would love to be mortgage free!

Peonie

Well done getting the electricity and gas units down but I was sorry to read about you getting overdrawn; do you have a free overdraft facility?

I felt deflated at the end of last year when month after month when I repeatedly went over my monthly incomings; but it will get better. And I hope you feel better soon.

coldcazzie

Peonie wrote: »

Well done getting the electricity and gas units down but I was sorry to read about you getting overdrawn; do you have a free overdraft facility?

Yes... but it's only free up to £250. The other £250 has fees... but it was only today's transactions that put us over the £250, and then I transferred the money back in so I'm hoping we won't get charged. Cross all fingers and toes!

I felt deflated at the end of last year when month after month when I repeatedly went over my monthly incomings; but it will get better. And I hope you feel better soon.

I'm sure it will, and I'm sure I will, thank you. I haven't felt so drained today so think I'm coming out of it now I rang my mum and ranted at her, and she in turn ranted at me about one of her btl properties which is going through a rough patch at the moment and we reassured each other that there's always peaks and troughs.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Caz, just a gentle reminder that you have all been ill, you have made a fab cake, put on a brilliant party and now you and next little one are ill, I'm not surprised you feel frustrated. You should be giving yourself a huge pat on the back.

You have so much energy, focus and drive - I find your diary inspiring so have a day or two to get better properly then back in the driving seat.

Night Tilly x

coldcazzie

Thanks Tilly. To be honest, my frustration is mostly bike related: I feel like every time I'm getting somewhere the bike comes along and eats up all my nicely saved up money.

I think we might need a bike contingency fund. Not to cover tax, insurance, mot etc, but to cover the inevitable "oh I dropped it, I need parts". It will need to be separate from normal bike maintenance costs and also will have to be secret, so he doesn't spend it on upgrades. I said yes to the engine, but said he wasn't allowed new brake lines this year which is something he'd asked for last year.

I've been considering the possibility of being a bit more specific with our savings pots: x months of outgoings saved up in case of joblessness, plus x amount of house emergency savings, plus x amount of bike emergency savings, plus specific pots like new bathroom/kitchen/garden/whatever it is we're currently saving for.

Sandstone

Hi, I dropped by just to say that I've caught up from the beginning of your diary and just wanted to say that I think you're doing great.

Well done on all the progress Caz!
As Tilly says, you should think about treating yourself with something in recognition of your ongoing success in the face of illness and other hardships.

Doesn't have to cost anything. Maybe an evening off from the usual spreadsheets and online banking and internet research, etc., and instead just enjoy your favourite film and a chocolate or something?

Also, I don't know much about motorbikes but would there be any resale value in the old motor? Possibly worth checking now that you've decided to replace it.

coldcazzie

Hi Sandstone, thanks very much for your kind words (also welcome to MSE!)

I had the same thought about the engine and asked the same question. However, I am informed that he has to keep the old engine. He wants to take it apart in our garage and find out what's wrong with it, eventually aiming to fix it and put it back in the bike. If he ever comes to sell the bike on then the vin numbers on the bike and on the engine need to match to get a higher resale price. He did say though, that if he puts the current engine back in then he could sell the replacement one on again. It's all very confusing and I don't pretend to fully understand it!

This will sound very odd, but this week and last week, while we've been having the January low, my magnum plec has been unusually active before bedtime and it gives me great joy to see him as he's really very shy (I can easily go weeks without seeing him!) - I won't go so far as to imply that "somehow he knows" because that's silly, but it has made me feel a bit better seeing him so often in such a short space of time

coldcazzie

So I've been researching further about these. Rang T-mob and found that I have used less than 150 minutes per month for the past 6 months, but they say they don't track the usage of "unlimited" data so no idea how much data I use per month.

These are the options I've narrowed it down to:

coldcazzie wrote: »

Three Sim300 300 mins, 3000 texts, 1gb data, pictures 30p: £10pcm
Tesco 500 mins, 5000 texts, 500mb data, pictures 25p: £10pcm
Giffgaff 250 mins, unlimited texts, unlimited data, pictures 16p: £10pcm (payg)

On Giffgaff:

They're all 12 month contracts apart from Giffgaff, but considering my usage I don't think I would actually use the credit outside of the free stuff. Perhaps what I need to do is work out what my normal usage would cost on their standard charges, and work out if I could get 1 month of free mins/texts etc, and then use the £10 credit in the following month, which would then reduce my spending to £10 every 2 months. I will update later on this.

Doesn't work like this, unfortunately. You use all your £10 topup to purchase the goodybag. So I'd have to topup extra to be able to send picture messages, and would have to topup the £10 each month and then purchase the goodybag each month. Not very keen on the idea of having to remember to do this each month, or on trying tp predict how many pictures I may or may not send in the next month. Trying to make life easier, not put more on my plate. Think I have to rule this out on that basis.

Leaves 3 and Tesco to wrangle with. So, later on I will make another phonecall to Tmob and see what they can do

PS: can you tell I'm feeling better?? :rotfl:

coldcazzie

I just checked our old bank account too, and discovered my PT Course Grant was paid yesterday :j:j:j:j So...what to do with this now. It's £265. Options:

1. Earmark it for bathroom/kitchen and put it in savings.
2. In addition to the money I have in Paypal, plus birthday money from friends/parents, use it to make up the shortfall for purchase of replacement bike engine.
3. Use it to pay the balance for our holiday (£110), plus hire the car (£150-200).
4. Add it to the OP pot.

I think the most sensible thing to do would be to have it available to purchase the new engine (along with the money from ebay sales and gifts) then anything that's left use towards the holiday. On that note I'm going to leave it where it is, so it's seperate and I can forget about it, and I will transfer the money I have in my paypal account into there as well.

coldcazzie

Incomings
DH wage:..................1192.88
CB:....................... 188.40
CTC:...................... 657.84
WTC:....................... 11.51
Total:....................2050.63

Outgoings
Sky:....................... 55.00 (inc. TV, phone, www)
Water:..................... 38.50 (estimate)
Gas:....................... 85.00
Elec:...................... 55.00 (left these the same as I've no idea what they'll be once we change suppliers, I'd like to get them below £100 for both)
Council Tax:............... 97.00 (no rise in 12/13)
Mortgage:..................499.96
Mobiles:................... 37.00
Life Assurance:............ 28.69
Boiler Cover:.............. 20.00
Cat Ins:.................... 7.44
Monitored Alarm:........... 27.50
Christmas Savings:......... 23.91
Mag Subscription:........... 2.00
Milkman:....................32.40 (he is investigating whether we can pay by 4 wkly SO)
Purchases:.................700.00 (new aim)
(Petrol:...........~150.00)
(Food:.............~450.00)
(Other Things:.....<100.00)
FD Regular Savings:........300.00 (this is now officially the kitchen savings pot)
Total:....................2009.40

Remainder:..................41.23

Doesn't look too bad, assuming I can keep the credit card below £700 each month, plus we can keep our fuel usage down. The changes in TC etc won't come into play until April obviously, but as we currently get more than we will in 12/13 it makes sense to plan around the lower amounts

Mimi09

Hi Caz....I'm intrigued, whats a 'magnum plec'?! I'm imagining a hamster dressed in leathers for some reason!