Moving south for winter

FlacosFloozie

Hi snozberry. Not a daft question- I didn't know either but yup a small tanker drives up to the freont door and they run a pipeline up the drive to the tank at the back. its kind of fun but I just begrudge how much the oil costs.... mse me

FlacosFloozie

The increased take home pay does make things a lot easier. I suspect I'll lose it next tax year so don't want to get used to it. I think some will go to the debt but the rest is going to be going into savings pots for the cars and heating. I can budget for monthly expenses but I'm not so good at the infrequent ones

FlacosFloozie

Another payday :j My big achievement of the month is that neither bank account went into the overdraft! They've never been much but I always feel so stupid having to pay the charges for a few pounds. It also shows I am managing to budget, albeit imperfectly

So I've made the regular payments to the ccs and an extra £10. I'm transferring money out of paypal to make another payment for next week. I've added another £100 to my savings account. This leaves me with an extra £133 spare this month but we are going to visit family so I'm holding on to it to cover some of the extra petrol etc... finally planning ahead

I do also have a confession My cc have offered me a 0% money advance for a year and I have taken and spent it. It's covered the cost of OH car insurance (although credit to him he managed to haggle nearly £70 off) and travel and accomodation costs for a conference he has to go to. I just didn't have enough in savings yet and my only other choice was interest charging ccs.

I've decided not to add it to my sig yet as when I get the cheque through from the tax people (hopefully next month) I will take it out of that. If there isn't enough to cover it then I will add it to my total. It doees feel like cheating though and reminds me again just how much more money we would have free each month if it wasn't for the debts :mad:

HappyNow

FlacosFloozie wrote: »

Another payday :j My big achievement of the month is that neither bank account went into the overdraft! They've never been much but I always feel so stupid having to pay the charges for a few pounds. It also shows I am managing to budget, albeit imperfectly

So I've made the regular payments to the ccs and an extra £10. I'm transferring money out of paypal to make another payment for next week. I've added another £100 to my savings account. This leaves me with an extra £133 spare this month but we are going to visit family so I'm holding on to it to cover some of the extra petrol etc... finally planning ahead

I do also have a confession My cc have offered me a 0% money advance for a year and I have taken and spent it. It's covered the cost of OH car insurance (although credit to him he managed to haggle nearly £70 off) and travel and accomodation costs for a conference he has to go to. I just didn't have enough in savings yet and my only other choice was interest charging ccs.

I've decided not to add it to my sig yet as when I get the cheque through from the tax people (hopefully next month) I will take it out of that. If there isn't enough to cover it then I will add it to my total. It doees feel like cheating though and reminds me again just how much more money we would have free each month if it wasn't for the debts :mad:

Well done FF on keeping out of the overdraft and on actually having money left over this month to cover your extra petrol etc .

0% for a year is a good way to pay for the car insurance if you didn't have the savings yet, and you have plans afoot to pay it off so that's brilliant.

FlacosFloozie

So we're managing a low spend this weekend. Went for a long walk at a country estate (we're NT members so no admission charge) well wrapped up against the rain We did spring for lunch in the cafe so not an NSD but a LST and within our entertainment budget.
I've also been baking like a good 'un. More chocolate buns, double choc chip cookies and an experimental coffee cake which seems to have gone down well with Mr FF. All ingredients from stores and a special mention for the lovely lady at work who keeps giving us extra eggs from her hens
Tonight its homemade chicken curry and I may open the last bottle of white...

FlacosFloozie

NSD today. Got some housework done then a fun afternoon playing silly board games and snacking on homemeade baking. Dinner from stores- beef in red wine from the freezer with part baked bred and some more of yesterdays white wine

Need to decide if we want to go shopping tomorrow. Have a £5 voucher off a £40 spend in Mr Ts that expires. We don't need much at all but I could stock up on non perishables for the month. Hmm.....

snozberry

It sounds like you had a lovely day

FlacosFloozie

Yup- just what we needed to recharge our batteries Hope you're enjoying the long weekend too.

FlacosFloozie

Ventured into the new al@i in town today. Good selection of fruit/veg/meat all cheaper and better quality than Mr T. Their choc digestives are not as good as McVities but are perfectly edible and at 59p a packet I'm converted :rotfl:

FlacosFloozie

Well tomorrow is 6 months since I started this diary so I thought I should take a look at how things have gone.
I have paid off over three grand of debt and this is good :j however I have not met the target I was aiming for . Ideally I would have paid off 1/3 of the total by now, another £1383.
I'm possibly overambitious in wanting to be debt free before 35. It may need to wait til the following Christmas but I'm going to keep trying.
I'm still in an ongoing debate with the tax office. Good news is I got a letter saying they will agree to my expenses claims :j bad news is that they've said since I underpaid tax in those years that they will take it from the ammount owing so I have a pile of revised tax calculations. However, I finished paying all of that back last year so this means I will have paid too much tax and be owed a rebate! It just seems like a delaying tactic on their part. Also no mention of the pension side of things which I was told was being looked at by the same people :mad: I forsee more long phonecalls.... It will be great if I can get something back but it would have been fantastic to get it this month as part of my 0% deal is about to end. I may have to look at another balance transfer...
My budgeting skills have improved and we're much more in control of what we're spending now.
I have braved ebay and it has been helpful. I just need to keep plugging away as I think it is the best way for me to bring in a few extra pennies.
I've also met some really great people on here and would like to thank everyone for their support and advice:beer:
My aim for 12 months to have paid back £8000. Wish me luck!