Save To Spend

Curry_Queen

tiff wrote:

They're stopping those car tax stamps at the end of the month

Stopping issuing them or also accepting them as payment towards tax?

I really need to find out if there's any way I can get my money back on the ones I have as I can't see myself having another car for some time yet. Maybe I should stick them on Ebay

crana999

curry queen - have you asked friends/family with cars if they would buy them off you?

moggins

This is what is happening with the car tax stamps

http://www.nics.gov.uk/press/env/050225a-env.htm

jaybee

Don't do the stamps thing! If you possibly can try to open a savings account and put the money in that instead. Even if you only get a few pounds a year in interest it's better than nothing!

I put a fixed amount into an instant access savings account each month to cover things like Council Tax, Water Rates, TV Licence, Car Insurance, AOL Subscription etc. It's better than letting 'them' earn interest on our money!

MATH

I've learned something exists that I didn't know did existed and that it is being phased out and will be replaced by something else that I didn't know existed but do now! This site is soooo good.

I was blind but now I see. hehehehe

tiff

You will still be able to use the stamps until next year, but wont be able to buy the existing stamps any more from the end of March. Being replaced by the savings stamps that Moggins mentioned.

I would love to use a savings account, but I'm just not disciplined enough so would rather buy the stamps and know for sure that I have the car tax covered. All other bills are paid by direct debit which is fine.

Queenie

MATH wrote:

.... Does anyone else run this kind of system. My grandmother ran it for years out of cash boxes in the blanket chest.

I do

When I took over the finances from dh a couple of years ago (he was a cc mentality - oh we need it, we'll buy on credit/loans/overdraft, drove me nuts and got us into terrible debt!) that was one of the first things I did.

We also have an AA membership and English Heritage Membership which, like TV license is annual. I remembered in my initial budget to add the TVL, but forgot the EH and AA As soon as the renewals came up, I then worked out it's percentage and added that to our monthly DD to the savings account set up for this purpose.

I deliberately "round UP" any averages and then at the end of the year, any surplus is moved over to another account. Using "Money 2004" I keep track of what I have, what's gone where etc. and it flags up bills that are due (like AA) so I don't/can't "forget".

halloweenqueen_2

I buy car tax stamps, just taxed mine so will be buying the post office saving stamps in future, £15 a month adds up, I might switch buying stamps for electric and gas bills so that I'm not tempted to pinch the money and 'pay it back' another time! I'm trying to run my little household economy out of my cash box and I'm budgeting at the moment £15 a month for emergency money, doesn't sound a lot but if i don't need it thats £180 put by in a year. As I've allotted certain amounts for groceries etc if i don't use it all that will be used for extra emergency money or put in my savings account.
I have found breaking it down and really knowing where my money is going the best thing I've ever done, its the only way you can really do something about your finances as you can see the impact of saving £30 off your home insurance for example straight away.