feeling like this because I know it's leading down a very slippery slope that I won't be able to recover from. As I am in my probation period, I only have to give one weeks notice, so my last day is Friday. In one way it will be such a relief, but it is also terrifying. Then the full time job hunting begins...

I feel better for sharing that, sorry for waffling on. Onto happier things, I have been very lucky with the Premium Bonds after so many months not winning a thing. Here are my recent wins:
April £500
May £500
June £25
August £25
September £25

Hopefully I will have some better news to share soon