Daffy's 'a nice cup of tea cheers you up' diary

beanielou

Maybe you could check yyour tax code?
Any pension deductions?
Did you maybe miss payroll cut off for part of the period?
Hope you can get it sorted out/

Lemon_Tree

i was going to say check your tax code, possibly it's because you're on month one/week one code so it doesn't calculate your tax cumulatively. Did you have your P45 when you started this job?
hope you get it sorted.

Karmacat

Cheery, sorry about that - but good advice on here already. I've been out of salaried employment for so long, I've no clue, but just hoping you can get it sorted to your benefit.

Cheery_Daff

All sorted, and (as usual!) it was my own fault for not sending off my P45... It was on the enormous list of things to do when I started the job, but never quite made it to the top

However, it's sorted now, and will be refunded at the end of next month. Serves me right really! (but glad it means I can still stick to my new budget without having to do a *new* new one!

Cheery_Daff

Now then... This is the start of my new budget that goes with my new job! :j *slightly* messed it up by not sending off P45 and therefore losing £100 in tax, but I'll get that back next month

Just sat and stared long and hard at bank account (don't you just *love* online banking?? :rotfl:) Did lots of switching between accounts, adding up, adding up again, and realised I had more than I thought I did :j Double and triple checked and yes, I was right :j

SO (just in case anyone's interested - personally I love reading the details of other people's budgets! ) Just a couple of points first of all...

* I'm budgeting for 5 weeks in every month. I used to be paid fortnightly, and got used to having cash budget for food/unnecessary spends each week, so I'll be continuing that. I take out money on a Monday, so each month that there's only 4 Mondays in, there's an extra week's worth of money to put towards savings/paying off Mr Daffs or whatever.

* We keep our finances separate for the time being, and I pay £265 a month towards house/bills etc. We split costs of van and food etc equally. We keep our own spending money, and budget in our own ways. Mr Daffs owns house (well, 4 years left on mortgage), and is responsible for maintenance etc. It works, although it might all change if/when I start earning an absolute fortune :rotfl:

* At the minute I'm not budgeting for annual van costs. Tax/insurance/breakdown cover have only just been paid, and we won't be having an MOT as we're selling the van, so everything saved towards that will be going towards the cost of new van, which will hopefully come with a bit of tax/MOT already on it. We'll get breakdown/insurance transferred, and tax refunded for old van.

* I've allowed myself a tiny bit more leeway in this budget than I've had for the last few months, as I'm getting rather tetchy about spending, and I don't like having to scrimp down to last few pence. So I've got an extra £5 a week in the food budget, an extra £5 in the unnecessary budget (which comes from dropping Slimming World...). If I don't spend this, it'll get added into the buying-new-van fund.

So, New Budget looks something like this:

Income after tax: £780

Outgoings (monthly):

£265 rent
£25 phone bill (£19.99 but just in case I go over)
£25 emergencies
£20 diesel (probably won't use this, especially if we don't buy a new van pretty quickly! :rotfl:)
£70 fees to university (for next 4 months - can overpay, but would rather put extra towards van/Mr Daffs)

And outgoings weekly:

£25 food
£15 unnecessary/ playing (including bus fares if I'm too lazy to walk, cups of tea, toiletries, clothes, postage, fabric, charity shop finds, and general messing about - probably won't spend all of this)
£22 train fares to work (2 days to York and back = £10.85 a day and that's booked in advance, without booking fee, and with student railcard...)

There's only 4 weeks in July (for my budget), so ALL that's leftover has been transferred to the New Van Fund, since we'll probably have to buy one in the next couple of weeks :eek:

So, there we have it. A shiny new budget :money: The only extra I'm expecting this month is my £100 tax refund plus around £80 or so from second job (transcribing - this is the last month). That'll all go into New Van Fund, or if it's not needed, to Mr daffs.

Think I need a cup of tea after all that!

Cheery_Daff

(and I've just realised that my outgoings appear to be £65 less than incomings :rotfl: so I've either missed out something drastic, or can be a bit more lenient, or Mr Daffs will get paid back quicker than he was expecting :j)

Cheery_Daff

Bleurgh. Still no van, feeling rather despondent and quite bored of looking! Found a cheery one earlier, but it had already sold

Didn't get half the things done I wanted to today either - must remember to post on the what small things threat tomorrow.

Spent £9 on food today (in budget), and had two cups of tea bought for me by two separate men (!) so it ain't all bad

And tomorrow I get a free night out at a club Mr Daffs is playing in Very MSE! And there's a few more strawberries ripening in the garden that I can have for a breakfast treat, and the courgettes are growing nicely! Also very MSE Oh, and I sewed a small stuffed sunflowery pig for my nephew's first birthday today too Also pretty MSE, and fits nicely with my making presents challenge...

(house is a tip and Phd isn't getting written, and I'm still grumpy and not feeling right, but we're going to ignore all of those things!)

xx

beanielou

When do you have to submit your PhD?

Karmacat

Okay, just ignore them for now! I can imagine it would be really boring looking for a vehicle when you're not really into vehicles. Be kind! (to yourself, I mean).

Cheery_Daff

To be fair, Mr Daffs is doing most of the looking, I'm just peering over his shoulder when he finds something cheery enough - but even that's hard work... :rotfl:

beanielou, phd has to be submitted before Feb 2011. I actually already submitted it in October last year, had my viva exam thing in December, and they didn't think it was good enough... so I got given another year (which because of an admin !!!! up is lasting til Feb). I started the bloody thing in 2004, so it's rather dragging on now! I did re-engage with it in an enthusiastic manner for a while, but when I'm feeling a bit down and overwhelmed, I just feel like I've had all the confidence knocked out of me about it. Already felt like that over the last few years, and then when I had to do it all over again, that was the final straw really...

Ah well, onwards and upwards and all that! Just had a nice cuppa with my friend (which is probably why the PhD isn't getting written!).

Going to tidy the kitchen a little bit first though :A