Hurrah, my MFW quest has started

Sandstone

Personally I've never seen the point of First Class on trains. Having travelled on both, I would much rather pocket the difference. I recognise that it's a matter of personal preference, of course.

abouttimetoo

Hi Sandstone, I do know what you mean and I also think that the train service provider has a lot to do with the First Class experience e.g the Transpennine one is quite a miserable experience and the only difference is it's separate from the rest of the carriage, you are supposed to get a coffee and biccy type thing too but I know someone who has used it many times and 9 times out of 10 they've got no hot water etc, they also stop the 'extras' at a certain time of night

I find East Coast first class the best though I would add it's a rare occassion when I use it (I last used it in November and got First Class cheaper than standard though to my dismay missed out on a beautiful meal as I had to get off before it was served). East Coast have lovely big seats that recline, restaurant cooked food, great customer service, and a few other nice bits

I find myself at an age where the travel and accomodation is all part of the trip 'experience', gone are the days where I viewed a room as just somewhere to sleep, if the room and facilities aren't up to scratch it spoils my holiday and as I anticpate this likely to be the only Eurostar journey I do I'd like to do it first class and hopefully feel less hassled. I do tens of thousands of miles a year via trains and planes so the odd first class with the right provider is an occassional treat

abouttimetoo

abouttimetoo wrote: »

I made a small profit of £151.01 so the good news is that I stuck to my promise to sell and made a small profit

I've now sent the profit to my stooze credit card along with another £12.87 to take the balance down to a round £3100 so well on track to be at £3k by the end of March and hopefully a bit lower

abouttimetoo

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Well I've just had a lovely couple of hours with my bank statements and spreadsheets

Embarrasingly it's been a long old time since I have done my budget and I knew I was paying in too much to my bills account as my outgoings had reduced and I kept having to transfer the monthly surplus back to my main accounts.

So, I've done the budget and reduced my monthly bills SO by £125. I've also set up a new monthly SO to the bills account for £60, this is based on the costs of my car outgoings last year for tax, insurance, MOT and breakdown cover. I've never done this before as I usually just take the money from my main account once a year but I'm going to try it like this this year and see how I get on.

Regards
ATT

Hmm, just checked my bills account and there is about £140 too much in there, at the moment I'm not sure why so I think I'll wait until the end of the month (my accounting month not the real end of the month) to see how it pans out before I re-check my figures. Hopefully I'm sending too much to the bills account :rotfl:

lulabelle1

Ooooh, first class on Eurostar is lovely.....
I was fortunate to experience this on a trip to Paris a couple of years ago and I agree - it really adds to the overall experience. Just makes everything so much nicer and more enjoyable.

I travel a fair bit with work and for all of my short haul flights I'm very much an Easyjet girl. But when it comes to the long haul trips to the States, Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus is a must, even if it's just for the night flight home. It makes such a difference and I truly appreciate it.

I shall be demonstrating my allegiance to Easyjet with a flight tomorrow. Does Speedy boarding count as First class? haha.... Actually, the thing that really makes me laugh about speedy boarding is the looks that you get from all of the "non speedy boarding" people when you walk to the front of the queue. They often look as though they really ant to kill you and give various huffs and puffs as you walk past. I think it's hilarious and it just adds to my enjoyment of the whole thing!

Good luck with the spare cash, fingers crossed that it doesn't disappear before the end of the month!

Best, L

Funkygibbon

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hmm, just checked my bills account and there is about £140 too much in there, at the moment I'm not sure why so I think I'll wait until the end of the month (my accounting month not the real end of the month) to see how it pans out before I re-check my figures. Hopefully I'm sending too much to the bills account :rotfl:

Is it your council tax?

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Funky gibbon, I was going to say the same thing .......

Tilly x

abouttimetoo

Funkygibbon wrote: »

Is it your council tax?

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Funky gibbon, I was going to say the same thing .......

Tilly x

Hi FG and Tilly, thanks for the posts but no, it can't be CT as that was paid last week. I need to get the laptop on and tick my budget spreadsheet off against my bills account. However, your posts have prompted me to check that I put CT down for 10 months and not 12

Regards
ATT

abouttimetoo

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Hi ATT, enjoy your non travelling week. I used to travel every week and I know in occasions it can be wearing, particularly if you have to run for flights.

I laughed about the credit card, I had a similar instance recently and I felt a right muppet when I rang the company up!

Have a great week, you have done brilliantly on your spends last week - hope this one is as good.

Best wishes, Tilly x

Hi Tilly, yes, it's amazing how tiring travelling can be, I did many years of 5 days a week away and it takes it's toll; I'm still way a lot now but at least it's not 5 days like it used to be. Re running for flights, lol, indeed!

I spent £20 in the supermarket yesterday and that will keep me going for at least a week. Today has been a NSD and I think the rest of the working week will be the same

Regards
ATT

abouttimetoo

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hi FG and Tilly, thanks for the posts but no, it can't be CT as that was paid last week. I need to get the laptop on and tick my budget spreadsheet off against my bills account. However, your posts have prompted me to check that I put CT down for 10 months and not 12

Regards
ATT

Got it! Doh, tis the service charge so all is well

This is the first month of my updated bill SO so I thought something had gone wrong but all looks well now