The Ultimate Incentive part 10. The only thing holding you back is you.

Lara44

I wish we lived nearer Birdie, I could have come and visited you. I'm so bored at home at the moment too, yet I really cannot motivate myself to do anything.

Although you never know you might not have 2 weeks left

Dinah93

tinkerbel wrote: »

so how can grace be scared of Sellotape?!

She hates the noise, shes such a wuss about it bless her!

clearmydebts wrote: »

I know I mentioned this before, but what about selling your house? Is there much equity in it? Could you sell, clear off your debts, have a lump sum and rent somewhere. Just enjoy being with Grace without any money worries for a year or 2? Renting isn't as bad as you think. We have rented since 2007 and although I am dying to have a house, it will take longer because I am a part-time worker. I'm not saying this is the right thing to do, but it's an option.

It's an option we're discussing. Selling would clear our debts, give me the money to start the business, and we'd still have a bit in savings even after paying his dad back for the bit he put in when we bought the house. However it's going to cost more to rent than to pay the mortgage, which makes NIM very resistant.

clearmydebts wrote: »

Is anyone going away on holidays this year? We are having another staycation!

Nope, we were going to Tuscany, parents paying for all but the flights, but now no job = no holiday.

Lara44 wrote: »

I'd prefer something casual from home (but wouldn't everybody).

If you find something that needs many people, let me know, I'm yet to find anything work from home that isn't a con!

tinkerbel wrote: »

If you need any help with you return let me know I might be able to help hopefully uphill get a nice refund!
Paying the redundancy will save interest on the cc I suppose which will be good!

Tink I need you! I screwed up somewhere, and despite making a huge loss on my craft business it says I owe 80p. I'm not sure if this is because my income last year was only £9949.64, on which I paid £368.00 in tax, but I still think I'm due something back.

There's no rush on the wedding Ruby, you're right to wait till you feel secure. I sometimes wish we'd slowed down a bit, just so I could enjoy the process more.

Lara44 wrote: »

Also managed a pair of converse suede basketball boots for £35 delivered as the last pair split. And some half price unused reusable nappies, hurrah.

Any chance the nappies were from a website? I'm keen to try reusables now we're getting nearer to potty training instead of pull ups but still not with a nappy feel to them.

Lara44

Hmm... not sure Dinah. They are all quite nappy-like. There is a dazzling array of options, though and I have seen some training pant type things. I've been looking only at the birth-to-potty ones. The best place to find out about all the different options I think is The Nappy Lady because she has videos that show what's going on inside the nappy - something you can't tell from pictures online. I've got mine from Gumtree and a range of sites, because the nappies I wanted are having certain colours discontinued, so am stocking up on them. If you don't need to use them for too long you can get really good prices on pre-loved, especially on Gumtree which might be a fab moneysaving option.

kavics17

I use reusables Dinah, I'm actually loving them. Will take a pic of my stash and put it on FB. I tried different ones but the ones that fit toddler Kavics and the less hassle is the pocket ones. I don't like the two part system at all where you out the nappy plus a waterproof cover. I like Lollipop pop'n'gro and ebay cheapies, I can recommend a seller who sells quality nappies for £3 each. I use microfibre boosters as they dry in 3 hours or so, the lollipop ones are actually better quality than the ebay ones and hold onto the wee longer. Bamboo boosters dry in a day or two, I have no capacity for that. I also use appr. 13 nappies and wash every 3rd day. Overnight we are in disposables mainly because I'm afraid she will wake up if feeling too wet. I recommend actually aldi disposables, they are cheap and good quality. I don't use nappy wipes but cut a couple of Muslins into pieces and use them as wipes with water, wash them with the nappies. I am pretty sure I saved already hundreds of pounds.

kavics17

Oh and I made lots of money on gumtree buying the nappies cheap than selling them for more if I didn't like the,. They really hold onto the value. The ones that are a pain to get rid of are the OneLife birth to potty ones. Lollipop I buy on ebay for half price when they have seconds (labels cut out but same quality) from teamlollipop. I also bought from their website, they have sales often, like 5 nappies for £25.

Birdie85

I just can't decide what to do about reusable nappies... OH goes green at the idea but it works out so much cheaper! But... we have a tiny flat with limited drying space so not really got the room to be drying nappies on top of everything else all the time! Will see how we get on and maybe make a switch in summer so we can dry outside.

Had a lovely day yesterday as I got a visit from Cinny, Dinah and Grace (who gave me a taste of what's to come with having a lively child running about the place dropping party rings everywhere!) Lots of cake and treats and generally just a nice girly time, was lovely so thank you for making the trip girls!

Will have to do something nice with OH today to make up for kicking him out yesterday afternoon but I'm so rubbish at the whole moving around thing that I don't know what to do!

wendz86

Aww that is lovely ! Glad you had a lovely time with the girls.

wendz86

Aww that is lovely ! Glad you had a lovely time with the girls.

Dinah93

Was lovely to see you, I'm sorry my tiny monster was such a destructive force. I'm blaming the sugar I'd made up a bag of scraps, fabric pens, beads etc so we could do some onesie decorating, and then really stupidly left it in the hall at home!

I was a bit put off reusables the first time as my attitude was that we had enough to contend with without any more faff taking my time away from Grace. However now I have a better understanding of how easy they can be I'd be more up for trying them. When I was looking it seemed to be over £200 for a starter kit, and I can honestly say we're only just starting to get close to spending that much on nappies and she's nearly 2 (but we buy in bulk from Amazon rather than as needed at the supermarket, we had about 30 packs of free huggies from those vouchers when she was little as well). I'm not sure I like the idea of carrying around soggy or soiled nappies when we're out and about though, I'd be tempted to use disposables on a day out.

Maybe the cinema Birdie? Drive there, lots of sitting with a bucket of popcorn?

Grace off with mum this morning so I'm just trying to do all the jobs its hard to do when shes here, namely hoovering and steam mopping, two things she's terrified of. Then I'm going to sort some more books and dvds out of the guest room to trade in, and pack up the couple of amazon parcels which have sold in the last couple of days.

In money news I managed to make a boob and overpay the Amex by £149 this month, so wahay, no bill like usual as I've paid it as we've spent it (and forgot about some refunds going back on) but booo as thats £149 less we can pay off the debt this month. Will make next month easier though as we'll already be that much ahead so can pay it off then.

NIMs petrol on Thursday has come off the card 3 times, need to see if any of them are refunded otherwise its time to start working out how to get £79.68 x2 back off Shell (yes, we use petrolprices.com to get the cheapest fuel price and that isn't usually Shell, but Shell is on his route and only 0.01p more than the morrisons garage 4miles out the way so we figure for an 8 mile round trip its actually going to cost more iykwim?)

tinkerbel

Have you claimed for this business before? I think you need to be very careful because hmrc won't usually let you claim tax back if they think the business is a hobby business so check their rules on that..
Otherwise the £368 sounds right with the income but if you have usable losses from the business I would expect you to get a refund.. How much are the losses? The 80p might be because of rounding.. I think there should be a box to say something like "use losses against current year income" rather than carrying them forward against future profits... Have you seen anything like this to tick?

But yeah I would have expected you to get a refund and I don't know what's happened sorry if you post on the tax board here (I know you don't have much time!) there are some more experienced people who should be able to help you better..