Mortgage Free now aiming for FIRE

TallGirl

Quick financial update after all it is a money saving site:

Simple cash saver that I put £25 a week into for the interest free credit card is now just £400 shy of the balance needed so I will reduce the money going in to the min £2 as I still pay min balance each month. It has so far earned £52 interest as the rate dropped to 4.75% but still pretty good for my first attempt at stoozing. I cannot remember when it had to be paid off I think it was December next year but obviously I will pay it off before we move. Might even be a few pennies left in this account after it has been paid off. 

My Cash ISA also with Money Box has earnt £110 in interest and that is at 5.16% I will now get the £25 a week to go into that instead. I have not really missed that money so might as well.  

DG bought some golf gloves online and I think they are fake. Unfortunately she cannot find where she ordered them so currently cannot get a refund. I have order some now as we both need them so that is £72 gone out but she is paying 1/2. 

I did buy a sandwich and I paid for the train at the weekend so that reminds me I must do the reclaim I had such trouble doing it when we were in London. 

While waiting for the afternoon tea to start we actually had a very productive time. DG logged into her hotel.com account and we had 1 free night for £60 and then 8 nights out of 10 for another night which had a higher average. We had planned to book more hotels but I have to book via a portal and DG has stayed with her friends so no need. So Hotel.com has now changed their reward thing and instead we now have £170 to spend on various sites. That is actually better as we were not going to get the other 2 in at the higher rate plus we can now go to Brighton or something when we want to.

I had the niggle at seeing our lovely Martin go on about CLub Card vouchers about to expire so I checked and sure enough £9 about to go. quickly swapped the lot into hotels.com and got a £50 voucher which will get us a long way to a nice night should we need it. As it can also be used abroad we could do Denmark which might be nice or even Faaborg to see what the town is actually like. 

So although it cost us money for the beer we were quite MSE getting all of that done (I did start the reclaim but I had the wrong bit for the ticket but I have now done them so lets see how much I get. 

Work does need to start so best get on with it.  

TallGirl

Came across a free Spanish course via Santander very random but I signed up and took the test as they only have 1000 spaces. It sounds good it is 12 weeks but you do it at your pace. I am not sure I am advanced enough but lets see if I even get accepted. 

The house is almost ready for the viewing at 11.30 the second one is at 5.30pm tonight so nice to get two out of the way in one go. I am going to ask my sister to view that house we cannot get it out of our minds so if she sees it it might make it kind of go away if you know what I mean. 

I did not win anything on the premium bonds which was very disappointing I even had our Alexa set up to give us the news lol. DG is now set up too so once we know what her account has in it we can go from there. 

Got a lot of work on today and then I am off tomorrow so it is all prep for Thursday as I then have Friday off. Busy week but mainly because of all the time off. 

TallGirl

Got pretty much up to date with work so tempted to cancel gym tonight as I have golf tomorrow and my body does need to recover a bit. I cannot do gym tomorrow anyway so feel like it is going to be a new start next week. 

My sister is going to view the property on Tuesday and I am going to dial in and follow it remotely. I will be away but I can delay my travels so I can follow that. There is someone else interested in the house they do need to sell their own house. Now I did believe estate agents in Denmark to be better than our ones but my sister just sent me a programme out how they operate over there I do need to watch. 

It would be totally crazy to buy it before this one sells but better to rule it out than have it at the back of your mind. We shall see. 

Still got another viewing today one already been but the one Saturday is cancelled as they are coming from further afield but do still want to view it. So kind of positive I guess. 

Right I am going to cancel gym I just do not feel like it. 

TallGirl

Morning I’ve got the day off as I’m off to play a practise round of golf before next Fridays game. It’s free so just coffees to pay for and maybe a snack. I’m going to eat breakfast before I leave. 

Friday I’m also off another day out golfing but this time with DG and pretty much the whole club. This is why I bought more leave which has worked out really well. 

Yesterday was silly in terms of joint spending. Went to Lidls to get out for the viewing. Got my freebie cake and also stuff for dinner. Went into small town and it was still too early. Sat outside Dominos so my fault I saw they did half and half pizza and I always have to have pepperoni as dg likes it. It was only £12 as we shared it. I refused to pay £8 for garlic bread so dg got some in Tesco for £2.30. We collected it obviously and ate it at home. 

Dg saw her counsellor she agreed she needs to take time off. Yesterday she started working at 5am and she’s sleeping badly. She’s got Thurs and Friday off to play golf let’s hope that’s good and makes her relax. 

I better get up I need to leave at 10ish not sure if I need petrol first. 

TallGirl

Had a great day out yesterday really worth going to try the course and bought 2 coffees and a sausage roll for £10.50 which is good for a golf course. The owner was doing the cleaning and also serving behind the bar really nice she was too. 

Had left over pizza for dinner before going to bed shattered. I am currently waiting for a work call to start but the person is quite busy so is usually late. 

DG was going to play golf today but cancelled as it is raining so not very nice. She is still going to take some time off but it is hard as she has outstanding work. I really hope she gets it done soon and can take some time off. I think she will go to the range later. I do actually need to spend some money today as I need a brolly before tomorrow as it is going to be wet. DG is going to look otherwise I can get one from the club later. We get 10% off so cheaper than buying it online. 

Work is quite busy today but all interesting and good stuff. I am trying not to think too much about the viewing on Tuesday as I feel I am getting ahead of myself. 

Well call happened before I posted this so now it is done I will press submit before I have the next one in 10min. 

LadyWithAPlan

Look forward to hearing re the split level house with your virtual and your sister being there. Lets hope your UK viewings go well.

Protein powder has aved me over the years especially travelling as you can bake with them so make decent high protein baked goods, v good as well as I am gf and df so on planes I have tasty high protein baked treats.

I make a LaPlan blueberry oat protein cake for travels. Happy to pop down the recipe if you interested. However a warning on protein pwders some are silly high in carb per 100g, hence my mention of the vegan applied nutrition ones.

john798

sorry if i missed it but what does FIRE stand for? thanks

edit, just looked it up Financial Independence, Retire Early   

savingholmes

Hope the viewings go well at your place.

TallGirl

Thanks for popping in SavingHolmes, John78 and LWAP always appreciated. 

I have never baked with high protein powder I tend to try and avoid baked goods when being good. 

John78 you are right about FIRE. I am 54 so to move to Denmark aged 55 is very early hence why I am looking to work with my DG but hopefully only a couple of days a week if we get enough to live on. 

Thanks Savingholmes we did have 4 viewing this week. The two yesterday we do not know much about other than one was looking for buy to let so the pool is not great for that I would not think unless they want to run an AirB&B.
The two Tuesday one is the one with the young kids who says he has not ruled it out yet. Well I bet his wife has but he is obviously clinging to some hope still lol. The other one is ignoring them so they do not know. We shall see there is plenty of time. Funnily enough we saw a young guy in a suit with a camera come out of next door it had to be an estate agent. We know they are looking to move to Scotland together with the rest of the family (our cat sitters) but it would be funny if 3 houses in the same close was up for sale plus perhaps their dads which is in the next close. Cannot be helped and theirs are all semi's so different from ours and much smaller. 

The golf day was a washout we only played 3 holes but the new £44 brolly was fantastic. I could actually have carried on and not cared it rained it was so so good well worth the money spent on it. 

We did have a lovely quiz afterwards and a meal so it was a good day out even if no golf. 

I am just sorting out the printing of the documents to the land registry it would be so good to get them off now. I might wait to post them until I get my stamps but we shall see. 

Today is a chill out day doing a few bits around the house. DG is still feeling rubbish due to work and an error she has made. Hopefully we resolved next week but she is not going to be able to take much time off as there is still a lot to do which is a shame. 

Right need to get those forms sorted. 

Update I have had a go at the forms and discovered I really need to send off for the original death certificate as I only ever got the interim so that was £25 but worth it. I do need to pay the fee to transfer the property by cheque so need to work out how to go about that. I do bank with First Direct so hopefully can just call them and get it sorted. 

Actually saved myself £90 by saying we did not need to pool cleaned and asking for it just to be closed down end of September. We really have not used it this year I do not think I will really miss it when we move. The hot tub on the other hand is really nice at this time of year. 

Bringing my good old to do list back:

TO DO
- Sort will out to include civil partnership - postponed as solicitor is on maternity leave 
- Work out fee and submit forms to land registry - forms sent to legal friend who will check them just need to sign and post otherwise. DONE
- Wait for death certificate, get witness to sign and last ID proofs
- Get cheque for £90 from a bank and then post forms for land registry 
- Look into international pensions - started but it is so complicated
- Do CP invites incl asking friends to do bits on the day (photo's music etc) 
- Empty pool a bit due to the rain

House stuff
- Paint the 2 back fence panels 
- Repoint worst bits of patio - materials and tools READY to do needs to get done asap

TallGirl

Had a really chilled day yesterday watched telly mainly with snacks. Been watching Borgen a Danish Drama but realised we’d watched the latest series and there was three before they. Well we will now get the back story at least. 

Friend from club called they would like to come with us to Faro next March and are happy for us to book their hotel. We can use the credit we got to pay our part and she can pay hers plus we get the points which is obviously nice. Should be a nice little pre trip to the main golf trip and cheap as the hotel is now covered by points. She is also happy to share the drive and parking to the airport so will get that booked. Hopefully we can all fit into the car. 

Today I’m not playing in the club championship but hope to get out for nine later. We will then stay and congratulate the new champion which will be nice. 

I’ll also get my club washed they really need it before I play the match Friday.