Live on £4000 for a year - part 4 (Oct - Dec 2008)

lyndasharp

i'm just popping by quickly as well - I've been house viewing again and I was really impressed with the flat. In terms of square footage it's bigger than the 2 bed terrace I'm supposed to be buying. Don't know quite how impressed my Dad would be as there's no lift, it would be fun trying to get the fridge freezer and a bed up several flights of stairs...

I've got another two houses booked for tomorrow, then I'll attempt to make a decision! Also I *might* have found somewhere to live in Swindon temporarily - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out!

Whitewing, did you see the pimped Morris Minor they did? I wouldn't mind driving round in that one!

Brighton_belle

ok, I have finally 'honed' my budget for the 2009 challenge, as at present it is as follows:

4k challenge 2009 budget so far:
Buildings & contents insurance: £150
Tv licence: £145
Elec £25 per month = £300 (Can’t have full control of use as have 2 lodgers)
Gas £27.50 per month =£330 (as per elec)
Telephone rental/calls £144 +£48 =192
Broadband £108
PAYG mobile £20
Food for 2: £175 x 12 = £2,100
Toiletries (for me only) £20
Cleaning products/ loo rolls (for 4 adults)£72
Gifts £100
Extras/ contingency: £463
(this will include essential house maintenance/goods, non work related buses,)
TOTAL: £4000

Not including
car costs
travel by bus for work
Medical costs/dentist
Hobbies
Hairdressing
Non essential clothes (which will probably cover any purchases)
House decorating
Outings
All of which I will look do as frugally as possible

Any feedback welcome: have I got the hang of this challenge?

1274

Have spent all day today in the company of my spreadsheets, trying to change all the formulae to take account of the VAT cut and income tax changes, and STILL can't get them to work. So I've sent out lots of invoices for stupid little amounts which I don't normally do because it pees the HR and admin people off, but trying to do split rate invoices and account for the VAT is beyond me. A nice side effect of the Chancellor's fiscal stimulus package is that I've spent 6 hours on this today when I should have been working

In other news, I've just made a big overpayment to my mortgage, which has gone down £95K this year :j. I hate having debt, even at its nice new low rate (Co-op passed on 1.25 of the 1.5 BOE cut). Christmas presents = 1 out of 5, extra additions in my budget = £1,880 which is looking like it will be £17.8K no matter how much I play with the figures, batch cooking of spag bol and chilli ready in an hour.

PS LS ask about service charge before offering on a flat. Mine is nearly 2K a year. No lift will keep it lower though.

lyndasharp

1274 wrote: »

PS LS ask about service charge before offering on a flat. Mine is nearly 2K a year. No lift will keep it lower though.

It's a share of the freehold, only £40 per month to pay towards upkeep of the building and grounds, but the estate agent is finding out exactly what that covers (eg buildings insurance etc).

1274

lyndasharp wrote: »

It's a share of the freehold, only £40 per month to pay towards upkeep of the building and grounds, but the estate agent is finding out exactly what that covers (eg buildings insurance etc).

I'd be cautious about this (unless the flat is actually a self-contained building). SOFH just means that you own a share in the LL company which has the repair obligations for the building. So effectively you pay your own company (along with the other shareholders) your proportion for the building repairs to be carried out. If it needed a new roof or repointing etc. you'd likely be liable for your proportionate share (10% or whatever) unless your flat is effectively a self-contained building all on its own. Your solicitor should be able to advise you on this if you decide to proceed, but I wouldn't trust an EA's statements on this sort of issue at all

sophiesmum_2

Just wanted to send thoughts and well wishes to cw for the service today. Will be thinking about you (((hugs:heartpuls ))) Hope everything goes how you have planned it.

cw18

service is actually tomorrow (my fault from another thread elsewhere -- thought it was after midnight when I posted!) -- but I'm busy today with GDs before school, younger GD after pre-school, and clothes shopping with the boys while she's at pre-school !!!

sophiesmum_2

cw18 wrote: »

service is actually tomorrow (my fault from another thread elsewhere -- thought it was after midnight when I posted!) -- but I'm busy today with GDs before school, younger GD after pre-school, and clothes shopping with the boys while she's at pre-school !!!

Sounds like you are going to be kept busy until then anyway:D

Skint_Lynne

My thoughts and prayers are with you and yours for tomorrow Cheryl xx

Marru

sophiesmum wrote: »

Just wanted to send thoughts and well wishes to cw for the service tomorrow. Will be thinking about you (((hugs:heartpuls ))) Hope everything goes how you have planned it.

I am [STRIKE]stealing[/STRIKE] borrowing Sophiesmum post and would like to second it.

Right! I have been thinking of my budget and this challenge. No actions or spreadsheets yet but a lot of thinking. This is what I came up with:

- I will do all in challenge
- I am going to be a bit ackward and do my challenge in tax years instead of calender years.

Here are the break down of my challenge:

Child care costs: Everything that I need to pay after deducting child tax credits and adult learning grant child care portion from the nursery and play group fees (including school uniforms) I will calculate it according to the worst scenario (i.e. full time nursery and no school)

Rent: The bit of the rent that is not covered by housing benefit, this is difficult to estimate as they keep changing it all the time and even now I am waiting for the decision of how my learning grant affects it.

Car: I will allocate my working tax credit part towards my car, also I get some milages from adult learning grant to cover some of the petrol costs.

The rest are going to be: £4k plus cleaner plus possible socialising plus additional courses and expenses relating to them

Income: I am hoping to earn £6k per year plus business costs (mainly broadband and landline - mobile is part of £4k) What ever is the POSITIVE difference between the income and outgoings as above is first going to DD's CTF and secondly into my ISA. That should be incentive enough to stay in budget.

Vouchers: are not counted as income and when they are used it is not counted as expense. That means that my clothes for a year and a bit should be free due to having so much MnS vouchers.

So I will tweak my spreadsheets this weekend to reflect this scenario and see what it looks like for my remaining 4 months.

But first it is college work for me.

Have a great day everybody!!

Marru