£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Honeysucklelou2

Definitely a win! That's wonderful that the various pots covered it. Well done.

warby68

On balance a win, although noone ever consider spending money on car repairs a true win - a necessary evil at best.

The bigger win is your management of it, scrabbling it together instead of shrugging and reaching for plastic even though it was largely unbudgetted. And then immediately thinking to top up the pot

Have to book my car in for MOT and service - only 4y old so hope its not a bad one. Still going to the dealer with this one - has the advantage of a courtesy car or a while you wait appointment with very luxurious snacks and drinks. It is co-located with an upmarket car make and I think the standard of the refreshments matches that ! Canapes and sparkling stuff not unusual.

Suffolk_lass

I echo what warby68 says about your management and attitude to this. And I am so pleased it wasn't a disaster.

We had a similar experience. Some years ago we bought a second-hand estate that took to cutting out - it had power steering that would suddenly become heavy and lose all power. Under the warranty from the garage we bought it from they sent it to the local dealer who overhauled the electrics and fitted a replacement (Thatcham class 1) alarm that reduced our insurance but sadly did not fix the problem. After lots of time and effort it was sent to the little local electrical specialists who got it at the second attempt (attempt 1 replaced things, attempt 2 checked all the connections).

It turned out someone had over-tightened a screw on a wire and gone through it, so the edge was in contact (car fine) and when it jolted over a bump it lost contact (car cut out). We had that car for years, because all the work they did meant it was in really good order.

I am sure that really good overhaul service will stand you in good stead and building a relationship with a small garage you can trust is worth its weight in gold.

I know exactly what you mean about being patronised by a bunch of supercilious, condescending, misogynistic men in garages. I took a job delivering things to garages in a futile attempt to prove women can do almost everything men can do, equally well. I could do the job, I just couldn't stop them treating me differently at that time (it was 30+ years ago). Trust me, it is better now. It doesn't mean it's acceptable, just better than then.

arsenalbarnie

When you said about the loss of power problem I did wonder if it was a particulate filter problem. We had a diesel Peugeot once and if it didn't' get any good runs and a lot of town driving it would suffer from loss of power. The cure was a trip up the bypass and to go 70 mph for 10 mins and it would clear it. It was a well known problem with that model. Hope that's all it was. Nice new filters should help. Just start your savings pot up again for it. Look how far you have come. Lots of people would have chucked their toys out of the pram by now and given up.Well done and keep going! :T

PositiveBalance

I echo the others. - good crisis management and financial skills here. Chalk it up as a win!

I also feel your pain. My car became uneconomical to run last year so I got rid. It just wasn't worth throwing good money after the bad any more. I'm glad you have managed to avert a similar crisis.

Onebrokelady

Yay,I have finally caught up to the last page,what a rollercoaster ride it’s been,your budgeting skills have improved massively and well done on the whole car situation,I would have lost the plot and panicked
Also going back to your post about not buying organic food because of budget constraints I think you have made the right decision for you at this time and you need to congratulate yourself on the fact that your family eat good food cooked from scratch and not convenience foods, that’s in itself is something to be proud of and something I definitely aspire to. I am a vegetarian but I’m also a lazy cook and end up eating rubbish,your posts are encouraging me to cook more food from scratch and not rely on convenience food or ready meals
One last thing.......does anyone else read the week and day titles in the Big Brother narrators voice or is it just me :rotfl:

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 54: Day 7

Right, I have just about recovered from the car shock now . I really am proud that we managed to cover it with the savings pot we already had, even though it meant spending all of it and dipping into the emergency fund a little bit. This is the first time I think we have ended the month with the money that should be in our annual savings pots still in them. I might do a round up of how they're looking at the end of the month, another thing that will be interesting to keep a month by month log of.

Very little new income in this week - a couple of enquiries, but of the sort that you just know aren't going anywhere. Looks like my usual Jan/Feb rush might be coming to an end. At least I've been able to use to it to cover my expenses and salary through to the end of May. Now that we're almost at the end of the month I'm aware of the increasing pressure to top up my business account to cover June's expenses/salary so I can stay three months ahead, but end of month invoicing should cover a good chunk of that. Then March can hopefully be more about working on my website and gearing it towards some passive income - I still don't have any income coming from it, because I haven't had the time at the beginning of the year to focus on it.

Our guests are still here, they will go this evening, so just one more day of stealthily budget meals to get through! I made cannellini bean soup for lunch yesterday and hm pizza for dinner. Going to make a big brunch with waffles and fruit from the freezer this morning, then a cold late lunch with hm quiche, new potatoes etc this afternoon before sending them on their way.

My 'rounding down' savings pot from both accounts hit a sensible level (£26.62 between my business and personal accounts), so I've made another payment to the Barclaycard - seems silly to have it sitting in my account doing nothing and potentially getting used for something when I can make a payment. Very nearly 25% of my 2018 debt repayment goal of £5,000 paid off already!

Three things to do today
1. Budget catch up with DH this evening.
2. Make extra quiche for packed lunches.
3. Plan the week ahead.

Savings/Spends:
- £0 last few days of February 'rounding down' pot (£195.17 already paid off CC debt so far this month)
- £1,241.97/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Suffolk_lass

That recipe looks lovely. Do you use a pressure cooker for cooking your beans and pulses? I always do my chick peas in the pressure cooker first so that they are ready cooked when I add them to my recipes.

That rounding down thing can become addictive you know, I am clearing my mortgage with some of mine. I just need a sensible credit card bill now to make me feel more secure around it.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 55: Day 1

Morning! Lovely to be at the start of a week without too many commitments in it. Meeting a friend for coffee this morning and visiting another friend who is about to have a baby on Thursday, which will eat into my working time a bit, but other than that the next few weeks should give me plenty of time to catch up with all the bits of work that have been hanging around for weeks and weeks.

Suffolk lass we had a pressure cooker but we just never got on with it. I really couldn't get my head around it and never seemed to get it right, so we ebayed it during a moment of 'debt clearance' (ha) about five years ago. I just cook them in a normal saucepan. I don't bother with soaking first though unless I happen to think of it, I never find it makes much difference to the cooking time.

Need to get the DCs to commit to a world book day costume this morning so we can buy/make something. I could really live without the extra hassle and expense of that! Balancing it out in the budget so we don't eat into next month's money should be a laugh. I think I have £20 or so available in the family entertainment kitty which hasn't been used, and won't be before the end of the month at this stage, so that can fund it.

The menu plan this week is a little sparse, but I think we have just about enough food in the house to get us through! Proper end of the month stuff.
Mon - fishfingers, chips and veg, all from the freezer
Tue - sweetcorn chowder and fresh bread
Wed - leftover cannellini bean soup (was meant to be matar paneer but I don't think DH got any paneer because he was shopping in a small Sainsburys, and that soup needs using up)
Thu - red pepper pasta
Fri - baked sweet potatoes (normal potatoes for the DC) with cheese
Breakfasts - porridge, french toast, yoghurt, stewed apple and hm granola (not that exact recipe, but similar proportions)
Lunches - savoury muffins (huge hit for lunch boxes), onion quiche, cheese and crackers.
Snacks - flapjacks with apricots and seeds, hm mini cheddars, fruit

Need to go food shopping Friday night or Saturday morning!

Three things to do today
1. Make a pudding for dinner - we have some tinned fruit in the cupboard which I will try to incorporate.
2. Figure out book day costumes.
3. Make sourdough

Savings/Spends:
- £0 last few days of February 'rounding down' pot (£195.17 already paid off CC debt so far this month)
- £1,241.97/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Treadingonplaymobil

February's lists - update

Weekly check in with my BIG LIST... Completed items in teal.

Home/Family
1. Play around with designs in preparation for the architect's visit in early March.
2. Eat the contents of the freezer and defrost it. I think I will be able to do this in the next couple of days.
3. Declutter and organise the utility room.
4. Sort through all the stuff I've decluttered from various rooms and store the children's stuff that needs to be kept for a month or two to see if they ask for it. Charity shop the rest.
5. Keep on top of packed lunches and make sure we have sufficient for a few days at any time, especially as the freezer gets lower. This is still going well.
6. Repaint the bathroom tiles - the tile paint is peeling off (we are avoiding doing any proper work in this bathroom until we know whether it is being moved in the course of the extension). I HATE the bathroom, find it utterly depressing.
7. Spend an hour tidying up outside the front of the house. I need to do some proper gardening once the weather warms up, but it needs a bit of TLC before then.
8. DH finish the fencing at the front of the house.
9. Sew buttons and loops on DC1's new coat to hold the inner fleece onto the cuffs (DC1 loves the coat apart from this).
10. Plan veg planting.
11. Put the word out about needing a little trailer for camping.
12. Mend DC3's dressing up costume (Elsa's plait is coming loose...).
13. Buy cheaper spoons for packed lunches - the DC have been taking in our proper cutlery and I'm fairly sure we've lost one or two of our nice (not cheap) spoons.

Me
1. Stick to three things on my daily list at any one time. Managing this well.
2. Keep it SLOW. A steady half term without too much over-commitment and then taking lots of care of myself the following week, which is very busy with work.
3. Keep up a fuller yoga practice - it has been a real challenge to get back into this after neglecting it horribly at the end of last year, but I feel I'm settling back into more of a routine. Doing better over the past week than I did at the beginning of the month.
4. Finish handmade presents for friend's imminent baby.
5. Plan handmade presents for DC2 and 3 birthdays in March and ensure I have any supplies needed.
6. Try to plan in a night away from the DC with DH. We haven't had an evening out or a night away from them for over 18 months and I think we should try to make it happen. Maybe they could go to my mum's in the Easter holidays for a couple of days, although I'd like to do something a bit more 'special' than just loiter at home without them. But needs to be on budget :cool: .

Work
1. Go through who I'm following on social media for work and make sure they're relevant to my business so I'm not wasting time when on social media.
2. 10% growth on my main social media platform (293 followers).
3. A new blog post for my website.
4. Declutter my work cupboard and clear out any un-needed junk.
5. Confirm childcare for March and April so I can make dates available for clients.

MSE
1. £28 minimum overpayment from rounding down YNAB pots.
2. Sort out the Partnership/Virgin balance transfer and change name of Partnership card if necessary.
3. List wooden marble run on eBay (as you all know, I loathe the hassle of selling things, but this might actually get some sensible money).
4. Don't raid the savings pots! Managing so far!
5. Move my rounding down savings pots over from my business account in the middle of the month and again at the end (I operate the same system there, with rounding down split between a debt overpayment and an extensions savings pot).
6. When doing March's budget at the end of the month try to put some money by for train ticket to London for my dad's birthday meal. I have the price of the meal covered.