Watching my mindset shift and nudging it slightly along the way...

everypennytowardsfire

Great news @bigbeff. Yes, we will! 

everypennytowardsfire

Thanks for popping in @enthusiasticsaver. Your story gives me hope. Perhaps it will work out for me too. Yes, the SE route is risky but there is always the option of agency shifts for me to fall back on during any quieter times so it's probably a little less scary than it would be otherwise. You're right that I should prioritise saving in the immediate future. 

Shineyhappy

Hi every penny 

I love your user name and had to have a read. I’m into Fire and was before I realised it was a thing. I did the DFW then MFW thing and came across MMM blog and wow it was like I had found religion.

It had a massive effect on us when we moved LCOL area and the house had to be able to house hacked and we weren’t taking out another mortgage so another fixer upper. DH thought I was nuts but he went a long with it and a few years later he is really buying into it. He doesn’t share my excitement about MMM but has gone along with 90% of my crazy ideas (eventually) without too much moaning.

Best of luck with your journey and I hope you can get your OH onboard, DH not having a car for a few years and me having an old banger saved a fortune and being on the same page on everything from heating controls to no takeaways can be make such a difference 

everypennytowardsfire

Hey @Shineyhappy, thanks for dropping in. A fellow MMM person, yay! How amazing you've achieved your DFW and MFW objectives already and are now able to focus on the next stage. That's so great you've been able to get your OH on board, I know some aspects of the FIRE wannabe lifestyle seem bonkers or not really worth the effort to most people - glad to hear he's more or less a convert now. Well done for getting to this point - it must have taken some serious sacrifice. Best of luck with your journey too. We can do this!

everypennytowardsfire

It's been a while since I last posted - much longer than intended. Last couple of weeks of August were spent working in my old job/preparing to leave; first week of September mostly dealing with a broken boiler which - while now fixed - has led to my gas being cut off (I'd mentioned a faint smell of gas in the cupboard under the stairs where our gas meter is to the engineer). That issue is still ongoing but multiple attempts at finding another engineer to deal with it (calls/emails going unanswered or people not ringing back despite promising they would etc.) later, someone is finally coming tomorrow to fix it and also service the boiler while they're here. Not having a gas supply didn't seem too urgent to start with as we only use gas for heating and hot water (we have an electric cooker). Obviously we haven't needed the former yet, thankfully (I am aware that the timing of all this could have been a lot worse), and - as we have a system boiler - we have been able to use electricity for the latter. Until last night that is, when the immersion heater in our water tank stopped working (probably a safety cut-off issue - the engineer will have a look tomorrow). It seems quite ancient as does the rest of the plumbing in the house - apart from the boiler itself which is 8 years old (installed by the previous owners), so pretty new in comparison to the rest of it, but which has nonetheless been playing up on and off ever since we moved in and causing us a lot of stress/hassle. Now the gas situation has become more of a pressing issue as we no longer have hot water. I do hope it gets fixed tomorrow once and for all, or at least for a little while - I'd love to be able to go into autumn and winter (not my favourite seasons at the best of times) without having to worry about whether we will be able to have a nice hot shower or turn the heating on when needed. We'll see. 

I've also been away. DS and I went to visit my parents who still live in my country of origin (I moved to the UK 20 years ago). We were there for nearly two weeks. I wouldn't call that a proper holiday as when I'm there I usually try to get a lot of stuff done - things like haircuts, dentist etc. usually work out a little cheaper over there. This time I also saw an optometrist that both my parents had recommended. He was brilliant. I am a bit of a hopeless case eyesight-wise - I have one very good eye and one really crap one that everyone I've seen over the years (decades in fact) has always struggled to come up with a correct prescription for. I've always heard there's no point in getting glasses as my good eye doesn't need it and - as I've had the issue since I was a child - if we suddenly tried to correct the bad eye, I would have double vision or simply wouldn't tolerate it. So I wasn't going to bother again, other than getting some stronger reading glasses at some point - I got my first pair last year but have recently noticed that I could definitely do with something stronger (those glasses weren't doing anything in terms of specifically correcting the bad eye, only made my eyes feel a little less tired overall). However, after hearing a lot of good stuff about that optometrist I decided to give him a go. I'm so glad I did - he said we can definitely work on improving the bad eye but we will need to do it in stages to let my brain get used to getting greater input from it. So I've now got two new pairs of glasses (including a much better pair for reading), with the bad eye partially corrected, which I will need to replace with new ones (with a stronger prescription) once I've got used to wearing them. It's been an experience wearing them and I can tell my brain gets a little confused but I think it will work in the long run and hopefully will be worth the expense. I spent around £300 and will need to replace the lenses later on when I'm ready, so will be another £200 I'm guessing, but I look at it as an insurance policy for the future and a way of alleviating my slight anxiety around my eyesight that I feel whenever I think about it (I worry about how I would cope if something happened to the good eye that I've relied on my entire life). The test itself was only £15 though and most definitely worth every penny. 

While it wasn't what I would call a proper holiday, while we were there, we did all go on a short trip together to another city (to visit a couple of places of historical importance and for some general sightseeing) which was nice. It was also, unavoidably, a little spendy, but we all shared the same objective of trying to enjoy our stay without splashing out on anything unnecessary, which was helpful. I am hoping to sit down over the next few days and go over everything I spent during the trip (and over the last month or so in general), as while I have tried to be careful and haven't lost my financial mojo at all, I haven't quite been able to stay on top of everything to the extent I normally like to, and due to being away there have been some additional expenses I wouldn't normally have had, so I want to check/add everything up so I have a clear picture of where I am exactly with regard to finances at this point as I start a new chapter (with my old job finished, last salary paid into my account, trip done etc). Now I will be focusing my efforts on making this new stage a success (hopefully), working towards creating new sources of income as well as a new routine (with no other trips or similar major expenses planned), and I want to have a baseline set of numbers (current savings and debts etc.) as a starting point I can look back on later on to see how I'm doing, especially with regard to a promise I made to myself before - that this new change wouldn't mean a major financial setback in the long run. While I feel that taking steps towards safeguarding my mental health and creating a generally more enjoyable everyday life is definitely worth a little financial sacrifice, unless I keep my eye on the ball and remain financially disciplined, my long term goals such as mortgage freedom and FIRE will suffer. 

I haven't been reading the MSE emails properly over the last couple of weeks so I'm planning on catching up over the next few days. I have been able to act on some advice though that has caught my eye and so today I have opened:

• A Santander Edge account for its linked savings account (7% on balances up to £4,000; not so much for the cashback as that will pretty much only just offset the £3 monthly fee)
• A Nationwide FlexDirect account for its 8% regular saver + £200 switching bonus
• A TSB Spend & Save account for the £150 switching bonus

I still need to move some direct debits around between various accounts to make it all work (I've made a start on it but still some left to do). I also still need to open the above savings accounts and fund them. Hoping to do that tomorrow while the gas engineer is here - he's going to be here all day and I'm not really sure what to do while he's around. I don't want to waste the day but there are certain things probably best not done then. For example, I was planning to do some batch cooking before I found out he could come tomorrow but that probably wouldn't be ideal. The house also needs a proper clean and tidy, not to mention the suitcases that still need unpacking, but again, I'll probably leave that for Wednesday now. I guess just sitting upstairs at my desk and doing some life admin while I'm not needed downstairs could work so I might get a chance to do the above financial tasks.

The switching bonus money, when it arrives, will be especially helpful now I'm in between jobs so I thought the effort (of having to move the DDs and to time everything correctly so it works out etc.) would be worth it.

Other than the above, I have also over the last month or so:

• Opened the 5.2% Santander instant access account that topped the MSE savings accounts table for a couple of weeks (and suggested to DS to open one too - which he did; he has also already opened the 8% Nationwide regular saver as he already had their current account - whereas I previously used mine to switch somewhere else; I'm so pleased he really seems to be taking my advice on board these days); I will now use the new 7% account as my main Santander savings account but will still use the other one for anything above the £4,000 limit that is not tied up somewhere else
• Opened a Saffron BS regular saver (5.75%, £50 per month)
• Registered for Airtime Rewards and linked my cards (haven't done any eligible spending yet though); I hope the linking has worked as I never got a notification that the cards were now active like I was supposed to do, even though it was weeks ago and the cards are all showing within the app
• Finally registered properly for Quidco and already make some purchases that I would have made anyway so that will be a nice £8.10 of cashback once I receive it (+ £25 MSE bonus)
• Finally joined the waiting list for Prolific - I do hope I get accepted soon (so many people on here seem to be using the site to great success) although I'm not holding my breath as I know it can be a while

I hope to be back with regular updates more often now I'm back from my travels etc. 

Sarahwithlove

I have to agree with others regarding the student loan. We never know what is gonna happen to us in future. Student loan gets written off after so long and if you are able to retire early then you'd stop paying. I'd keep saving and then pay it towards reducing the mortgage when you are ready. 

Organgrinder

Good luck with quidco. I've done a few transactions. The new member bonus won't track and quidco don't respond. Four weeks and counting.

everypennytowardsfire

Sarahwithlove said:

I have to agree with others regarding the student loan. We never know what is gonna happen to us in future. Student loan gets written off after so long and if you are able to retire early then you'd stop paying. I'd keep
saving and then pay it towards reducing the mortgage when you are ready. 

@Sarahwithlove I agree with you and everyone else who has commented on the student loan topic. I have thought about it some more since starting this diary and everybody's input has been really helpful in crystallising my current view that I will probably just leave it. I still find it beneficial psychologically to have a "student loan repayment fund", even if I never actually use the money for that purpose. Just to see the balance grow and hopefully eventually overtake the SL balance itself. I have gone from previously hoping to have it repaid in two years from now when I'm due to remortgage (this was three years ago, when I bought the house - just to make the process of remortgaging easier and to be able to get away with having a lower income than I would need otherwise, so I don't have to kill myself) to then - when it became clear that it wasn't a realistic goal - aiming to make voluntary repayments along the way as and when I can to help clear it as soon as possible (just to get rid of that tax on my less-than-ideal decisions from the past) - this time when I realised I was likely to repay the whole amount before being able to retire. I then thought about simply saving towards repaying it once I'd achieved other important milestones, like getting rid of my other debts and then the mortgage, which I mentioned in my replies to @bigbeff and @beanielou. But now I do see that even then it wouldn't be the wisest thing to do that if my main goal is early retirement. If I do end up having a nice sum saved up, and I've got rid of all my other debts by that point, it would make a lot more sense to simply put it towards my FIRE fund as it would be a nice little chunk going towards it. And like you said, if I do manage to reach my goal (not too long after becoming debt and mortgage free, hopefully) then it doesn't matter what happens with the SL after that if I never have to work again (or I'm able to just do some part time work of my choice/for fun etc., earning below the repayment threshold) as there would be no further deductions and it would eventually get written off. So I'd like to say thank you to both yourself and everyone else who has commented for helping to shape the evolution of my view on this This is exactly why I started this diary - there is so much inspiration and wisdom on here and it does help so much to hear other people's perspectives  

Organgrinder said:

Good luck with quidco. I've done a few transactions. The new member bonus won't track and quidco don't respond. Four weeks and counting.

Hey @Organgrinder. I've heard Quidco can be a bit hit and miss so I was prepared for potential issues but so far so good I'd cautiously say. Two of my three transactions tracked automatically (I have submitted a claim for the missing one) and the bonus is showing as pending so we'll see. I won't celebrate until the money is actually in my account. Hope they reply and sort it for you 🤞🏻

Sarahwithlove

I can understand the frustration though of seeing it be deducted every month from your wages. Or when you get a pay rise and you know they will take even more. 

everypennytowardsfire

Yes, exactly 😔