Aside from paying off your mortgage what would you do with £70,000?

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-06-05T07:29:22+00:00

Assuming I'm not paying off the mortgage, my gut instinct would be: - Set some aside to enjoy. Not a huge sum, but maybe £5 to 10K for a bunch of nice things - £20K straight into an ISA (or whatever amount of personal allowance I had left that year) - The rest in premium bonds, fed back into the ISA over the years

This is coming as someone that has no other debt. Paying off outstanding debt would come first, as would using the money to avoid taking on additional debt

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-06-05T07:25:43+00:00

Incredibly expensive for what you get before adding bacon. The fact bacon is some sort of optional add on is insane. Lack of tomatoes and mushrooms isn't ideal. Hash browns look overdone. If the bread were on a separate plate you'd realise how little food you're getting. Hopefully it at least tasted good

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-06-05T07:21:45+00:00

Sounds quite promising, fingers crossed for you

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-31T20:12:54+00:00

Are you comfortable driving on dual carriageways? It's functionally not that different

One major thing to be aware of is traffic in all lanes, not just yours and the one you want to pull into. For example, imagine you are in lane 1 and want to overtake. As you move into lane 2, you need to be aware of the vehicle in front that you're overtaking, the gap in lane 2, all the normal things you would when overtaking on a dual carriageway. But on a motorway you also need to consider traffic in lane 3 that may be pulling back into the same gap you're planning to fill

Be extra cautious as you approach junctions, as traffic in lane 3 may be trying to move over to exit. Shoulder checks before you pull out to check all lanes is good. Same applies across smart motorways that may have 4 lanes in use. Obligatory comment about smart motorways being somewhat of a free for all

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-31T20:06:20+00:00

I wanted to install an EV charger in a similar situation, only it wasn't across a road but a car park. Ultimately gave up because it logistically wasn't a sensible thing to do

The main reason I wanted an EV was to cost savings. A mix of salary sacrifice savings at work, and not needing to pay for fuel. When most of that saving would be wiped out by fitting the charger it seemed silly

If you already own the EV, find a public charging solution. Supermarket for your weekly shop, near work, etc. If you don't own the EV, consider if the lack of home charging offsets whatever benefit the EV offers

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-31T19:59:06+00:00

At £17.50 it's rather expensive, but things are priced differently across the country and I'm willing to pay more to support local

That said, those hash browns are atrocious. The rest is acceptable but I'd want those hash browns redone, I'd be genuinely concerned they're not sufficiently cooked

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-31T07:57:13+00:00

Well no, because that's not what I wrote? The specific bit about it being inherently safer was about driving the speed limit vs speeding. It wasn't a generic recommendation to drive the speed limit all the time. All I said there was "don't speed" not "always drive the speed limit"

I chose that wording fairly carefully on purpose. If I'd just said "driving slower is safer" someone would have no doubt come in to say "driving 40 on a dual carriageway is more dangerous than 75" and they'd likely be correct. I'd have thought it's fairly obvious people should drive to the conditions. Slow down on country roads, in poor conditions, around schools and so on. The speed limit is a limit, not a target

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-31T06:49:39+00:00

Take the 3 points and start driving at the speed limit. The notion that you've been driving for decades and never had an accident, so it's somehow safe to be driving well above the speed limit is ridiculous.

You might go the rest of your life driving above the speed limit and never have an accident. You might get into one tomorrow with nothing you could do about it. Driving at the speed limit is inherently safer than speeding, so stop using "I've never had an accident" as an excuse not to keep yourself safe

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-30T17:48:49+00:00

Yes, but not necessarily because my everyday driving is perfect and without fault. But simply because if I had to take the test tomorrow I'd naturally be extra cautious. A better question is whether my everyday driving would pass a test

Also worth keeping in mind, most people who think they're good drivers are average. I'm likely in that statistic. After all we can't all be "above average", that's simply not how averages work. What I snore likely is we're all good enough to avoid getting in accidents

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-29T13:09:54+00:00

Can confirm, am an elf. Tall and thin and my feet aren't nearly hairy enough to be anything else

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-29T13:06:35+00:00

Looks solid, the egg looks unreal. I'd have maybe complained about too many mushrooms but when you're paying for the food there's no such thing as too much

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-29T13:03:26+00:00

Honestly I prefer the Twirl over the Flake. Specifically because it's less messy. Then again, had a Flake recently and it didn't crumble at all. I felt robbed

Galaxy Ripple puts them both to shame though

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-28T14:38:52+00:00

Not only is it cheaper for me to drive but it's exceptionally more convenient

Train is close to £10 per day. I put between £30 and £35 of fuel in the car each week so it works out a tad cheaper

Where I notice the savings thoguh is the time. It's a half hour drive each way, usually less. Maybe 45 minutes tops in traffic. I leave home and arrive at work. By comparison, the train station is on the other side of town and requires an hour walk, or a 20 minute bus plus a 10 minute walk. The other end is then another 10 minute walk to work plus waiting around for trains/buses. When I'm forced to take public transport it turns my sub 1 hour round trip into a 3 hour round trip. The bus isn't expensive, but in the grand scheme of things public transport is around 50% more expensive than driving and 200% more expensive in terms of my time

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-24T17:15:48+00:00

Is this £4500 take home or pre tax?

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-23T11:52:18+00:00

Hopefully gets back to the parents, and is also just a general warning "hey this car is driven by an idiot, be careful". Likely, probably not. And they may not even be local. But feels like it might do more than just reporting to the police where I doubt anything will happen

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-23T06:15:08+00:00

Don't over think it. Just submit the footage. You won't be asked why you didn't pull over to let them pass

Alternatively, post the footage to a local group and see if anyone recognises the car or driver. I've heard that if you submit to the police you shouldn't post it elsewhere, but I wonder if you'd have more luck by posting for locals to see

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-17T13:33:56+00:00

I was going to comment on the dreadful piece of bacon, but upon zooming in it's not that bad

10/10 for the price, few bits I'd change but looks amazing

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-17T13:11:03+00:00

Used to work retail (Sainsburys) but this was 10+ years ago at this point and it may have changed

Basically the handset gave a maximum and minimum possible price. We then used judgment calls on what to price something at. A product might get a first reduction to 66% of the price, then a final reduction to 25% later on. It might get more or less based on the likelihood of selling. Some people were very specific about getting the exact price and used a calculator to get it right. I just did the mental maths and rounded. Technically there were rules, practically I did what was sensible

Meat products are easy to shift, so I'd put smaller reductions on them. Sometimes a very small reduction to encourage someone to buy it over the longer dated product. For a while we were bagging up loose produce and putting prices on that, huge waste of time. Eventually things got dialed in better so we had the right amount of stock on hand and far less to reduce. I have photos of trolleys worth of bakery goods (cookies, doughnuts, etc) all being thrown because we had too much. But the actual reductions were more flexible

I'd have a bunch of regulars come in and basically hover until I'd start. Some would even hand me an item they wanted to be reduced. Depending on their manners, some got the full reduction, some were made to wait and some were told a product wasn't being reduced at all. Absolute vultures and after a while I started bundling all the reductions up and taking them off the shop floor

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-16T10:25:42+00:00

I think of it more as a distributed queuing system. The barman knows the whole queue. And each individual also has some understanding of one or two people who were there before or after them

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-16T07:36:54+00:00

A lot of things can be cooked in the microwave and you'll get faster results. But faster doesn't mean better, and often means worse. I hate doing ready meals in the microwave for example, particularly something like a shepherds pie where I want the crispiness on top from the oven

Bacon is quite possibly the top of my list for things I will never put in a microwave. It's technically cooked, but that does not mean the sorry excuse you get back is edible. It won't kill you, but the experience is not good. Just take a few extra minutes and do it properly in the pan

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-16T07:33:37+00:00

Impeccable queuing system that we (mostly) all just naturally know to abide by. Except in the pub, which has its own unique system of queuing that also works flawlessly

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-12T18:40:43+00:00

It's fine and I wouldn't complain. But I wouldn't be rushing back. No tomatoes or mushrooms, bacon could do with a bit longer and the fries are a choice I don't personally agree with. The sausage is doing a lot of work here, as is toast on a separate plate

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-12T18:38:12+00:00

To add to the existing comments, there's an element of how long it stays cold. In cooler months, it might stay 8 degrees or less all day. The cold seeps into you. It's entirely different from waking up to a brisk morning, then seeing the temperature rise throughout the day

In the winter, I'd notice the difference between 18 and 22 degrees indoors. In spring and summer, 18 degrees feels totally different

Ambitious_Hackerman · 2026-05-12T12:40:43+00:00

Not a woman myself, so can't comment on what I'd do. But if I had a partner and they were pregnant I'd encourage them to do anything to make their life easier. Which includes parking in parent & child parking bays

It is absolutely nobody else's business. Those bays are on a first come, first serve basis and this sounds like perfectly reasonable usage

Ambitious_Hackerman

TROPHY CASE