Prosperous soul in the making

MovingForwards

That's great about your cleaner!
Your break is a good amount, get caught up on rest and sleep, then you can potter about and enjoy it.
Skye is nice, I think most of the islands will be due to the holiday / remote feel to them. My original plan was to be a cash buyer on one.

All you can do is keep monitoring finance and pensions, while planning the best thing for you and DH.

DancingInTheRain

Really interesting to read your plans/thought processes on retirement plans, as you say it's good to give yourself a number of choices to work towards before committing to a final decision.
Pleased your cleaner came today, but more importantly that you have now finished work for the year, really hope you get the chance to relax over the next couple of weeks x

savingholmes

Thanks MF and Dancing. Our cleaner coming was a big relief. Everything looks far more reasonable now. I am planning to spend some time relaxing. At some point I want to carry on writing my book - but right now I seem to have fried my brain - so I plan to catch up on sleep and do as little as possible. Tonight though I have been working through my budget to try and maximise how much we can throw at debt in the new year.  We should just managed to repay debt before the interest free period expires for the majority in July - here's hoping anyway.

DD skipped college yesterday - but went for one hour today - and will go in one hour tomorrow - just for the lesson she has January real exams in. There's only 5 people in that class so hopefully that reduces risk. She is currently adamant that she doesn't intend to go to uni but wants a job instead. I hope she manages to cope with that when the time comes. Sadly I agree with her and don't think she would cope with uni at 18. DS's business is still doing okay. His new client has given him quite a bit of work - and recommended him to someone else. So here's hoping he manages to get a steady income from them moving forwards. If he does - he wants to build up his EF and move out. He's now thinking around Easter.

Just bought DH a second-hand guitar from a family member - for £200 . He is really excited about it - so he chipped in this month's spends plus my xmas present to him. Win for family member and for us - as otherwise he was considering trying to save for one that was £800 but which felt very out of reach. One family member will deliver it to another who will then bring it to my parents for xmas day. I'm really chuffed as it looks in great condition - the owner says they've barely touched it in 15 years. It comes with a nice case too. DH will try and sell his old guitar - but doubts he'd get £50 for it as the 'bridge' is lifting apparently. Worth a try though. He has a better borrowed one from a friend but worries they will want its return at some point so this resolves that.

I picked up my xmas vouchers today - £250 gift card - from work and nipped to a colleague's house and gave her and another colleague theirs. It was like playing Father Xmas LOL. They were made up as we normally get £100 so this was a big uplift. Loaning it to DD to get her an IPAD in the post xmas sales so she is very excited about that. She's just waiting nervously to see how much £ family give her - to see how much she will owe me at the end. She's been getting some great bargains. She bought a hoodie for £5 including postage that seems like new - and if she'd bought it in the shop it would have been worth £50 so she's pleased. Sadly a different parcel by the same make from a used site hasn't arrived yet. Hope it does - as otherwise likely to be messy to get a refund. Good that she's being frugal though. I am very impressed that she only had a job August - start of November - on £4.55 per hour - and saved £300. When she's focused - it really works for her.

MovingForwards

When the brain stops, you're overdue a break.
Not everyone is cut out to carry on education, DD has done well to attend college. Maybe when she's older the OU might be a possibility or some other PT qualification, alternately she may throw herself into PT work and thrive. Seems like she is also picking up a lot from you, taking it further and developing a way which works.
Fingers crossed for DS.

Guitar repairs are easy, for those who do them regularly, don't dismiss someone bagging DH's bargain and fixing it. Hopefully his new one will provide hours of pleasure.

savingholmes

Thanks MF.  Well I just got up although I slept badly again. Took until around 3.30 to sleep despite trying to go to bed early. I think I am just eating too much naughty food late at night and it is taking its revenge LOL. So want to eat more healthily today. I have a big Mr A delivery coming tonight which is exciting. Some xmas food and presents on the order.

The window cleaner has just been so I am all paid up - £20. In better news - I found an unexpected £10 while tidying the other day - and the cleaner found 95 pence on the floor - so it all helps. Will put it towards our next takeaway who only take cash.

Considering giving matched betting a go - there are threads on it on the forum - it does seem complex to wrap my head around - even though I've watched some tutorials several times. In theory it is low risk but the first hurdle I need to get past is they want my ID.

I also need to look again at reclaiming tax back for ppi and packaged bank account reclaim. Because I'm near the tax threshold though - it may not be worth doing... as could jeopardise CB - and mean they make a partial reclaim against me. I think I'd be better off as long as they didn't add late fees...  In theory though - given the tax was paid they could already know I was near the threshold. I do a salary sacrifice thing at work too - which clouds the water on my taxable pay - so need to find the details on that. It depends whether the refund all counts in the year I got it back or not... Am I over-complicating it? If I could get the £ back risk free - I think it is worth about £900.

jwil

Hope you have a nice relaxing couple of weeks.  Glad the cleaner came, and woo hoo to found money!

savingholmes

Thanks JWIL. I went back to bed for a few hours today. Feeling completely past it. DD made tea though which was nice and our Mr A delivery came with lots of nice goodies.

I've been feeling a bit flat today but trying to cultivate gratitude by reading other people's diaries. There are times when I feel we have it tough emotionally / health wise - but this year financially I feel very blessed as we've both kept our jobs. In the new year - I am hoping to throw at least the equivalent of DH's worth of salary at debt to get it clearer - possibly more. It will be a challenge but if we achieve it - that will be a weight off our minds and free us up for the future. DH has just been paid - and his over-paid tax is included so glad we did the reclaim for WFH. Need to put the new figure into our spreadsheet and see what it means.

savingholmes

Just paid £280 to target CC  This brings the balance of that card down to £3720. Plan to pay another £60 to it by direct debit later in the this pay period
Remaining CCs:
CC 2 £4795.26 - due to pay c£120 this pay period
CC 1 £5698 - due to pay £75pcm
CC 4 £1485 - due to pay c£15pcm

Honeysucklelou2

Hope that you have chance to relax now that you have finished work until Jan.  Good news on your cleaner coming.

lucielle

We could be neighbours on Skye, 2 years hopefully we'll be up there full time
L