A Day Off

I love Thursdays, it's my day off ! Before when I ran my own business I forgot the pleasure of not having to be anywhere at a certain time to do a certain thing. I guess I was always working.

Of course it won't be a leisurely day lunching and wallowing in selfish activities, I'll see the children to school, walk the dog - he likes Thursdays too because it means he can actually stop and sniff a little longer, rather than 'sniff on the go') and then become a domestic goddess ! Hubby will be back at lunchtime so this morning I am going flyladying . If the sun appears I may even treat the car to a wash and polish up with my trusty microfibre cloth. I live such an exciting life.

Talking of the car, I woke up yesterday and made a decision on the insurance. Went to the Prudential via Top Cashback, bought a policy for £184.80 and am awaiting cashback of £95 ! Policy started as soon as I purchased it online. I await the documentation. That's that saga over for another year. So just the tax to pay now, and of course that dropped on the mat yesterday morning, £99.

Had a few more surveys through, one I particularly like is Home Of Research (not an affiliate link) I've earnt £5.00 in the last 2 weeks, interesting surveys. Pay by paypal too.

Today is going to be a good day.

Don't Ask - Don't Get !

I spent yesterday tieing up loose ends, found the process gave me a great sense of acheivement. It wasn't my plan to do so but postie brought some paperwork that required it.

In the post a £20 cheque from Mutual Points, £4.40 overpayment from National Insurance contributions. A letter from National Savings and Investments stating that they had found my old account and it had a balance of £1.00 ! Checking online I discovered I had £2.86 on the way from Quidco, £5.54 in Paypal, completed my self assessment Tax form and I've overpaid tax by £12.54, that all adds up to £50.00 :)

So an ebay listing frenzy ensued which stopped when I had a sudden brainwave that somewhere in this house is a box full of old mobile phones that need to be gone, can I find them ? I found the original boxes they arrived in when given as gifts on various Christmases and birthdays, complete with an array of fascias, chargers and instruction booklets, but the phones ?

Then on to car expenses. The AA wanted to charge me £108 for recovery and breakdown cover for the next year. I did a little research RAC, Greenflag etc. Got it down to £93, phoned the AA. A short discussion changed the policy to cover the car only. Bearing in mind I'm too scared to drive anyone else's car ! Got it down to £67 :))))

Insurance, whatever comparison site or insurers 'get a quote' link I use, and trawl through the same questions again and again, within minutes of me hitting submit the phone rings. Some broker somewhere asking what's my lowest quote etc etc.It's so tedious this car insurance thing. Add the jargon eg, voluntary excess, NCD Protection, legal protection . My head was swimming. The higher excess you pay the lower the quote, no legal protection brings it lower, but both of those those things are priceless if you have an accident. I'm still not 100% sure who to go with.

Right on with the day, after all it is POETS day again :)

Attitude Change

Tell me fellow PF bloggers, I hear so much about Dave Ramsey, is it worth me ordering from the library ? Or is much of his advice geared towards the American financial system ? i.e 401k IRS etc. I'm assuming he is the equivalent of our Martin Lewis.

My positive thinking and general change in attitude yesterday resulted in spreading a little happiness, at no expense, made two clients at work 'belly laugh' . Bearing in mind the people I work with are of the older generation and have to deal with ill health and dependency on many people for the little things in life some of us take for granted. Coupled with that upon arriving for work, one of the managers expressed a pleasure in seeing me because I was always 'bright and cheerful the mornings'.

That's more like it.

A bit more delving into the car insurance world, and I am happy to report one company can beat my cheapest quote of £189.95 by £10 and if I get it right online I also receive £95 cashback.

Pile of stuff ready for the ebay cheap listing day tomorrow, no procrastination allowed, I find listing on ebay tiresome, probably because I used to it as my 'job', but it has to be done.

Have a good day all

The Cost of Driving

In the post yesterday I received my car insurance quote and was stunned. I got a good deal last year, £197 fully comp, no claims protected etc, etc. The same company cannot offer such a good deal this year, in fact the best the broker can find was £270 ! I don't think so. A lot of cash back sites offer amazing deals like £130 cash back with large household names such as the Pru. But whenever I've tried to buy insurance like this I've always had to revert to the phone to go through the quote, which means the cash back doesn't track.

Anyway on the positive side I tried a comparison site last week and ended up with a quote of £189.99, received it in the post days later, maybe a little more digging I can get it lower. Add the cost of car tax £97 ? And Breakdown cover £108 ! That's over £400 to spend in the next 6 weeks on driving alone.

Yesterday afternoon I spent blog reading, my hour of peace before the troops came home wanting food, water and attention. I know there are hundreds of UK Debt Free Wannabees, mostly hanging out on the Money Saving Expert Forum but not many UK blogs. Our American and Australian friends are quite open about Debt blogging. Is it a case of the stiff upper lip, feeling safe in the anonymity and numbers on the MSE forum ?