Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

Ugh! Finally getting straight at the end of the month, and the massive insurance premium is paid. Two hundred less than last year but still just a smudge over £100 a month (because we are a thatched cottage and have one or two high-value things covered).

I made an error by ordering my foreign currency last week. The money was taken straight away (Sainsbobs) so next month I will have to pay for several days of using my (agreed) overdraft. I use Sainsbobs because they are FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) approved. Most of the stores and SMs who offer currency are not. This time they were slightly cheaper than PO Counters, who are my other favourites, and always closer.

Now I have hedged the cost of our summer holiday and I can give DS just over €100 for his ski-hols. Most of this is paid for up front (by him) but it is the little things like a beer after ski-ing or a hot chocolate in a ski-hut that this will cover. Most is from my lovely Mum, who transfers a few pounds every now and again via my account (so it is actually used for treats).

It is all good, except the £2300 I have had to find in the last week of the month :shocked: - need to plan better. If memory serves, next month will also see DH's multiple motor bike insurance hit the account. So much for saving. It feels like I am just ticking along at the moment.

I am off to do my work expenses and see if that helps!

WannabeFree

Ticking along is still good! Better than going backwards

x

Karmacat

Absolutely, ticking along by being able to such big one-offs is brilliant.

Suffolk_lass

Six weeks of expenses and thanks to bad weather and having to use my home phone (that only has a weekends and evening calls package) and having to use my car twice my expenses are humungous. Well worth 3 hours of my Sunday. I really hope my authorising person is around on Monday so I have them in time for the holidays. Having had to shift money around I am fairly sure I have 13.77 left in my bank account until Thursday. Not even a coffee or an Easter Egg will be purchased now.

Suffolk_lass

My lovely neighbour (on his own) has jumped at my suggestion that we swap freezers. We have a small three drawer under the counter job and he has a full-size upright freezer. So much space!!!

I must not hoard food
I must not hoard food
I must hoard food
I must hoard
I must
I, er, what was it again?

Suffolk_lass

DEBTS
This month saw some of our cash pot eroded because I paid the House buildings and contents insurance which was over £1200 (we live in a thatched cottage) and ordered £1000 of euros (not thinking the cash would go out of the CA with the order doh!). Knowing my lenses are on the credit card bill to come out in April (with my £600+ season ticket for March), it had to be done.

The £700 I squirrelled away was gone in one fell swoop. And my ISA has lost £500 in stock market reset that is why we are in it for the long term.

So all just ticking along with nothing sparkly to report this month.


Mortgage [STRIKE]£110,621[/STRIKE] 75,502.65 (£35,118.35 paid so far)
Barclays 0% Finance for double glazing [STRIKE]£8,755.54[/STRIKE] £2,785.86 (£5,969.68)
[STRIKE]DH's car - paid off on 21st Aug 17 £3,476 £0 (£3,476)[/STRIKE] all finished!

Total [STRIKE]£122,852.54[/STRIKE] £78,288.51 - that is £44,564.03 or 36.27% paid off so far.


SAVINGS
£10,906.66 Emergency pot
£12,037.73 S&S ISA with Fidelity International (original £10,000 some years ago, no further capital added)
£7,321.20 DH's S&S ISA (with Charles Stanley Direct]
[STRIKE]£3,155.32 2 year Bond with Skipton BS @ 4% Finishes 31 Jan 2018 - This will be used to reduce the mortgage![/STRIKE] all finished
£11,330.58 7 year bond with Skipton BS - matures Oct 20
[STRIKE]£38,630.43[/STRIKE] £41,596.57 Total actual cashable savings

Shortfall -£36,691.94 (all debts)

Suffolk_lass

The next really big spend will be our summer holiday so I need to save a bit more in the cash pot for that, but I really want to pay the mortgage down a bit more, just to get it in the £74,000s. Council Tax and Prescription pre-payment kick back in this month. We do seem to be spending lots more. I will try to squeeze more out of the housekeeping.

I need to look again at mobile phones as ours are almost out of contract (May) and basically falling apart (cracked, crappy batteries, cases splitting, deals dreadful). It is always so traumatic, porting things across.

Suffolk_lass

Trust me to think ahead. DH's car is in "limp mode". It is at the second garage. The first (our usual non-dealership local garage who are great and significantly cheaper) replaced a couple of engine coil packs but that has not fixed it and the Honda dealership could (or would) not tell them the engine diagnostic codes. So it went to the dealership last night. Apparently there is contaminated fuel that is causing mis-fires. Not enough to completely screw the engine or to suggest he dispensed the wrong fuel. Just enough to prove the garage swapped the tank and it must have been really low when he filled up. It needs to be removed, evaluated, flushed, cleaned and replaced. At least £360. Not happy. Not happy at all.

redofromstart

oh no suffolk, hope that fixes it.

Cherryfudge

Sorry to hear about all these expenses. I know it's very disheartening that the £700 went, but it was doing its job, that's what squirreling away is for. You will build it up again and you don't have to find that money to cover expenses now.

Hope the car is better soon.