Paying the car tax via EBay, and other shenanigans.

mfmaybe

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

I'd throw it at the boiler. That one is so close to being wiped out.

You are right it's nearly done. Need to keep the focus. Wandered into a few shops yesterday and bought nowt. So far I think our cash holiday budget remains in line. Making very reasonable food choices etc. But I'm going to wish I'd saved up better, I know!

mfmaybe

roxy7699 wrote: »

Morning.
Well done on the budget of sorts, along with the thrifty holiday choices.
Going to start checking in more often, you are right, when you sway off the boards the attention to detail goes too

It's true. I've slipped right back into coffees and things. I'm getting to the stage of realising its time to start saving up better. Originally I was just nailing the debt and then letting the "surprise" bills do their worst but it's demoralising now.

I'm not entirely sure I'd say our holiday choices were thrifty but for us as a couple we know what feels like money we are prepared to spend and what we aren't. So right now I'm sitting on a beautiful terrace overlooking the mountains. But we got a great deal, I used nectar points towards it, I'm drinking the free coffee from the room and we will grab pastries from a bakery, not the $30/head hotel breakfast!

Hope you are well Roxy, will pop over to your diary later.

roxy7699

Wow that sounds amazing.
Enjoy!

mfmaybe

Well I am back from holiday, this week has been mega busy at work.

Credit card bill is pretty awful, because we hadn't saved up, and left all our hotel bookings until the last minute. But I managed to still have £270 left in my account on payday, have a little bit of my bonus left that I put aside for holidays, some small paypal funds and some cash kicking about. Adding to my usual "surplus"/debt repayment pot I should be able to pay the majority of it out of current paycheck. Included in that was my new winter coat that's been on a list of things I need to buy, and I've replenished my work wardrobe. I rarely shop for clothes so these didn't feel too splurgy-y!

Bad news is that the enormous car tax needs to go on the credit card this weekend. £475 :eek: It won't need paid off until the 18th October but there is no way I can fleabay that much. Still, I'm going to try.

I refuse to feel guilty about my holiday spends anyway. We had an absolutely fabulous time and it was a very special occasion. But now, I must focus and start saving up for some big January bills.

roxy7699

Welcome home, I'm glad you had a great time.
Already having a plan is great and everyone needs a holiday!

mfmaybe

I think it will be some time before we can justify one like this again! But I'm a nightmare, already looking ahead for the next "can't miss" offer. This is where my money goes

I have made the family debt payment and updated sig. 0% card has also gone up a lot, this is the car tax (not the huge one, the other one!). So I'm not sure whether to remove my car tax target now. The last one goes on the card today. I may as well just make the 0% card the focus.

I have ordered the flooring for our bathroom renovation. We are buying the bits over time. The flooring was on sale this weekend and I've paid for it with vouchers that came from cashback. So practically cash nil. Think I'll get the shower next. Our house is full of random bathroom bits!

Managed a NSD yesterday although OH did the food shopping. Was only about £40 so pretty good. Also made up my birthday present (a cold frame!) which hopefully will help for next year. I've had a couple of things out of the garden but it's not exactly been self sufficiency. More like 2 salads and a couple of raspberries.

mfmaybe

I'm feeling odd this morning. Have had bad post holiday blues, and therefore have been petulant and sulky and behaving like a spoiled brat. I've also been travelling for work and am extremely tired. But then I've been reading diaries on here that evidence people having a truly hard time; and now I feel ridiculous for being so bratty. I need to pull my socks up.

Bathroom disaster news. Because we never save up for anything, we've been slowly buying the bits we need, I got the flooring last weekend. Whilst our bathroom is clean and fully functional, it's dated and depressing and has a carpet (ugh) and is just generally not something I love in our home. Last night though, the small crack in the loo seat became, err bigger, and one quarter of the seat broke off.:eek: Because we are going to move the toilet 90 degrees, we can't just replace the loo, it's got to be part of the whole refit. We are going to try super-glueing the seat back together for now. Glamorous, huh? :cool:

I paid the car tax. It was even more than I thought, £485. Wail....well I say paid, but I've put it on the 0% card. This must be paid off by Feb and is going to be over £6k now. So I'm going to :

Write off this month, that's all going on the holiday credit card.
Keep paying family debt off at same rate.
Remove the car tax fund from my sig, it's not relevant now.
Next month I will pay the last of the boiler back.
I will start 2 savings pots - the rent for my field, and car tax.
Everything else goes on 0% card. This must go down quickly!!

If only I didn't keep using my tap and go debit card for lunch etc.:o

Right, on with the day. I have a couple of things to list on FB selling page so I better get going.

mfmaybe

Some interest in my FB items but no hard cash yet. Fingers crossed. I'm also close to cashing out £40 on 1poll and have quite a bit in TCB after hotel bookings, but these aren't payable yet. Doesn't really matter which part of the above plan it goes to I suppose!

Achieved a fair bit yesterday (including the long forgotten HOMD which was again my lovely horse) and cleared out our utility room. This room is tiny and works very hard. It was long overdue a serious tidy. Today it smells fresh for once, let's see how long that lasts.

Not got much planned today but the weather is fairly decent so I should get outside. NSD planned, let's see if it continues!

mfmaybe

Well got a lot of the outbuildings painted on Sunday, pre-winter prep which is depressing. Luckily the stain was bought and paid for some time ago. Cashed out nearly £10 from Quidco which I'm waiting for via paypal, and sold one of my FB things for £8. Have the cash here, need to get it into my savings account for the credit card payment. Have one other thing someone is interested in, think the rest will end up on Fleabay. I'm going to be short of the full amount this month but have agreed with my OH I don't need to dip into my overdraft, he can cover it. The more I can fund elsewhere though, the less I need to catch up the month after. So every penny counts. I've got some expense claims in too, just over £100. These expenses are on my personal credit card, but I could use that payment to pay the holiday card just to reduce what I owe OH. Just a timing thing though as of course then I will have to pay my expenses myself.

Today should be a NSD unless I need to post one of the FB things. Just off to update my spreadsheet to see how the shortfall looks.

mfmaybe

Rearranged our phone and broadband, saving £30/mth. Plus a huge stack of M&S vouchers. Result. This will allow us to save up more towards other bills.

Also have £6 out of cash back towards holiday credit card.

Work expenses are heading towards my bank. This can address the shortfall towards the holiday card.

It's Friday. Hooray.