How much to live on

Savvy_Sue

helensbiggestfan said:

When my husband became self employed and we set up our own company we employed an accountant, a legal requirement as we were a limited company.  

Actually I believe not. Usually strongly advised, at least initially, because filing company accounts can be tricky, and you don't know what you don't know. And as you discovered, there are options, and choosing the right ones can make a huge difference. 

You DO have to have a business bank account.

helensbiggestfan

Thanks for the clarification.   I was under the impression it was mandatory, so thanks for putting me right.  You learn something every day. 😁. 

Speaking of learning ....I have discovered a guy called Financial Historian on you tube.  I'm learning all sorts of stuff. 

helensbiggestfan

Organgrinder said:

For those of you with a bit of spare cash I really cannot fault using Topcashback to open some ISAs.

At the start of the financial year I opened two accounts, one with Shepherds Friendly and the other with Scottish Friendly.

The total monthly outlay was £130. To date I've paid out £910 and the investments are worth £970. A 6.6% return.

The best bit however is the £445 cashback generated. A whopping £505 total return from a £910 investment. 55.5%.

Obviously there is a risk they can fall in value but at the level of cashback offered it would be one hell of a crash to lose money!

Great result. 🥂

After reading this I checked the rates on my savings accounts.  I definitely need to move them for better rates.  I'm leaving money on the table.......

Organgrinder

helensbiggestfan said:

Organgrinder said:

For those of you with a bit of spare cash I really cannot fault using Topcashback to open some ISAs.

At the start of the financial year I opened two accounts, one with Shepherds Friendly and the other with Scottish Friendly.

The total monthly outlay was £130. To date I've paid out £910 and the investments are worth £970. A 6.6% return.

The best bit however is the £445 cashback generated. A whopping £505 total return from a £910 investment. 55.5%.

Obviously there is a risk they can fall in value but at the level of cashback offered it would be one hell of a crash to lose money!

Great result. 🥂

After reading this I checked the rates on my savings accounts.  I definitely need to move them for better rates.  I'm leaving money on the table.......

I must have generated thousands from taking advantage of offers.

Bank switch incentives from NatWest X2, Halifax X2, Barclays, Coop, TSB, Santander, Nationwide, RBS, HSBC. 

Credit card incentives from Amex.

Cashback offers from Topcashback and Quidco.

ISA incentives from Nutmeg and Wealthify.

A quick guess on the above is over £3,500.

Stoozing over the past few years adds at least £2,500 to the pot and using my mortgage at 1.64% to save at 5% has added £4,000 or so.

I really wish I'd kept the actual figures.

Most of the above has been done in the last 3 years, has taken me hardly any time and added over £10,000 to my savings.

I've also switched mobile phone contracts, energy companies, insurance etc. I always search for voucher codes etc. A lot of what we use are now commodities. It makes little difference where we get it from. I remember a forum member staying loyal to good old British Gas who reckoned he'd not lost out by not switching. We most certainly had very different views on generating/saving money. But in the past 4 years switching has saved me thousands.

This year clubcard and clubcard challenges have contributed about £400 to a break next Easter.

Obviously doing all this is not for everyone. It can however make your income go further, add to savings, pay for holidays etc. Happy to help anyone who wants to do likewise. And as always grateful to the MSE team and forum posters who've helped with the above.

Suzycoll

Organgrinder said:

For those of you with a bit of spare cash I really cannot fault using Topcashback to open some ISAs.

At the start of the financial year I opened two accounts, one with Shepherds Friendly and the other with Scottish Friendly.

The total monthly outlay was £130. To date I've paid out £910 and the investments are worth £970. A 6.6% return.

The best bit however is the £445 cashback generated. A whopping £505 total return from a £910 investment. 55.5%.

Obviously there is a risk they can fall in value but at the level of cashback offered it would be one hell of a crash to lose money!

Wow

May I ask what type of accounts you described are ?
They can't be ISA as I thought it was one a year ? 
Thanks 

Organgrinder

Suzycoll said:

Organgrinder said:

For those of you with a bit of spare cash I really cannot fault using Topcashback to open some ISAs.

At the start of the financial year I opened two accounts, one with Shepherds Friendly and the other with Scottish Friendly.

The total monthly outlay was £130. To date I've paid out £910 and the investments are worth £970. A 6.6% return.

The best bit however is the £445 cashback generated. A whopping £505 total return from a £910 investment. 55.5%.

Obviously there is a risk they can fall in value but at the level of cashback offered it would be one hell of a crash to lose money!

Wow

May I ask what type of accounts you described are ?
They can't be ISA as I thought it was one a year ? 
Thanks 

Of course.

I have a Topcashback account. There are various ISA offers on there. Eg. Shepherds Friendly and Scottish Friendly. Both are Stocks and Shares ISAs. You have to open them via the Topcashback link. 

You can now have multiple ISAs in one year but with same overall £20k limit.

If you can afford £100 a month in each you will get £610 cashback within 7 months or so. The Shepherds one pays out after 4-5 months, the Scottish Friendly one after 6-7 months.

You can then stop contributing and close or switch your accounts. Scottish Friendly will charge you a £50 fee or you can choose to leave £50 in the account.

So for a £1400 investment over 7 months you will get approx £560 back. Of course your investment may fall.

Other monthly contributions may pay different cashback rates. Eg £30 a month in both will return £190 after fees. Not bad for a £420 investment over 7 months. 

Hope that helps.

Albermarle

Suzycoll said:

Organgrinder said:

For those of you with a bit of spare cash I really cannot fault using Topcashback to open some ISAs.

At the start of the financial year I opened two accounts, one with Shepherds Friendly and the other with Scottish Friendly.

The total monthly outlay was £130. To date I've paid out £910 and the investments are worth £970. A 6.6% return.

The best bit however is the £445 cashback generated. A whopping £505 total return from a £910 investment. 55.5%.

Obviously there is a risk they can fall in value but at the level of cashback offered it would be one hell of a crash to lose money!

Wow

May I ask what type of accounts you described are ?
They can't be ISA as I thought it was one a year ? 
Thanks 

You could always have more than one ISA a year.
For new money you could only have one type of ISA a year. So for example you could add £10 K to a cash ISA and £10K to a S&S ISA, but not £10K of new money into two cash ISAs for example.
Also you could always separately open a new ISA , and transfer an old ISA into it ( without adding any new money).

Since a change in the rules you can open multiple ISA's with new money, although some providers still say you can not as they have not changed their software.

There is a MSE sub forum for ISA's, which could be worth a read as the rules can be confusing.
ISAs & tax-free savings — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Organgrinder

Well I decided to switch banks following Halifax's termination of the rewards account. I've exhausted all the switches as sole accounts so a new Nationwide joint account. £175 switch incentive. 5% current account interest. 6.5% regular saver up to £200/month and 1% cashback on debit card spends. Plus of course the potential bonus payments.

It really does seem a very good deal.

Mrs O is thinking of doing the same as her sole account.

So potentially £350 just in time for Christmas. :-)

MarzipanCrumble

umm yes, thinking about Barclays as would get Apple+ for £5

Halifax - been with them since 16 so a bit of a wrench (and please don't say anything because I know......)

Savvy_Sue

Organgrinder said:

Well I decided to switch banks following Halifax's termination of the rewards account. I've exhausted all the switches as sole accounts so a new Nationwide joint account. £175 switch incentive. 5% current account interest. 6.5% regular saver up to £200/month and 1% cashback on debit card spends. Plus of course the potential bonus payments.

It really does seem a very good deal.

Mrs O is thinking of doing the same as her sole account.

So potentially £350 just in time for Christmas. :-)

I'm planning to make the move too, but a) haven't worked out where to switch to yet, not many options open to me and b) would like to manually move a couple of the incoming payments out first - DH's pension and my LA pension. Actually that's better than I thought it was: I think his pension will be easy enough and I get regular emails from the LA scheme. 

I'm going to see if I can simplify the 'systems' and still get cashback: I have a nice little money-go-round between six current accounts (most of them with very little activity), but if anything happened to me I think he'd be lost!