Ztan's Shared Equity Story- MFW from the word GO

gallygirl

About £23 a month better off than me.

Goodish budget. Shame he didn't do it a few years ago . Applauded his 10k sooner and rather than reintroducing the 10p rate - achieve the same thing in a simpler way rather than faff about. In reality though, how much of the increase in takehome pay = reduction in working tax credit or whatever it's called?

In reality the people better off will be those not on benefits at all - which is fair enough from one point of view. And better to keep 10k you earn rather than lose say £600 to one govt dept and get it back from another.

ztan

I don't know enough about benefits to know the difference that makes to the changes. I am lucky enough to not claim anything- no kids to worry about and high enough earnings that there's no WTC or anything with my name on it.

I think it's helping some and hindering others, but it always will.

Pay day for me! :j
Can log on later and check my balances. Changed around a few SO this month so that we are now OP'ing by £250 a month instead of £125. This has reduced our savings by £125... but right now we need to bung it at the mortgage.
Still on track to have enough savings and enough Equity in the house for our big move in 3 years. :think: If everything stays the same--- :rotfl:

When DOH gets paid on Friday we can have another juggle and pay for the car tax. Need to source just 1 new tyre for the car, which is a relief

Off to visit my Gran tonight- whole troop are surprising her for her birthday. It was yesterday but we couldn't all make it. So mother, sister, DOH and I are all off to take her unexpected gifts and cake.

MuffinTops

Yay! Happy Pay Day!

Ahh, I miss Gran visits. Have a great time. What a lovely idea taking unexpected gifts and cake too.

Alchemilla

You made me think about Grandmothers too. Make the most of her. x

ztan

It's funny, when I talk about my "Gran"... I feel a bit daft because she's the opposite to most Gran's.
My Gran is 66 (well 65 + 1 day ) whereas my DOH's Gran is 90 this year! She was very suprised and happy to see us.

I have just opened my first ever ISA :T I can't believe it's taken me this long, but I've never really had money to save before. Only £1 in so far, but I've got to do some juggling between what I want to put in the ISA from my current savings and what I can pay in this year out of my savings to make up the max total.
Tonight, it's making my brain ache.

Payday review its looking like I can afford our camping trip next weekend and also book a spa day I desperately want to go on whilst paying a little bit over on the CC payment this month.
DOH gets paid tomorrow, so another review then.

With our savings and OP's now being what they are, this all should mean in 3 years time we will have 68% LTV - the 20% to pay off when we sell which makes it all equivalent to 74% LTV- plus a "deposit" of about £17000.
Which means we will have done what we set out to and be able to move to a bigger house AND go to Australia.

Plus I've started saving my "payrise" towards the cars- for tax, MOT's and general breakages.

The only bit I can't afford right now, is a (shhh) wedding... not that my DOH is thinking of popping the Q anytime soon, but that's another thing to save for!

Enough blabbering now, bed time! Happy Friday tomorrow everyone!

QB_Wolf

ztan wrote: »

What's everyone else's thoughts on the budget?

Rubbish for us £68 worse off next year, through losing child benefits.

ztan

QB_Wolf wrote: »

Rubbish for us £68 worse off next year, through losing child benefits.

Oh dear QBW

I_want_a_baby

Well done Ztan! Sounds like you are really on top of the finances & good to see you have a good balance of save/OP's/Fun gouing on .

Stacey

ztan

Thanks Stacey

I think I've finally reached a point where I know I can leave everything ticking along nicely without too much fussing- just weekly checks and moving DOH's OT into a seperate pot.

Decided now we're going to use Australia as our motivation, because 3 years is a long time to sit tight. We're hoping to go to Oz towards the end of next year which will break up the 3 year chunk. So, lots of not spending- although we have got a lot on between now and June.

Now it's time to enjoy FRIDAY!!!!!!!! Lots of coffee and minimal amount of working today.

:T

Thrifty_Pixie

budget....hmm well.

pleased about the personal allowance increases. i think i'll be getting around £100 extra per month as of next month and then maybe another £50 as of 2014. none too shabby.

the kids stuff doesn't affect me, being beautifully unfettered. however i do believe that some of the decisions made recently about child benefit, etc have been good ones. i realise that that's a very controversial belief in most circles and i am (obviously ) a child-hater, but i just don't see why people should be given money to pay for their children in most instances. i also think that if a parent chooses to stay at home and have the pleasurable experience of bringing up their own children then that's THEIR choice and we shouldn't pay for that, but if they choose to go back to work we should HELP them (note: not completely pay for them, but a contribution) to pay for the childcare to do so.

oh dear, rant over

anyway...yes, budget...

i was :eek: HORRIFIED :eek: about the 15p wine tax and 2p cider tax, but then it may encourage me to drink less and lose some more weight. silver linings, etc

the tobacco tax was expected (yes i am, currently, a dirty fagger) but we have around 3/4 months of tobacco at home and hope to try giving up after that anyway...so hopefully it won't hit us.

the mortgage thing....well i think it could be a double-edged sword. i think that the limits on borrowing amounts need to be strictly enforced so that people with 5% deposit can afford the repayments (nothing silly like 10x wages, etc) and i think that it shouldn't be allowed for second homes. the argument that a parent might want to use it to buy a home for their child is a moot point, as the child could jump on the 5% deposit thing themselves.

is that it covered?.....:think: