Future Proofing my life: Deposit saving then MFW journey in under 13 years

~FlowerPot~

Thanks lwap for your detailed reply, really helpful. I'm going to copy your results and check out the links. Thanks so much. 
If I did have a go, it would be for fun and not too seriously but to gain an understanding in it. Like you are doing! But will do some research first x

LadyWithAPlan

Suffolk_lass said:

 I am now down to the cut open tube of my much loved Future Renew serum - I have another 3 or 4 unopened serums in the waiting... They are like Henry V111 wives, many of his future/next wives were ladies in waiting at court - even Lady Jane Grey was one - she would not sleep with him til he got divorced, but he still chopped her head off.. yes the analogy of a boots serum to Lady Jane Grey execution -  its all action here on LaPlan's mfw blog !!

I think you have confused your Janes and who was when a bit. It was Anne Boleyn who refused to sleep with Henry until he was free to marry (he divorced his first wife Catherine), and  was Anne Boleyn's successor after Anne herself was beheaded. Lady Jane Grey was Jane Seymour and Henry's grand niece; Edward Vl's cousin, who Edward named as his successor instead of his Catholic half-sister, "Bl**dy Mary". Queen Jane lasted 9 days (and was indeed executed) - in, out, chop it all about - the analogy works for me though!

YES - confused my Janes ... i saw the 6 queens recent exhibition at NPG ..

9 days of being queen.. and then executed -  at 16!

KajiKita said:

Thank you so much for that huge write up! 😊 I read it last night but wanted to reread it when I was less tired. I have now copied and emailed to myself …

I suppose my one remaining question is how you protect yourself against the hackers? Is it the same approach as you would use with any other financial institution - get a message requesting / demanding action and go straight to whoever your provider is rather than responding to the original message? Or are there other aspects we should consider? 

Thinking of dipping half of one of my toes, just for the fun, and so I come to understand it a bit more (don’t wanna be a dinosaur) so will go and have a look at PayPal, Ethereum and Solana 😊

KK

KK Check out  also my above response today to Flowerpot - you will need to buy a cold wallet once you have enough  to worry about .. but initially start with £10 and use a big exchange - make sure you have 2fa (2 factor) on every site you might buy or sell crypto.
The blockchain advantage  is that  there is no 'provider' the middle man is taken out,  but this is also a disadvantage as your crypto lives either on an exchange or onto your own cold wallet (off line external hard drive with inbuilt software and you also have 12 seed words )
A cold wallet is thus generally only accessible by having the physical drive and the words.. so much safer - 

So avoid hackers by a) never clicking on unknown links especially in reddit, b) never responding to dms, c) never investing into crypto thru another person - you do the deals, d) get educated more, dd) 2fa authentication e) go in slowly and be prepared to lose it all  ee) dont tell people you have crypto   f) I am sure there are more  but this reddit post talks about ways to keep your cold wallet devise as secure as possible https://www.reddit.com/r/cardano/comments/mvk7ie/some_advice_on_keeping_your_crypto_devices_and/

If you buying crypto i would also buy some bitcoin as its the main one and though not asset backed, it has the value of being the biggest and the first ..and its doing v well (google a bitcoin chart). 
 Blackrock have ETFs in both Bitcoin and Ethereum agreed by SEC - but in UK we cant access those ETFS  easily.
So maybe a 25% mix of bitcoin/ethereurem /solana and either paypal stable OR USDC stable coin  - £2.50 each so £10 initial spend can get you started  

That free Princeton course on crypto might make a lot of sense .. it will teach you about protection as well  - 
NB   some of the course will be probably too indepth looking at the chapters but the initial  chapters look to give you a lot of clarity
https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency

Maybe a newly emerging side hustle?

Yesterday I unusually consulted for a friend of a friend on an overview of his life/budget/understanding/ a new contract / where he going etc - he has a lot of CC debt from covid and they have a new baby so with a new job he wants help with a new plan - he had tried a couple advisors and they made no sense for him, he too small fry. He had approached me as I had met him thru doing a friend a favour and for some reason I mentioned how adding money into your pension as a HR tax payer which he is is the best tax advantage - he was completely unaware
I wasnt sure what to charge but gave him some homework including goals, tracking his spending and he turned up with an excel (his first ever budget) and said he had learned loads just from my free homework. I even had asked him to lay all his costs/debts out and he had..
I have got him started on ynab as he loves those kinds of apps and for me it is the single best way to get debt paid down and teach yourself where every penny goes and to real;ise every time you spend you are stating what your current priorities are. I was going to give him the excel way forward but its too easy on overspend in the month and then realise at the end of the month you have to less leftover.

I am qualified  both in education and work to help,  however I was also  happy to help, got paid a small amount, got a free lunch and enjoyed the process of helping someone else see the light. He even said how exciting it was and inspired he is now to start a new phase of money. I even asked him to check his SP years and his current pension  so he could become aware of past, present and his future and he now realising he needs to educate himself and step it up.


UBE*EATS
I had a £10 ube*eats voucher expiring yesterday but given I had had a huge 3 course lunch I was not planning takeaway! I only ever order it though if I have a voucher off.
I ordered  from the local Thai 2 x green chicken curry late last night to take advantage of the offer - Their chicken curry is great, plus it was only an extra £4 for an extra whole portion of curry .. and I can extend the food for a couple meals by adding extra chicken and extra veg (soya beans and spinach for lunch today with the green chicken curry was delicious).  

LadyWithAPlan

triple_choc_chip said:

Avoiding the cerebral stuff to comment on the eye creams - they should be applied onto the orbital bone around your eye and then the action of your sphincter muscle when you blink transports the active ingredients into the area.  Puffiness is usually due to too much oil being absorbed through the thinner skin under the eye or on eyelid.  Thin skin means some women are better suited to using gels. 

thanks TCC - I will try, I do have allergies (a marine collagen cream  used for a few days made me look like Will Smith in the movie Hitch after he ate the shell fish - I could not see!) but it could be that I am also misapplying

WelshmansDaughter said:

LaPlan they have a list of estate agents in the credits of Lx3. Might be worth noting them down if you’re intensifying your search 

Never noticed - I will look!

WelshmansDaughter said:

Rather like the London property market LP 😂🤷

Very true -  London property is definitely value added..
The whole argument about assets and value is interesting - given the cost of borrowing money -  its why at least I can argue in the short term re to continue to rent - though this SD threshold coming back down is annoying... I am pushing my main contract to get paid quickly

WelshmansDaughter

For me the value of a property is what it costs to rebuild and what you get from living in it.
Although I’m fortunate to live in Scotland and you could buy two flats here for your deposit. There are some places you could buy four.

LadyWithAPlan

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!


Grocery still low  just £20.89 spent  (but £13.90 junk!) as I continue to eat down my freezer, its like a bottomless pit! I do think though its nearly there,  I am now down to odd frozen batch cooking bits and GF sausages mainly now.  I am counting the now thrown v old soup stock and the Dec 23 labelled soup as part my MG game (minimalism game) but not too much unused foods. I need to not pop into Morries on the way home after the gym tomorrow and stock up

The Ube**ats BILL  has not come thru on my cc so not part of this  £20.89 , what the app says is different from the receipt as I had a voucher and also the restaurant did a 2 green chicken curries  for only £4 extra so..

bean delight
Decided to make some asian beans but more Thai than Indian to go with my extra green chicken curry - not that I have ever eaten pulses like that in  Thailand or in My Thai cookery school so worked out what I could use with my shrinking supplies.
Turtle beans (soaked I know you dont need to) mixed into a fabulous HM spice mix inc garlic, onions,  fresh ginger and chilli, cumin, red wine, spring onions, coconut cream, frozen spinach and okra,  lots of fresh basil and the GF soya free coconut version of soy sauce, with added sesame oil - all in pressure cooker and was delicious.. more for tomorrow which I can serve with salsa and guac.

Crypto now £167.22 so jumped another £10 in 1 day Sunday eve. Thats a 6.4% jump in a day over a weekend !! So not for the fainthearted and just shows how  v volatile it is,  and definitely a bad idea to put all eggs in that basket. It looks like a mini bull run may be starting with ethereum. 
I also have now after the £167 value added £13 extra in as  I meant to do earlier in the week - makes   £181.85 as I type.
once I hit £200-£250 I will pause and buy a cold wallet.

Weekend was fairly lazy after a busy Friday socialising. EMS to start again
I have done a bit of tidying, some MB, planning an early night as I am back at EMS workout in the morning. It is actually good for the body to have rest and I am still feeling good.
I paused my training for a week as I was still thinking last Sunday of popping to the States for that work trip. I did not bother un-pausing it but then  I did not train last week, it just shows how paying someone makes me turn up to train as opposed to having an annual gym membership.
Only got 4 more weeks on my paid plan, then got 4 weeks free as someone else joined as part of my referral and then I can think into the new year.

Courses - I did some study Sat on the software but none today, will get back on tomorrow and have the intermediate class tomorrow eve.

BUDGET ANNUAL CHECK - I am weirdly over excited to be able to go in depth on my annual spending at the end Nov as that is when I started YNAB and its reports/breakdowns are amazing, effortless and 100% accurate.

I can see already despite not receiving as much payment of invoices as I am due/want I still saved  a decent amount and tx to the mkts rally my NAV is up  £13,303  YOY nearly and I have not been paid anything in Nov/end Oct so.. I am also owed about £3.5k in cc reimbursements etc
I also can see some great monthly avg spends on  things like Electric £37.17pm, water £14.42 pm so I will use this years data to set my Dec monthly goals right

LadyWithAPlan

Amazing what being back training does to ones MH. Walk as normal there and back - cool but dry - sun flooding into my apartment today. The body likes to train and I can really feel the difference in my core strength.  My slow carb was only 4 days last week had 2.3 cheat days (meals out and drinking) and no exercise at all last week but I am back on it again and it seems 62kg ( today)  is my new lower baseline - was 63.5kg +  - 59kg is the ultimate goal. I am definitely fitting into clothes better as have increased my muscle as well. 

So feeling v happy and ready to tackle the week now. Have checked through my Oct to do and now built my Nov to do list..

Main points are
Keep decluttering - MG game daily
Get my CV updated - still giving myself another week on the basic courses to add to my CV before...
Get applying for new jobs and get one for a great day rate.
Get my Udemy Python course complete  - doing an hour a day min 6 days a week
Get payment plan on invoices due 
See where I really am at with main contract - lots of promises .. no money really arriving
Get other work up to date and invoiced
Get the frogs (mainly paperwork/admin things) fried - a frog a day
Sort out next summer side hustle... done what I can so far, now waiting ..  
DONT LOOK AT HOUSES - til I get my income sorted
Do  my  ongoing courses  and start building the software idea I have (will be useful for a client)
Maybe look at my programme but am thinking guaranteed  income generation is first - cant buy a home without regular invoice payments
Keep using MB software 2 - software one is v good value and I have covered the cost by a lot, Software 2 is a bit time intensive but I paid for the year so..
Maybe look to move some of my PB to my cash isa as ..

Total tax free interest paid this month £27.68 + to be taxable  £8.19
Tilly tidy isa just paid   Oct interest £3.47  4.58%
I also have other interest income due  but they dont pay monthly so I have ignored.


Grocery spend £22.85 so total £43.74/£200 this month
Despite me telling myself not to pop into Morries  on way back from gym- I did  - as wanted to carry on my Thai  culinary adventure  with the left over portion of chicken green curry - so wanted some mange tout, oyster mushrooms, lemon grass  and snow peas... getting bit bored with Mexican beans or dal

£22.85 later - did include YS stir fry, chicken breast and a portion of mince - I know I am aiming to defrost freezer but bargain alert Some walnuts for snacks at class, lots of green fresh veg, no junk, ground almond as feel some baking coming on.

 I did however not fill up on the normal frozen vegs inc cauli (actually put in back) - I did buy something from the freezer I had never heard of - pigeon peas - its a pulse so my adventures into beans continues. (no snow peas or lemongrass avail)
It did need to cook longer than I expected - so I need to experiment..

I grilled the chicken breast to add into the green curry, stirfried the veg and it all came together well

Morries are doing a 'spend min £40 per week' for 4 of 5 weeks for £15 vouchers extra so I am aiming to spend there instead of other stores. 

So far in  11.3 months I have spent on food £2148.37 - this does not include family/gift bday meals or coffees on the run or drinks out.. just me and a fair amount of  home  cooking for friends /MW(out)AP when he was around - 
£1566.11 on groceries and bulk items
Abroad subsistence (not meals) £144.54
Abroad meals £136.11
Meal boxes/Takeaway £141.98
Junk   £159.63


MG success - got rid of my extra slow cooker to a good home   11 items
I won a 6 in 1 pressure cooker  a few years ago and one of its functions is a slow cooker... So my old one (still working and had  it for over a decade)  I have not used it at all since and to be fair never bothered using the slow cooker function either since getting a pressure cooker..
It is bulky and my kitchen cabinets are pretty full - so whilst watching a Dana k White video on her 'keeping stuff is she realised her back up plan of what happens if  life gets desperate !!)'  I was inspired to post the slow cooker on my local whatsapp group and within 15 seconds I got a yes please, and 2 mins later it was out the door  to a v happy neighbour.
Result!
More to go but I am not desperate and I am not planning my life in case I will be desperate - so a good mindshift - now to tackle the suits and clothes...
 
Baby Crypto training watch - £188.45   means more
32.55% increase in 8 days!
42.9 % increase since I started with £50  2.5 months ago
this is even taking my buying charges into account and the fact I drip fed the money in. I am very glad I have the  an old school buy index funds whilst utilising tax breaks  investor experience - as  a newbie to investing could get way overexcited by these gains. It

KajiKita

You are enjoying your cooking adventures 😊 I’ve never come across snow peas - what are they like?

How are you finding the Python course? Helpful? 

I can see why a 32% increase in 8 days would make people lose their heads a bit about crypto! 😉

Well done on the training 😊👏

KK

Watty1

with an increase of 32% in crypto in 8 days - I'm in ...what is is!  OK I'm laughing.  I can see how people would invest a lot and lose a lot on something they don't understand. I love reading your diary because you really do your research and tip toe in. Such a great example (and on a serious level I'm not in at all, I've barely mastered saving!)

WelshmansDaughter

I very nearly bought bitcoin many years ago when it was at 2k then peaked at 17k! 

Suffolk_lass

KajiKita said:

You are enjoying your cooking adventures 😊 I’ve never come across snow peas - what are they like?

How are you finding the Python course? Helpful? 

I can see why a 32% increase in 8 days would make people lose their heads a bit about crypto! 😉

Well done on the training 😊👏

KK

We know them as Mange tout, or sugar pea