Mini meltdown and light bulb moment

AleMrsT

Hi Everyone,

So, house hunting is going well. We have found an apartment that we both really like, its £50 a month more than we pay now, but it comes with a garage included which is perfect, and it is in the same town as work rather than being in the village just outside of town, although it will still mean I have to get a bus to work, it is 60p a journey less, plus colleagues drive by that way on the way in to work so I could still get a lift in from one of the others.

The downside is that it is on with another agent, so we have to pay the dreaded fees, however, the fees are fairly cheap compared to a lot of the other agents, and its a small agency and they are friendly, my sister and parents have both rented through them before, so I'm confident we won't be fobbed off etc.

I've not given up hope that one of our properties at work will become available, I got a call today from one of our let only tenants who has been given notice by the landlord, it is in the same area where I had the flat I owned with my ex, and I have ALWAYS wanted to move back on to that little cul de sac. I called the landlord to have a chat with him and he has asked his tenants to leave because he has a family member moving in, I laughed and said that's why we're having to move out. He's such a nice guy aswell, it would have been perfect, and its £50 a month cheaper than the house we're in now. But, never mind.

Ah well. I think we're just going to have to go with the one we have seen, as if we don't it will be gone in no time, and there's always a risk that there wont be anything else as nice that comes up if we wait for one of ours.

Other than that, not much to report on the MSE front, I still have around £30 in my account (will check online banking shortly). I have been very bad at keeping up with diaries, I'm so sorry, slap on the wrist. OH is on late shifts this week so it is my intention to catch up.

I have listed a load of stuff on Zapper which I just need to finalise, £60 better off when that's gone and less boxes to move. I just need to find somewhere that takes books, I have loads, but zapper wont take them.

If we do get the flat it will give us chance to have a big clear out and get rid of a load of stuff that we can make money back on, I also managed to convince OH to take all of the stuff with us that we've put into the house (blinds, curtain poles, light fittings, shelves, garden lights etc) because even if we can't use them at the new place, we can hang on to them, or sell them. Leaving them here just means we lose out.

I'm off to check the bank and catch up on diaries, then I'll be back with a follow up post.

misstara

Hi AleMrsT

Great news about house hunting. £50 extra a month is not much especially if it will be saving you a wee bit of money on travel.

Hope you have a good day

AleMrsT

Hi all.
So I mentioned yesterday that I have some items I scanned into the Zapper app to send off, this evening I've sat and copied all of the bar codes into music magpie and also we buy books (because I have nothing better to do, like iron, or PACK!)
The results have amazed me.
Just by splitting the order and going with the site that pays the most for each item, (some items 5-10p more, other items were pennies on one site, and pounds on the other) I've manage to increase the value from £59.27 to £83.16!!
I have made an extra £23.89, from the same items, just by being choosy which items I allocate to which site! I have another box of stuff which Zapper wouldnt accept, (mainly books) so I'm going to input these to musicmagpie and webuybooks to see if I can increase the total. If I can get it to £100, thats most of the remaining holiday balance covered :T:T:T VERY pleased with my MSE evening. :j:D

AleMrsT

Interesting Evening! Been checking mine and OH'S credit reports ready to apply for the new house tomorrow, and OH has a credit rating of 4/5, with no mention of the IVA he's been paying off for 6 years or so :eek: turns out he's been paying debt collection agencies, not an insolvency practitioner, and I made him check the insolvency register as I know there is nothing on there either because i've looked before.
He's been paying DCA'S for years when there is NO outstanding debt on his credit file?! Not really sure what to do from here, his credit is far better than mine. Food for thought, and if anyone has any suggestions/advice that would be great, as I'm not sure if it's a good thing that a large IVA has just disappeared.... :eek:

twiggy86

Wow that's amazing! Shows it's worth spending a bit of time getting the best price! I really must get on and sort some stuff out to sell, mainly CDs so not sure I'll get a lot but it's all the small bits that add up!

AleMrsT

I forgot to use TCB to go through to my magpie account, so I just lost out on 12.6% cashback :mad: It would be been around £10 I think. BOOOO!!!

AleMrsT

oh, and I have had to use the holiday savings towards letting agency fees for the new house, :mad::eek:
I will use the zapper et al money to replenish it and pay towards the holiday though, we will have to utilise OH's credit card for the rest of it and other bits that I had planned to use the savings for.
It feels like a massive blow to have failed at the first hurdle, but we genuinely didn't think we'd be needing to factor in a house move so I haven't budgeted for it and we have no other choice. Signature update coming up....


EDIT: in all the excitement with zapping and magpieing and house hunting, I have totally forgotten that its 25th so the stepchange payment will have been sent and I can update my debt totals small things and all that. Will update signature again. yay.

SECOND EDIT: I have now updated my signature, and changed it slightly show it shows how much I have left to pay, not how much I have paid. Doesnt make too much of a difference but its easier to see the totals going down than trying to work out what is left from the amounts I've paid off.

AleMrsT

twiggy86 wrote: »

Wow that's amazing! Shows it's worth spending a bit of time getting the best price! I really must get on and sort some stuff out to sell, mainly CDs so not sure I'll get a lot but it's all the small bits that add up!

From spending two evenings website hopping, musicmagpie do pay out slightly more on CD's, but still compare the three sites, and webuybooks don't take many items, but they do pay out a lot more than the other two sites on the items they do accept.

twiggy86

That's great that your payments have gone out! Annoying that you've had to use your holiday money for the house move, but think of the positives - what would you have done if you didn't have that money saved? And at least you've got that money coming in from zapper! Again - in the past would you have bothered selling these bits and bob, and would you have spent the extra time ensuring you got the most money? I'm assuming not (sorry if I'm wrong!) so give yourself some credit! And if credit doesn't help, here's some tea and cake instead (I've even put candles in it to make it extra special! :rotfl:)!

:bdaycake: :coffee:

AleMrsT

Ah twiggy, you're right. At least I had the money saved, on the plus side I also have the car tax savings squirrelled away that I *COULD* (reluctantly) use along with the zapper money to cover the holiday.
Thanks for the tea and cake, you are correct in saying that I wouldnt have bothered with the magpie before, and I certainly wouldnt have shopped around! The boxes of DVD's and CD's have been in the attic since we moved into this house, so we clearly don't need the items! I can't wait to start getting some more stuff sold now, and also to build up my survey and topcashback money, but I have to spend to get that.

I have decided to do a (rough) budget for the next few months now that I have my payslip. I have been very lapse with this over the last couple of months, but it will be tight this month with lots to pay out.

ACCOUNT BALANCE: £14.74
PO SAVINGS: £89.43
WAGES: £993.25
TOTAL AVAILABLE: £1097.42

DVD funds: £105.88 :T (may change when the items have been received as they may reject some. Fingers crossed)
PAYPAL: £4.88
DEPOSIT FROM LANDLORD OF CURRENT HOUSE: £500
ADDITIONAL FUNDS THAT *MAYBE* AVAILABLE: £610.76

So with my total above, and including what I may also have there is a potential 'pot' of £1708.18.

Bills for March
£500 rent
£71 stepchange
£35.73 Car insurance
£206.40 holiday balance (payable by 6th March:eek: NOT April as first thought)
£15 for nieces birthday present
£17 for last Vodafone payment :mad:

Then we need to find £550 for rent and £750 deposit ready for 3rd April. :eek::eek::eek:

TOTAL: £2145.13!!!!!!

EEK.

Got to pick up nieces present tomorrow, so I'm going to use the £14.74 I have left in my account, and add 26p to it in cash if I can (will they let you do that in @rgos?!), then I have my whole payslip to use for March, as I always budgeted for nieces present from Feb pay.

Think we are definitely going to have to put the holiday balance onto OH's credit card, at least we can pay that off bit by bit when we are back up and running properly and all moved in. So with nieces present covered, that eliminates £256.40 from the potential outgoings.

We can use the deposit from the landlord of this house to pay the rent on the new place, and add £25 each, so that means only £25 expenditure for me.

We could then pay £750 deposit between us from April's wages, so £375 to find from next months pay.....

Ok, this is looking a bit more achievable.

Cripes, I have not budgeted for travel, prescriptions, or FOOD!!!! :eek::rotfl:

This is too hard!!!!

I might have to break it down more, I think I need a pen and paper.

Account money £14.74 (plus 26p cash) = nieces birthday £15 :money:

Wages: £993.25 = £500 rent
£71 stepchange
£35.73 car insurance
£17 phone
Leaving £369.52, plus the money I have in the PO savings and the zapper funds £564.83 available for food, travel, moving?!?!? EH?

OH's CC = £206.40 holiday balance

Rent for next house and half of deposit £400... maybe use £200 from surplus to pay for this, leaving £200 (plus usual rent) for next month, and £364.83 for the food bills etc.

That can't be right, I must have missed something....!?!?!

someone please help!!! I HATE BUDGETS!!!! I can't do them!!!!!! :mad::eek::rotfl: