Paying the car tax via EBay, and other shenanigans.

mfmaybe

I am feeling a bit meh about some things so hoping a post can gain me perspective.

Putting aside the horror of the US election, there have been a number of things to annoy. We nearly achieved my big life goal, by putting in an offer for a house. It was a self build with land so we could do it before selling here; but we lost out by what sounds like only £2-3k. Never mind, there must be something better out there. Then I discovered a crack on my car windscreen, and it's actually my fault as I managed to drop the wiperblade arm on to it when the blade wasn't attached. My landrover won't start which is bad timing at the start of winter. And then the watch of the hugely expensive service isn't working. Obviously the service comes with a warranty but it's a combination of massive disappointment and big inconvenience. And funnily enough my call hasn't been returned. There are also tons of little admin issues - tried to log onto tesco to sort clubcard vouchers and there's some "this account is already linked to a clubcard message". The reminder on my phone didn't come up yesterday so I forgot to cancel HelloFresh next week. And the viewer we had lined up for Tuesday is now coming tomorrow morning. I've got to go and pick up leaves everywhere that I'd already done, and clean the house again. Still, she might buy the house so I better make an effort.

OK whinge over. I have now spoken to the jeweller about my watch so will get that sent off later today.

mfmaybe

OK so it has just got really spendy around here.


New car seat (essential). Got cashback on it.
New mattress (Amazon daily deal, less than half price, replacing a 12 year old one. Essential).
Present for a friend's baby (bought in outlet store, only £6.50)
Card for same baby
New slippers for me (not quite essential but in our cold house they are great for working from home. Also bought in the outlet store)
Christmas present for DS £55 secondhand for a stack of Happyland toys. We may get our relatives to give it to him though so might work out cost neutral.
2 dressing gowns for DS. A towelling one for swimming and a fleecy one for home. Both off fleabay secondhand.
Waterproof trousers and a new hose attachment. Off Fleabay and both winter essentials for doing the horses. Redemeed nectar points as get half the £10 back in points, so only £5 cost in total. Although I need to check the points come back.
Present for a very good friend who has been helping out with the horses recently.

I don't even want to add it all up but I don't think any of it was exactly frivolous.

And to refer back to my grumpy last post. The landrover jump started easily, I think the indicator had been left on. My watch has been sent back to Switzerland (at no charge to me) and apparently they will "prioritise" it. I've already skipped next week's meal delivery, but hopefully the reminder will appear on my phone anyway.

I do have something else listed on a selling site, but I might really have to get serious about clearing out our house!

mfmaybe

Something I need to do - go back through my expenses and track unbudgeted spends, whether it's the expensive car seat or the 99p book for my kindle; and make sure it ALL goes in next year's budget. Or doesn't, and doesn't get spent.

mfmaybe

Just looking at my "unbudgeted" spends just now and reminded myself DH owes me £40. Recently I've not been asking him for his half of stuff on my CC as he pays plenty himself, including our weekly shop a lot of the time. But these are work expenses that he gets back so I don't feel guilty . Anyway if I can get that from him, it will solve my gap on my goal of having £100 put away. It doesn't solve the bigger problem of all the other stuff I've put on the card though. :eek:

In a nice surprise, I received a surprise £10 am@x!n voucher for a survey I did recently. Well it hasn't hit my email yet, so I've refrained from spending it quite yet.

So a sample of things I spent money on that weren't in budget:

Knitting yarn
itunes monthly fee (79p)
Kindle books (99p normally)
Parking fine. Grrrr
Credit card annual fee
Survey and marketing for house sale
Septic tank empty

I massively overspent on our "house repairs" fund but that was a mix of getting DS' room ready and getting the house on the market. Our food shop is also out of control. Most of this would be fine but as I'm £600/mth down on income right now, after being off on mat leave, it's a bit tight.

mfmaybe

Update on Goals
[STRIKE]GOAL 1 - Credit card for this month below £350. DONE[/STRIKE]
GOAL 2 - Earn at least £100 non salary to pay some of it. £65.03
GOAL 3 - Look at higher paying savings accounts. Started
GOAL 4 - Only spend £20 on Kid stuff - clothes, equipment etc. £10.
GOAL 5 - Spend a maximum of £10/week in the office (Food, coffee). Use cash. Think I managed most weeks
GOAL 6 - Set up reward account for cashback Done - £7 so far
GOAL 7 - make next month's card balance below £300. Food and fuel only. This will be 26/10-25/11. FAIL!!! Massively over, due to watch service. Plus the mattress and the car seat. Regular fuel and food ok though.

Need new goals for coming month. Will have a think.

mfmaybe

So a new pay month. This month I should be able to keep most of my annual bills money aside rather than having to pay it back out, but it's still very tight, and also have a massive CC bill for next month to plan for. So again wondering how I can close the gap, given the big drop in income I have.

1poll is at £25. This won't pay out any time soon.
Boots points about £57. Could be a possibility for Christmas - stocking fillers?
Nectar points £100 - double points on toys this week I think.
Amazon vouchers - £110.
Sw@g - not much, about 680 points.
Clubcard vouchers TBC
Cashback rewards - about £7 in own account and £11 in joint account
TCB - £16
Quidco - not much
Paypal - nothing
M&S - £114 - presents?
Gap - DS has about £70 on a gift card. For his own clothes only.

So if I could buy presents using my vouchers I could reallocate some of the Christmas savings money to regular savings. Unfortunately most of the things I need to spend real money on, are just bills. DD's, horse feed, that sort of thing.

Really hoping this favour I'm doing will not carry on for too many more months as it's making things feel very squeaky.

mfmaybe

Yikes. Just received a gas delivery the other day (bulk LPG) and we've used 500 litres in a month - that's £200 :eek:. The ppl is about as low as we can get so going to have to turn heating off more. It's only November so that's a worry.

mfmaybe

Well it's been a sunny day today so heating has been off. Have turned thermostat down a bit overnight and playing with radiators. DS has a couple of 3.5 tog sleeved sleeping bags at the ready for when it gets cold. Have to keep that spend under control. I have a hot water bottle cuddled in to me just now. Though it's just kicked in at 3.15, temp at 15.5C

Food has to be next. I am cancelling Hello Fresh again next week. Need to have a look and see what we have in stores. Lots of quinoa. A couple of YS chicken breasts in the freezer. A big batch of veggie chilli, that I will freeze a couple of portions of. Some lentils in the cupboard. Must have a look to see what I can make soup out of. Homemade bread. Porridge when at home (have cereal in the office, to see me through next week). DS usually takes up a fair whack of the budget. Yoghurt, blueberries and bananas normally :rotfl:. He's a good eater but a bit meh about veg, but he does like the smooth pouches so we try to have a few of those in the house. I think he might also be a bit bored of my batch cooked meals so better think up some new ones.

Bank account. Current prediction takes me to £140 o/d if I don't touch my savings. At a push I might manage to cut another £60 or so off it, but it's mainly fixed DDs that drive it. The good news is, that will still include most of my "set aside for annual bills" this month. I've also not used the £65 I currently have in my credit card account (see the bad news). So the bad news is, that doesn't allow for me setting aside anything for the big credit card bill to pay next month, or for anything I would put on the card normally (food, fuel etc).

So goals
GOAL 1. Nothing else on CC for next 2 days
GOAL 2. Next month's card (to 25 Dec) to be food, fuel, Christmas only. I have money set aside for presents. Excluding presents, £300 maximum.
GOAL 3. Other card to be only £80. Mainly horse feed. Should be less.
GOAL 4. Spend no more than £30 on DS (main present already bought)
GOAL 5. Each niece/nephew £25 (£50 my share). Family secret santa £60. Friend secret santa £10. DH £100 plus £50 from DS. Might make this less. Aim for £300 all in.
GOAL 6. Continue with £10/week in office.
GOAL 7. £400 into CC account at least. Currently £65 with £40 due from DH. Yikes, no idea how to do this.:eek:

mfmaybe

OK so I've just done an energy comparison and a switch. As we are on LPG for heating, we can't use dual fuel, and therefore the savings aren't so great. I've done a meter reading; I think we are a bit behind but not catastrophic, however I could aim to try to slow that down a bit until we change supplier - I've also switched. Wasn't a huge saving but it is a fix with no exit penalty; and also some cashback which pays after 3 months. So note to self is to check in 3 months for the cashback, and also look at the price again. I think it was a comparative 12.55p vs 15.2p; plus the £15 cashback. So around mid February I should check up on that.

I also need to look at my horse insurance, which is so expensive now - about £650/year.

mfmaybe

GOAL 1. Nothing else on CC for next 2 days DONE
GOAL 2. Next month's card (to 25 Dec) to be food, fuel, Christmas only. I have money set aside for presents. Excluding presents, £300 maximum. £0
GOAL 3. Other card to be only £80. Mainly horse feed. Should be less. £78.50. Forgot about hairdresser.
GOAL 4. Spend no more than £30 on DS (main present already bought) Nothing else so far.
GOAL 5. Each niece/nephew £25 (£50 my share). Family secret santa £60. Friend secret santa £10. DH £100 plus £50 from DS. Might make this less. Aim for £300 all in.
GOAL 6. Continue with £10/week in office. Ok this week
GOAL 7. £400 into CC account at least. Currently £65 with £40 due from DH. Yikes, no idea how to do this. Still £65

So things remain on track from a spend perspective. Managed to not buy anything on Black Friday though that may turn out to be a mistake in some cases. Otherwise just trying to think how else we can keep pennies tight.