Dreaming of financial freedom!

Well I put the council tax question on a MSE forum and got some helpful, and some nasty responses. Looks like it is unlikely so I'll leave it at that.

Just checked back and the offensive comment has been removed and the thread closed, which I'm guessing MSE did. Good on MSE for not allowing nasty comments.

Thanks guys. I'm always cheered up by the lovely MFWs

Not too much of an update... eagerly awaiting payday next week so I can start shuffling! Mind you, my real excitement comes on the 1st of the month when I can see the mortgage progress of our residential mortgage and when I eventually get the letter from the BTL mortgage with the latest figure. Trying not to wish my time away.

I'm up to £17.35 on 1poll. So close to half way, I can almost taste it. My aim now is to make £1 a day on there, which I have so far being managing - touch wood - because I regularly have a quick check first thing in the morning before everyone starts work and whenever I take a drink / lunch / loo break. I seem to be stuck at 700 points on Yougov though. I've read a few people saying that it takes a long time to make progress with that one.

I have a bit of a first world problem. My company is merging with another soon and we have to use our recognition points, which are kind of like mini bonuses we get when our work is recognised or we hit a service milestone. The last time I spent points I got a Nutribullet because I liked the idea of it but didn't want to spend actual money in case the novelty wore off (well worth the points as it turns out!). The top contenders are some vouchers. I can afford £100 of Sainsbury's vouchers, or £125 of Argos vouchers or about £90 of high street vouchers, or £100 of Clarks vouchers (or a combination of different vouchers). I'm not sure what to chose. I wondered about getting the Sainsbury's vouchers and then every time I buy my food shopping there, transferring the money I would have spent into my OP pot. Alternatively, DH and I are going to get new iPads when the next iPad Pro is released. DH seems to think it will be in a couple of months. I have £300 in Nectar points and could use those as part payment, along with £125 of Argos vouchers and cover about half the cost of my iPad. The only thing is that Argos don't seem to sell them with cellular data compatibility, which would be handy when travelling or when going to my grandma's where she doesn't have internet. On one hand it is a massive reduction in the cost and I have managed without cellular data on my current iPad, on the other hand we don't anticipate buying new ones for many years to come so is it better to future proof them and get the ones with cellular. Decisions, decisions. At least I have a bit of time to think about it.

I made a huge batch of beef and ale pie filling (basically a stew type concoction with beef, ale, carrots, parsnip, mushrooms, onions and peas) that I will put a pastry top on and turn into pies for later use. We find that it tastes better when it has a day or two to soak in the ale flavours (DH always said he preferred the leftovers to the original so I just make it in advance now) so I will put some in the freezer and some in the fridge.

I've started reading the Man V Mortgage thread and I'm about half way through. I'm find it very interesting and inspirational, but it doesn't half take a while to get through when you start reading through a well established thread!

Had to rearrange our friends' visit this weekend as I feel like death warmed up. I'm forgetting what it feels like to be healthy and normal. I can't wait for this cold to shift!

Friday tomorrow!

Happy Friday everyone!

KK, you're a genius, thank you! I will do that. I'm going to order the Sainsbury's vouchers then use those and the nectar points for shopping and put the money I would have spent into a savings account. I might even be able to get some cashback to open a savings account. It's so good to share ponderings on this forum!

Thank you for the well wishes. I'm about the same as yesterday, except I woke up blind! Well, not quite, my eyes were glued shut with gunk. I expected it in one eye as it was all red and blood shot last night when I looked in the mirror and had been itchy for a couple of days so I expected conjunctivitis, but then woke up with double whammy. I made an appointment at the docs to get my eyes and this persistent cough checked out. As I expected, nothing too sinister. Doc said that because I hadn't quite fully recovered from the chest infection it had made me more susceptible to picking up other bugs and I've caught a cold. She checked my chest and it's clear, the mucus I'm coughing up is what's collecting at the back of my throat from my sinuses. Because my sinuses are blocked, my tear ducts are backing up and have caused the conjunctivitis. Nothing too drastic and should clear in a week or so. She prescribed some eye drops for infected eyes and sent me on my merry way. I went into the pharmacy that's attached to the docs and the lady serving very kindly pointed out that I could save money as I pay for my prescriptions at £8.40, but the eye drops don't have to be prescribed and they sell them for £5.99 Little win there, and it made me smile.

Got back home after the docs to some great news. DH has just had a £6k pay rise, woo! Now that really put a smile on my face! I've been waiting for a promotion and pay increase for about a year now and have been told absolutely no changes until after we have merged and become a new company (next month), so to find out he got the pay rise, I was gobsmacked (we're in the same team). He was one out of 2 people in our whole department (probably a couple of hundred people) to be approved for one. Things are looking up!

DH made lunch today, he didn't trust me handling food with my diseased hands! He was joking, and it's nice to have lunch made because he's on meetings over lunch every day and it's rare that he has free time to make lunch for us. I'd texted him when he was shopping to pick up some sandwich filler. I meant filling for sandwiches, such as sliced ham, beef etc. but he took it to mean actual filler so came back with a little tub of coronation chicken and chicken with bacon and mayo. I wasn't sure what to expect as I've never had it before. Growing up we just always had the usual ham, tuna, beef, cheese etc. and I'm not all all adventurous so have never thought of buying anything else. I really enjoyed it and it was cheaper than our usual choice so I think I'll have a look for it next time I go shopping. I like discovering new things!

I've only had 1 onepoll survey today, a lot quieter than usual. I'll keep checking, just in case.

My cloud account at work is syncing over 15,000 files and is lagging so badly. It's painful! I'd normally keep working over lunch but today I'm taking a break to update the diary. I can't face any more slow lagging computer! I'm glad to have the time and energy to update my diary. I'm going to have a read of other diaries too while I'm at it