We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide
And now we go again...
Comments
-
That scallop shell is my favourite sculpture too! Mr F has photographed it many times. I have been to RSPB Titchwell as it isn't far from our favourite campsite at Burnham Deepdale. When we arrived, Mr F had forgotten his camera & as I was berating him for that, I realised I'd forgotten the binoculars!! So I can't say that we saw much, but we enjoyed our walk!
F2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (46/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)6 -
I've switched a few times - been so worth it. I've kept accounts that mattered to me -and just opened extras and then switched those.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £169.8K Equity 37.1%
2) £1.3K Net savings after CCs 16/1/26 (but owed £1.1K) so £2.4K
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £34.8K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.3K) = 40.6/£127.5K target 31.8% 16/11/25
(If took bigger lump sum = 62.7K or 49.2%)
4) FI Age 60 income target £17.1/30K 57% (if mortgage and debts repaid - need more otherwise) (If bigger lump sum £15.8/30K 52.67%)
5) SIPP £5.2K updated 16/1/265 -
Oh yes, the walk from Thorpeness is one of our favourites tooEssexHebridean said:
I can honestly say that beautiful sculpture is probably my favourite piece of artwork anywhere - and I seem to see something new in it every time I'm up there! (And the fish & chip shop is always worth the queue, too!) A favourite walk is to park at Thorpeness and walk along - that was you get to see the House in the Clouds too! jackie you are indeed lucky to be able to visit so frequently - it's not too far for us - usually a couple of hours drive - but always well worth the trip!PennysIntoPounds said:Oh I'm so jealous of your Aldeburgh plans, I haven't been in decades. It's so gorgeous. Right, that's getting added to the lottery win/running away to sea (as far as the Scallop 😁) list!
My parents stayed in The House in The Clouds with friends a few years ago - I believe it’s still let out as a holiday home, not cheap but split between a group of friends (5 beds/4 bath, sleeps up to 12, I believe) it’s doable and a completely unique experienceEverything will be alright in the end so, if it’s not yet alright, it means it’s not yet the endQuidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur5 -
How’s the tumeric doing? Any good?LTotal Debt Dec 07 £59875.83 Overdrafts £2900,New Debt Figure ZERO !!!!!!:j 08/06/2013
Lucielle's Daring Debt Free Journey
DFD Before we Die!!!! Long Haul Supporter #1245 -
Morning all!
L I'm not totally convinced by the turmeric yet I have to say - I will continue to take the pack that I have though, and when I get within a week's worth of tablets at the end, will review and decide whether to order more. I'm also currently doing an additional short full body mobility session after my daily yoga practice, it's only 14 minutes but will be interesting to see if I do notice a difference as I continue with it on how mobile I am/feel.
On the bank switches - it would be a heck of a lot easier if they would accept standing orders of DDs - but a lot don't want SO's unfortunately. I'm not in the market for setting up additional DDs for extra things from it either! I'm just not wedded enough to the idea of doing the non straightforward switches for it to be worth worrying about though! This is definitely one of those "each to their own" things I think - I applaud those who are prepared to jump through all the hoops to get their well-deserved chunks of cash though! Beanie the FD switch was indeed no faff at all - I have a feeling I needed to do a transfer in of some money within the first little while, but that was the only requirement.
jackieblack that's good info on the House in the Clouds as I'd not realised it slept so many! might be worth a look for our group of pals who go away together at various times then! Thank you!
Foxgloves - aargh to the camera/binocular thing. I think we've all done similar haven't we - although MrEH now takes charge of remembering both sets of binoculars as there is way too much risk I'd forget them!
Well we've had a very nice restful weekend, but also come out of it feeling that a fair amount was achieved! Lots of garden pottering including some nice MSE wins:
- I shuffled some stray self-seeded forget-me-nots into some pots with gaps (I know we'll end up over-run, but at least they are easy to pull up if needed!)
- we spotted that grow-bags were at a very decent price in H0m3 B@rgains yesterday so bought 3 which hopefully should deal with what is needed
- neighbour over the road has some ceramic pots he's wanting rid of so has offered them to us for the front garden which is lovely! He's going to bring them across next weekend, hopefully, so we'll have to consider what will go into those.
- Remembered to put the garden waste bin out for collection ready for tomorrow - it's the final collection for this financial year so our thinking is to get it emptied now, then delay renewing the license for as many months as we can get away with as that will reduce the cost a bit. We'll never need it emptied every month so this feels like a fair way of doing it.
- Got the quote for getting the area of slabs and concrete lifted to create the new veg bed - just waiting for confirmation of when it can be done. (Hopefully soon!)
- Washed the first batch of salvaged slate chippings from the newly dug over patch of front garden. We've only saved the decent sized pieces not all the little tiny bits, but it seemed daft to send them to the tip when we might be able to make further use of them!
- managed to snare a tip visit yesterday (I checked and by chance one had just come available - it had been fully booked previously) to get rid of several bags of mixed stuff from the front garden which was just not going to be practical to salvage. A right mix of slate/clay/gravel and random stones, and nothing we'd be able to use! Also a bag of mixed general rubbish, and a cardboard box that we can't use for anything else and won't burn as it is plastic-faced.
Also:
- Farmers market on saturday - mince, burgers, some lamb breast rings and shoulder steaks (with bone in so will make a lush curry), lamb sausages.
- Grocery spending this weekend is generally high - we went into the world foods supermarket and topped up the spice supplies which pushed things up a bit, made use of the 4 for 3 on cleaning/laundry in T's and I had my usual Lil's spend on Friday too. Monthly spend so far is at £153.xx and I am very conscious that there are still technically 2 weeks to go of the month, AND I wanted to buy the nice Ham joints when they are on offer over easter... There is still money in the monthly budget, but I don't really want to dip into the surplus that is in the account. Creative meal planning time I think - and I will see if next week can be driven down to rock bottom again.
The rugby ended up pretty much as it should really I think - Ireland deserved the win. England came good in the later stages and to be honest probably should have had the win against France but equally France played with immense determination in the last 15 minutes of the game. Wales getting the wooden spoon - well I suspect you won't find too many English rugby fans without a bit of a smirk on their faces about THAT result! Overall though, delighted for Italy who are now really beginning to prove that they deserve their 6 Nations spot. Super-Saturday delivered as always anyway!
In other news - we have a very exciting thing happening in a few weeks. the Friends of the LT Museum have arranged a visit to the old LT HQ at 55 Broadway - this is the Hidden London tour that we never managed to get on - as originally we put it off in favour of the "more interesting" station visits, and then because we assumed it would be one they would always offer - we only discovered too late that in fact the building had been sold and was no longer in the keeping of LT! when we spotted the email from the Museum Friends at the weekend saying they had arrange a tour we both responded immediately noting our interest, and have had confirmation this morning that we are both included on it. It will cost us £10 each which quite frankly is a bargain, and we can do the trip off the back of a half day off work . I will need to get that paid for shortly.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her10 -
Gosh that was a busy weekend. Jealous of all the gardening talk. We have plans but seem to lack the get up and go to crack on! Swift kicks needed.LTotal Debt Dec 07 £59875.83 Overdrafts £2900,New Debt Figure ZERO !!!!!!:j 08/06/2013
Lucielle's Daring Debt Free Journey
DFD Before we Die!!!! Long Haul Supporter #1244 -
Your new tour sounds like it should be fun.
Glad you got your tip trip.
Good luck with the gardening.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £169.8K Equity 37.1%
2) £1.3K Net savings after CCs 16/1/26 (but owed £1.1K) so £2.4K
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £34.8K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.3K) = 40.6/£127.5K target 31.8% 16/11/25
(If took bigger lump sum = 62.7K or 49.2%)
4) FI Age 60 income target £17.1/30K 57% (if mortgage and debts repaid - need more otherwise) (If bigger lump sum £15.8/30K 52.67%)
5) SIPP £5.2K updated 16/1/263 -
It managed to not feel that busy which was nice. Mind you we did get confused as for some reason we thought we have a meeting to do with our voluntary role on Saturday morning - got ourselves all set up and ready and then discovered that it is actually NEXT week - no idea why we had both convinced ourselves it was going to be a week earlier!
I have now booked myself a half day for the trip to 55 Broadway - SO excited about this, it will be interesting to see what we get to see!🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her7 -
Just mentioned to my husband about your trip and he needs you to see if his old office is still at 55 Broadway ……. From 1970 …….
he reckons they will at least have knocked down the odd wall5 -
The tour sounds great, do report back!
Lovely to be getting the ceramic pots from your neighbourhttps://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6466032/an-in-between-phase/p1
'self-blame can be as egotistical as self-praise... any work worth doing is greater than we are... we must not overrate our importance to it, either for good or ill' Margaret Kennedy Lucy Carmichael5
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 353.3K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 454.9K Spending & Discounts
- 246.4K Work, Benefits & Business
- 602.6K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 178K Life & Family
- 260.3K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards