Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

GeorgianaCavendish

February 2022 Round Up 

Savings
Start-Up Savings - 25.3%*

Extra Income 
Prolific Academic - £41.65
Ipsos I-Say - £20.00 (Amazon vouchers)
TopCashBack - £13.78
Focus Group - £160.00
Shell Rewards - £1.00 (Shell voucher)
M&S CC Rewards - £7.00 (M&S vouchers)
Interest on savings - £8.37

No Spend Days 
14 / 14 in Feb
Target for Mar = 15 NSD 

Decluttering Campaign 
22/365 items decluttered  
(zero progress from last month  )

First things first, deposit has been transferred to solicitors and we are now waiting to exchange. There are a couple of outstanding points for the seller to address first and we've been given a 3 week timeline for these but could be quicker. We've got the money ready for stamp duty and legal fees etc. 

I've started a new savings target - "Start Up Costs" - this is the costs for first month's mortgage (which is 1.5 x more than the usual payment); all the insurance policies; first month's bills etc. Plus the repair work that we need to do to the roof straight away.  It is a bit of a guesstimate at the moment because I can't be 100% sure of the utility costs, but I'm being conservative (/pessimistic) when allocating those costs in our budget - if it turns out it isn't so expensive then we can just put that money towards the repair fund. 

I've booked about 6 weeks worth of train tickets for travel to the office, I booked as many weeks as I could (until the Super Advance fares were no longer available). This has helped me get the travel costs down to about £70 a week, including the tube journeys in London. I'll need to be really strict with making sure that I stick to those ticket times, but I'm willing to give it a go on a trial basis. 

I had a good month for extra income as I had a great focus group at the beginning of the month. It was pretty involved - several days in an online community - but worth it in the end. 

The last 10 days have been really difficult. DH's dad is very ill in hospital, we're waiting for more news and results of tests which is really, really stressful. I'm finding it really difficult, especially because I want to be able to support DH and MIL who is understandably taking it really hard, so I need to put my stuff aside while I focus on them. 

I also completely bombed my driving test due to horrendous nerves, I don't know what was wrong with me because I never make those kind of mistakes normally. I didn't even really feel nervous until I got in the car to start the test and then I just went to pieces! Anyway, I've got another test slot in June (huge backlogs with tests at the moment) I can probably get a cancellation slot earlier but right now I don't want to be faffing around with booking and rebooking when there are so many other stressful things going on. I'm going to leave it for a few weeks and then look at it again when hopefully other things have calmed down. 

I didn't manage to do any decluttering either, but to be honest there is too much else going on. I'm not neglecting it, it just isn't a priority right now. I'll get back to it when life is calmer. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Oh, my work also decided they had "miscommunicated" the original return to office date and now want us in earlier. They corrected this miscommunication with about 2 days notice 
I did manage to get cheap rail tickets and an agreement that I'll be returning middle of the month, but just an extra dollop of stress on the scales that I could have done without! 

EssexHebridean

Oh for goodness sake, with everything else going on you REALLY didn't need your work throwing spanners like that into the works, too! Fingers crossed for all being well with DH's Dad.

The driving test thing - remember that you already have an advantage for next time because you now know what to expect, AND where you might make mistakes if nerves kick in. Chances are though that the knowing what to expect will alleviate the nerves and all will be well. AND you have an extra couple of months of practice before the new date, too. Good plan to just sit with the June date at the moment and then look again for a cancellation once things feel generally a bit more settled, too. 

enthusiasticsaver

Exciting news about exchange and great idea to start stashing savings away whenever you can as moving house in my experience is always expensive.  Also good idea to try booking super advance rail tickets.  I have got a few bargains over the next few months although obviously restricted to just one train. Your work is being a pain though in insisting on you coming in earlier.  Given how long they have been happy for people to work at home you would think they could be flexible on when you have to return. 

I failed my  first driving test too.  As EH says you will know what to expect next time so don't be too hard on yourself. 

GeorgianaCavendish

EssexHebridean said:

Oh for goodness sake, with everything else going on you REALLY didn't need your work throwing spanners like that into the works, too! Fingers crossed for all being well with DH's Dad.

The driving test thing - remember that you already have an advantage for next time because you now know what to expect, AND where you might make mistakes if nerves kick in. Chances are though that the knowing what to expect will alleviate the nerves and all will be well. AND you have an extra couple of months of practice before the new date, too. Good plan to just sit with the June date at the moment and then look again for a cancellation once things feel generally a bit more settled, too. 

Thank you EH! Yes, work changing their minds about our return date was the last thing I needed. My boss has been decent about it all but their hands are tied to a certain extent because the decisions come down from the top. I do wonder though what attendance will be like during March. 

Thank you for the kind words about FIL, we’re feeling optimistic based on what doctors have said so far. 

I already feel better about the driving test and I think next time I won’t have the same level of nerves because of the unknown. I’m also glad that I’m having a few weeks off, I thought that is one thing I can shelve for a couple of weeks while other things take centre stage! 

GeorgianaCavendish

enthusiasticsaver said:

Exciting news about exchange and great idea to start stashing savings away whenever you can as moving house in my experience is always expensive.  Also good idea to try booking super advance rail tickets.  I have got a few bargains over the next few months although obviously restricted to just one train. Your work is being a pain though in insisting on you coming in earlier.  Given how long they have been happy for people to work at home you would think they could be flexible on when you have to return. 

I failed my  first driving test too.  As EH says you will know what to expect next time so don't be too hard on yourself. 

Thank you @enthusiasticsaver 😊 
I wanted to make sure we start off at a month ahead in the new house, instead of feeling like we are always playing catch up with bills. We’re in a really fortunate position now to be able to create a buffer and I want to take full advantage of that. 

I agree with you re: my work, it’s left a really sour taste to be honest as I’ve taken on a lot of new responsibilities during the last two years and had great performance reviews, so having the rule change at such short notice does feel very inconsiderate. It’s great that I could get the super advance tickets for later this month though, that will help a lot! 

Thank you for the reassurance about the driving test too, I’m feeling much better about it and keen to get out there again (although I am glad of the break right now while other things are going on!) 

GeorgianaCavendish

£25 win on PBs today - nice to get an extra boost into my emergency fund!  

One MSE thing I need to do before returning to the office is change my SIM only mobile deal for one with more data. In 2020 I dropped it down to the cheapest deal (£7.50) which only had 2GB of data because I was basically using WiFi connected to our home broadband 24/7. I know from experience if I'm out and about for a few days, the data will get eaten up and then I end up in the expensive buffer zone territory. 
I think I'm going to increase to 12GB for £11 on a 12 month SIM only deal, this tariff also includes roaming in Europe which will be a big plus for our holiday in August. I'll double check the market though to make sure I'm not missing out on something better. 
I bought my current phone in 2018 and I thought I would "need" to upgrade in 2020, nearly 2 years on from that and it's still going strong. My goal is to get as many years as possible out of it! 

Kakiste

Have a look at Smarty as a network- they run through the 3 network of masts so have the same coverage but seem to be much cheaper. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Thank you @Kakiste - that is a great one to know about! 

GeorgianaCavendish

So looking at the coverage map of 3 reception it is very patchy around where we are currently living. We're likely to be here for another 3-6 months and as I'll start commuting into London in the next couple of weeks I will need the increased data sooner. 
I think I will lock in more data with my current provider (Tesco) on a 12 month SIM only contract - although it is much less data per month than Smarty (12GB compared to 60GB) I've never gone over 10GB a month even when I'm downloading tons of things. 

But Smarty is a great network to know about and definitely one I will keep in mind for the next renewal