Start at the very beginning.

Nichelette

Congrats on being under 200k, it must feel great!

Brindlebabe

Hi team,
Thank you! It does feel great being sub£200000. Whenever husband says about our massive £200000 mortgage I can say 'its just less than that actually'. I suppose it's what everyone says about just looking ahead to the next goal - which is really getting it as low as we can before we sell, hopefully in Feb. So I'm aiming for £195000 by Feb, but not sure if that's really possible. 

Feel a bit meh today. Working night shifts and supposed to be revising during the day but feel a bit de-motivated. 
Have tidied the kitchen and made a nice salad so far but still can't face getting the books out. 
Might go for a browse of the charity shops shortly which will neither help me pass my exam or pay the mortgage, but might be nice and I could do with some new work clothes. I went the other day and bought a nice top for £5 which I've worn a few times already, but I didn't enjoy not being able to try things on. Anyway - moaning about nothing really.

Am with Santander 123 Light, and whilst not bad, and excellent online service, the benefits aren't as good as when I set the account up. I have £2000 in a emergency fund easy access savings account which was getting 2.5% but is about to 'mature' and will then be switched to a 0.1% new savings account. We try to save around £600 - but only £200 goes into that account, the other 400 is split between 2 other savings accounts with lower rates, but I access them quite freely to pay things like car insurance/mot/exams/various other irritating occasional expenses. They're sitting at around £400 and £300 at the moment. The mortgage is with Santander so we get £5 'cash back' each month, plus £2 or £3 bonus due to the bills etc. 

My question is - does anyone recommend a new account - either for savings or current? I think preferably just for savings to minimise hassle but I'm not fixed on that. There clearly aren't any incentivised account moves at the moment, and I doubt they'll come back quickly, but I would like the savings to make a little interest, even if just to encourage me and Husband to keep paying into them, otherwise temptation is just to pay off the mortgage, but I know we'll run into trouble if we don't have an emergency fund. Or am I best just leaving it well alone - I think its tempting to tinker, but if it's only possible to earn a few quid a year in interest anyway is it really time well spent? 

Many thanks as always,
Bb x 

Ellie78

Hi Bb
I can recommend NS&I income bonds (1.16% savings, can only pay in/out in blocks of £500 though) and Marcus (1.05% easy access savings).   If you don't mind setting up some money transfers N@tionwide's Flex Direct account could be a good fit.   2% interest on balance up to £1,500.  You need to pay in £1,000 a month. I have transfers set up between my accounts to meet the minimum paying in requirements.  It's a shame their £100 referral scheme is paused at the moment.

ruby_eskimo

I have a Marcus account and pretty happy with it but have heard good things about the NS&I bonds too. Would have liked an app with the Marcus account but logging into the site is pretty straightforward anyway so not too much of a hassle. 

South_coast

I've got a 123 Lite as well, but can't be bothered putting my savings anywhere else as they're all small amounts which wouldn't gain me anything worthwhile in interest and I like being able to see all the accounts in one place. I have about 10 savings accounts also set up with Santander and like logging on and seeing the whole picture at a glance. I also like the fact that you can re-name the accounts to something more meaningful (ie "car insurance" rather than "easy access saver" etc), plus you can re-order them to suit your priorities, so I have the accounts for day to day spending at the top of the list, then the savings pots in the order that I need to spend the money

Sorry, very longwinded way of saying I'm not sure a move would be worth it for the interest you'd get on the balances!

Brindlebabe

Thank you Ellie, Ruby and Southcoast. I think between you you have helped me answer my question. Which is - It’s not really worth fiddling about with at the moment, and it’s ok to have money in accounts which maybe aren’t making a few extra quid where they could be, but aren’t causing me stress. 

It’s nice to have permission sometimes to do nothing. 

😊 

ruby_eskimo

Happy to be of help Sometimes I wish all my savings were all in one place so I could see them all together but I have a spreadsheet to manage that anyway so it's not too much of a problem really.  Interest rates are so dismal anyway so any little bit you can get extra helps.

Brindlebabe

Ah. I just feel a bit cr*p at the moment money wise.
£2000 which was supposed to be the emergency fund returned to the current account a few weeks ago. We've spent about £600 without really meaning too.. About £300 on clothes from John Lewis... we did get a lot and it was in the sale, but still... and a fair bit on eating and drinking out and about. I've got a couple of things to take back to the shop so that will retrieve about £50 but I just feel a bit out of control with it. Also spent about £100 on 2 pictures for the house. Lovely but we hadn't really built it into our monthly budget.
I mean, its fine.. we're not getting into debt and we have been doing monthly overpayments of about £520 which have been very satisfying but probably we could have been using that money to build the emergency fund up a bit more first.

There are other things going on...
I've got an exam to take which I'm stressed about. Its a month away now so I really need to start working a lot harder for it and that's stressful. I'm at the stage now where I feel stressed about how little work I've done and that means I have to use a lot of my free time on stress management activities which doesn't really help the revision. I've got a nice zoom therapist (6 sessions for free via work) and she is helping. My husband is also having a bit of a rocky time with his mental health. He's accessing telephone counselling which is a bit of a breakthrough for him because he's been a bit reluctant to do that in recent years (no least because he hates phones). So that's positive.
One or two other things too which I won't go into here. But overall, a stressful time. 

I will vow to cut back on impulse buys and food out. Even though the eat out scheme makes everything good value, I just need to make some nice Dahl or chili and get on with that.. 

Anyway, have to go to work. 
Hope you are all well. 
Bb x 

Moneyfordreams

Don't be too hard on yourself. your work environment is super stressful. Once in a while giving your self extras is fine, as you say you are not getting into debt. life is a bit of a roller coaster, we have to enjoy the journey  

ruby_eskimo

Sorry to hear you're having such a stressful time but glad to hear that you're both getting the help and support you need which will hopefully help you cope a little better.  I'm also an emotional impulse shopper; I had some extra cash in the bank which I was going to transfer to the EF but have just spent a bunch of it on things that were on my wish list just because my anxiety is up.  Maybe we both need to revisit Martin's mantra of do I need it or do I just want it