Taking it slowly, but doing it well.

pinkypig

Not easy Wish:( but so kind and so important. Your friend will really appreciate it:A

PP xx

wishingthemortgaheaway

Thanks PP, I'm sure she does appreciate it, this is going to be a long road to (hopefully) recovery.

Yesterday was a longgggg day, 7.5 hours traveling, 6.5 hours on the visit. I need to have a discussion with work about travel time, how does it work in other people's jobs? Do you get paid? TOIL? Or is it just tough? I don't want to be awkward about it, but I left home at 6.45am and got home at 9pm.
It didn't end up being a nsd either as I bought tea in a service station, I don't even know if this is expensable or not as hr haven't sent me the expenses policy, I don't even think it exists.
This makes the people I work for sound horrendous, but I'm the only person who works for them who does any form of traveling, so they are playing catch up with certain things.
I need to chase my additional hours payment too, as it's not appeared on my wage slip. Oh joy!

Today involves making the house look presentable, packing & traveling. I'll be dealing with the follow up from yesterday's visit while hubby drives.

Updates below

MSE January Goals
1) £210 Mop pot
Target 1 - overpay interest amount: £68.97/£72.25
Target 2 - next brick on the count down house: 0/£52.11
Target 3 - £210 total overpayment: 0/£85.64

2) EF to £2000
£35/£150 for January.

3) £2 coin challenge - will report at the end of the year.

4) NSD challenge
13/15

5) jean challenge, will document monthly not daily.

6) Bullet journal tasks completed.
Nothing.

wishingthemortgaheaway

So today has been a nsd, just 1 more to squeeze in to hit this month's target.

We're now staying at our friend's house having a 'christmas' weekend.

Our house is tidy, the washing basket is empty, all wet washing hung up drying. Which I'm pleased with. I really need to keep spends down until the end of Jan as I went a bit crazy last week (especially as I've previously said I was doing so well)

Supply money from last week's teaching in the bank. Next Tuesday I get my 'proper job' wages, (and should getmy expenses too) most of which goes on childcare, then a little bit of supply money a week today.

So, things are looking 'squeaky ' as some folks in these here parts say, but it could actually be a lot worse.

Updates below

Wish.

MSE January Goals
1) £210 Mop pot
Target 1 - overpay interest amount: £68.97/£72.25
Target 2 - next brick on the count down house: 0/£52.11
Target 3 - £210 total overpayment: 0/£85.64

2) EF to £2000
£35/£150 for January.

3) £2 coin challenge - will report at the end of the year.

4) NSD challenge
14/15

5) jean challenge, will document monthly not daily.

6) Bullet journal tasks completed.
House tidy, washing done, bins out.
All ready for our time away.

EatingTheElephant

Hi Wish, whenever I used to travel for work the time was classed as working time apart from your usual commute time to work. So I used to commute an hour to get to work normally, so if they sent me to another office that was 3 hours away, 2 hours of that would be classed as working.

Also you should be able to claim a set amount of subsistence expenses, depending how long you are away from you’re usual place of work for, I can’t remember the exact times at the moment but there are guidelines on hmrc website, it’s something like over 5hrs, and over 10hrs. It’s not much but covers things like drinks.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Thank you ETE, that's really helpful.
My 'normal commute' is less than 30 seconds from the bedroom to the office as I work at home, but my hq office is 3 hours away, which I visit 4 times a year.

The way I'm looking at it at the moment is the mileage rate more than covers the fuel I put into the car (I know it's also a contribution towards wear & tear and other costs too) so a fast food meal on the way home from a long day isn't going to break the bank. I do take drinks and snacks from home and lunch is usually provided by the setting I visit.

It is one of a very long list of things I need to clarify when I go down for my quarterly meeting at the end of March.

It's a brand new role and a brand new way of working for the organisation I am working for, so these things are bound to take a while to iron out.

Downshifterella

Hey wish
Enjoy your second "Christmas" you can never have too many in my opinion!

Sorry to hear about your friend, have been through similar and it does get emotional so remember to look after yourself in it aswell. I'm sure the pressies and your company will have meant so much ....we all really need our friends at times like that, and as you say..puts everything in perspective!

Nothing really useful to add re work travel other than what others have said...I tend to add "extra" over my normal commute on as TOIL

Take care

Ella x

pinkypig

Goodness Wish, that is a long day:eek: Hope you have a relaxing weekend with your mates. A second Christmas in dreary January is genius:) xx

wishingthemortgaheaway

Thanks Ella, lovely to have you stop by.
PP - Christmas is great anytime of year, but you're right dreary January is particularly good.

Christmas is going well, friends absolutely delighted with their gifts. We've spent both evenings drinking wine and playing board games.
During the day we took the smalls to softplay, so entry & drinks/snacks/Pickle lunch came to £21 squeak squeak on the budget.
We had Chinese takeaway for tea (hubby paid our share) because friend's child's homework is to taste a range of different Chinese foods - I don't mind helping with such homework tasks - not intending to help as much with the write up/review though
Hubby has put Feb's money in the account, so I've sorted and balanced ynab against the actual accounts as I was nearly £37 out (which has made ynab even high pitched on the squeaky- ometer) one cash withdrawal is not recorded and about 3 Aldi tiny shops hubby hadn't told me about.
Oh well, overpaying the mortgage isn't essential right?

Wish.

MSE January Goals
1) £210 Mop pot
Target 1 - overpay interest amount: £72.25/£72.25✅
Target 2 - next brick on the count down house: £0.03/£52.11
Target 3 - £210 total overpayment: 0/£85.64

2) EF to £2000
£35/£150 for January.

3) £2 coin challenge - will report at the end of the year.

4) NSD challenge
14/15

5) jean challenge, will document monthly not daily.

6) Bullet journal tasks completed.
We're away, I'm doing nothing list related...

wishingthemortgaheaway

Today has not been a nsd because the men and children used all the milk at their breakfast time, leaving non for us mums. And we went out to a Resovoir this afternoon with a pay & display car park.
So approximately £5 in cash spent, so nothing to affect the bank accounts.

Tomorrow we travel from our friend's house to London, then I'm working the rest of the week. I've worked out that my work expenses for the 5 visits come to around £300, which is not far off a month's net salary. Fuel costs are working out at about half the expenses costs.

My salary and expenses are paid on Tuesday, so I'll top up my new 'expenses slush fund' up to £100. Anything left over will go into the emergency fund first and anything else to the mop pot.

Hopefully I'll get some windfalls as the year goes on.

If anyone is interested, here is what I put aside for annual bills, there's usually a little left over once each bill is paid. Sometimes this is put into the mop pot/savings. Sometimes it's redistributed so last September I put the left overs from the home insurance into the car insurance pot, hubby has a new (to him) car that cost more to insure. The , I've just renewed the car insurances but diverted the surplus to the car service/tax/not pot as my car needs a service and a couple of repairs. I'll do a break down of my 'savings pots' another day.

All comments welcome.

Wish.

Money put aside for annual bills:
House insurance: £178 (£50 per month, renews September)
Line rental bt: £200 (£20 per month, renews April)
Costco membership:£45.00 (£5 per month, renews April)
Water rates: £309 (£30 per month renews April)
Council tax:£1255 (£115.00 per month, renews April)
Car insurance £0 (£110 per month, just renewed)
Union fees £30.00 (£10 per month due January)
Education subscription £10 (£10 per month, renews December)

MSE January Goals
1) £210 Mop pot
Target 1 - overpay interest amount: £72.25/£72.25✅
Target 2 - next brick on the count down house: £0.03/£52.11
Target 3 - £210 total overpayment: 0/£85.64

2) EF to £2000
£35/£150 for January.

3) £2 coin challenge - will report at the end of the year.

4) NSD challenge
14/15

5) jean challenge, will document monthly not daily.

6) Bullet journal tasks completed.
We're away, I'm doing nothing list related..

wishingthemortgaheaway

Woooohooo a nsd today, target met. I also got just over £6 cashback from my bank account rewards today, so that's gone in the mop pot.

We are now in London ready for me to work for the next 4 days. Not sure if I'll have any more nsds, but I'll try.

I cannot wait for January to be over. February needs to be short & painless. I cannot wait to do my end of the month round up at set February's goals.

Night all,
Wish

MSE January Goals
1) £210 Mop pot
Target 1 - overpay interest amount: £72.25/£72.25✅
Target 2 - next brick on the count down house: £6.08/£52.11
Target 3 - £210 total overpayment: 0/£85.64

2) EF to £2000
£35/£150 for January.

3) £2 coin challenge - will report at the end of the year.
Haven't had a single one all month.

4) NSD challenge
15/15 ✅

5) jean challenge, will document monthly not daily.

6) Bullet journal tasks completed.
We're away, I'm doing nothing list related..