Tm's MFW ramblings

turtlemoose

Some helpful folks on the tax board helped with my query above, it depends on whether my employer update my tax code and pay it back or whether HMRC wait for my 20/21 SA and I can drag it out by not doing it until just before the deadline. If it comes early, I'll whack it all in a pension (ahem, must open one/xfer old work one out), if I can delay it being repaid until summer 22 then I'll OP on mortgage.

Happy New Year everyone! I suppose it's a good time for a rough plan for finances for the year, isn't it....so for the year generally:

* figure out what's going on with old pension and whether I need to move it or leave it, whether or not to open a sipp etc
* be strict with my grocery budget (using a M0nzo pot) because this is the first thing to slip if I'm not careful
* chip away with my little OPs - have got a recurring monthly one, plus joined the 1% challenge to nudge me to do more
* big (for me!) expenditure on house this year - get the bathroom issues fixed, which probably includes a partial remodel (2k already set aside for this)
* Work contract ends end of March, I think unlikely to be renewed as I'm covering someone on maternity leave. Need to be aware of that and applying for other options in the run up to that ending
* explore possibility of upping my income with self employment 

Mortgagefreegonnabe

Just read your diary from start to finish over the last couple of days. So inspirational.  I hope you tell your kids all about this when they're old enough to understand and I'm sure some of it is going in by osmosis. You are such a good role model for them. Well done and make sure you have lots of early nights to look after yourself x 

turtlemoose

thanks @Mortgagefreegonnabe

First OP of the year made - I'm rounding up my monthly payment to £715, which makes a regular OP of £149.98.  I cannot decide which is worse, changing it to overpaying £715.02 to make the OP £150, or the OP being 2p shy of the nice round £150! A ridiculous dilemma, I know    From 1st Apr the larger part of my mortgage drops from 2.88% to 1.77% (same as the sub account), this will chop c.£40 off the monthly payment - so I'll keep at £715 which will increase my OP

I've had a random refund in my Paypal from a W!sh order placed 5th March 2020 apparently. I don't remember the order, and when I log in to my account the order history just shows an error and no orders are visible. I don't remember buying anything from there in a very long time. Anyway, that's £3.90 I wasn't expecting so that's squirrelled away in to my 1% challenge OP pot. 

I was told last night at work that I earn an extra £16.90 for my Sunday shifts (I'm contracted Tuesday evenings and Sunday afternoon/evenings) - I didn't know that, nobody mentioned it to me in the last two months I've worked there, and I'm yet to have any info off them with proper hours breakdown etc (they've defo underpaid me so far, it's in query)...  so I'm going to divert all my Sunday premiums in to the 1% pot too, as it was unexpected and it's 'extra' income above and beyond what I'd earn ordinarily. Yay!

bubblycrazy

I've just read your whole diary turtlemoose. Wow what a ride you've had.
I was so sorry to read about your dad, that must have been awful. I'm glad your mum got back to the UK just before the world turned upside down, it must be nice to have her nearby.

I recognise your name from the MF 25-30 thread. I have my fingers crossed that it could still be a possibility, I know it seems a slim chance right now, but if anyone can do it you can.
I must admit, when I read your earlier posts about your ex I mentally made a bet that you'd be shot of him by the time I got to the present posts
Good luck with your journey, I'll be following along.

South_coast

turtlemoose said:

I cannot decide which is worse, changing it to overpaying £715.02 to make the OP £150, or the OP being 2p shy of the nice round £150! A ridiculous dilemma, I know   

You could split the difference and OP £715.01 so they are both 1p off 😀 

Or would that be even more annoying 🤣???

turtlemoose

bubblycrazy said:

I must admit, when I read your earlier posts about your ex I mentally made a bet that you'd be shot of him by the time I got to the present posts

hahaha, that's great, I'm *so* glad I delivered on that bet!

South_coast said:

turtlemoose said:

I cannot decide which is worse, changing it to overpaying £715.02 to make the OP £150, or the OP being 2p shy of the nice round £150! A ridiculous dilemma, I know   

You could split the difference and OP £715.01 so they are both 1p off 😀 

Or would that be even more annoying 🤣???

I think that would be even more annoying, two lots of 'wrong' numbers! 

turtlemoose

A topsy turvy month in many ways, but £336.13 overpaid so feeling pretty pleased with that. I've made sure it goes off the part of the mortgage with the highest interest rate - something I'd have never even considered before joining in on this board.

I've been underpaid by work two months in a row now, first month 'only' four hours, second one they paid me half what I was owed...I've been very gracious about it so far, payday on Friday, I think I've been patient enough, if I don't get paid correctly this time I will be stomping my feet!

I've got a job with the ONS for the 2021 census (applied for last year) - but no specific info on hours or exact detail of job yet - so with schools closed, I'm not sure I'll actually be able to do it because of no childcare. It's a shame as it's 8 weeks of work at £11.22 an hour, not to be sniffed at! I'd planned on putting all those wages in my pension and pretty much considering that my contributions for the year, not having to worry about it further (as I only earn c.£500pm at the mo). However, my children's dad has just been made redundant, so if he isn't working perhaps he'll be able to have them while I work....although that might not be an easy conversation...I'll just have to wait and see when I've got some concrete info. Plus he might get lucky and get another job quickly etc.

Work bought me some uniform (after 10 weeks there) so I'm hopeful that means they're planning on keeping me on? Impossible to get a straight answer out of anyone though which is a little frustrating. I'm trying not to be too pushy as don't want to be got rid of for being annoying, but equally for goodness' sake how hard is it to just tell me what's going on 

Money plans for the month - finalise quotes for the bathroom work and get that scheduled in (probably won't actually happen for several months but need to get the ball rolling and sort 0% finance if poss). Work out how much I can afford to put in my SIPP if underpaid wages are paid to me, sort out work if they underpay me again! Dropped my grocery budget from £300 to £290... going to try this each month and see how low I can go. I decided 2021 is no clothes/shoes/bags buying (unless an essential item is damaged beyond repair) - one month down, only 11 to go (oh  ) . Should overall not be a spendy month, nothing going on and it's not like I can go out anywhere is it

turtlemoose

Work finally paid me exactly what they owed me, so that was nice...! Popped a decent chunk of it in to my SIPP, I've set a target of £3000 for the year (excl tax relief) which is probably unachievable, but aim high right?! If I become eligible for the pension at work I'll also join that and put the max I can and will count employer and employee conts towards it as a total pension target for the year. 

I have also now worked there long enough that I get a 10% discount, bumped to 15% in the 4 days following payday. Quite a clever ploy that isn't it!? In normal times, I'm only an occasional user of the supermarket I now work for, but since Covid they are the only one I can reliably get a regular delivery/click&collect slot for, so I'm doing the bulk of my food shop there and this discount will actually save me money. Also sometimes reduced stuff goes as 'colleague shop' which means if I buy it after 10pm then it's free....both my shifts are evenings so hopefully this will mean a few freebies, reducing the overall grocery bill, and of course I'll mortgage-OP any resulting budget surplus. The difficult thing is having to resist going "ooh, that's a good offer, I'll buy that" on things I don't really neeeeeed but I've just seen them because I'm there!

I'm finding the no buying shoes/clothes/bags thing HARD. I definitely have an unhealthy trainer buying habit to crack! Also managed to somehow rip two of my three pairs of jeans....doh! I'll try to mend them although my sewing skills are very basic. Other options are of course to shift a bit of lockdown chub and therefore fit in to the other three smaller pairs of jeans I have in the drawer   Think I probably need to do both of those things really...

In non-money news, my niece and her partner had their first baby at the end of Jan, it's frustrating that restrictions mean I'm unlikely to meet my new great-nephew any time soon, but I'm still excited for the journey they have ahead of them as new parents and I'm loving seeing squishy new-baby photos and videos! 

turtlemoose

Time to return and update. Money situation here pretty dire and mortgage OP not even remotely on the horizon, but I want them to be and so I'm hoping to get back to regular updates here to motivate me and keep me on track!

Updated SOA, ouch. Focus has to be on upping income right now.

I've almost finished the masters I started... regret doing that now but here I am! One module left (writing last assignments now), and then the dissertation due in Sept, and then I'm done. I've depleted my redundancy payout and small amount of savings I had, and without student loan any more (have had the max already), we can't survive as you can see by the defecit below. 

I've been applying for jobs similar to what I did before covid, or at least ones that can use that experience, but it's a frustrating process. I keep getting interviews, NOT getting the job, but being told on feedback that my application/interview was excellent and they have nothing negative to say, just that the other candidate had slightly better/more relevant experience or similar. I know that looks like a positive, but it's frustrating that I don't have anything concrete to work on to improve etc. It's very difficult!! 

Currently in the mix are:

1) WFH admin 15hrs a week 9-12am M-F £14ph - would continue working current job with this one but drop to 8hrs a week (to bump up income to eliminate defecit, and retain staff discount and occasional free food). Had interview, awaiting decision.

2) Analyst role with large housing association locally. Full time, 27k, WFH, 1 or 2 days in local office (20 min drive). Had interview, awaiting decision

3) Contract support role with same place as 2). Essentially exact same job I did pre-covid but much smaller geographical area covered. Full time, 36k, WFH/office split as above time wise, plus occasional travel to Tewkesbury (1h 20 mins ish each way). Application in, waiting to see if I get an interview. I'll be suprised if not, as I have 7 years experience in the same role for a larger organisation.


If i got option 2, I could keep my SOA the same as below, I'd have higher wages but correspondingly lower benefits, this would be just enough so that there was no defecit - but there'd be no surplus either when you account for slightly increased travel and childcare costs.


If I got option 3, there would be actual surplus (even after more travel costs and childcare), which is an exciting prospect after so long struggling. But I don't even have an interview yet so at the moment opt 2 is the one I'm really waiting on.


Job applications for anything else are on hold at the moment while I focus on uni assignments for the next couple of weeks.

Household Information

Number of adults in household........... 1

Number of children in household......... 2

Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 630  (this is an average. contractually it's around 460 but I pick up all the overtime I can fit in around childcare etc, which isn't much as it's NMW)

Benefits................................ 1264

Other income............................ 145  (CMS)

Total monthly income.................... 2039

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 519

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 106

Electricity............................. 55

Gas..................................... 55

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 18

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 25  (this is for two, and also get occasional cb from submitting bills)

TV Licence.............................. 0

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 17  (Netflix - we don't have any other tv services so I consider this one essential)

Internet Services....................... 34   (VM. I've tried to negotiate a discount but they're having none of it. Contract up in Sept)

Groceries etc. ......................... 350   (incl toiletries and cleaning stuff)

Clothing................................ 0   (comes out of personal spends for me, and out of the generic 'child expenses' pot for kids)

Petrol/diesel........................... 125    (this is a total for diesel, parking, and occasional public transport)

Road tax................................ 1.66

Car Insurance........................... 50

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 75

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 175

Other child related expenses............ 230 

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

Buildings insurance..................... 8

Contents insurance...................... 8

Life assurance ......................... 11

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 70

Haircuts................................ 0

Entertainment........................... 30

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 50

Personal spends......................... 100

Spotify................................. 6

Lotto syndicate......................... 9

Trussell Trust.......................... 10

Subscriptions........................... 27 (this is avg of things I pay annually such as google play, nintendo online, ps+ etc)

House maintenance pot................... 50

Green party............................. 4

Child pocket money x2................... 23.5

Child ISA x2............................ 20

Total monthly expenses.................. 2262.16

Assets

Cash.................................... 2715 (this might seem a lot but it's mostly accounted for - set aside for annual bills like car ins etc)

House value (Gross)..................... 183076  (according to HPI valuation on mortgage account)

Shares and bonds........................ 0

Car(s).................................. 0 (Haven't included car as selling it isn't an option so the value is irrelevant)

Other assets............................ 0

Total Assets............................ 185791

Secured & HP Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 95517....(519)......1.77

Total secured & HP debts...... 95517.....-.........-   

Unsecured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Very...........................302.......0.........0                 (not paying at the mo, no min payment. Need to pay by Oct this year)

Total unsecured debts..........302.......0.........-  

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 2,039

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,262.16

Available for debt repayments........... -223.16

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0

Amount short for making debt repayments. -223.16

SuperSecretSquirrel

Good to "see" you again TM 🙂

Sorry to hear that finances aren't in a great place, but good to see you have a plan to sort it. Sounds like you and job #3 are made for each other, so all digits crossed for you on that one!

Not sure if you want feedback on the soa, but I did spot a couple of places where you might be able to shave off a few pounds. I pay £6pm for my phone (2gb and unlimited calls and texts) and I know there are cheaper deals out there. Downgrading tv might be an option, depends how many screens you need at the same time and your tolerance for lower resolutions. People do amazing things on the grocery challenges here. Everyone has different requirements so I can't say you can definitely save here, but maybe? Emergency fund is cost neutral until it's actually spent, so I wouldn't class that as an outgoing unless you continually find yourself using it as a sinking fund. Personal choice but things like lottery, trussell trust donations, and green party membership could maybe be paused if needed? I'd probably keep the lottery syndicate myself as I'd be sick if all my colleagues won and I was left out for the sake of £9pm. Regards the other two I'd be inclined to think that charity begins at home, at least temporarily, but you might have some very strong convictions on these payments and might see them as non-negotiable. These tweaks might not be enough to get you to break even before you get the new job, but they could shorten the gap a little.

Best of luck on the job hunt!