Paying the car tax via EBay, and other shenanigans.

mfmaybe

I've been re-thinking what I said about my priorities. I've decided to put any extra income to the BtL. It will be dribs and drabs - I've got £6 coming over from TCB, but I feel like I need to squeeze my current account as hard as I can, to prepare myself for not earning!

So next month, so far, looks like this:
Surplus predicted before monthly card payments: £82.
Amex payments £505 less £100 in annual bills less £28 set aside. Net £377.
Other card is a scary number but stripping out the planning application fee (comes out of savings), it's £600ish. £256 is car costs - covered from annual bills. £280 is the vet bill for the cat. Not covered. My haircut is mainly covered - so about £300 to find for that one.
So £82 less £377 less £300 is £595 to find. Yikes. :eek: I reckon I can squeeze about £110 out of the budget, mainly because I reckon I can manage without the farrier. There's £380 in predicted card spend which I won't be transferring. So still about £100 short. Really this means I can't afford to put money into the annual bills as planned. There are a couple of candidates for this - not ideal but probably ok. The problem is, this doesn't get me any nearer catching up on the cards! But next month the horse costs go down so that's my solution for that one.

Obviously the whole point of writing that down was for my own purposes - don't expect anyone else to keep track of it all :rotfl:. There are possible headwinds - I'm still not sure of the size of one of my vehicle bills; we are away next week and the budget can often get away with us; I have a night out, which is unusual. But will keep posting and confessing

mfmaybe

Just set up the mortgage as a payee so I can make overpayments. Crucially, have also deleted the old residential mortgage from my payees, so I don't pay that by mistake!

mfmaybe

A few lifemin things to do today:
[STRIKE]Collect prescriptions[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Pay Amex[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Check banking[/STRIKE] DONE
Log in to work and download payslips
Research phone tariffs. (Managed to inherit an iphone 6 but my tariff doesn't support 4G!)
Update blog
Call groundworks people
Chase on emails I sent last week (also re groundworks)
[STRIKE]Email lawyer to issue lease on flat.[/STRIKE] DONE
Make overpayment on mortgage if TCB payout is in :T

Waiting for phone to download apps, which is taking forever.

mfmaybe

Well day 1 of the pay month and I'm £10 down on budget already . I included my payrise, but think I included the gross, not the post tax amount. So I got less than was in my budget. Not an auspicious start....

Also TCB money not in yet so haven't made my overpayment yet. Itching to do this.

brizzlegirl

Keep on trucking...I think you use YNAB? Or perhaps a spreadsheet....you can always tweak. Its early enough in the month to claw something back...maybe from groceries?

mfmaybe

A spreadsheet, but using the same basic principles as YNAB I think.

Had my night out last night. Budgeted £30. Spent £20 plus a £6.70 train fare, so a few pounds clawed back there. Hope I don't have any other nights out in the whole of the next month

But in exciting news, I just made my first overpayment to the mortgage. I took a screenshot just in case it goes awry - it doesn't show straight away. It was only £5.90 - a little less than 2 days interest. The mortgage is quite small, £32,115 at last count, but it's a BTL so not that competitive at 3.99%. The problem always was that fees meant remortgaging wasn't actually worth it! An absolute ideal would be to make enough overpayments a month to cover the interest, but I'm going to take the Every Little Helps approach.

I am going to have to spend money today though. Nursery called to say DS' sunscreen was finished, so I need to get more.

mfmaybe

Sigh. Headwinds. Have a tenant lined up for my flat; but rules have changed and I need to get all sorts of electrical tests and energy certificates and stuff. About £250, plus I have a funny feeling they might say I need to upgrade the smoke alarms. It's wired to the mains but not one in every room (flat is tiny). Plus the legal fees for the lease have gone up - so every penny of the first month's rent is absorbed with new costs. Still, so far I'm still paying 40% tax so at least I can offset some of it.

mfmaybe

It's all going off here. Trying to sort issues with 3 separate properties. The rental flat legalities - in hand, I think, though I need a confirmation of appointment time which I haven't received yet. Then our current rental had its boiler service today. The engineer discovered our meter isn't working at all, so technically the boiler isn't supposed to be used until that is fixed. Have messaged our supplier. Their customer service is usually not too bad and perhaps we've been getting some free gas . And then on the new build there is another issue we need to get resolved for the planning. Shouldn't be a problem but needs effort and money spent. Sigh.

The lorry has now had its MOT, too, and has been collected, but he hadn't had time to do the bill so that's still a financial unknown. They didn't mention anything horrendous though. I've got a cap in my head of £500 (the test alone is £100); and hopefully a good bit less. I have that much set aside.

On a cheerier note, got 2 loads of washing dried on the line yesterday, and put the sheets on early this morning; they are now out there. The bleaching power of the sun is so impressive too. DS had orange stains on a white top; several loads of persil later they were still there. 2 hours on the line yesterday, all gone. I so wish we had more days like this.

brizzlegirl

Great to hear you getting through stuff despite the challenges of multiple properties! Have a good day x

mfmaybe

Thanks Brizzle. Any progress is good!

We have been away so avoided too much digital stuff, which was lovely, but I'm out of touch. Money spends while away weren't horrendous. The fuel will be covered as DH had to visit a client on the way so can claim expenses. Accommodation was free. So just the slight extra on food that always happens; and a few pounds at the local craft market. Bought a couple of jigsaws at the charity shop before going, but didn't have time to do them. Also had a small payment to the catsitter but I've covered that from my "horse holiday" pot. I need to add up the food bill but went to the shops today and it was only £35 so it might balance out.

The big news though is that my redundancy is going ahead. For reasons that don't matter, this is actually a good thing for us. We are however going to become a single income family for a while, and this means big changes to how we manage our money. Really, as a couple we've never stuck to a budget. So we are trying to get a few good habits in early. Easing off on the impulsive online purchases. Much less booze, especially during the week. Meal planning and shopping online to check we are within budget. Nothing revolutionary, just some better habits.

Right now though, there are money wins and losses. Still don't know what the lorry bill is (went up today to check). My HB income for the flat is for some reason paying me less now, so I'm nearly £40 down this month. Have costs to get it compliant with new legislation, etc. But the wins are, I've managed to do the lease myself, saving a fair whack of costs. And I should end up with double income this month. HB is paid in arrears but my new tenant will pay me in advance. This should help fill my shortfall, giving me a chance to catch up on the Amex a little. We are also going to take DS out of nursery for some of his hours, as I will not have to go back to work. And horses' costs will go down next month too.

All that though means I have a ton of stuff to do
Phone GP *2
Collect prescription
Chase on lorry bill
Arrange nurse appointment
Send paperwork in to office
Call re electrical testing in flat
Chase on EPC for flat
Pay for electrical testing in flat
Email nursery to cut hours
Follow up on lease if not returned

Umm that's enough for now. Better go and cook tea and have a think about what else I've missed.