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La Dolce Vita - 2025
Happy New Year to One and All. Wishing you all health, wealth and happiness. 🥂🍾 Welcome to the new thread. Where I catalogue my attempts to live "The Sweet Life" on the tiniest of budgets. My aim is to live a life of ease, plenty and abundance whilst deliberately living below my means to avoid debt. So far so good. I am…
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Challanging parking ticket issed by Med Parking in Stansted Mcdonalds Starbucks Southgate park
I just wanted to say thanks to this forum I have beat MET parking at POPLA using all the info from this site. I just wanted to post my story incase anyone else has the same situation Southgate park is ''2 carparks'' but with only 1 entry /exit its such a scam! So I parked at southgate park starbucks and walked next door to…
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Life after discharge - 13years later
I wanted to share this here to give a tiny bit of hope to people who are in the thick of it right now. I declared myself bankrupt in 2013 after 6 years of struggling, hiding, burying my head in the sand, abject poverty, and personal tragedies. I found this forum extremely helpful at the time and I was a frequent lurker but…
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Property survivorship (or not) in Scotland
I'm getting information together to rewrite my will, spouse is also rewriting his will. Last time we looked into rewriting our wills (but didn't go ahead) we were in our old house, which definitely had a survivorship destination. I just looked at the documents for our current house and it looks like it doesn't. 1. Can I…
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Employer Shares & Leaving
Morning everyone Wonder if you can help with my issue - later this year I’ll leave my job where I have previously purchased shares (this is not currently a listed company but has partial employee ownership due to size). The shares were purchased in their 2023 ISO. I’m told that these cannot be retained as I’ll no longer be…
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Loft insulation, half boarding out and loft ladder fitting
I am really struggling to get quotes for this. I have contacted so many people and only obtained 3 quotes. Small 3 bed semi in the south east. Current insulation about 50mm, I would like this topped up and around half the loft boarded, so I can store things and a loft ladder installed so I can access the space properly.…
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Admiral charging extra for Direct Debit because of loan from Admiral
I have received a renewal request for my car insurance. I usually pay it off in one lump sum, but I decided to look at the monthly direct debit option to spread the cost. Now I do know that DD are usually higher as it would cost the company slightly more money, so they process monthly payments rather than a one-time…
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Perfume Click Quality and refund issue
Hi, I bought Byredo Super Cedar c-30% (£169) I think I've been sold a dud, it's in investigation, but I want to know how far I should delve into this (I get carried away and fixated easily). So fair warning, this will be a messy rant but just want to heads up on my concerns and advice on my next steps please. I suspected…
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Wifi mesh
Hi,Hoping to pick a few wise brains please.Background: We've moved into a 250-year-old 5-storey townhouse that's tall and thin separated across the middle by a thick wall.We just had Plusnet installed ( Wifi 5 Hub 2 ) with full fibre planned for our street sometime next year.It comes in via the back into the phone socket…
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Putting a Property into a Trust when the Estate Value is Way Below IHT Threshold
I'd imagine this isn't a great idea but I have been advised to put my mother's property (where I've lived for many years, and intend to stay there long-term) into a Trust, using a Section 102(B) gift. The property is worth £400k and the total estate value is well below £600k so I cannot see the advantage of placing it in a…
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Radiator take off
What kind of price would you think is reasonable for a plumber to take off a radiator and then come back at a later date to put it back on (for decorating purposes)?
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Success Stories - Pensions
This is a bit of a light topic where the idea is to highlight what successes you had with your pension pots. Example - I contributed X and accumulated Y by Z year. Total appreciation was 'x' percent. Just trying to learn the following that could inspire a range of people - those with no pension, those who started late etc.…
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Annuities - why all the hate?
So I am getting ducks in a row with a view to retiring somewhere in 10-15 years time (was planning 15 but now thinking my job might only last more like 10, which would put me in my very late 50s). I have a reasonably sizeable DC fund and obviously 10 more years to pay in too. My current thinking is to use some of it (not…
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Building regulations for suspended floor insulation
So firstly I know there are a couple of tangents here....one is that the only definitive answer I can get is from my local Building Control office. Unfortunately there is no way of phoning them to have a quick chat - they want queries submitted online with details and photos etc. The second tangent is that if I got…
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Buying a "new" Car...CC advice please
Originally, I was simply going to use savings and pay off instantly. However, I am thinking of getting a 0% interest CC, and paying it off monthly? Would I get accepted for £7000, income of £85k? I have all the money in place but I also wonder if there are any CC that give a little cashback alongside 0% - if anyone has any…
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The Mental Debt Struggle...
I've known that this diary needed to be started... But I've run away from the idea as the accountability made me nervous and I didn't think anyone would want to read it. But then I realised it would be financially and mentally therapeutic for me, and that's the whole point after all. I've read other diaries and gained so…
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Tariff issues - E-On Next
Just wondering if anyone else is with E-On Next and trying to swap to a new tariff with them? Ours is due for renewal in 2 days, so I arranged a swap to a new tariff over a month ago. Since then all I’ve had is repeated emails prompting me to swap tariff, and yet another one this morning - my account shows my new tariff as…
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Underpaid but too scared to go leave
Hi all, I've been in my job for many years now with a fairly small company. To get payrises you have to request a pay review and what seems like generous increases I realise just gets me a bit above the next minimum wage increase. I recently looked at the normal salary range for what I do and am literally at the bottom or…
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What to do with lawn borders?
Hi all My smallish garden is a work in progress. After moving in, I've grown a decent lawn on clay soil from seed, and sown wildflowers along my bottom border. The left border is empty and covered up with a tarp, the right border needs weeding. I have a handful of plants and some bulbs to put in, but apart from that I…
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YNAB robber needs help to execute the plan
Right, I am going to finally start a diary on here. I am being supported financially by my OH to allow me to help my sister care for my 90 year old father. I have an expensive event in Feb that I need to save for. I have been using YNAB since Feb so I have an accurate record of my spending for 6 months. It's not pretty. I…
