Getting FIREd up 😀

greenbee

South_coast said:

(Kind of wish I hadn't posted that now, so I could stick it up by my desk at work without revealing my secret MFW identity - probably not very professional though 🤣! We will keep it here to amuse ourselves with instead 😀!)

But would it give away your identity? If all your readers have read it, and all Mr MM’s readers, then it could be any of them. I’m also tempted to stick it up at work …

South_coast

I'm probably just paranoid - more so since I paid off the mortgage, actually. It's one thing for people to know you are looking to pay off your mortgage early (surely something a lot of people would like to do - just most can't or won't), but letting people know you are shooting for early retirement not so good (colleagues probably wouldn't care, but bosses might think you are uncommitted/no point in promoting/already have plenty of money, so don't need a pay rise....)

You put it up greenbee, and I shall live vicariously through you. Just knowing it is somewhere will be enough 😀!

greenbee

I’m sharing it with my boss 😂

South_coast

So I feel like I've spent LOADS this month (I've even Bought Things For Myself), but it's payday in a day and a half and I still have £9.24. Keep thinking I have c*cked something up with the stoozing and not transferred some money somewhere, but just checked the credit card app and it all seems to add up. Weird 🤷‍♀️🤔

killerpeaty

You can spend loads, as long as you're not being destructive to your goals and your needs. You still need to have fun and clothes yourself!

edinburgher

I was thinking of you today on the way back from the outlet mall to buy school shoes for DD1 when a car took a sudden right turn in front of us directly after leaving the motorway (I assume to buy snacks from the tiny industrial estate with a Spar, Greggs and Starbucks)

South_coast

Yeah, I guess they can still go there with an electric car 🤣!

South_coast

First of the month round-up….

• 5x extra £50s this month (hey, this is really starting to add up!), coming from surveys, receipt scanning, my new broadband price starting sooner than I thought, interest, some tilly tidies, a good chunk of TopCashBack (including £30 for one of the new credit cards), and a refund I wasn't expecting to get (someone went bust - it was less than £100, so no section 75 protection, but the credit card company managed to do a chargeback 👍). Used the first one towards a birthday and the rest to go towards the big bill fund

• Signed up for a new 12-month fix on my electricity in exchange for a £50 credit on my account (this is way more than I could save if the price cap goes down again, so it seemed worth it). That should reach me in September if I've worked it out correctly, at which point I'll request it as a refund, as I can't seem to get their online portal to take my credit balance into account when I request to reduce the monthly payments 🙄

• Bought a 3-month prescription pre-payment certificate and started building my stocks back up

• LISA interest rate increased by 0.3%, gaining me an additional £5/month for absolutely no input from me 👍

• My S&S ISA suddenly took off, so I've been gradually selling a couple of the funds I've fallen out of love with and reinvesting into one I'm more keen on. It's been quite exciting, every time the sales completed I logged back in to find they'd gone up again and I had more I could sell (probably should have hung on to them 🤣🤦‍♀️!) I've only been selling my profits, so the value of my original investments are still in there for now

• Contacted Lidl to query that two money-off coupons I'd activated in the app didn't work (it was only about 30p in total, but I was concerned the same thing might happen if I had a more valuable offer). Got a very nice email back and a £2-off coupon (which did work)! Very pleased with that 👍

A good month 😀!

11.68 years to go….

glass_half_full

Very impressive savings! I am in the same place with wanting to switch funds although wanting them to at least recover to the original value. 

South_coast

Thank you! Yes, I have some in UK bonds and gilts which was intended to at least maintain its value as a buffer, but has been dragging down my portfolio since forever 🤦‍♀️! But I refuse to sell yet!