Balancing not just the budget

moneyonmymindsam

Hello busy bee 
Just popped in to leave you some love 
Stay safe 
Sam x

RosaBernicia

moneyonmymindsam said:

Hello busy bee 
Just popped in to leave you some love 
Stay safe 
Sam x

Sam!!  Thank you, how lovely to hear from you!  How are you?   Have I missed a new diary of yours? 

Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Some financial frog eating and thinking going on here. 

• Finally switched the electric and gas - bad timing as had forgotten to send in readings the last couple of months and although the direct debit looks to be about right for my usage I am in arrears to the tune of about £400.  Still going to do it, will just clear the arrears with the emergency fund and build that back up as well as budgeting more during winter. I've switched off the heating, hassled my employer about tax relief for working from home and will look at those plug things I had that help reduce consumption for things on standby. 
  
• Food spending is still a bit silly but am calming it down a little now click and collect slots are available.  That should mean I can do one collection run for basics and just do one shop for treats.  Unimpressed to find they use masses of carrier bags, but not much I can do about it at this point.  I got thoroughly fed up with giving up a weekend morning to go to the NHS shopping hour and I don't want to get up three hours earlier on a working day either, and some things still aren't consistently in stock. 
• I've been making use of the MSE round up of NHS discounts.  Pleased to find 20% discounts on clothing brands I do wear and have also got a cashback prepaid debit card which should effectively save me 5% on M&S among other things.  Haven't used one of those before so will be investigating how I set it up. 
• The van is due its tax at the end of this month and insurance a few days later.  It would also be due its MOT, though that should be pushed back by 6 months.  There is enough in the pot to cover the tax but not the insurance, thanks to its repairs last year, so the insurance and breakdown will have to come out of June pay.  I am ringing round for insurance quotes (very annoyingly, you can't do online comparisons for campervans) and have managed to get the costs down significantly compared to last year, thank goodness - a difference of about £350.  Funnily enough, the renewal quote is not that cheap.  I will probably go via a broker associated with one of the clubs and also take their breakdown, which isn't quite the cheapest option but I think the quality is probably worth the difference. 
  
• Not sure what is going to happen with the house situation, except that I don't feel I want to stretch the budget.  Just sitting on the deposit until the market opens up again and trying to add to it if possible, though doing rather badly at that atm. 
  
• It may be time to look for a different cashback or points card - there's no local supermarket here to get points on my old one. 
  
• Two new monthly bills - joined the union and got a paid Zoom account. Which doesn't state the tax on its monthly cost, btw - just had to check when the bill amount came through, so not impressed about that but the cost is currently still worth it. 
  

Hope you are all safe and well and having more fun than frog eating

Rosa xx

bellevie

I feel your pain re recent food shop spending, our shop spend went through the roof, although we've had less treats becoming reliant on the local t express where things are all a little more expensive than the big store, it makes quite a difference after a few weeks / months doesn't it!

That's a great find re NHS discounts, especially clothes you do wear. Our council has a few discount options but nowhere I really spend money at. I joined reward me, its by the lady who manages the 'feed your family for £20' page I think it started on facebook, she has now got a book, website etc. The reward app you buy a voucher online before or during your shop depending on the supermarket or whichever shop  % offer, you end up paying a little less via the app. I was only able to use it once before lockdown....I haven't tried it with the t express, probably should have!

Good luck with the van bills coming up, I hope you get to use it again soon!

xx

RosaBernicia

Thanks @bellevie

I'm quite impressed with the discount card, the cashback one is fantastically simple as it has an app - I can just transfer money across before I head out and it's loaded to the card within a few minutes.  (I was reminded last time that there's a mobile reception blackspot at the local retail park, so have to try and remember before I get there!)  Now I just need to try and be a bit more organised about meal planning...

RB xx

moneyonmymindsam

My grocery shopping is a really high too I'm using Emma app at the moment which is eye opening but in the main its all on groceries!! So I need to keep the receipts as to what I'm over buying at the moment.  So good that NHS get discounts and well deserved too Xxx

RosaBernicia

I should probably split my groceries categories a bit to figure out where it's going, but I don't think I want to know how much I spend on chocolate

RosaBernicia

Any of you wise and lovely people have suggestions on how best to ask for money loaned to a friend to be repaid?

I never normally lend money, but felt rather cornered into it and am very disappointed to find that no mention of repayment has been made in almost a year.  That's despite the person in question knowing that I manage my own money carefully and the huge stress of the house taking so long to sell, with the result that my finances are a long way off where anybody expected them to be (at one point this person listened to me worrying that if the house didn't sell I'd be run into bankruptcy, and still didn't offer to pay back a penny). 

I've drafted a short email which I hope is clear but friendly, asking when it will be repaid and including mentioning that smaller amounts are ok.  Part of the reason I've put this off is that I know things are difficult for this friend at present - but it's the same friend who was unbothered at being behind on their mortgage, who is still not even attempting to manage their money, and I don't see why I should be scrimping to cover that money when she isn't.

I appreciate it may well be that the money is gone already - and the friendship is already affected, by both this and finding out a few other things - but I can't help wondering if there's anything I've missed or anything further I can do, so any thoughts very welcome. 

RB xx

RosaBernicia

Right, reporting in here just to keep track a bit. 

Have had a major re-organising thing as realised the house was just getting bonkers - ok I can't avoid it being cluttered at least til storage re-opens, but it doesn't need to be as bad as it was.  Reorganised rooms, sorted clothes, hoovered ruddy everything and shampooed reachable carpet.  I have one more cupboard to sort and then it's done - there are still piles in the spare room, but at least now I know what's in the boxes and there is tspace to reshuffle things.  I've also got all the clothes for 3bay separate so can get started on that too. 

Moneywise, annoyed as still haven't been paid some expenses that have been due for ages.  Managed to chase up one lot where it seems a cheque got lost, hopefully that will be en route soon, and have had to get the boss involved on another.  Have drafted email ready to send to friend who owes me money.  My budget looks way over but is within what I am owed, if it all comes back.  The expenses should, not so confident about the money lent to an individual.  Hoping the end of this month will look a bit better and I will be able to put some money aside again, though not banking on it as I may also need to get the van looked at. 

Currently...

Emergency fund £500 (much reduced as moved to new fuel supplier and paying off winter debt, since they originally set the direct debit very low - it was fine with me at the time but needs sorting now)

Savings £150 (yes it should probably really just go in the emergency fund but it annoyed me to see it empty)

Mortgage deposit not as high as I'd like, but ok.  Still waiting on response to complaint about exit fee issues. 

I did buy myself some summer bedding as that is needed rather than just wanted, but otherwise being very restrained.  Partly because I realised I've far more clothes than I need especially if working from home another few months - don't even need shoes

Hope all is well in the rest of MSE land

RB xx

RosaBernicia

Dashing in to report a mini win that nobody in RL would understand...

Checking my credit reports I found a phone company account still running, with a company I haven't used in 2 1/2 years.  Made a complaint and told them to get it off my record.  First they insisted they couldn't find it, until I dug out the paperwork, then they called this evening and insisted I owed them £40.  When I refused to pay it and pointed out I have received no requests for it in over 2 years, and that if I really hadn't paid when requested it should be showing as a default not green on my credit report, the customer service rep agreed to check with another department.  Turns out they owe me £40... which should be turning up in my bank shortly.  It might actually have been worth chasing