Paying the car tax via EBay, and other shenanigans.

mfmaybe

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

at least it was still identifiable as coffee

Only just

So today I've been a bit naughty. First I ordered 2 new work tops. ASOS sale, used cashback and an extra 10% off code. So £27 less clash back. But I really need to throw out some that are years old and really past their best. And if they are no use they will go back. I'm not much of a clothes buyer but sometimes needs must.

Then I spent nearly £50 on my mini companion pony. :eek: first a new grazing muzzle, she lost hers and it's vital for her health. Also an extra little haynet so I can soak her hay, and a new head collar as her last one broke. So nothing frivolous but I still feel bad.

Also I almost had a NSD yesterday but decided to take my horse to a local show jumping competition after work. He's brand new to me and it was our first time out, he was a star, and now I don't have to worry about how he will behave. Technically this wasn't in the budget but I'm very glad I went and the grin on my face proves this was the biggest HOMD I've had for a while :j:j:j

I've just cashed out some TCB to Amazon so will get my next couple of essentials from there and try to resist any other purchases for now. I know from experience buying just a couple of small things can be a bit like opening the flood gates, so I'm off to check my bank.

Ahhhh just had the shock of my life :eek: Logged on to our joint account bank and our savings account was empty, should have been £3k :eek:. Luckily before my heart stopped I realised this was my brand new ISA and not our joint savings! Phew....

mfmaybe

Well the ASOS cashback has tracked, a whole 68p :rotfl: every little helps and all that! Amazon also now payable so need to get that added to my account. I thought long and hard about whether to take the extra 5% by going via Amazon, rather than take the cash towards my road tax fund. In the end I know I have over £20 of spends I need from there so I did it. But it was things like conditioner (I use a really good value organic one called skin blossom) and a couple of horse items, albeit I don't normally buy those from Amazon. All things that were on my must buy list, not indulgent purchases.

Yet again still done nothing about fleabay even with a free listing weekend. On the plus side I had a very nice weekend and the only money I spent was £50 in MrS. And only half of that is mine

HOMD today definitely the lovely hack I had this morning, my horse was really making me laugh. And we even saw some sun today :T

Had a lovely chicken stew for dinner, tons of chicken in it so lunch tomorrow all set.

Best get to sleep in anticipation of a busy debt-busting week. :cool:

mfmaybe

Monday already. How does it come around so fast.

So managed a NSD - almost. My hay delivery has been delayed so had to buy emergency supplies. Poor horses looked a bit unimpressed by their meagre ration this morning, even though the grass is really coming through.

Been having a look at a few things this morning. So first some good news:

Car tax fund is at 28%.
I have £24 in Amazon vouchers from TCB waiting to spend.
I have £65 being investigated with TCB.
All my recent credit card spends are covered in my virtual spends balance, as planned.
My car passed its MOT cost-free (have said this already but it's worth repeating!) and I even got the MOT for £30 which I wasn't expecting.
My expensive hay payment is in budget and not making me panic.
I have over £18 so far in One poll.
I have over £160 of Nectar points now, and about £220 of Your points. I don't yet know what to spend them on.
I should have enough horse feed till pay day, and if I'm careful, enough fuel until then as well. 11 days to go.
I've been extremely good on the food shopping, averaging £50 a week for the two of us. Although a lot more than many people spend, it's good for us, and still includes organic meat etc. Mainly we are winning this battle by meal planning everything, and not wasting any more food. Hurrah.
New tax year means I can do a tax return soon, I am hoping it will be zero or even a rebate this year, but either way I'd rather know now!
I put some items in an online shopping basket last night – but resisted pressing "buy". I thought they were "need" but have re-evaluated to "want".
I think I can push my farrier visit back to after pay day. This will save £150 this month! (Albeit just go into next month, but the longer I delay the less OD interest I pay).
Second mortgage overpayment made, which means in reality 2/3rds of the fee is now paid for. One more month and we will be into positive repayment territory.

Now the bad:
Car tax fund is still £40 short of the latest bill (on credit card, due to be paid on 18th May).
Fleabay – arghhhh. Still nothing, but I have started a list of things that could be listed.
Feeling sort of guilty about the money I spent last week.
Still think I'm not seeing as fast progress as I'd like.
Worried about the lack of levers for me to pull to do anything faster.
Worried that I'm loosening the grip on my controllable spending. See comments above!

Like many on here, I just want to see progress faster. I really like reading diaries where you see people making tiny payments against the debt, via Tilly tidies, or payment a day, or whatever. But with an overdraft, it's not that easy to see the progress, as the balance inevitably gets worse each month between pay days, as the normal spend goes out. I'm tracking the balance before pay day every month as one measure, and this is going down, but it can be misleading as I know some of the balance has to go to other things. I am then tracking my "virtual balance" as I've mentioned, and this is the one that is going down slowly. Perhaps I need a mini-target, such as paying off the "real" overdraft. I am hoping that this can be by May pay day, i.e. just over one more month. This still feels much slower than I had initially hoped though. Time for some more spreadsheet analysis I think…

mfmaybe

So it's a sunny day today, hurrah! This always cheers me up. Hay has arrived for the horses, they are very happy about this, and that should see me through the summer I hope.

I've been playing spreadsheets. This has offset the cheer. In 3 months, my total debt position has only gone down by about £1k :mad:. This could sound ok, except I was hoping it would go down by about £1k a month. There are mitigating factors - large expenses (many of them one-offs) of £1400 in that time. This includes the tax bill, the purchase of something that is in fact an asset (and is definitely not a horse, no...) and an overseas trip for the medical tests. However with us it always seems that there are one offs. Of course I could have not bought the horse (which was mostly paid for with a previous insurance cheque for a horse I lost) but something always seems to crop up to scupper my good behaviour. Yet I know I've added hardly anything in terms of purchases. Our food shopping has halved in price, I've cut a massive amount out of my cash budget for lunches and coffees, the items I bought last week were the first for ages, and I've literally not bought a single thing for my new horse. (Oh how this pains me :rotfl:)

So perhaps I need to just be thankful that despite all the above expenses, I've still taken huge steps to ensure the debt went in the right direction. We've taken a lot more control of joint expenses too, are now overpaying the mortgage, as well as ensuring we're on track to meet the big bills like gas (bulk tank) and house insurance. My overdraft from the bank's point of view is massively reduced as I've tactically shifted spending to my 0% card (albeit still treating it as if I've got an overdraft) so interest costs will really start to drop.

I need some mini goals to keep me focussed. I will give that some thought and see what makes sense. I liked Stressed_Stephs items she keeps in her purse :money:. And I must must must get selling on fleabay. I just don't know what yet...

in_need_of_direction

Hiya, I think any reduction is good. We both know that if you hadn't become debt aware, you'd be so much worse of.

mfmaybe

That is very true INOD, it's difficult to remember that a reduction is still a benefit, even when it's less than I wanted. And in normal circumstances I'd have fine UP by the one-off costs, I suppose.

mfmaybe

Feeling irritated. Finally got something almost listed on fleabay, using the new listing rules, only to discover they don't kick in for another month. Not going to gamble on a 99p sale so debating whether to just take the 40p hit. Have saved this as a draft item for now. Hopefully this will start the creative selling juices flowing again though

In better news I realised that as my usual pay day is a bank holiday I get paid a day earlier than expected :T Only 6 days till payday now! OD is looking much better than this time last month, albeit it's a misleading balance. Sun is helping to dry things up, lunch is ready for tomorrow, today is looking like a NSD and all is looking better with the world :cool:

mfmaybe

You've got to laugh at Onepoll, the effort to payment ratio can vary wildly. Just had a 5p survey come up (less than any I've seen) and assumed it would be 2 questions or something. Instead I answered about 8 questions about status, income etc... and then got screened out. Didn't even get my 5p!

Still, nearly at £20, I'll get a payout one day

mfmaybe

Quick late post. One poll passed the £20 mark, it's quite slow! Sent OH to do the shopping, somehow he spent £80. Trying not to be cross as he said it was only stuff on the list. Otherwise my only spend today was postage on an overseas birthday card.

The things I ordered with my TCB Amazon payout arrived, as have my "splurge but not really" items from last week. Happy with all of them.

Cat insurance renewal came in today so will do some comparisons on that tomorrow, see if I can get cashback too.

Hopefully no spends tomorrow, a friend is coming round later and bringing cake

in_need_of_direction

I've a friend coming round later with home made shortbread. Don't we love friends like that