Paying the car tax via EBay, and other shenanigans.

mfmaybe

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Have you a wish list of what your new home will have? I do and yet have no plans for moving. This will be a forever home so make sure that it's all that you've dreamt of.

I have list upon list upon list :rotfl:. It's all pretty reasonable stuff though. No swimming pools, or slides instead of stairs, or basement cinema rooms. Luckily; as we have no money for that sort of frippery. I've factored in some things like a pantry and a huge mudroom though. A place to store my wellies is high up the list!

brizzledfw wrote: »

Sounds brilliant. Be brave and have fun x

It is this balance that could be tricky! I don't have crazy plans for what I want, but at the same time I don't want to go for a vanilla box, otherwise what would be the point of self build

It is exciting though. I can't believe we have found this option. Obviously a long way to go and many possible hurdles, but it's actually a bit more than a pipe dream now.

in_need_of_direction

Dream big, get the pictures and pin them somewhere visible and then see which ones you really want to live with. I would love an en suite bathroom and some more storage space. Having had a separate utility that houses fridge, dishwasher, washing machine and freezer, I'd hate to be without that. I'd also like decent garage shelving. Regularly sized windows for reasons of curtain economy would also be great.

PurpleFairy26

We're having an extension and I was pleasantly surprised by the cost and efficiency of an architect we found. We've also talked to two builders and all thre. Have given us things to think about which means our final design is not what we had originally planned. Obviously an extension has limitations but you have so many options it's incredibly exciting hope you get things moving quickly.

brizzledfw

Surely a pool and a basement cinema aren't fripperies but essentials

Very exciting. Yep don't do bland....good design doesn't have to be more expensive. Definitely find an architect and builders who add something to the process.

It's an amazing opportunity for you. So so pleased for you

mfmaybe

Haha Brizzle yes a pool is now on the "need" list

Been very remiss in posting. And very bad on the spreadsheets. And very high on the spending. Still working out the position, but a lot is getting put on the card (all being paid off, it's not debt, but it is slowing the savings position significantly).

I don't think we've been totally extravagant, but neither have we been frugal. We relented and bought a tumble drier, after managing without for 12 years. I spent £88 in TK Maxx (3 pairs of jeans) because I basically couldn't fit in most of mine any more. Some concert tickets. Fuel costs have gone up anyway, plus we've travelled north 2 weekends in a row. I'm not being particularly careful with lunch spending. Etc Etc.

So need to rein it in as I must start putting more into savings every month.

mfmaybe

So this month is nearly over (pay-wise) and it's not that healthy! I've really overspent on lunches, brutally. So I need to figure out how to rein that in pretty quickly. Had to desperately buy some clothes and bits and bobs for the horses. Some medical stuff and a storage bill that we'd forgotten about. Lots of unusual socialising.

Cash is still ok as I have savings and the holiday got refunded, but if it wasn't for that I'd be £1750 short .

But I did get the refund, so I am in cash terms £300 in surplus. Of course what I should be doing is putting the full refund back in my savings but that's not happening. About £1k is stuff that just wasn't avoidable but the rest was still just legacy of being overspent on that card.

Plan? Well right now there is £28 surplus in the budget. Not much! I'm going to see if I can stretch out another £150 from it. I am going to put aside money for everything on the Amex :mad:. And I am going to sell 5 things on fleabay.

(Note to self, I am probably going to order a new rug for my horse, which I was also going to fund from fleabay sales!)

brizzledfw

Hope alls going well, how's the new house now you have been there a few weeks?..yes my spending on the CC has gone up too. Something about turning into Autumn???? Managing to pay off in full, but its getting tighter and we have started booking items for the big holiday too which means I need to pay for them this side of Christmas. Think I will suggest to OH that we pay absolute minimum for the girls and each other this Xmas. A token. I will also see about something minimum for family members too...hmm.. best get thinking. We are flying in around 6 weeks time..

Hope fleabay sales are going well..

mfmaybe

brizzledfw wrote: »

Hope alls going well, how's the new house now you have been there a few weeks?..yes my spending on the CC has gone up too. Something about turning into Autumn???? Managing to pay off in full, but its getting tighter and we have started booking items for the big holiday too which means I need to pay for them this side of Christmas. Think I will suggest to OH that we pay absolute minimum for the girls and each other this Xmas. A token. I will also see about something minimum for family members too...hmm.. best get thinking. We are flying in around 6 weeks time..

Hope fleabay sales are going well..

Ooh Brizzle the holiday will be so worth it though! I love where you're going, albeit it was over 10 years ago since we went. Yes our card is also ever tighter. Spending continues in a fairly scary way. The good news is it's non repeating mostly (medical) and we took a last minute trip last weekend, which was lovely, if spendy. The regular stuff is not too bad but it's being dwarfed a[STRIKE] lot[/STRIKE] bit by the one-offs. A little boost though was spending £5 on raffle tickets (from cash that had been lurking in my wallet) and receiving £10 of coffee tokens as a prize.

I'm trying to work out current position but for some reason am failing to work it out.

mfmaybe

In amazing, hasn't happened in forever news, I had a NSD in the office today. Courtesy of my coffee win, and DH making soup at the weekend. :T

This is just as well as the budget is squeaky. Essentially what's happened is lots of the above spends have gone on the cards so instead of draining my savings, I'm trying to properly account for all the spends and work out what sacrifices to make. The big one I paid this month is hopefully the worst of it. As it stands, that now leaves me with £176 to find in cash terms. It's easy to do, I could just not transfer the other budgeted Amex spends such as my next fuel fill up. But I'm trying to find other ways to resolve this. The expensive item I listed on fleabay is doing nothing. I'm not actually worried about the day to day budget; but essentially we've racked up nearly £3k in spend that we hadn't been planning on (totally don't regret it though); and I'm trying to fund it as much as possible through serious economising.

mfmaybe

Ooh so here's a bit of good news. I just remembered I have £100 in Amazon vouchers. This was cashback from a credit card scheme from a couple of years back. I have options - Christmas presents, put towards a big purchase, or just use for trickle spending. Also 1p0ll is at nearly £30 so I should keep on at that. It's usually pretty easy money once in a while.

I also remembered I had 95% done my tax return and was due a refund. However, when I had drafted it I hadn't received the catch up HB on my flat. This didn't come in to my account until July, so I could have cash accounted it and not worried about it until next year; but it would just have made next year's bill huge. So I added the relevant amounts for the rebate until April into the correct tax year :A. This now means I will have £260 to pay as opposed to a refund. I haven't been setting money aside for it as I had thought it was going to be a refund, so out of the next 3 months pay am going to have to find this. Also now means I do have to start putting money aside going forward, especially given the rules on interest payments changing.

Otherwise looking like a NSD for me, although DH bought milk earlier. Am also hoping to get another day out of the soup tomorrow, so with free coffee tokens that could be another NSD. I have been re-reading some of the earlier pages in my diary and saving on coffee and lunches was a big theme, that did make a difference. Also the food shop . Albeit there is now an extra mouth to feed since I started this diary, our food shopping isn't nearly as controlled as it used to be.

Lots to think about.