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Fiver Friday Challenge 2026
Hello all, Welcome to the Fiver Friday Challenge for 2026. Each Friday I will put away £5 into a separate account and if I stick to it will have £260 by the end of 2026. I did this in 2025 and found the little and often approach really worked towards this goal. Who is in for 2026?! Coxy
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Old Style Daily Friday 06 February 2026
Morning all. I'll be back tomorrow. Hugs to all.
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FirstPort Property Management
I’m interested to hear if others have had issues with FirstPort, particularly owners of Freehold Homes on new-ish housing estates. We have had numerous issues with this company who now charge nearly £6000 a year to “manage” a small patch of grass in our cul-de-sac. They also added unauthorised charges to our account for…
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Let's get this sorted then!
Hey everyone, I went back to uni just before I turned 40, so have quite a lot of debt from that, and from generally trying to live whilst working and studying. I tackled a bit before the end of 2024, but that was mostly getting on top of things, doing some 0% balance transfers, and I paid of two small debts of about £250…
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2026 Mortgage-Free Wannabes
MFW 2026 - The annual challenge for everyone who would like to track their mortgage overpayments, mortgage payments, or even house-related savings. Feel free to join any time throughout the year. A very warm welcome to the Mortgage Free Wannabe 2026 thread! <3 Over the last few years, this challenge has been providing…
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Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations
Time, I think, to start a new diary. My first was about removing our debts, paying off our mortgage and working towards, and through, the first few years of not working. I don't call it retirement at that point, because a wealth of volunteer activities were taken on or continued, and a number of hobbies aspired to or taken…
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eBay order cancelled and refused refund - I am upset.
I'll do my best to be brief, and thank you very much for any help. This has never happened to me before and I am upset about it. I ordered an item on eBay, paid for it and there was a mistake about the delivery address. I contacted the seller immediately and she told me she had not posted the item and she cancelled the…
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Saving, Living, and Ditching the Mortgage
Hey everyone! Long time lurker. At my lowest I was here reading the SLLM posts hoping one day I will have my own mortgage and staying strong letting money sit and grow. These days I have my own mortgage on a lovely flat in a lovely city, almost half way through my 5yr fix now. Want to tackle the mortgage but hardly have…
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A Ditherer's Diary (again)
I'm baaaack. When I started my original diary "A Ditherer's Diary" My kids were littlie's aged 5 and 15 months. Nothing except their age and the amount of debt has changed, it's all got higher! They are now 11 & 7. Having had a quick read through, a lot of it was me coming and going with a few months/years in between. I…
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Steadily climbing the mountain, enjoying the view along the way
I have been pondering for a while stating a new thread, as at 700+ pages my old one is getting very long and doesn’t feel so aligned with where I am now. 2026 is going to be about getting myself to as healthy and happy a place as I can. Life is short and my inherent perfectionism means that I tend to want to achieve,…
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TSB Spend and Save reward offer - what to choose - hotel or activity pass?
Hi, I've been sent the code to choose my reward offer which is great but not sure what to go for. Can't find any information on the range of hotels on offer or the activities and don't want to make a wasted choice. For example, the voucher is for £120 and if the hotel rooms all cost more than that when I might be…
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Settling in for the long haul
After avidly reading others’ diaries over the past five years, it feels like the right time to shuffle in and create a cosy little corner of my own. Following the example of those much wiser, I have cleared a large amount of debt, including a hefty overdraft, student loan, credit cards, bank loans (that were consolidated…
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mobile phone problem
I am on EE but looking to change. I got a Vodafone PAYG SIM to check the signal and left in myphone for a few hours. Now gone back to my EE SIM which is working but on the Connections page under Settings it now says the my service provider is Vodafone. How can that be when the Vodafone SIM is NOT in the phone anymore. How…
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RAC automatic Renewal RipOff
I’m usually good at this but inadvertantly allowed my RAC membership to"auto renew", I do not recall an email and there is nothing in my inbox. Shockingly my auto renewal was £220.98,checking online a new member can get the same cover for £70 with an advertised saving of £40, so the full price is in total £130. A call and…
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Default me
Well, where do I start? I have been in debt for my whole adult life, since I was accepted for my first store card at 18. You would have thought I would have learnt by now how to manage but again, in the same month that all of my previous defaults have dropped off my credit file, I am about to default on all of my debts…
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Secure use of voice recognition for access?
Given the advent of voice cloning how secure are bank aaccounts which use voice recognition for access? I have lots of different accounts and several banks try to get me to use voice recogition to gain access. I have always resisted this but given my opening statement and the various news stories today should they not…
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Hints, tips?
Hey After a long break from comping, I’ve decided to have a try again. In the past I used a PC, now I’m using an iPad. Does anyone have any tips on how to fill forms quickly without having to type everything in? Also, thanks to the posters of comps, it’s very much appreciated for all the time and effort doing so.
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Sick Leave
Hi all, I've been working for the local government for almost 20 years. Back in the old days, we used to have two people in the team who would call in sick quite often. When they had been off sick 3 times, they would get marched up to employee healthcare because they had hit a trigger. Roll onto now, we have 3 people in…
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Pension pot after my husband died
My husband age 78 has died leaving a pension pot of 70,000 and I am 74 not in go health myself what should I do with his pension take it as a lump sum or how does drawdown work
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Query re probate application
I’m about to apply for probate as my mum just passed away. The house / title is in my late father’s name. He left house to mum. She then left house to me and my sisters. But title/house still in dad’s name. Am I about to encounter a problem before I start. ?
