Retirement planning post mortgage free

V3cash

interest was slightly less on mortgage this month so had to add another £2.46 to overpayment to round it down to £51,750

Only £12.62 left of op allowance before May 12th.

Gonna start shopping around for ISA’s as I want a good fixed rate you can transfer other ISA’s into, I know it can be done but fixed rate ISA’s don’t seem that straightforward. There are some good rates about it they will disappear April 6th.

V3cash

Happy Easter all 🐣

Called HR yesterday and left them a voice message saying I appreciate they are busy but I’m gonna have to start looking for another job if I don’t hear back from them.

Applied for a job which has a 3 mth contract, hopefully it’s a quick on boarding process. It says potential for further contracts, I know this is true as my friend interviewed for same job in past

so hopefully I get an interview.

Minimal spending this week, had some cash from selling a few bits so got milk, eggs and yoghurt yesterday, used all the spare change up.

Hubby had to spend £18 on a can of satin wood paint for skirting boards, door frames. That will last me a few more rooms.

Found conversation with Miami hotel about refund as I double paid. Because we booked through booking.com and we booked 4 hotels, I forgot I’d paid and so did they 😞

Anyway i realised their mistake and they have said I’d get refund but it could take over 15 days 🙄🙄

I have screenshots of conversation in case i don’t get £ but I’m sure it will come back in another week or so. I will wait to do my review until then. Not sure I believe them about 15 day thing as one of the hotels refunded us deposit in a couple days.

Anyway it’s £200 depending on exchange rate 😢

We still are in project dressing room for daughter and ikea wardrobes delivered at the crack of dawn today.

I’ve still got to paint woodwork in that room but I’m really pleased with my painting progress this week as I’ve had a virus.

We shouldn’t spend to much this weekend as we don’t plan on going out to eat, we have really cut back on eating out and my wallet and waistline are thanking me 😊

We have a music thing we are going to Monday with friends which is already paid for but plan on taking rest of cash we have for food for that so hoping budget won’t be knocked too much over Easter weekend. We will try and do free things like walking and take lunch with us.

Spending budget left is £812 until 24th

As I’m not working at moment we are dipping into our savings pot which I hate😬so if I can reduce how much we need to subsidise me then I will.

Budget is for groceries, fue and household project.

V3cash

groceries £80 eek 😦

£732 of budget left.

Did get cheap long extension roller for decorating and a couple of really cute thermal coffee glasses in purchases, but apart from those no real luxury items. I also got a leg of lamb for Sunday just under tenner, off set by bag of Aldi potatoes for 6p.

I will get a few meals out of lamb. Lamb tagine and a curry hopefully.

I was a bit naughty and had half pizza tonight but I still came to my 1700 cal target.

Lost 1kg so far but i have been sticking to my calorie plan. Today I just fancied something a bit naughty so just made sure I didn’t scoff the whole thing 😜

Anyway we will be going up the city tomorrow as hubby is buying me birthday present, a surprise he says so who knows, I honestly have no clue 😬

I’m hoping i sleep ok tonight as I’ve had this really irritating cough for last few nights 😢

V3cash

£661 left of budget

Went into city and I bought nothing, looked for some new running stuff but decided i would make do.

Hubby wanted to go for coffee so we walked up to this nice little place to find it’s closed for good so we went home and made our own and I used the cute glass cups I bought the other day. Diet went out window today and I’m over my allowance a bit, not as much as it would have been if I hadn’t had my 30minute run this morning.

Tomorrow I will be back on target as we won’t be going out, maybe just a walk by the broads but definitely no spending.

V3cash

so plan for day

Try and adjust wardrobe doors, will be you tubing this and learning as we go along.

If successful will be moving things from daughters bedroom into wardrobes to tidy this room up.

2-3 mile walk

Roast lamb dinner early evening

Definitely planning £0 spending today.

V3cash

i have just finished decorating my daughters other room in eaves, we are going to make this her dressing/music room, this is the room I had all the clutter in, have since sold the 2 beds so cleared some space, want a divan with drawers for extra storage in daughters room but kept her mattress as it’s in good condition.managed to sell the single bed mattress with bed as it was clean.definitely worth using protectors on beds as often people will take them if they are clean.

We realised she came from a room in our old house with a really large fitted wardrobe to 2 really small wardrobes, one in the eaves so extra short. That might be why she struggles to find space for things.

Have since added another 3 wardrobes to the dressing room so now she should have space for her clothes and her hobbies.

I now have the really large painting project which would cost us a lot of money to do, the landings and stairs, our house has 5 half flights and is on separate levels so this could take some time. I want a really similar colour to what we have, definitely not going white on this one!! Will get a one coat paint to lessen work but that will cost us 😦 mind you not as much as a decorator. I’m actually quite good at it now, I’ve had lots of practice and I just basically mask the hell out of everything 😜 and take my time, mind you I’ve been doing all white to increase lightness in all the rooms so I’m going to have to get my cutting in skills back on track🤭

My husband always got me to do cutting in as I have more patience and I was a beautician years ago so had good nail painting skills, definitely transferable a skill 😀😛

Maybe the universe is giving me the time to sort the house out and that’s why job hasn’t started yet??

I won’t get this opportunity again that’s for sure so I should enjoy it , once I start doing that I’ll get the email with a start date 🙄

I would like to get the hallways and stairs done before I start so I’ll start that Tuesday.

V3cash

so I sent another email the other day to new workplace, but basically sent it to all hr and payroll, 5 email addresses, got one back hurray!!

Basically saying they are on it It but pay still being decided?? Hopefully my line manager will push it along as she cc’d him in asking him to push it. Gonna give that 3-5 working days then push again, I have a feeling i need to keep actively pushing this. Just want a start date, I’m so bored now, only so much decorating I can do,

Budget took a bit of a hit as hubby bought another wardrobe for daughters room as there was space, really don’t want to buy her bed until i have firm date for starting as we are now going into savings.

Put 2x lot of £ into hsbc ISA’s (1each)that’s our allowance maxed out.

4.5 fixed, there were better ones out there but I know hsbc and i think there may be a £100+ for taking it out, paid September, I’ll be keeping an eye out for that.

Anyway budget is now £542 now, with 2 weeks groceries and probably 1 lot of petrol? My car has over 200 miles left and I’m basically not going anywhere this week.

I’m also out with friend next weekend in city but i have no big spending plans, just need to reign hubby in.

I’m going in now as I’m getting hot in the lovely sunshine ,feel I need to get some rays as I’m sure this lovely weather is temporary 😬

Still on track with calories, daughter bought me some hotel chocolates for birthday and I’m being really good, having 1 per night, they are being weighed and cals calculated, taking all my will power but I’m determined that tomorrow will see another loss on scales.

V3cash

very small loss on scales but chat gpt reassured me that’s normal at start so I’m hanging on in with plan.

Got a bit £ back from ikea as we didn’t need a couple of bits.

Budget now £575

Still haven’t got £back from Miami hotel but they did say it could be over 15 days and it’s only about 10 days, I have screenshots of conversation saying they owe us money so I’ll go back to them if I don’t get it.

I also sent octopus the reading, had an email from them telling me which reading to get so I took photo and asked them to pay me the £ owed.

That money plus Miami hotel can go on holiday pot.

Now at least I will be able to get paid for electricity generated by solar. During summer it’s not to be sniffed at and usually pays for our electricity with a bit left over. I normally save that for winter payments.

Plan for day

Breakfast

Stretch and 35 minute run

(I’ve graduated from c25k)

Food Shopping

V3cash

so I’ve just swapped my export energy to fuse so hopefully now it will be easier to see. Octopus sent me email saying they would credit me £50 into cc and rest into account, they did credit the £50 but I noticed today that has been removed and it’s just disappeared??

I sent email ? This as I Have had no correspondence from them, this is really bad.

Husband sorted out his travel insurance and they have rebated £, well not quite as that takes a few days, doesn’t take much s long to pay but it’s always longer than it should be to return cash eh?

I still have’s got & back from Miami hotel so Monday I will be chasing that as it will be beyond 15 days then.

We sold filing cabinet and dressing table goes tonight so we are getting there slowly but surely.

This week feels like a sorting out week and I’m speaking to my manager this week about job.

I’ve applied for JSA which I probably won’t get but worth a punt and I keep applying for jobs daily so I’m doing everything I can.

Budget took a bit of a hammering as we bought a couple more bedroom furniture for daughters room so now we have £288 left. This could be more depending on electric bill this month but I’ll allow for £288.

This should easily cover until 21st and I might even have some left over 👍😀

Countdown to next op begins 26days!

V3cash

it’s been a while since I posted and unfortunately not much has changed apart from I’m signed on for job seekers allowance until I start job, applying for lots of jobs as required and hopefully I won’t be on it long.

I can’t believe it’s been 4 months waiting for this job and I am getting a bit despondent about it as the longer I wait the more anxious it makes me. Just need it to start!

Paid another £10 off mortgage so only £2.62 left of allowance now and I’ll pay that after mortgage goes out 1st May.

Next OP will be May 13th as new 10% kicks in.

Went out with friend from work and used Tesco vouchers so that was a really cheap night, just had lime and soda as drink, low cal option too.

Stayed within my calorie allowance too, they had calories on menu so I kept within my 1700 daily allowance.

Lost some more weight this week so now it’s -2.6kg since starting this 5 weeks ago. Just got 2 more kg to get in Normal BMI range and ideally another 5kg if possible but realistically I’ll never be what I was in 20’s, just want to be in healthy BMI range and get waist measurement in healthy zone.The waist measurement is probably more important.

Anyway I will update this in a couple of weeks as I’m busy applying for things and have 2 interviews coming up to keep me out of mischief 😉