Wandering on

System · 11 January 2018 at 11:42PM

Hiya,
There's 22 sheep, with more expected soon. Cows maybe but a long way off. There's nothing orderly about trying to move these sheep!! We've got 8 rescue chickens who are the friendliest birds plus 2 noisy boys.

A good week, all NSDs .....on my side. DH van has failed MOT, so kind of walks in the face of all the NSDs!! Got to buy something new so bye-bye most of emergency fund. We're just going to get something cheap to get us through the next few months and if it does more than that, it will be a bonus. On the plus side DH does have a job interview on Monday so fingers crossed for a more enjoyable job for him.

Going back to old house tomorrow to check all is ok. It's been empty for a year now - so sad. Hope the sale goes through. Looking forward to a family weekend.

Will do bank checks and menu planning tomorrow.

Happy weekend everyone.

System · 12 January 2018 at 11:20PM

So bank checks all done.
Positives are:

we've had loads of NSD's and are not overbudget (yet)
work expenses have come in
Also consolidating CC's onto a 0% is saving us some serious cash - we paid out £600 in payments this month - but next month it will be £400 so that's good for cash flow.

Negatives are: Had annual sewage bill come in (we pay a neighbour as we share it) So only £73 - a bargain in reality as in our old house we had to pay £55 a month to rotten thieving SW W@ter! Also BT bill was £74 because of a load of calls (at least new Sky package will sort all of that out.)

Oh and the van death. Seeing a car tomorrow - DH has 7 years NCB on his van - but it looks like you can't transfer to a car - which is FIENDISH approach to money raising from insurance companies. Hey ho. Still going to ring an insurance broker and see if we can do something.

Still haven't paid in £50 surprise cheque - might be able to get to post office tomorrow.

Have moved work expenses around to cover the sewage, and extra BT as it was more than I was expecting. Also added a bit to petrol and a bit to food.

Food spend so far: £134 with £66 remaining. Get paid again on 25th so 2 weeks today. Not sure £66 will be enough. Have £100 in petrol budget so a bit of thieving from there potentially. or the surprise cheque. :naughty:

TTFN

System · 13 January 2018 at 1:18PM

Car bought. Insurance sorted, tax sorted (all of which is more pricey than old vehicle.) Manage to bring across the NCB though so that's a positive. Going to scrap old van today too - so we'll get £170 back which will cover the initial payout.
Paid in cheque.

Nice email from estate agent saying that the buyers are not doing a structural survey at all - and that the only thing we are waiting on is 1 thing on their side with theit mortgage offer....so we ***might*** be exchanging soon. FINGERS CROSSED.

System · 17 January 2018 at 10:49PM

Just a quick post from me about DH job interview. He's got to 2nd interview and all looking very positive. It's for a huge amount of money more than he's currently on, so fingers crossed.

All NSDs so far for me this week. DH has picked up some nappies (bought wrong size) and then went and bought 2 packs of the right size. Sigh. Over budget for food but probably able to steal from petrol budget so overall still hopefully on track. Week to go until pay day!!!!;

pennywisepoundstupid · 17 January 2018 at 11:02PM

Excellent news regarding job interview. xx

System · 19 January 2018 at 3:38PM

Happy Friday!

Budget checks all done. Cancelled DH's old insurance and they are going to charge £110 to close it! GRRRR no option but to pay.

Food spends so far this month are £260, have £40 in pot to last until payday on 25th so that all feels do-able. That will bring us to £300. I'll do a big shop on payday to fill up the freezer a bit more, so expect we'll come in at about £400 for the calendar month, which is my budget. In other months it has been closer to £500!! I know it's still a lot and many people spend a lot less, but over the last few years of trying to sort finances, I've realised that £400 is a comfortable spend for us - it includes a small amount of alcohol, and a couple of meals out (if we have too) and I buy good quality meat when I can. We don't have any other hobbies / we never buy DVD's or go out, we only buy clothes from charity shops....and my DH and my SS are big eaters (DH works outdoors)

Petrol for month was £157 so not too bad and some to claim back.

Folks visiting for the weekend. will post more when I have some peace and quiet.

System · 26 January 2018 at 9:58AM

Hello diary.
Pay day is here. And what a crazy old month it has been. Life is never boring!

I have checked YNAB every week so pleased with myself for that.
Some other areas not so great - and some unexpected funding needed (DH's vehicle expiring, new vehicle purchase (£1K!!!!) , new insurance (more expensive than before!!! now £75/month) and tax costs (£24 a month - double whammy as had paid for old vehicle for month and then had to pay for new so £48 in all) and fees for cancelling old policies (£110 for insurance, and BT charged me £65 for cancelling phone contract (although I'm going to tap Sky up to refund it!).
Also had a stinger BT phone bill for £75 for the month - mostly phone calls - because new job I sometimes have to work from home and no mobile signal.....but have now moved to Sky with all calls free so expecting this to be nicer from now on.
We moved some CC debt to 0% so paying much less to service CC debt (was paying approx £650, now £400) but still have the final interest payment to make to the old cards this month so it's expense all round.

And probably the biggest news - DH's new job. He was on a salary of £17.5K, his new job is £15/hour, so even if not full time he will be on more money. He's going to be full-time for at least first 3 months, and then he will be able to drop hours so he can build up his own business more. His new boss is also taking him to Chelsea Flower Show for a reccy!! Great news in some senses, and more money will certainly be welcome - but I'm slightly worried about managing the gap between old job and new - he'll only get 3 weeks wages when he finishes his old job, and then will be waiting a month to get paid for his new - and he will need to lay out for insurance. We have some money in the emergency fund but probably not enough!

House sale ticking along slowly - still crossing fingers on this one - hopefully be hearing today that we are ready to exchange - hoping it doesn't fall through again!
If that goes through, we will have some more expenses in that I have to get rid of a load of asbestos (approx £700) which will have to go on a CC. but when the money comes in we will be able to clear all CC debt.

Also on the countdown to 30 hours free childcare - 1st April come on soon!! and then we will be in a much healthier state and I can start making a real dent on DMP debts as well as saving up.

Right going to do YNAB. sort the whole picture out and then work out how skint we will be for the next month!

System · 26 January 2018 at 10:28AM

Emergency fund: £620.54
CC LJ 0%: £7,564.23 (with £175 to come off - £7455.66)
CC HJ 0%: £9,714.72 (with £220 to come off - £9494.72)
Total CC to clear: £16,950.38

Budget for month for food: £366.43 (a bit tight, but got some nice stuff in freezer.) Going to do some batch cooking today (soup etc). Got a 30% off voucher for Ocado for a first time user - so may get some stuff I have to get with that to get it cheaper.
Budget for month for fuel: £165

Future money to come in £89 child benefit - so this is my extra 'emergency money' which will arrive on 19th. Hoping to not touch real emergency fund this month (saving it for shortfalls in March)

Right oh - time to get on with the day!!
Lots of jobs to do today.

Take DD to docs
DH's tax return into system
make soup
make batches of mince and some cakes
clean out chickens and worm them

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

System · 26 January 2018 at 6:43PM

So DH's tax return done - all good, no tax to pay except I forgot he's have to pay class whatever NICs.....so £145.60 for that before the end of the month (is there a smacking my head emoji?!!) If I'd done the upload months ago when I did all the returns I could have saved up slowly to pay it off. But, as it is, it will come out of the usual budget and I'll probably have to dip a little into EF. But maybe not - how's that for a Feb challenge.

DD been actually poorly this pm with a temp, but getting brighter now. Soup and batch mince all done and bubbling away so only the chickens lucked out as not been able to get outdoors this PM.

Tidying up to do, and SS will be arriving shortly for family weekend. No major plans except animal care and general outdoors maintenance. Must make some banana cake tomorrow too.

Chrystal · 26 January 2018 at 11:16PM

It's all sounding really positive Rambleham. Great news on OHs job and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you with the contract exchange...(I'm also waiting for a contract exchange and it seems to be taking forever :mad: ) things will be much clearer when that money comes through. :j

I think you're doing a brilliant job. X

Wandering on

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