Getting shut!

DD265

I got the quote from the horse transporter. £225. :eek:

I will be claiming it back but it's got to be paid out first. I do have enough money in my account but I think that's the bulk of the money I do have so I hope we can turn the claim around quickly. Paying cash too as can go without VAT then - normally I wouldn't bother but as I'm so low on money as it is I need to keep the outgoings as low as possible.

Now keeping my fingers crossed that he isn't hospitalised and I only have to pay the £225 once, especially as the insurance company only pay half of hospitalisation charges anyway which are probably around £50 a night.

Sometimes I wish I'd stuck with goldfish, but I wouldn't swap him for the world.

DD265

The horse transporter ended up costing £281.50 - we were there a bit longer than expected and to get a receipt to claim back everything I had to pay VAT. I'd forgotten to transfer enough money into my main account to be able to withdraw the cash so Mum had withdrawn the £230. She paid £200 in cash and I paid £81.50 by cheque, so I owe Mum £200 and also £11 for an ebay item she posted for me yesterday.

I have just sold my very expensive riding hat which is good, unfortunately ebay and paypal take their cut of course! The money from that is on its way to my bank account. I think I might just stay afloat this month, but I might have difficulty next month because I've had to use some of the money that Mum pays for Daffy's rent to help with the cost of the transporter, and I'll have to sub that myself. We'll see.

I confess to some unplanned retail therapy yesterday. It was bad news at the vets and although my horse is back home in his stable, he has a condition affecting his spinal chord and will slowly deteriorate over time. He's now on stable rest for 8 weeks and I felt rotten, so I bought him a new salt lick as his got a bit manky and some treats. Only about £9 with the staff discount so I don't feel too bad about breaking the financial fast but I've got to stop it opening the floodgates!

On the basis of the severity and unpredictability of his condition he is unfit to be ridden so I will be selling things like his saddle which has quite a bit of money tied up in it. Whilst I would use the money to pay off debt, I feel the need to supplement the horse-fund that my parents have - an account set aside for horse related emergencies and big unexpected bills. He will require ongoing treatment and hopefully he'll still be with us when the insurance claim ends for this, so I think it's quite important to have that. Another we'll see.

DD265

Thanks for reading Purpletea.

I was going to say that not doing quite as well as I'd hoped this month but as I'm writing this thread, I realise that I'm actually not doing too badly.

I'm managing to stay afloat somehow although my OH did bail me out at the start of the month with £250 which I will be paying back, and I owe Mom about £200 for the transportation costs on Wednesday as I'd forgotten to transfer enough money into my main account to withdraw the cash. Conveniently she hasn't given me her account details to transfer that back over yet and I'm not nagging too hard. I did contact the bank near the start of the month just to see if they would be willing to increase my loan if I got really stuck and I still don't know the answer as I've not actually rung back. I'm still hopeful that I won't need it!

I had a slip up on the financial fasting on Thursday, feeling guilty about the horse being confined to box rest I indulged in retail therapy for us both, buying him some treats and a new salt lick. Only cost about £9 with staff discount and no postage but I was concerned that it would open the floodgates. It hasn't though, I went into Tesco and bought the necessary things (parnsips, carrots & mints for the horse and Q-tips for me) then I managed to go into the saddlery, leave my saddle (with a price of £599, although they'll take 15% commission if it sells) and not buy anything so I think my fears were unfounded.

My spend days are higher than I'd hoped due to the trip to the veterinary hospital (and subsequent retail therapy) so I need to lower my target for this month.

I'm going out to the riding club presentation next weekend - I'm on the committee. That'll cost me a bit in drinks but food is provided and I have something to wear. It's pretty much the only social event I do all year so I'm quite looking forward to it!

The week after that it's payday! Not long to go now. There are two things worrying me now. The first is that the insurance company won't pay out for the horses vets bills. I should know by the end of the month. The second is that I don't know how much my car is going to cost to MOT. It's definitely the unknown that worries me, so the sooner it's booked in, the better.

DD265

I took the time to mostly update Quicken last night. I say mostly, because there is a discrepancy between my on-line banking statement and the one in Quicken but I'm not sure where! It's only £20 but I can't see anything to explain it so I need to spend some time going through to find out.

I have also been doing well on no spend days and avoiding temptation. Lots of stuff to list on ebay still but I'm hoping to do a bit this weekend. Ideally I'd like all that stuff gone by christmas.

I was told today that I'll be getting a raise starting in next month's wage so I'm chuffed to bits. I thought about celebrating with a bar of chocolate but decided to be good, and figured that I'd prefer the long-term fix of a better looking bank balance to a momentary yummy treat! I'm keeping up with quite a bit of overtime at work, ideally I could do with starting 30 mins earlier in a morning - if I do this 5 days a week that's an extra 2.5 hours I've earnt.

Things are really looking up.

DD265

I've been trying to stay quiet on the finance front this week and I'm doing OK. I was a bit naughty last weekend - got some photos printed, bought a couple of frames for them and split a takeaway with my sister as she was home from university, but nothing too expensive. My OH was up this weekend (hadn't seen him for over a month) and we were going to go out on a date but as I hadn't been paid we knocked that idea on the head and I'm quite glad - it would have been nice, but I would've regretted the finances later on.

I have my wage slip from work and I know what I'm getting paid - it should clear on Tuesday. I'm quite surprised by how much tax I'm paying - given I earned minimum wage (the raise kicked in on Friday) but I really don't get taxation so I didn't really know what to expect anyway. It's less than I expected (due to the "big" tax amount - £150ish and I'm left with £850ish) but I should manage to pay the bills on that.

What are the big expenses coming up?

1. Insurance Excess - £130 (the vets have asked that we pay this now)
2. Car MOT - £300ish? I am pretty sure we need a new suspension
3. Car Tax - £60ish
4. Horse feed bill - £80
5. Loan repayment - £130

I also need to fill up with petrol and I have a few essentials to get from the supermarket, plus the horses rent to pay. Provided my MOT isn't extortionate it should all work out.

DD265

I'm glad it's payday tomorrow - means I can clear off some of the things that are looming over me.

I have booked my car in for it's MOT on the 10th, unfortunately I hit black ice and subsequently a wall this morning so I may need a new front bumper to pass the test, but I was advised that if there aren't any sharp edges I should be ok. Only £50ish on ebay, but that's £50 I hadn't planned on..

There's one the right colour but quite scratched (although after a break in last year the rest of the car is quite scratched too!) so I've emailed to double check the colour and to make sure that the damage is only cosmetic. I'll probably pay up for it, if so, and fix the scratches indoors before putting it on the car. Cheaper than one which ultimately, I'd want to get resprayed.

:rotfl: because if I didn't, I might just cry!

DD265

I can't believe how quickly I go through money. Not even so much that I'm spending willy nilly, it's more how a few bills of £130, £80, £50 and so on can really add up.

At this rate I'll have about £250 to put my car through it's MOT next week - it might just go under that! I need to come up with a plan, but so far my thoughts are:

Ask YO if I can pay November's rent (for the horse) late - I'm sure he won't mind, it's just I don't want to be playing catch up forever

Use the £140 Mom will be transferring across for the rent contribution, for the car instead *if I have to*

Lower the price on some ebay listings and list more

Mom/Dad have to take my car in for the MOT & pick it up so - give them £250 in cash (it's cheaper if we pay cash, plus it's kinda more than I want to spend on it anyway) and owe them if it goes over. Christmas present maybe?

I'm also hoping that we'll know on the vet insurance front before Christmas. I owe a reasonable amount to a friend who's been giving my horse physio and whilst she's not in a rush for it, I hate owing anybody! I can claim that on the insurance and pay her back, plus the £280 transport costs I paid last month which will help me get back on track with the rent.

I'm not taking out any more money from the bank for this, and I doubt that they'd give it to me anyway! At least I have an idea of how much I'll be paid at some point this month (really hoping before Christmas) plus I'm likely to get money for Christmas.

Looking forward, the big costs I can expect are:

December (left to do with £550 in the bank)
- MOT ?
- Tax (£60)
- Insurance (£110)
- Loan payment (£120)
- Horse's rent (£282 x 2 - one for November, one for December, it's in arrears but I should've paid November's with this months wages)

January
- Horse's rent
- Petrol
- Trip to the vets (this is only if the insurance company pay out)
- Car insurance
- Loan payment

February
- Horses rent
- Petrol
- Car insurance
- Loan repayment

I can't wait until the new year!

DD265

New year, new goals!

I haven't quite decided what mine are yet, but I know that I don't want to be left in a panicky state at the end of every month wondering if I have enough money left.

I was quite bad after Christmas and treated myself to a few too many things - nothing expensive and some were needed (like new slippers and underwear) but these things add up!

One of my new years resolutions is to re-sort my finances on Quicken. I have a £20 difference in my main account between the actual value and the Quicken-value, and I'm not sure where it came from! I've also learnt more about the functionality of Quicken so there are a few things I'd like to alter.

I intend to get back onto the financial fast and stick to it, as well as aiming for high no-spend days and I'm going to do the Payment a Day - even if it's only a penny! - as well as making as much money through other means as possible.

I'm also going to start working the maximum possible hours at work - on a normal day I can do up to 1 hour's overtime (and still take the 30 minutes unpaid break).

There are two reasons for this; a) more money and b) I'm working towards another pay rise and ideally a promotion when a position opens up.

I don't know how much debt I'll pay off this year but I know that my graduate account has an annual £500 decrease in the overdraft limit, so I'll need to be prepared to pay £500 of that off. I think the thing that will help me most is keeping Quicken up to date, so that's my new challenge!

Kayleighpea

Hi DD265 - Happy New Year! Is a perfect time to reevaluate your goals, i've done the exact same thing on my diary and signed up to lots of challenges.

Make sure you keep posting to update us all on your progress - it definitely helps to keep your motivation up! I've let it slip so many times but have got my determined head on at the mo!

DD265

Thanks for the good wishes.

I'm not doing very well on the payment a day right now. I just kind of wonder whether a penny is actually worthwhile given the interest on my CC, so I haven't done it! Maybe putting it into a savings account and then paying off a lump sum later would be better, or perhaps it is more about getting into the mentality of constantly chipping away at the debts.

I'd ask the bank to stop the card and freeze the balance, but this is going to be my "emergency fund" whilst I pay off my bank loan afterwards. Also, I have a graduate account (with the full overdraft) which increases by £500 per year - so at some point this autumn? I expect it to go down. Really, I need to find out when as obviously I'll need to pay off this amount too!

I've decided that short term, what I really want is to not feel constantly panicky about whether or not I have enough money for the month. I feel one step closer towards that goal this month, as I know that provided Mom pays the money she owes me across, I can cover everything expected. It helps that I sold £50 worth of stuff today! :T