Hazelnutty's New Start

Karmacat

Oh, and one of the best moneysavers of all time on here, Hypno, *did* have kids, and she was determined not to let her financial difficulties affect their teenage years.  So things they did, they got to keep the money for their own school stuff - there were a lot of skiing holidays, with county and national teams, I seem to remember.  Collecting used printer cartridges worked really well.  I don't know what the modern equivalent would be, sorry.  But I bet there's something.

Hazelnutty

Thanks, Karma. Does doing MB, bingo etc affect your credit rating for some lenders/companies? I'm sure I read somewhere that some don't like 'evidence' that you're gambling, even if you know it's planned/smart/under control? I appreciate your honesty as it's good to hear what people did they wouldn't necessarily want to go through again as well as considered reflections

Any more for any more? Maybe we could collect somewhere 'one piece of advice' from everyone who's achieved their MFW plans?

Karmacat

Credit ratings - it *might* do - so using a secondary account is always recommended, I think - useful in any case if you're self employed, and much easier now than at that time.

One other thing - I kept my nose to the grindstone so hard, I didn't take any steps back and think about the *structure* of my life, not seriously.  If I had, I'd have moved back north, and bought somewhere like Cheery's place.  Or retrained as a rocket scientist and moved to Death Valley to work in the private space sector   Seriously, those were the options, if I'd looked

Hazelnutty

Awesome, Karma!

So we're back home... it was time to leave tbh as we always get to the point where the tension's building and it's better we head off. A really tricky moment when *again* Mum said she hadn't recalled the figures we discussed about what she was lending me, throwing the whole project into question. AArgh! We went through it so carefully as I said I didn't want to mess the builders around - he's a friend now and this is his livelihood. He has enough stress with rich entitled people messing him about Luckily, we do seem to be back on track. I also redid my sums and realised I could find another £5k by closing accounts and moving pots around, so Mum's total amount will be lower, phew!

One positive of today is that we were moving the tent greenhouse and behind it was just the hugest crop of juicy blackberries! So a nice few minutes picking with DD, who insisted on picking them individually with one of those little picker arm thingies

Another positive is I rechecked the rate on my 2nd savings account, the one I use for a safety net. It's a former MSE best buy with the Sharia-compliant bank, Al Rayan, so you get 'expected profit rate' rather than an interest rate. It's 1.35%, which is way above the current best buys. So decided to keep it and will just feed it at a low level (probably just £100-ish per month) until I hit my £15k target as a buffer against redundancy. This'll free up a bit more money each month I can plough into the renovation

I signed up for Pr0lific but seem to be hitting all kinds of technical glitches first with filling in all the info about me for pre-screening and then with verification. Hoping that can get sorted soon so I can earn some OP pennies!

Hazelnutty

Got sent my 1st Pr0lific survey today - in German and involving some creative writing! It took me quite a while as although I read pretty well, my writing skills are very rusty, but it was actually really interesting. It was exploring empathy towards other people during COVID. So my first few quid in the bank if my answers are accepted

DD's old account closed and money arrived today, very efficient from Sainsbogs Bank! So have bought some PBs for her and opened a Junior ISA with NS&I for the balance, and will transfer in her CTF as well. Should get my £40 from Quidc0 tomorrow from switching the energy supplier when we moved house (which I would've done anyway ) Decided to use this for treat money though as having a little slush fund tends to help me keep on track with the rest of the money.

Have a lovely evening peeps!

themadvix

Impressive skills Hazelnutty! I speak German, but even after 5 years I’m not sure I could answer a survey of any complexity in it! Is that one of the profiling questions (an now thinking it would be a good learning exercise!)

 Good news about the Sainsbury’s account being sorted quickly!

Karmacat

Very impressed with managing a survey in German!  I only have individual tourist-type words, no sentences whatsoever, sadly ...

South_coast

I can ask what the weather's like and if you have any brothers and sisters 🤣! Why do they never start you off learning a language with some phrases that might actually come in useful???

Hazelnutty

Hey Karma & Vix! It did take quite a while! I did German at school and went to Germany for part of a gap year, which encouraged me to carry on with it as a side hussle in my 1st degree But that is *cough* two decades ago. I've tried over the years on and off to keep my hand in, reading the odd novel and speaking a bit on holiday but I'm very rusty. For the survey we had to a short piece of creative writing, which I managed to cobble together from rummaging in my brain for long-archived vocab and checking Google translate

It took 2 calls to NS&I to work out what they *actually* meant in the URGENT request for documentation with none of the links mentioned actually there and no explanation of what they needed to set up DD's PBs & Junior ISA: a 'wet signature' (!) Other than that, we're good to go. Fingers crossed for a win!

Chartered sent me the closing balance £206 so that's been shuffled straight into the renovation pot, along with £133 that had been lurking for months in the 'school dinners' pot - no prospect of DD getting a hot dinner next term (packed lunch only) so I've appropriated it! Current balance available for the renovation is £12,635 and the target total for my contribution is £17k (I've already paid £3k for materials). I have a regular saver maturing at the end of Sep so that should fill most of the gap and I'll be saving from my Aug and Sep salaries too. Builder has suggested we try to sell the old kitchen and a UPVC door that's been blocked up (both are at the cheaper end but in reasonable condition so should do someone a turn), Every little helps!

Current account is set for around £60 spare so have decided to OP that on payday. Given the next month's budget is done as soon as the CC cuts off on 16th and all the pots allocated, this seems like an easy win - not sure why I haven't been doing it for ages!

Not very motivated today, sigh! Usually OH and I go for a walk on a Wednesday evening while DD is at her Dad's for dinner but unfortunately we really need a shop and the L1dl is right by his house. So practicality first. Being outside is real mood booster for me but I'm also finding it difficult to get motivated to actually go outside. Is anyone else finding this? I'm guessing it's a COVID thing but really need to get back into some good mental and physical habits.

Hazelnutty

@South_coast A good point! DD is doing immersion French as XH's new partner is French and they go a fair bit to visit family. It seems way better than my memories of learning a language. Ugh the conjugation of verbs! But I guess all the grammar does come in useful. I was wondering about doing one of the Open University's free courses (there are loads of different ones but they do do languages at various levels). Maybe that'll get me back into things.