DD's accountability thread

beanielou

Why dont you put half of the surplus to your CC & hang on to the rest?

DD265

beanielou wrote: »

Why dont you put half of the surplus to your CC & hang on to the rest?

That's a good suggestion, thank you.

I was doing the maths yesterday and working out the rate at which I'd need to pay down the credit cards to not pay any interest.

MBNA balance 1 - £3700 interest free until November 2019
MBNA balance 2 - £2000 interest free until May 2020
Barclaycard - £2600 interest free until June 2020

I've just checked and I don't actually have any balance transfer offers on the Barclaycard which is probably the first time ever. I assume that this is related to the mortgage. This changes my plans a bit; originally I was going to pay down the Barclaycard and transfer MBNA1 over. Instead, I'll throw everything at MBNA1 to clear it in a year, then MBNA2 and then Barclaycard.

On the bright side, I won't be paying any transfer fees, but to achieve this I need to be repaying 500 a month come March - I can manage to put a little less towards them in Dec/Jan/Feb just to give some breathing room.

DD265

Had a lovely time at Champneys; didn't do anything but appreciated the chill out time. However, it wasn't the cheapest weekend on the whole; out with a friend on Saturday night (£60), met my sister for lunch on Sunday (£25), only spent on dessert at Champneys (£5 and so worth it! ) then we stopped off at an outlet on the way home yesterday.

I bought two frying pans from the new Tefal Ingenio range where the handle comes off. I like the idea, and we do like Tefal pans but our existing ones were worse for wear. These were £20 which is more than we'd have paid for a 'normal' pair, so happy to give them a go. I also got a pair of Levi Jeans for £29.50 (less than half price) but having tried them on when I got home I realised why. They're sized 2" smaller than the label based on my existing pair and I can't get them up over my backside. OH reckons I should keep them as a target pair, but frankly I'd rather have the £30 in the bank so will have to make a trip to return them. Then I bought a potential Christmas present for OH. It's not something he'll get use out of in winter, so I might save it for his birthday in spring. We'll see.

Bills went out yesterday, including the extra £100 overpayment for the MBNA card which I set up at the weekend. Unfortunately, I subsequently confirmed that my car is leaking coolant, so into the garage it goes. I've moved the other £100 from the house purchase surplus to the car maintenance category so hopefully £150 is enough. If not, I have money in other categories that I can use before attacking savings.

A good example of this is health. I figure that the maximum I'd pay is for dental on the NHS at £250, so although I can claim these costs back, so that's a good amount to have set aside. I have £200 in that category as of this month, so if necessary I can use some of that for the car. I am 99% sure that I don't need a crown, but I am going to the dentist tomorrow so at least I'll know.

DD265

Car has cost £55 so far - it is a leaking radiator, but my mechanic has put some sealant through and is confident that should do the trick. If it doesn't, I'm looking at about £150 to have a new radiator put in.

Not doing too well on the NSD front at the moment, but have had appointments spread out and plans that just involve spending. Dentist tomorrow followed by the chiropractor (both reclaimable through the healthcare cashplan) then weekly shop/Christmas shopping on Saturday and a meal out on Sunday. I think with these things out of the way next week should be better!

The emphasis is going to shift towards clearing things out/packing rather than bringing more in too. I got a £30 gift card on Amazon last night which gives me an extra £6 credit - getting some packing materials plus a Christmas present from there. Off to Tesco in a bit because I need to get some cash out (need change for parking tomorrow!) and will top up my reloadable card so I get the discount then use it to buy a Boots gift card as a present. Not a huge saving but it does help!

We're coming to the part of the month where not much goes on financially. It was good to put my transactions in YNAB and not need to move budgeted amounts around. It does make me feel like I'm not necessarily doing anything, but I know it's a good thing. :cool:

DD265

This week is feeling very expensive. I've not managed a single NSD, spent £190 at the dentist today (white fillings... worth it when I look in the mirror but I'm still hurting at the cost) which has wiped out my cash plan dental budget, then used £15 of the cash I'd gotten out for something else for a curry tonight. Oh and bought some Christmas presents on Wednesday to the tune of £77.

It's all within budget but I still feel like I'm hemorrhaging money. I'm planning to claw it back next week by getting all shopping out of the way this weekend (both food and Christmas) and then making sure the food shop includes snacks etc so I'm not tempted. I could potentially do 5 days NSD next week (Mon-Fri) if I'm clever about it.

The dentist wants to redo some white fillings I had done in March as he's not sure they've been done well, and I am going to be very unhappy if I have to pay for them. I've checked in YNAB and they cost me £285! If necessary I'll have to have them done in grey on the NHS and get them redone in white later, because grey fillings do bother me.

DD265

Had an unexpected NSD today. We had a family Christmas lunch and OH paid for our share. As we still have our separate accounts, I'm counting that as a win.

As far as Christmas goes, I have just the card for my husband to buy and we're using previous year's leftovers for everybody else. Similarly wrapping paper will be leftovers because we need to use it up; I won't be moving any with us.

I ordered the packing materials yesterday, so everything bar the boxes is on its way. I've put a post on freecycle for boxes, but will try local businesses too. I could also do with getting some clear plastic bags but I saw these in the supermarket - I am not risking anything being thrown out again after the near miss with the throws! I may still get some pallet wrap; it'd do things like mattresses and the sofa as it'll probably be raining when we move, but I'll see how I get on with packing first. We didn't have 'everything' when we moved last time, but then we did have a bit less stuff too and it was a shorter journey/better time of year.

Was speaking to OH earlier about budgeting better for next Christmas. It's not the presents; those have been budgeted for nicely and I'm happy with the amount I set aside, but it's the meals out. So far this month we had 4 restaurant/pub meals and a takeaway, with another 4 meals out to come. :eek: I obviously hadn't thought things through properly as all bar two of them were planned before December, or the plans we had made meant that eating out was inevitable. We can manage it (I'll go easy on my mileage, and if necessary my annual budget categories can take a hit) but we need to be better prepared next year.

DD265

DD265 wrote: »

My 19 things to do before 2019 list.

1) Catch up on filing (scanning and shredding)
[STRIKE]2) Take out life insurance[/STRIKE]
3) Finish knitting Cushion No.4 - On to the last ball of wool
[STRIKE]4) Declutter kitchen[/STRIKE]
5) List horsey stuff for sale or donate/throw it
6) List pony stuff for sale or donate/throw it
7) List wedding stuff for sale or donate/throw it
8) List misc stuff for sale or donate/throw it
[STRIKE]9) Finish reading 'A Discovery of Witches' trilogy[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]10) Get/make how-to guide for rebuilding cat tree when we move[/STRIKE]
11) Lose 4kg - 2kg down
12) Do the hand washing
13) Take cat vaccination cards to vets for update
14) Get blackout linings put in spare room curtains
15) Manage 19 NSDs - 2/19
16) Declutter bedrooms
17) Declutter living room
18) Pack away seasonal clothes
[STRIKE]19) Cash in Premium Bonds account[/STRIKE]

I feel as though my NSD target should be replaced with 'spend all my money at the dentist and garage'.

I've been to the dentist 3x in the past week, he just had a nosy at the first appointment and then he's been redoing work that I've had previously. It cost me another £37.50 today and he's going to check whether I need to pay for the 'disputed' fillings to be redone - they're booked in next week. On the bright side, he's quoted me £105 which is better than the original £249 (I found the paperwork). I'll just get them done in white regardless I think, as I was reading today how with each replacement there's more and more damage to the tooth, so having them done in grey with a view to replacing them within a year sounds like a bad idea.

Unfortunately I am 99% sure that my car is still leaking coolant. I've parked very carefully tonight so I can see if it creates a new wet patch. I'll check the coolant level when the engine is cold and I should be able to tell from that too.

All this means that realistically, I'm not going to get my 19 NSD in December. Between (more) meals out and the fact that I can't put my car in the garage on the same day that I go to the dentist, I just can't manage it. The only way I can think of doing it is taking cash out in advance for the meals, or saying 'if it's essential (like dentist/car) it doesn't count towards a spend day'.

DD265

Fingers crossed I might've been wrong about the car; it's looking OK but will have to keep an eye on it.

I unexpectedly ended up with some cash; my personal trainer asked to be paid into his bank account but I'd already withdrawn the cash. I went to pay it in at the post office, only to find out that the paying in book I'd received has my maiden name on every slip even though the front cover was correct. So I'm going to use the cash for meals and the remaining Christmas bits I need to get. I don't count cash in my NSDs (as once it's withdrawn it's spent as far as budget is concerned).

I got a refund for a dress I'd bought on eBay - nice dress and what I thought I wanted but turns out it wasn't for me. I've still got the jeans to return and may or may not manage that this weekend, but they're covered by the extended Christmas returns policy anyway.

I have added some new savings goals to YNAB for things like a new PC, 1 month's take home etc. I've set a target balance for each category but no deadline. The priority will still be the credit card repayments.

I'm not sure if I knew this, but MBNA allocate repayments firstly to the highest interest rate and then if all the interest rates are the same (0% in my case) by the oldest transaction date - NOT the date that the transaction starts paying interest. This means that essentially it's reducing my balance in the wrong order so I'll have to do a balance transfer to my Barclaycard in October. Hey ho.

DD265

DD265 wrote: »

My 19 things to do before 2019 list.

1) Catch up on filing (scanning and shredding)
[STRIKE]2) Take out life insurance[/STRIKE]
3) Finish knitting Cushion No.4 - On to the last ball of wool
[STRIKE]4) Declutter kitchen[/STRIKE]
5) Declutter horse sale items
6) Declutter MLP sale items
7) Declutter wedding sale items
8) Declutter misc sale items
[STRIKE]9) Finish reading 'A Discovery of Witches' trilogy[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]10) Get/make how-to guide for rebuilding cat tree when we move[/STRIKE]
11) Lose 4kg - 2kg down
12) Do the hand washing
13) Take cat vaccination cards to vets for update
14) Get blackout linings put in spare room curtains
15) Manage 19 NSDs - 3/19
16) Declutter bedrooms
17) Declutter living room
[STRIKE]18) Pack away seasonal clothes[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]19) Cash in Premium Bonds account[/STRIKE]

In the end I decided not to list any items for sale in December. It's just too close to Christmas and too much hassle with the volume of post, last posting dates etc. I am in fact going to take down all of my existing sales posts and start again once we've moved. So with that in mind, I've changed the 'to do' items to be a declutter instead. That way we're only taking things that I will actually list for sale. The important thing is that these do not go up into the loft - if they disappear up there it'll never get done. :rotfl:

This weekend has ended up busier than originally expected, but I was so glad to have crammed a lot in this morning as the weather has turned and there's a lot of black ice about.

Our boxes have arrived, and I did order the pallet wrap which will arrive on Wednesday. The only things left to get then are the mattress bags and TV box, but I can leave those until after Christmas. I intend to make a start on proper packing next weekend; still in declutter mode. So far I've done the kitchen, most of the living room, most of the dining room, our bedroom and the bathrooms. Still got two bookshelves down here, and the cupboard under the stairs. Then the spare room (including the sale items) and then we're all good. I'm sure that as we're unpacking there will be some elements of 'why on earth did we keep this?!' but I think that's inevitable no matter how 'good' you think you've been. :rotfl:

Tomorrow we're going to the shopping centre; I think OH's tendency to leave shopping until the last minute is going to be the death of me! Planning to get there before it opens so hopefully it won't be horrendous, and it's only a brief trip before we go to meet friends who live nearby. Whilst OH does his thing at the shopping centre, I have a couple of small bits to look for and I might get some gift bags/gift tags so presents don't get mixed up. I'm going to have a look at wrapping things now so I know if I need anything.

beanielou

Hope you survive the shopping centre!