Tm's MFW ramblings

turtlemoose

Hi SSS! It's funny how heartwarming it is to return to the board and find familiar names still here

Thanks for SOA comments, discussion and ideas always welcome on my thread!

• Mobiles - after cashback they work out at £8 for one and £9 for the other. We are heavy data users and so I don't mind paying that amount as one of them is 30GB data (my son) and mine is 100GB. Both are sim only 12 month contracts, and I will definitely check out comparison sites when the contracts end. 
• Netflix - we need the highest level of  concurrent users as between me, two kids and my mum there is always someone on it!
• Grocery - there probably is wriggle room here, but I feel reluctant on it as I don't think it's overly extravagent for three people (my 10yo is 5ft 4 and eats adult portions) AND it's accommodating two people with food allergies (one GF and soya, one wheat, oats, dairy, beef, soya, egg). It also includes chip shop twice a month for the kids at £13 ish each time. What I do have though are excessive food stores at home - I definitely have panicked over our insecure low income and bulk bought cheap cupboard long life items, and this really creates more stress as the amount of space it takes up is ridiculous. Literally stacks of things in living areas. So perhaps this is the time to address that - work through the store items, which might mean I spend less than the budget as we use things up
• What I've called emergency fund is that bank account nwide do that requires monthly deposits for six consecutive months to be entered in to a prize draw - I've only withdrawn from it once the whole time I've had the account.
• I feel the same as you ref lotto, I'd be so sick if my friends all won and I missed it.

The other items you mentioned were green party and trussell trust and again you're right - pretty strong convictions on those, and luckily I'm going to be able to afford them very soon without having a monthly defecit BECAUSE I GOT OFFERED THE 27K JOB!!!!! 

However, as the higher paid one I've got an application in for is with the same organisation, I was honest and said yes I'm definitely interested, but have another pending application in - and that if the salaries had been broadly similar I'd have just withdrawn from the second, but at 9k a year difference I really need to complete that process just in case. The hiring manager was very understanding, thanked me for my honesty, and said she will speak to their people team to find out timescales etc on the other vacancy (as I still haven't heard if I even have an interview yet), and that in the mean time they will hold the position for me as long as we stay in touch over the next few weeks. So that means my *worst* case scenario is a job that pays all my bills - absolutely amazing!!!!! 

edinburgher

It won't amount to much but you can definitely save money on your recurring expenses. 

Netflix - why is this £17?
Virgin - cancel when you can, target best new customer price on MSE offer sort of thing (£20 broadband only)
Road tax - £1.66? Is this wrong?
Spotify - can you cope with free version?
Subscriptions - can any of these be renewed as "gifts" if for kids? I.e. DD1 is currently enjoying a year of Pokemon content on Prime video as part of her birthday present
I would also can lottery, charity, political party membership for now.. 

turtlemoose

Thanks Ed - comments below. Feedback has definitely got me thinking I need to update my budget spreadsheet and tighten up some small leaks that are occuring!

edinburgher said:

It won't amount to much but you can definitely save money on your recurring expenses. 

Netflix - why is this £17?    small typo, it's 16, and also the next step down only allows 2 simultaneous users and that's not enough for the number of people using the account. My mum does actually chuck me 5 a month for this, I forgot that when writing my post - when I update my SOA after new job starts, I will adjust accordingly
Virgin - cancel when you can, target best new customer price on MSE offer sort of thing (£20 broadband only) Contract is up in September, counting the days! I contact them every few months pleading poverty but so far no luck in getting any extra discount (I already have some discount on there).
Road tax - £1.66? Is this wrong? Nope, it's £20 a year   Although this comes from the generic car everything pot so really I've made a mistake by listing this separately.
Spotify - can you cope with free version? It's on anywhere from 4 - 10 hrs a day, and this is the discounted student price valid until December. I'll likely cancel it then, or tart around with free premium offers and new email addresses, once the discount ends. It's a 'luxury' but also I feel like pretty good value considering how much I use it. 
Subscriptions - can any of these be renewed as "gifts" if for kids? I.e. DD1 is currently enjoying a year of Pokemon content on Prime video as part of her birthday present Good idea, but if I'm completely honest the nintendo and playstation online is for me really   nintendo online means the kids can play with real life friends online (peace for me), and i'm the one that uses the ps+ membership!  When i redo my SOA I think I will separate this category out to individual lines so that I have a clearer view of what that's going on, as it being lumped together does hide it somewhat.
I would also can lottery, charity, political party membership for now.. 

edinburgher

£20 a year is very good re. road tax

Re. Virgin - I find pleading with them a waste of time - proper cancel and wait for them to bend over backwards to keep you

I had no idea how expensive Netflix had become!

turtlemoose

Well I didn't even get an interview for the third job I mentioned before - the email said they had other candidates with better suited skills. Seeing as I did the exact job (and it's quite a specific job) for 7 years, I'm not sure how that's true, but whatever, I'm not wasting any energy thinking about that! I formally accepted the #2 job this afternoon so I've been playing around with take home pay calculators, and tinkering with my budget bearing in mind comments above on my earlier SOA. I'm so surprised to be posting an update so soon - I have been job hunting for six months without success and it has been so demoralising. Perhaps I should have posted here sooner 

New SOA has higher fuel and childcare, and I've also dug out some detail that wasn't in my previous one, corrected some errors too. I'm upping my personal spends.... I want to pay my mortgage off early but I don't to be miserable doing so, there has to be a balance. The new budget includes £100 a month OP - WOOHOO!!!!

As my mortgage is 1.77% until March 2026, any OPs will actually just go in to savings as I can earn more interest, and then pay it off as a lump sum at the end of the fix. For now, I'm going to pay it in to a Ll0yds regular saver, as that's 6.25%. I know we aren't talking huge sums of money here ...but if I save 100 a month, that's more than 1% of my mortgage in a year.... it's definitely back on the right track! 

I also have a surplus below - £96 here. My childcare (and therefore benefits) will fluctuate month to month depending on how many school days fall in the month, the figures below are an average over the year, so I'm going to leave it unallocated so that in more expensive months I have the wriggle room, and in cheaper months I can choose to split it between easy access savings or the mortgage OP pot. 

Things will need a shake up in September as DS1 goes to secondary school ( ) so my childcare will halve because he will take himself there and back. My outgoings will go up though, as at the moment he gets free school meals due to my income, he'll no longer be entitled come September so I need to add in extra for groceries/canteen top up. The school also requires you to rent a laptop from them which I think is in the £8-£10 a month range. I'm sure there'll be other costs too! The uniform is ridiculously priced, but a local church does a fantastic uniform swap shop for all the local schools, it's really busy with lots of choice, so I'll get as much as possible from there (got a blazer, three trousers and five shirts already). DS2 will continue to get free school meals for another five school years (until the end of primary), so at least it's only one set I have to pay for. 

Short term money plans then:

• Open reg saver and set up £100 pm SO
• Target £500 spending money for summer hol fun times - £270 so far made from selling stuff we no longer need/want, but this has fallen to the wayside, need to pick it up again - will keep an eye out for eb@y cheap listing offers, it has the added bonus of clearing stuff out of my house
• Stalk the grocery challenges on other boards here, to keep that as low as possible
• Probably just take a breather at all my bills being paid, enjoy not getting in to debt, and take a little while to settle in to the new job!!! 

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 1769

Benefits................................ 850

Other income............................ 145

Total monthly income.................... 2764

Monthly Expense Details

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

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

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

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

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

Mobile phone............................ 16.5

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

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 11

Internet Services....................... 34

Groceries etc. ......................... 350

Petrol/diesel........................... 175

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

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

Childcare/nursery....................... 390

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

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

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

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

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

Entertainment........................... 50

House maintenance etc.......................... 50

Mortgage OP............................. 100

Board Game Arena........................ 2.75

Nutracheck app.......................... 2

Google Play............................. 2.5

Nintendo online......................... 1.92

PS+..................................... 4.17

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

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

Green Party............................. 4

Savings (easy access)................... 50

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

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

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

Personal spends......................... 150

Total monthly expenses.................. 2667.34

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 2,764

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,667.34

Available for debt repayments........... 96.66

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

Amount left after debt repayments....... 96.66

Starlight_at_Sea

Congratulations on the new role TM!  I bet it will feel good not having to put all that practical and emotional energy into job hunting, it's exhausting to keep putting oneself forward whilst juggling all the logistical what-if's of each role. Enjoy the breathing space  

turtlemoose

Thanks SaS! It's a little frustrating to be three years down the line and earning 12k a year less than previously....but hey ho I suppose that's how it goes sometimes, and I'm certain I'm not the only one whose circumstances were f*cked over by covid. It's a decent employer (good perks), there's potentially an annual bonus of up to 10%, and from what I can see they're fairly on top of things like training so perhaps I can get a few relevant courses under my belt over the next couple of years and look to progress up the chain a bit to the sort of level I was at before. It's definitely a massive improvement on my current situation so I'm focussing on that!

turtlemoose

I got my contract through from the new employer today, start date 5th June (finish at the old one 26th May) - that's exciting and makes it all rather more real! I have an option between a DB and DC pension.

DB I can pay either 4.7% or 14.7%, and employer pays 10%. On death it passes half of it to spouse, death in service pays out 4 x salary.

DC I can pay 3% (employer 5%), 4% (employer 8%), or 5% (employer 10%).

I definitely can't afford to pay in 14.7%, as much as I might like to! Also I'll never get married, and so the survivor benefit is of no use to me. I prefer the option that if I was to die pre-pension age, my children would get my DC pot, as well as the death in service payout.

So with all that in mind, I'm going to go for DC at 5% with employer 10%. Ooh it's exciting to know a decent amount is going to be going in my pension each month again!  

edinburgher

That's a decent DC deal TM, that was the same offer as my first pension when I were a lad

turtlemoose

I have an official start date, 6th June. I finish the old job on the 26th May, so this gives me half term off with my kids - perfect! It has been well over a decade since I've been a casual car user (I had a fully expensed fuel card at my last office job, cushy I know), so was pleasantly surprised to see mileage is 45p a mile... my car is pretty economical (currently showing just over 51 avg mpg) and most of any claimable journey will be nice and smooth motorway journeys, meaning that'll be about half of it as profit on those journeys at current fuel prices! Something to earmark for the OP pot, won't be loads as I won't be travelling that often, but it all adds up as we know

Found an old passbook for a savings account for a building society that doesn't exist any more...last update in the book was 2011, when I withdrew most of the money. Contacted the provider that took over, sorted out getting my new a/c number etc, and the account has a balance of £33.30. Once my online banking is set up with them, I'll leave the £3.30 in there to keep the a/c ticking over (having the account gets me access to "loyalty" products with slightly better rates than their new customer stuff, you never know when that might come in handy), and will move the £30 to OP pot.

I'm waiting to find out if I get paid in June's payday for the new job or if it'll all be rolled over to July. I hope I get a pro rata payment in June and then normal salary in July, as that works out better for UC payments. If they roll it up to July, I miss out on June's work allowance, and it'll also wipe out July's entitlement - basically i'll be just over £420 worse off if they do that. I've asked the question so let's see. Can't really influence it either way but do need to know. Either way I have a bit of an income defecit between old job and new ... it's just waiting to see if I'll be £340 short, or £760 short (between now and July payday - that pay will be for August bills). Whatever the answer, I'm going to take the required amount out on a credit card, 0% money transfer offer, 2.5% fee. I think the fee is cheap, and paying a bit over the min payment will help build my credit score back up, which has absolutely tanked while my income has been low (despite zero missed payments on anything!). I'll either tart it at the end of the 0% or just pay it off at the end.

Did a little pension round up too.... £4.2 in SIPP, £2.4 T3sco, £63.6 in older job one, so just over 70k total. I turn 38 this year so while it could be better, I don't think that's terrible either. The larger one performs well and has no fees (but I can't add to it), so I'll leave that where it is. With the new one being 15% total (employee and employer together) contributions, I'm quite happy with that for now.

I finally returned my M6 toll tag, which is a job that is about 3 years overdue (whoops).... there is £50 credit on there which I will get back, but it's not going in the OP pot, i'm earmarking that for a meal & night out to celebrate at the end of my first week in the new job

It feels good to be having a focus on my finances, with clear goals - even though it's not like I have tons to spare, it's nice to be coming out of the head-down-hang-on-for-dear-life stage that I've been going through the last few years.