Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

savingholmes

How lovely to be so close to £12K EF - and so soon after moving too. Well done on the uplift on your pensions too - that is some going. 

I hope you are having fun in the garden. I find it therapeutic.

Moneyfordreams

OMG, thanks for mentioning professional fees! I had completely forgot about mine - 

RobM99

"I think I probably need to look at switching to the new 123Lite replacement."

Have a look by all means but it's not very well received on here unless you have a Santander mortgage, it seems.

South_coast

I've got the Lite account and no mortgage. No complaints from me 🤷‍♀️

savingholmes

I just got £13.71 for a £2 fee using the lite version - so glad I swapped - regret not doing so earlier!

Merlin's_Beard

Horrible grotty week at work for various reasons, but barring one lunch I manage to not emotionally spend on food so I'll call it a win.

Finished the week off by playing with regular savers - HSBC at 5% for £250, so that's opened. FD at 7% for £300 so that's opened, but at 7% there might be a chance I'm hallucinating so I'll check it still exists in the morning.  

I can cycle my emergency fund through those to boost interest as well as the BoS that's been open for a few weeks now.

As far as newLite (Edge) vs other accounts - people seem to prefer the Lite account itself (no longer available), or the Chase account (for the first 12 months), neither of which are a long term solution. But it's far too late and I'm too tired to think about that now - a problem for another day.

savingholmes

Well done on the account opening. They announced the 7% rate a few weeks after I switched away which was irritating. Ah well... 

Merlin's_Beard

Right.

Back of an envelope calculations says that the Edge leaves me with £1.09 in DD cashback after fees. The 123 leaves me with £2.36 in DD cashback after fees.

Current account will always have a £1000 buffer in there for peace of mind and gets my wages in, so pays out about £2.40 a month in interest on 123 (I tilly tidy away anything over that at the end of the month).

Edge will give me £3 (ish) in spending cashback, but I get 0.5% cashback via my card anyway, so would only be £1.50 extra overall.

Final result:

Edge: £2.59
123: £4.76

Not worth changing from the £4 123 to the £3 Edge.

If gas/elec wasn't so pricy right now I think it might have gone the other way, but when there's nearly £2 difference between 1% and 2% cashback it basically justifies the more expensive account by itself. Have to suspect that this is either a) something initiated pre the price rises if you're feeling generous, or b) something to try and get people off 2% energy cashback if you're not.

Merlin's_Beard

New curtains bought for the office room. £65 for the smallest pair imaginable, but I spotted them last week in the shop, left them because they were expensive, then after a week's thinking about it have gone back for them. They just seem right for the room and I can't find a similar pattern anywhere cheaper.

I'll tell myself that this is why I'm frugal in places where spending more doesn't make a difference to me, so that when I want to spend money on something that does feel important to me, I can.

Doormats for the patio and front door also bought. Just a back door to go, but I haven't seen anything I like.

It's nice to feel that these little bits are slowly contributing to the house being my home in the style and way that I want.

Merlin's_Beard

Ugh.

It was meant to be productive time off work this week, but I'm being knocked back by a bug. On the upside I'm not going out and spending money. On the downside, I'm huddled at home, avoiding all other humans, with the heating turned on all day nursing a fever and a banging headache.