Learning to walk before I run

beanielou

Glad you enjoyed a good if expensive break. 

edinburgher

A relatively spendy couple of days with grocery shopping, 192 sachets of cat food and 2kg of coffee. At least I had a £20 off reward for the coffee, and we will get £16 off our next cat food delivery as we've completed a stamp card

• £265.73 paid off Santander CC, BT have completed and I now just have one (big) CC
• 58p moved to Extension fund      
• £2.59 moved to EF
• £9.10 withdrawn from Prolific to personal spends
• £1.49 moved to my tax fund
• Remaining £7.61 moved to my cash savings

Mrs E taking the girls out today. Plan will be take down some starter decorations (outside lights, that sort of thing) and do any £12/hr+ Prolific studies that come up. 

Suffolk_lass

We need DS to come round to take down the outside lights under observation from Mr Sl - no going up ladders without a second person holding it here ed. I still remember the scream when my Mum was in the upstairs kitchen, and my Dad was up a ladder outside that window, when suddenly three rungs of the wooden ladder snapped as he dropped through them. It was woodworm, and very nearly heart failure from my Mum, when he dropped from view. The fourth bar held.

Seriously, it's a rule here.

edinburgher

How terrifying @Suffolk_lass - my stepdad has a metal pin in his leg after falling off a ladder while taking down Christmas lights! Luckily all of mine are at ground level (candy canes, fairy lights around railings etc).

A wee PSA that the Spanish bank have several savers that may be of interest to thrifty types looking to combine cashback etc. All offers can be found through TCB. I have found IRO 5 (some branded as the Spanish bank, some as Cah00t) that require £0-1 initial deposits and pay £25 cashback each. 

There are also a couple of fixed term/longer term offers (a cash ISA and a fixed term saver) that require £500 initial deposits and that have quite poor interest rates. That said... if the cashback pays out, they would pay c. 7% and 8.5% interest for the necessary year in total, which isn't to be sniffed at for cash savings at the moment. Edit: also a fixed term ISA (also £500 funding required) paying 3.8% but which would be 8.8% for a year if the cashback pays out.

Better than a poke in the eye? I generally find the Spanish bank quite efficient at opening things digitally etc. Cashback for the two accounts I've opened so far has tracked within minutes today.

Potentially £200 cashback all told, with £1000 tied up for a year @ c. 7.75% average and £500-506 tied up until the cashback pays out.

*Edit: I opened the 5 accounts that made sense for us, 4 have tracked so far. I should also receive a free KidsPass for the year, which offers discounts on trips, days out etc. I believe Mrs E already has one via work but this costs a few £ a month which can be saved.

*Edit the 2nd: It looks like 4/5 have tracked, will chase the last one next week. Not bad for TCB!

South_coast

Thanks, Ed 👍 I'd hoped to leave that particular bank behind, but I'll happily take their money if they're dishing it out for free 😀 Have opened 2x accounts which only need £1, deposited the requisite funds, and both already tracked 👍

edinburgher

@South_coast - you're very welcome Not my favourite either, but free money

Debsnewbudget

Thank you
2 tracked on mine and show as pending
Have you managed to deposit the £1 yet ? 

edinburgher

@Debsnewbudget - I have. I opened a couple of current accounts with them before Christmas for cashback + voucher purposes, this has greatly simplified this round of offers 🙂

BookWorm

Thanks Ed. I've joined in the fun too 

turtlemoose

Thanks for the tcb tips Ed. I've got 5 shiny new accounts now, and 5 x £25 already pending - not bad for 40 mins work!  Also 2 more I'm probably eligible for but need to wait for an existing fixed saver to mature next week before I have the 2x £500 min deposit available to put in...so that'll be another 2 x £25 if the cb is still running then. 

I also did the cc one you mentioned recently so that's another £35 pending... you sharing the knowledge is much appreciated, as I've exhausted all the "new customer current account transfer" type offers a couple of years ago so these are a nice little boost!