EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

Silver_Queen

So glad you went to the beer fest and had a good time!

I absolutely know how you feel when you say "nothing to report" - I feel the same way very often! I love reading your updates though

Do you definitely need a car?

EssexHebridean

Aww thanks SQ!

The car thing has been debated many times. The problem is largely the issue of our commutes in relation to where we live - MrEH works in the City - and if he was to revert back to using the train now just his travelpass would be £300 a year plus, as well as him having a 2.2 miles each way walk to/from the station which is OK sometimes but would rule out him getting to rugby training etc. Mine is a mile walk to the bus, then 40 minutes or so on the bus before getting onto the tub - not sure of exact costs but around £10 per day last time I costed it I think. we actually bought the second car when we started working through his costs a few years ago - his work commuting costs around £100 per month in diesel plus about the same again on Oyster currently so even allowing for other depreciation on the car it's still cheaper than the public transport option. We car share usually (3 or my 4 working days a week) as well so that reduces my commute cost to nil.

We'd need one car regardless (holiday, visits to Devon, other routine stuff) but we've questioned repeatedly whether the second is needed and where we've reached currently is that yes, it is, as without it my social life goes to zero - pretty much everything I do socially involves travel, and travel a fair distance at that. Add in to that there being occasions where car sharing isn't practical, and still other occasions where we might find one car refusing to start, having the other to jump into and then sort the problem later potentially saves us both being very late indeed for work! If we were i a place where we were struggling to make ends meet, or still paying off debt, I think the verdict might have to have been different by now, but at the point where we are fortunate to be we're more of a mind to continue to go with the flow on this one, but just to get the most economical and environmentally friendly vehicles we can that also fit with our lifestyle and requirements.

I'm actually really pleased that question arose as it gave me a reminder to challenge our thinking on it again!

In other news -
Prolific now at £6.20 payable and £4 payable
OnePoll at £18.85
YouGov FINALLY over 4,000 points (Almost feels like the downhill stretch now!)
Populus 36 points
Power of Opinions 234 points
Still waiting for the TCB money to come through.

Round up:
Reading: Nella Last's Diary
Eating: Chicken & mushrooms with rice for dinner tonight!
House Progress: Final bits of electricals done today. List created of what we need quotes on
Used up: Tin drawer still dropping - need to buy chickpeas though! Creeping ever closer to the end of a tube of handcream - but actually remembering to use it would help!
Bought: Nothing this week aside for the planned and budgeted showing which was under £15 :T:D £20 sponsorship to a friend doing a half marathon at the weekend.

HairyHandofDartmoor

It does sound like two cars is the right thing for you lifestyle at the moment. I'm very envious of your social life as it sounds much better than mine .

EssexHebridean

Social life mostly involves either beer or airshows for me HH - which, yeah, is not too bad! :rotfl:

Soooo, we've gone from "nothing to report" and "we might go and look at a suitable car" to "We've bought a car and I pick it up on saturday! :T Rather beautiful 16 plate Clio - not quite top of the range but all the toys regardless - cheaper than a lot of alternatives as a) it's spot on average mileage - which as it's a diesel is exactly what I wanted and b ) it's almost exactly 3 years old which puts a lot of people off due to MoT etc.

£8275 - talked the garage into dropping the £99 inspection fee, and increasing the level of warranty a bit, and also into accepting a good lump of the money paid on a credit card - or specifically a cashback credit card... :money: and have now done some complicated jumping through financial hoops to sort the finances out. No part exchange sadly as my current car is too high mileage for anyone to take - so she's going to be off to WeBuyAnyCar (for Peanuts) on saturday morning which I'm a bit gutted about.

- £500 for the deposit (paid last sunday) went on the cashback card originally, and then got transferred from the surplus in the car account to clear straight off
- Applied for a 0% BT card which I got, and got with a 5k credit limit which is about what I hoped for, then upped my limit on my cashback card to the same level. Need to allow a small amount to cover oddments going on the card ahead of the BT kicking in, so £4800 to be paid on the cashback card on Saturday when I collect and then BT'd to the new 0% card as soon as it shows up on online banking.
- Everything else on the cashback CC has been paid down so the card is sitting at zero meaning there is space for the £4800 to land...
- Hoovered around the "savings pots" bank accounts and found a total of £600 further surplus in the car account (which was sort of deliberate) and the same again surplus in other savings, then transferred the remainder of the balance from the ISA (emergency fund/short term savings, etc) and sent across to the dealership today - just waiting for them to confirm receipt.

Will be setting the DD on the 0% card at just above whatever the minimum payment is to start with and letting that run, and that will be paid from joint account surplus funds, meaning that any remaining joint account surplus can be stashed back into the ISA.
Will also be making a note of the date at which the 0% deal ends...obviously!

All feels like a fairly MSE way of having done things so I'm quite chuffed with myself really. Slightly alarming to think about having such a big sum on a CC again but the money IS waiting to pay it so should the worst happen I could just clear it off and not have to worry about it - and this is one of the things we've saved for, after all...

*GULP*

EssexHebridean

So a week on...final adventure had in the old car on Friday (went to Scampton to photograph the reds flying - except when we got there they weren't, none of us had thought to check! :rotfl: Diverted to Coningsby instead and had a lovely day watching noisy Typhoons and catching up with my pal from the Battle of Britain flight) then took her to webuyanycar on saturday morning and got peanuts for her. Gutting by necessary. I confess there was a tear or two as MrEH drove us away.

I now have my shiny new red beastie and very beautiful she is too (I keep looking at her and deciding she's waaaaay too cool to be my car!).

- The balance transfer has transferred except I could only do £4500 in the end - but still, that'll do. The money for the old car will clear the deficit between the two cards.
- DD is set up at what I *think* will be just above the minimum payment for the 0% card - that needs checking when I get a statement.
- need to clear the last few spends from the normal CC as from now then we can start using it as normal again - the last few days I've had to look out for it bouncing off the credit limit

I've also reviewed our finances generally as it's not been done for a while
- need to remember that the sky deal ends this month (Friday IIRC) which means they'll be wanting to put the price through the roof - so that needs a phone call.
- also want to look around and see if there's a directly competitive deal re Sky that might be worth playing them off against - needs to be one we're actually willing to go with if it comes to it though so NOT Virgin Mediocre!
- Should be a small saving being made on the electricity DD shortly as we're looking like emerging from the winter just still in credit.
- holiday savings are probably just on target as long as I can save some scraps from the food budget this month and next - should be doable though
- Got £110 of train tickets booked that we'll be claiming back on expenses but can't claim until after March 24th so will get that one thrown through straight after.
- we're going to leave the money going to the car account the same for now although fingers crossed there should be only tiny expenditure on mine for the next little while. Ideally want to build up a surplus again though to start setting money aside for the replacement of MrEH's whenever that has to happen.
- Holiday cottage balance to be paid at the beginning of April

Personally I have a quite cheerful looking surplus in my account this month (quiet month, see!) and also still have £20 in my purse at the moment. Not planning to visit the cashpoint this week. :T
Prolific is currently at just over £18 - I'll claim that tomorrow
OnePoll is now at £21.xx - can't remember the pennies
YouGov creeping along...getting there!
The rest are no change I think and certainly nothing much near payout.

EssexHebridean

Oops - where did THAT month go?!

DD for the new car 0% card confirmed as the right amount and that will be leaving the account nice and early each month. Still thoroughly enjoying driving her - and still think she's to col to be my car but there you go!

Still need to do the research then the phone call for Sky and that will be scary expensive this month but too late to do anything about it now. Also need to make the insurance claim for that travel now - that's a job for tonight I think. As soon as that comes back to us I can make the next travel booking for our meeting in May.

Holiday money is all checked and will be OK - not too much longer before we go now either so yay for that! Need to think through any last oddments that either of us need before we go - I'm currently debating whether my padded jacket needs replacement as much of the padding has shifted - I may be able to get by for a while longer with it by using the shell inner from my waterproof in tandem with it though to create a better wind-barrier.

Just had a spendy weekend in Sheffield off the back of a beer festival meeting - great fun but yes, not cheap. No complaints though as it was worth it. Next trip away (I know, I KNOW!) is a couple of weeks time to Dundee (a conference this time - also beer-related) but the travel and the accommodation for that are all paid so just the day to day spends to think about - we fly up and get the train back both of which I'm looking forward to - and flying with Loganair too so no worrying about stupid budget airline luggage limits! :T

Prolific got claimed and is now back at £13.55 - will probably claim that today
OnePoll now at £24.90 - where it will almost certainly stay for AGES!
YouGov now "only" around 500 points from payout....
Power of opinions must be around half way there
Populus on about 36 points I think...
£3 sitting ready to claim on the secret survey site.

bank all checked and OK - there will be a surplus on both accounts this month - the joint one goes to holiday spending and the one in my account will be split between airshow spending and my clothes account. Payday tomorrow - hurrah!

EssexHebridean

Start of month shuffle done. Also remembered to adjust the amounts for the service charge and the garage rent for the new financial year too - but have gone up, naturally!
On the flipside though Bulb reckon the electricity DD can be adjusted down so that has now gone to £43 a month and I'll monitor for a while but will probably leave it at that level now to see how much credit we have running in to the winter.

Sky will have gone super-expensive this month - need to do some research into alternative options then ring them up. I'm actually giving serious thought to switching this time too - perhaps taking the BB & phone to EE and going with Freesat and either Netflix/Now TV or similar for the TV - anyone who has any suggestions of thoughts on any of those please shout!

0% card payment due out in the next few days so need to keep an eye to make sure that goes.

One more month of the Joint Account surplus going to holiday expenditure and then we';ll be rehoming that to starting to gradually refill the ISA I think after the hit it took with car spend and electrical works. No further progress on the hallway currently so that'll be the other side of the summer now at a guess - grrr!

OnePoll got cashed out yesterday
Prolific cashed out last week
Populus now at 40 points
YouGov under 500 points away now - light at the end of the tunnel is faintly glimmering!
Power Of Opinions a little over half way to next cashout.

- Dundee trip this weekend so looking forward to that - great chance to catch up with lots of people we don't see often! (And hopefully managing to grab a wee bit of time with lovely Pippi too - fingers very crossed!)
- Gym pass ends tomorrow and I won;t be renewing with another monthly one but will probably buy a "5 visits in 30 days" one early next week.
- decided against replacing my padded jacket I think although *might* yet change my mind in a couple of weeks - I have seen one that looks quite good in Mountain Warehouse and have a 15% off voucher that would also bring it to a pretty good price so that needs thought.

rtandon27

EssexHebridean wrote: »

...And hopefully managing to grab a wee bit of time with lovely Pippi too - fingers very crossed!...

Give my love to Pips if you should see her on your holibobs!

Scott-Weiland

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Start of month shuffle done. Also remembered to adjust the amounts for the service charge and the garage rent for the new financial year too - but have gone up, naturally!
On the flipside though Bulb reckon the electricity DD can be adjusted down so that has now gone to £43 a month and I'll monitor for a while but will probably leave it at that level now to see how much credit we have running in to the winter.

Sky will have gone super-expensive this month - need to do some research into alternative options then ring them up. I'm actually giving serious thought to switching this time too - perhaps taking the BB & phone to EE and going with Freesat and either Netflix/Now TV or similar for the TV - anyone who has any suggestions of thoughts on any of those please shout!

0% card payment due out in the next few days so need to keep an eye to make sure that goes.

One more month of the Joint Account surplus going to holiday expenditure and then we';ll be rehoming that to starting to gradually refill the ISA I think after the hit it took with car spend and electrical works. No further progress on the hallway currently so that'll be the other side of the summer now at a guess - grrr!

OnePoll got cashed out yesterday
Prolific cashed out last week
Populus now at 40 points
YouGov under 500 points away now - light at the end of the tunnel is faintly glimmering!
Power Of Opinions a little over half way to next cashout.

- Dundee trip this weekend so looking forward to that - great chance to catch up with lots of people we don't see often! (And hopefully managing to grab a wee bit of time with lovely Pippi too - fingers very crossed!)
- Gym pass ends tomorrow and I won;t be renewing with another monthly one but will probably buy a "5 visits in 30 days" one early next week.
- decided against replacing my padded jacket I think although *might* yet change my mind in a couple of weeks - I have seen one that looks quite good in Mountain Warehouse and have a 15% off voucher that would also bring it to a pretty good price so that needs thought.

You need too give Qmee a try Essex its an awesome payer.

EssexHebridean

rtandon27 wrote: »

Give my love to Pips if you should see her on your holibobs!

I will do lovely! xx

Scott-Weiland wrote: »

You need too give Qmee a try Essex its an awesome payer.

I keep seeing mention of this - do you have a referral link? If so DM it over!