I am being upgraded from Mum to Nan - I need a plan!

Mum2Nan

Pollie said:

I have started replacing gruyere with emmenthal as it is cheaper

Thanks for the tip Pollie - I'm going to give it a try next time.

No trains problems tonight and no money spent.

My DD has childcare issues on Thursday due to an inset day so I've booked the day off.   I can't wait.  This will be the highlight of my week.

Mum2Nan

I am beaming with happiness becuase I am feeling very happy tonight!

Had a lovely day with my gorgeous GS yesterday but it was a long day, as long as my own working day with the commute.  We went to the park for a couple of hours because the weather was so nice and then stopped off at the supermarket.  The shop looked like it had been ransacked and felt very sorry for the poor staff there.  Only stopped in to get a bottle of water and some paracetamol.  Bought the water but they were completely out of tablets, so we beat a hasty retreat and arrived back to DD’s in time to stop off at the local pharmacy.

I was so exhausted when I finally arrived home.  I opened the Council tax bill which was sitting on the floor and was relieved I had over calculated this by £5.  The increase could have been worse.  I didn’t fancy my meal plan so rustled up scrambled egg on toast and then had an early night.  So last night’s meal will be for tonight.

I woke up to some very good news this morning… I still can’t quite believe it.  No, I haven't won the lottery! but I received an e-mail from our Estate’s Management Company advising our management accounts until June 2019 had been signed off and to log in to check the invoice which I admit I ignored until I got to work as by then I was curious to see how bad the damage was (thinking I was going to be asked for another one off payment which has happened previously).  No, I have received a credit note for a whopping £533.23.  This means I will not have to pay my service charges for April, May and June.  Depending on how much the bill is for July – December which usually but not always is received in June will mean I will also get at least July free as well.  It’s not really free money of course because it’s money I have already handed over, but it was very welcome, nonetheless.  All of this will be going towards the dreaded MC each month.  I have decided not to remove this from my budget as it’s temporary and the money will be reallocated. 

In other financial news, I’ve had two delay repay payments confirmed and one declined and am so incensed as it’s the journey that caused me the most aggravation.  I have already appealed.

My expenses were submitted on time but incurred another lot today so will try and put some time aside tomorrow to start completing this month’s claim for timely submission.  I went through Quidco so another £5.17 has tracked.

I will not be doing any cooking tomorrow for meals next week.  I still have a few homemade ‘ready meals’ in the freezer so will use those up as I don’t have any room and I do not want to waste any food at all. 

We have been told we have all got to work from home next week, day to be confirmed so our IT systems can be tested for business continuity.  Interesting times we are going through at the moment.

All in all, a very good week.   

Anyone know what the obsession is with toilet rolls? 

beanielou

All good in your world then 😊

Mum2Nan

It was Beanielou but it didn’t last long!

I woke up this morning with my mind and body completely out of sync.  I was having an internal battle and unfortunately my body won.  I have had the laziest of days, this is despite housework needing to be done and finances updating.   I feel guilty for spending most of the day dozing on and off in front of the TV.

A panic will overcome me tomorrow morning, but I will have to deal with it then.  I’ve felt totally drained of any energy today.  I find this constant battle of trying to balance the books and needing to account for every penny a real headache and I do worry about my sister a lot.

I’m already back tracking on last night’s thoughts about reducing the dreaded MC due to unexpected management charges windfall.  My sister never has any money luck, well no luck at all really so I am going to give her £50 tomorrow.  I’m aware I’ve got my emotional head on, but she’s my sister and I prefer my emotional head to my financial one.   I’m still on track to get into the (now not so secret) £17Ks next month… 😊 despite windfall so what difference will it make?  If everything goes t*ts up when the dreaded MC is due to be repaid and I don’t get a balance transfer from BC I will have to take out a loan anyway.  I won’t be much worse off.

My outfit for my colleague’s wedding next week is now sorted and I’ve not had to spend anything 😊

I’m good friends with my neighbour so am popping in to see him soon.  I will need to visit our local shop to buy a bottle of wine as it’s my turn (I know another £6 or so I need to account for) but his sense of humour is worth every penny! 😊

Mum2Nan

It’s been a while since I was last on here and what a difference and change in circumstances. 

I am almost 3 weeks into WfH.    All bills and debt repayments were made on 1 April, but any further repayments are likely to be put on hold for the time being.  I have had to take a 20% pay cut due to the current situation and am likely to be around £500 worse off and of course this will affect my pension contributions.  I have received a refund on my train ticket so that will offset some of the loss as will my monthly fuel allowance as am not using my car.  Such a shame as I felt I was doing quite well and squeezed into the £17K.  Will update my signature shortly.

I had to cancel one of my eBay sales as I couldn’t get to the Post Office but have received all my delay repay claims and Quidco cash back as it’s become available.

Things could be worse, much worse though as I haven’t been furloughed like some of my colleagues and those that have are more than likely the ones going to be made redundant if the scheme is not extended or some normality doesn’t resume before then.

Like so many others, the biggest shock to the system has been not seeing my family, BF or even my work colleagues.  Thank the Lord for technology.  It’s a poor second best but at least we can remain in contact and ‘see’ one another.

My parents are now helping my sister out along with my brother.  She is classed as a key worker so remains on full pay but my BIL obviously has no work.

I realise I am one of the lucky ones.  So many others are going through real financial hardship.

Mum2Nan

Like millions of others, I am now into week 5 of lockdown.  I have adjusted to working from home full time but it’s a lonely existence when you live on your own but I do at least have Laurel & Hardy.

I spent my 50th birthday on my own but my family, friends and colleagues had gone to such efforts to have flowers, gifts and cards delivered and my phone barely stopped ringing throughout the day.  A birthday I will never forget for all the wrong reasons.

Rightly or wrongly, I have taken advantage of the mortgage payment holiday as I have taken a 20% pay cut and am going to use this money between paying 75% debt and the remainder towards my emergency fund.  I am determined to squeeze into £16K next month.

I miss my family.  I can’t wait for life to get back to some kind of normality.

beanielou

Belated happy 50th 
Yes, it's tough living on your own with all this malarky going on.

Mum2Nan

Thanks Beanielou

Like many other families, we will be having a family celebration when restrictions are eased to take into account missed birthdays, Mother’s Day and quite possibly Father’s Day depending on how long this current situation carries on for.

It feels rather inappropriate writing about money at such a difficult time but I need to keep on track.  My financial circumstances have changed but my objective hasn’t.

There is some good news in that my pay cut turned out to be 12% and not 20%.  This is due to my company having different caps for different salary bands and this was confirmed by e-mail when questions were raised.  The bad news is that the pay cut is likely to be in place for this year.  Armed with this information I have now redone my budget for the remainder of the year using this worst case scenario.  Most of the cut would have been my monthly fares which I obtained a refund on my annual ticket so as each month passes without travel this will be transferred to my current account and used where needed.  I will feel the cut worse when office life resumes but it will be a phased return over weeks possibly months. 

In other news, my mortgage payment holiday is still awaiting approval so the mortgage has gone out as usual this month.  This will now kick in from June for 3 months. 

I have made all debt repayments in line with my spreadsheet so have squeezed into the £16K albeit only just.  Am very happy with this, particularly under the circumstances.  I have used the following savings / pots:

£117.46:          D/D not being collected due to credit on monthly management charges
£50:                 No fuel spent for April for obvious reasons
£25:                 Clothes pot.  I have enough clothes already and vouchers if needed
£250:               Balance of work expenses reimbursed back in March
£219.33:          Monthly travel costs

The remainder has come from salary.  I still have my birthday money intact along with eBay sales and Delay Repays in my PP account. 

There will be no further overpayments this month.  If I go careful I will squeeze into the £15K next month and BC1 will definitely be gone :-) then to really focus on Halifax.

Last night I took meter readings for gas and electric and am expecting the credit balance of around £80 to be wiped out as working from home every day I’ve been using more gas and electricity than usual.  With the exception of the hot and sunny spell, I have had to put the heat on quite a bit during the day as it’s been cold, wet and windy and this is despite my flat being well insulated and me wearing socks and a jumper but the heavy usage months should hopefully be behind me now.  I did read an article from Martin Lewis about claiming tax back for WfH but will look into this further once some kind of normal life resumes.

The food bill has been creeping up so will try and rein it in a little this week but it’s difficult as I have one delivery a week so buying everything from Sainsbury’s to save me going to Aldi and with those additional costs plus delivery charges of between £2 and £3 a week is having an impact.  I have also been buying 2 or 3 bottles of wine a week as have been having virtual drinks with my BF and also friends.  My monthly entertainment budget doesn’t really allow for this kind of spend over a month as its unrealistic so have been adding any extras to my grocery budget.  I’m telling myself not to worry for the time being as it is temporary.  I’m reluctant to use my ‘Health & Beauty’ pot as I will need every penny of this before I finally return to the office!

Thankfully the panic buying appears to be over now people are realising the supply chain is holding up.  Still have trouble getting flour and occasionally eggs but everything else seems ok. 

I had a delivery of plants for one of my birthday presents and these have now been planted in my balcony boxes.  Not a large selection as previous years of course as they were no doubt difficult to get hold of with the garden centres being closed but am very grateful for them.  Hopefully they will all flower over the coming weeks.  I came across some sweet pea seeds in the cupboard so threw those in a couple of small tubs on the basis I have nothing to lose.

One very positive outcome of working from home is I am enjoying not having to commute.  The stress of 3 hour round journeys not including train delays seem like a distant memory.

Another bonus is Laurel & Hardy also love having me around now.  Laurel in particular likes the warmth of my laptop so thinks it’s ok to try and sit on it when I am trying to work.  Several times they have both been heard by my colleagues when on Skype meetings much to their amusement.

My company were encouraging people to sign up as volunteers where possible so I put my name forward on our community FB page for shopping, collecting prescriptions or just a friendly phone call and whilst I have undertaken 2 prescription collection and drop offs there has not been as much demand as I thought.  I’m assuming it’s because there are quite a few volunteers around here and it’s being co-ordinated centrally by the Admin Team on the page.  Any time taken during the working day is booked to our CSR job code.

Am looking forward to my virtual drinks tonight with my BF.  It’s been over 6 weeks since we last saw each other in the real world.

All in all, a steady and stable month for me and hope everyone else is managing to cope in these trying times.

Oops, just realised this is a very long post.

Mum2Nan

It has been a month since I last updated my diary so a round-up for May. 

The biggest news is I previously applied for a mortgage repayment holiday which wasn’t approved in time for May’s payment and was due to commence yesterday and I look upon it as a blessing.  A panic swept over me shortly after it was approved and I received the confirmation letter detailing payments and overpayments made to date and decided not to proceed due to the fact I need to remortgage at the end of this year and didn't want to undo the hardwork I had done at the start of my mortgage with the overpayments.  With no commuting costs I am just about breaking even with my pay cut so couldn’t really justify it.  It was easier to apply for the repayment holiday than cancel it but it’s done now and am happy I have made the right decision. 

My spare room is now a dedicated office.   I have been able to separate my work and personal life not that I actually have a personal life at the moment but I can close the door and the remainder of my flat is my own outside of working hours.  I am now into 12 weeks of working from home, I think.   

Although I am getting up around an hour later than I would if I was going into the office, I am in a strict routine with getting showered, dressed etc before I log on to work and I am taking a lunchbreak every day so my day is structured.  I log off at lunchtime and go for a walk for half hour and then have lunch when I get back before resuming for the remainder of the afternoon.  I am, of course, flexible with timings depending on urgency of work but either way this happens to preserve my sanity.  Thankfully the weather this past month has been glorious on the whole.

My car wouldn’t start so had to get recovery out… £140.50 later it was all fixed.  This came out of my car fund which I had been gradually building up this year but is now looking thoroughly sorry for itself.   Am conscious service, MOT, insurance and tax will be due in November so to start rebuilding this I have allocated money to that pot today.

My ‘health & beauty’ pot has also been depleted somewhat as I had what I thought was toothache which turned out to be a gum infection so had to get a prescription for antibiotics.  With no visits to the dentist it was all arranged via video call.  My cheek was so swollen the dentist sent over an electronic prescription to my local chemist.  £9.15 spent there.  I had to make an emergency appointment for the chiropodist as hadn’t been since early February and was beginning to feel very uncomfortable so another £39 spent and whilst out stopped in Boots to buy a hair dye as my roots looked terrible so another £6.50 spent. 

I had to arrange another bulk order for cat litter as was down to the last half bag.  £40 spent, cat food and treats £30.  Laurel & Hardy made it last for almost 13 weeks!  Between us we have set a record.  They were due their booster jabs at the end of April but when I called the vet for advice was given a 3 month extension so still have money in the cats pot for those. 

I really resent dipping into my pots.  I know that’s what they are there for but I still resent it nonetheless.

2 of my fish died within a couple of days of each other a couple of weeks ago so had to decontaminate the tank and throw away the plants so these were replaced and more fish bought from my local garden centre which was not budgeted for so I dipped into my emergency fund by £43.  Not technically an emergency I know and was definitely a want rather than a need but it had to be done as I only had one fish left and he looked quite lonely swimming around in a bare tank on his own.

Grocery budget:  April was over budget and last month was even worse.  I do have a very full freezer again so for this month I will be eating out of that with weekly top up deliveries of the usual milk, bread, cat food, alcohol, fruit & veg.  I had been subconsciously adding to the freezer each week but now I am confident the food supply chain is holding up well I am much more relaxed about this, I think.  

I am having three lots of virtual drinks each week and a quiz night so am buying more alcohol than I normally would.  I have combined 3 pots to make my grocery budget more realistic at the moment.  I might suggest swapping one of the virtual drinks to afternoon tea to save my liver and money.  Hoping to see a major improvement in this area this month.

Debts: BC1 has gone.  I made the last payment of £365 to get rid of it before the 0% deal ended yesterday.  My next focus is to get Halifax down so I can hopefully balance transfer the least amount possible for the last time.   This ends on 3 December.  With other debt repayments made yesterday and today I have now squeezed into the £15Ks and Halifax is now under £9K. Small wins and all that.  If my calculations are correct, I have paid off 43.7% since my debt peaked in December 2017.  I am trying not to dwell on the fact I would have been further ahead if my circumstances had remained unchanged during 2019 / earlier this year, helping my sister out and spending more than I probably should have on DD and DGS but I really now need to concentrate on paying the remainder down as much as possible before 0% deals end, my second grandchild comes along and another 4 day week looms in the not too distant future.

Looking at my figures for the next month or two, I can definitely pay off enough next month to knock me into £14K but after that it will have to be at a slightly slower pace until my financial situation becomes clearer with the pay cut / return to office balance.

I am finally going to visit my parents this weekend for the first time in over 10 weeks and am really looking forward to it.

Here's to a cheaper month this month.

Lu2025

Hi Mum2Nan, passing through and came across your post, you are doing so well, you should be proud of yourself. Enjoy seeing your parents.