Pollyanna

ChopinonaBudget

Finally twigged yesterday that the car stalling was the car's problem, not mine.... Took it back to the garage, they cleaned out the throttle body and some other bits I've already forgotten the name of, it works properly now the damaged wing mirror has now been fitted, as promised, and what I thought was a broken rear wiper turned out to me be not knowing where the controls were

Next on list - look online for where child lock control is kept - dropped the daughter of a friend off last night and as she tried to hop out at a red traffic light, THAT's when I realised all the child locks were on oops

ChopinonaBudget

Second attempt at Skype lesson in half an hour... I'm off round the house I their family friend, who has a stunning laptop, microphone, and speakers. It might just work this time....

ChopinonaBudget

Skype lesson worked ok, it's not perfect and there's still some techie stuff to sort, but its gettin there.
Work yesterday was completely brilliant :T I overran a lesson as I got so excited working on a sonata with a student- neither of us noticed how time had flown
And, as planned, we did a big tesco shop after work, which means I don't have to go out today, although we're free to do something if we want to (and if homework is done)

ChopinonaBudget

Full working week this week, hopefully with minimal cancellations. I've had a few more conversations with students about paying by direct bank transfer (they asked this time, I won't keep nagging!) so that's two more I can now get rid of cheques for
My daughter is very much enjoying her morning lifts to school, and it's making her mornings MUCH easier (to put it in perspective, it's literally 10 minutes in the car, but over an hour on the buses and she still gets there late every day)

I didn't really manage to accomplish much yesterday, not really sure why : all hands on deck today! I'll write another thousand words of my book, get to grips with some new music, and sort out some school stuff for daughter.
Toodles!

ChopinonaBudget

I've just adjusted my SOA to deduct a load from the bus budget now I have the car... My daughter still needs to get a bus back from school every day as I can't pick her up, so there's no real saving there, but I won't be getting the bus very much at all any more, and we won't be getting the bus together much either. I'm well aware I haven't factored in car parking or petrol, but at the moment I haven't worked out how much all of this is going to cost, so I'm leaving it a month or two till I can make a little more than a wild stab in the dark, then I'll chuck that in....

So my SOA looks wildly nice at the moment :eek: I'll just keep looking at it and pretending it's real hahahahaha

Incidentally, I now have £72 saved in my ISA for 2013 tax bill. It's not much, but it's a start, and it's creeping up continually - I've worked out a really weird figure of 7.6% which is the percentage of my gross income (before expenses, but deducting the percent of income from my PAYE job that should get taxed and stay taxed) that should net me a rough figure of approximately the right amount by January 2014. Ish. If the wind blows in the right direction....

I've never done this before, and I've never earned this amount before, so it's all guesswork, but I reckon as long as I've got roughly somewhere around my tax bill saved then at least I won't have a panic

ChopinonaBudget

Yesterday was the shortest teaching day I've had in a long time... Only 90 minutes that used to be a full day for me, I don't know how I used to make a living! And two trips to school for my daughter (one in the morning, one for a lunchtime teachers meeting... A blessed relief that I can now do this without it taking up the entire day.

On the positive side of things... (I did suspect this) I have a 'cash' budget every week for 'stuff' and every week I go through it, often ending short because of the amount of time I spent popping out to get stuff as I couldn't carry much because I was struggling to do everything on public transport or walk. Now, with the car, I got everything I need for the week in one go, (plus an extra 'I forgot' shop') and I've got more work done this week than in years, and the £30 'cash' is still in my purse bar £1 for a packs a crisps and a chocolate bar yesterday!
I'll keep taking it out weekly, but when it doesn't get spent ill chuck it back on the Barclaycard, that way it'll pay off debts/petrol costs, sort of by itself ....

ChopinonaBudget

ISA for 2014 tax is now at £86 :T advancing slowly and steadily, like the tortoise........

ChopinonaBudget

I'm not updating my signature this month. After buying the car, my finances look worse, it's embarrassing I'm not burying my head in the sand - I have everything in my spreadsheet and refer to it at least 2 or 3 times a week, but I'm not quite ready to get it public yet.

NB it wouldn't look anywhere near this bad if I had opted to pay my insurance by direct debit, but that would have cost me a h*ll of a lot more over the year (I'm talking hundreds) than chucking it on the credit card, which more than slightly irritates me.

ChopinonaBudget

Half term next week - a bit of a break for me, but a break in the income stream too.... Swings & roundabouts

ChopinonaBudget

Last day of school today I have some teaching booked in for next week so it's not completely dry all good.... I get a bit of a break but still earn enough to keep the wolves from the door.