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15months to debt free - I hope
Well I thought it was time I started a diary having put my two pennorth into several others. Brief bit about me. I am a retired careworker having done other things as well. I have a husband who has mental health issues and 3 old dogs. A 15 year oldJack Russell X who has heart and kidney failure so I am not sure how long we…
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24/7 Home Rescue still chasing £65 “cancellation fee” after I filed an official complaint with FOS
Hi everyone, I really need some advice regarding 24/7 Home Rescue and a £65 “cancellation fee” they are chasing. Here’s the situation: * I never cancelled my Direct Debit. * 24/7 Home Rescue stopped providing the service and I requested them to cancel the policy on their side. * Later they claimed I cancelled the Direct…
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CGT. Self assessment advice if the profit is within the allowance
Hi i'm looking for some advice if possible please. I've recently sold some shares and my profit was around £1350. I know there is an allowance of £3000 for 2025/2026. Should i submit a self assessment anyway because when the sale money was paid into my bank, the profit and the purchase amount went in together in one lump…
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Debt and Caring
An unprovoked attack on my ankle by a metal workout bench has me lying down with a foot up this evening. Which makes this the ideal time to start this diary. And possibly to declutter some exercise equipment... Yesterday I was £9993.61 in debt. Today I have made a £1500 payment to one of my credit cards taking me down to…
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Personal Injury - RTA
My daughter recently had a near miss on a motorway - an RTA right alongside her. She was in outside lane, a truck in the middle and a car on the inside lane collided. Luckily everyone got out without serious injury. Daughter carried on to her workplace and initially seemed ok but gradually the pain and stiffness of…
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Writing to creditors individually
Hi, I am currently, after advice from Business debt line, contacting my creditors individually and asking them to freeze interest and consider wiping debts off. I am also awaiting my Dr completing a DMHEF due to mental health issues. My debt is personal debt, but as I also have a small business I needed to go through…
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Bank switching; What's a good account to open just to do a switch shortly after?
Hi everyone. Looking for a recommendation for a bank account to open that I will switch from shortly afterwards.I only currently use Nationwide which I don't want to lose or open another account with. Thanks in advance!
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Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend
Happy New Year to readers old & new! Well, it's time for a new chapter. My old diary ("Put away your purse & become debt averse") achieved pretty much what I intended. I shared the story of how I got into debt at the age of 19 & stayed that way until a pretty enormous lightbulb pinged on during my early 40s, I've shared…
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LootUp.Me Codes 2025
I have searched but cannot find a thread for LootUp codes. The website is https://lootup.me/earn.php if anyone wants to join up Weekly free giveaway ~ https://lootup.me/giveaways.php If anyone needs them they can be posted here. This is today's one:- FROSTYGAINS are here to warm up your earnings! Redeem this code and claim…
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Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan
I've not even got a mortgage yet, but here I go. I'm finally getting on the housing ladder and settling, after living around the country for the last decade. I've been in a position where "I'm just about to buy" for about 8 years for various reasons, so while I've not spent well, I could have saved better instead of…
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+++ Whoops! Here comes the cheese! +++
My original < < < out of cheese error > > > diary started in 2017 and records our journey to be debt free, mortgage neutral and then last year (hurrah!) mortgage free. This new diary is to record our current focus on my efforts to retire early. Lots of cooking, some gardening, many cats and the occasional Pratchett quote.…
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The Second Purse Thread
Hello everyone, I’ve been thinking of reviving the Second Purse Challenge
for a while and a post by @Frugalistamama spurred me on. For those who don’t know about this way of grocery budgeting,
I’ve linked the original posting by @Mothership below. I intend to set aside £30 of my monthly food budget to look
for bargains to…
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NBCS letter on behalf of Fraser’s group
Back in April I’ve made an order for 5 items totalling over £150 and unfortunately 1 item worth £40 was missing. I’ve raised it with customer service and I’ve been pretty much told that I lie and that I must have received all items. I argued that the parcel weight clearly shows that not all items were packed but they have…
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Holey Moley!
Today I got the call to say that I have exchanged and completed on the flat I offered on in May this year. I now have a huge amount of debt, £167,000 but nothing other than that. The flat is not actually suitable to live in currently (for me) as it needs to have decoration done and the bath replaced with a shower. I know…
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Tax return question for 24-25
I’m just submitting my tax return for the 24-25 year. I've noticed this year because my profit is less than £12750 but more than £6845, I do not need to pay any national insurance. Is this correct? I normally pay both class 2 and class 4. My profits are down this tax year so I don’t need to pay class 4? Also, it asks of…
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Router and voip
I have just purchased an tp-link mr6500v with Telephony port and sim port. I intend to get voip with port forwarding and I am looking at about 30gb per month data sim on monthly basis. Do I need a data only sim or can I use any sim only? I can't seem to find a deal on data only but I can find a few sim only deals.
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Bold leap into retirement
Morning all, I hope you have managed to find some time for yourself in what can be a busy period. We have enjoyed spending time with family over the last 3 days, it’s a quiet one today, then off to visit more family tomorrow. I’m not planning anything wild for NYE, but have been really starting to think about what I want…
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Home Visit Letter from LINK dated 25th November 2025 for Unenforceable Debt
Hi guys; I received the attached letter from LINK on 25th November 2025 stating they are potentially going to pass the account to their "Reconnections Team" who will asses the account for a "HOME VISIT" to my house. Long story short [and detail of the background of the debt]. The history of this debt is that I have it in…
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Aegon could not locate pension contributions more than a year
Hi everyone, My employer paid my contributions to Aegon but due to some systems issues they were unable to add those to my pension. They located some of the contributions but some still missing. This is now more than a year unresolved. I escalated this to Financial Ombudsman and Aegon lied to Ombudsman saying the issue was…
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Two USS paths, cannot decide
I am in USS and 56, essentially I have a choice. 1. Stay until 60, 3 days per week, and get USS pension of 31k + x3 TFLS at 60. Will have IB/DC's of 500k. 2. Go now and take 24k USS + x3 TFLS. Will have 500k IB/DC at 60, if I leave invested. All todays money. The extra USS under path 1 is essentially due to staying and not…
