DD's accountability thread

DD265

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted - and what a month it has been! Where to start..

My sister is in - minus the cat (who went to a family member) and sofa bed (sold), so that was a relief. She managed to sell virtually everything that needed to be sold, and a friend picked up her ex-partner's things. She ended up losing only £100 of the deposit which was less than we were expecting, given cat damage to the carpet! She's paying £70 a week rent whilst she's living with us; we had to guesstimate the amount so I'm not sure whether it covers everything or not, I think it should. She did interview for a job elsewhere and got it, so will be moving out eventually, but suspect this virus is going to delay things.

We were supposed to be going to Northern Ireland next weekend for a family party. I've cancelled the Airbnb which we'll get a full refund for, the airport parking which I'm not sure if we'll receive a refund or not, and I'm waiting to see if Easyjet cancel the flights when they ground most of their fleet on Tuesday. I'll take a credit note, if that option is provided or otherwise I'd like a refund; we don't know if/when the event will be rescheduled so I don't know what dates to change to.

Job wise, all three of us are working from home. I've been warned that they may make changes to bonus structures, ask employees to reduce hours, impose temporary pay cuts or eventually, redundancies. For us, it depends very much on how our customers do. Personally I've got a lot of customer chargeable work on right now despite the virus but I've still been reviewing my budget to see at what point I would be in trouble. I can cope without bonuses and at a push my car allowance, but losing the latter is going to put me under a lot of stress. Less than losing the job, I guess, and we'd still be better off than many.

The Barclaycard is sat at £400; I still plan to pay £200 off at the end of March, but then I can drop to £100 a month in April and May if I have to, and still get it paid off by June. I'll continue to pay £100 a month off the MBNA card until things have stabilised again. I feel the need to focus more on the emergency fund, which is currently sat at £339.92.

Tough times

beanielou

Tough times indeed.
Take care 

DD265

Thanks Beanielou, I hope all is well with you and yours

The Airbnb refund came through today, and so did a refund for the airport parking, from Skypark Secure. We always use them for our parking anyway, but I'll definitely remember this and do so in the future, too. I paid my sister back for her part of the Airbnb, then have put the rest into the emergency fund - now at £430.42. I've got some money in PayPal too which I'll move across in a few days (£78.40). I'll feel better when it's at £500, but want it up at £1000.

The 'lockdown' will make it easier not to spend; I'm resisting the temptation to shop online unnecessarily, though I suspect there'll be a lot of temptation to at least window shop. I've just taken the decision to end all of my eBay listings because I don't want to sell something and then find out that I can't send it. I'll save the better part of £200 on cancelled appointments next month, and the car is full of diesel so the chances of getting through that are slim.

We spent some time tidying the garden yesterday, and sorted the storage around the side of the house where the previous owner had left some rubbish. It's now all ready to go to the tip when we're allowed out again. Still too cold to put the plants out from the conservatory overnight though! I'd put a small pond in last year and we're going to take it out. I am thinking I'll drain it and remove the pond liner, then put soil in (which we've got) and if I happen to be able to get some bedding plants when I'm at the supermarket I will pick a few up to add some colour to our lives.

Also planning to do some DIY; we were going to get a handyman in but that's not an option so I think we'll have a go and then get it sorted out when all this is over if needs be. I'm sure there'll be some things we can't do, either due to lack of skill or lack of tools/supplies, but it feels like a good opportunity to learn. We've got a few projects in the garage that want starting (need sanding first) so whilst we may not be able to finish off with paint/varnish, we can make a good start on getting them ready. We also have the gym in the garage so combined with the 'one exercise a day' rule we should be able to stay healthy, both physically and mentally. I might also take the opportunity to give the car a good once over, inside and out; we have a pressure washer, and I've all the shampoos/polish etc - that'll be a good arm workout, and it's not a small car!

No word yet on whether I'll get my bonus paid at the end of the month. I've spoken to my boss about the TOIL I'd accrued and holidays etc, as I have a lot of work on and may be best cancelling some holiday, rather than booking it as requested, so that I can get the work done. She's waiting to hear the guidance from her boss and we'll go from there. We've got a decent buffer in the joint account, though my personal account is looking a little low (mostly due to buying OH's birthday presents) and a bit of overspending elsewhere. I shall be reining it in sharpish!

DD265

It's been a stressful week, work wise. The particular customer I work closely with is going through their peak trading period, and given current events, are probably even busier than normal. If anything, despite my employer suggesting we take holiday now if we're quiet, I feel busier than ever! I suppose we'll have to see what the state of play is in a few weeks/months. As far as I know, I'm still getting paid February's bonus next week; there's been no communication to say otherwise. We've got another company-wide meeting next week where we'll be given updates, and I suspect this might include stopping the bonus scheme. They've already stopped overtime, but time off in lieu is still happening; I've got some randomly booked in September which we'll move nearer the time.

I've spent very little this week - £9.99 on a subscription to World of Warcraft, which I haven't played regularly in a long time - but that's it, personally. From the joint account, I've topped up the Sainsbury's reloadable card, ready to brave it tomorrow (I feel a bit worried about this... not so much getting the virus, but how strange it's going to be, whether I can get what we need/want etc) and I also bought a fire extinguisher/blanket combo that OH wanted. As my sister is paying money towards her keep, it feels like we're doing reasonably well financially for the time being, at least.

OH went to the butchers today and got most of what we wanted. I opted for enough to make one meal of everything (three servings) and the only thing he didn't come back with was lamb steaks; I made a spicy Moroccan soup recently which was lovely and I wanted to make it again, but we can do without. I'm currently doing the meal plan, and then will adjust accordingly if there's anything we can't get.

beanielou

Hope that you do get the bonus.

DD265

Thanks Lou. The bonus was paid, and I was able to pay off the Barclaycard (£400) whilst budgeting comfortably for the month ahead.

We had a company meeting which happened to fall on pay day and the bonus scheme is suspended until further notice, and the company is dropping employees down to 4 days a week, with a mixture of furloughed and not. For those that have been furloughed, the company is topping up the extra so everybody gets the equivalent of 4 days salary. There are some exceptions to the 4 day rule, and I'm one of them, because I said that a) I have a lot of chargeable work on and I can only really support one other person to help me with that and b) I can't do my job in 5 days a week as it is; as evidenced by me finishing at 9.30pm tonight having started at 9am. 

So I'm still on full pay, albeit with no bonus. Alas, the bonus to be paid at the end of April (I made the mistake of checking!) was over £1100 before tax etc. Hopefully there'll be some back pay at some point and if not, I shall have to be grateful if I still have my job. At the point where I did the budget I thought I was being dropped to 4 days, so I worked out 80% of my normal take home and budgeted that. The rest was used to either pay off the Barclaycard, or went into the emergency fund, which is back up to £882.54, so not far off the £1k target. Obviously given the circumstances after that we'll be looking at 3-6 months take home which I anticipate to take a while longer. I plan to continue budgeting as if I were on 80% for the foreseeable, with the extra going into savings, then if/when it does happen, it's not a shock.

OH has been furloughed, so he's on 80% take home. Similarly with March's salary we set 20% aside in savings. The good thing about all this is that a) we aren't going anywhere to spend a lot (I don't feel 100% comfortable shopping online for unnecessary things, given that puts people at risk too) and b) we're realising that we can actually run a tighter ship. It helps that my sister is paying keep, and she has increased the amount she's paying; I plan to set the extra to one side and we'll see about giving the extra back to her when she moves out, if we don't need it beforehand. Gas and electricity have stayed under £100, and the heating will hopefully come off soon, but not sure about water usage.

MBNA card is my biggest issue currently at £9500 - I'm only paying off £100 a month and think I'd best stick with that approach for a while. It's interest free until September next year so I've got time to worry about it later. We owe £475 on OH's credit card which I've suggested we consider paying off at a faster rate as the interest free period is up in July. We still owe a family member £2600 for the deposit on the house; I might suggest to OH when he's back to full pay that we see about increasing the repayments on that to £200 a month if we think we can. Once that's repaid, the plan would be to throw that extra £100-200 at the mortgage. Surprisingly then, given the situation, I feel pretty comfortable with our finances. We're in a fortunate position and I want to be sensible now to sustain it as long as possible.

In theory we're getting a refund from EasyJet. I rang them, and got through after 3.5 hours. I have an email confirming our refund so we'll see whether it turns up - unfortunately it's going back to OH's credit card so it's not easy for me to check!

Finances aside, work has been extremely stressful. At home though OH is being very supportive (I did make some suggestions given that he's now a 'house husband'! though he's registered as an NHS volunteer) and that definitely helps - I couldn't do this without him. He did a stock take of the food in the house earlier so we are going to work out a meal plan and shopping list. I'm hoping to remove the pond in the garden this weekend, and we might fill the planters it'll leave behind with wildflower seed, given I can't get out to buy any plants for it. I think that will look pretty, and hopefully the butterflies and bees will like them!

DD265

We've got the refund from Easyjet, less a £2 fee which I think might be a payment provider fee, looking at the transactions. Not going to argue it, and pleased that it didn't take too long!

DD265

I'm getting twitchy; feeling the urge to spend money that I don't need to spend. Trying to tell myself to sleep on it, or maybe I need to make it a reward for working out (which I'm currently procrastinating on) or eating well (which is just not happening).

I want a blind for our spare bedroom; found the perfect one and ordered a swatch so I can't even do that to stall. Said blind is just under £100 because the windows are naturally not a standard size. I keep waiting for it to go on sale, but no joy so far. When I do eventually get it we'll move the old, not particularly lovely, blind from the spare bedroom into the office and get rid of the curtains in there which will make the room feel bigger and also stop one of the cats using them as his own personal resistance band for stretching.

The other thing I'm after is a bird house. I've had my eye on a particular one for a while, but it's £70 and thus far I've not been able to justify it. Today OH has removed the pond between the decking and patio, and we've partially filled it with top soil but were lacking compost. Said compost has been ordered from B&Q via their click and collect, along with a three pack of rose shrubs as I don't have enough plants to do anything decent at the moment. It's making me want to 'do' something in the garden, and hopefully when we get the compost and I can plant the roses, plus a couple of plants from our conservatory, that will be the edge taken off.

I've also got an order coming from Amazon this week - OH needed a new Fitbit strap as his broke, so I added a t-shirt onto it (I've mostly got 'work tops' which I don't want to wear around the house, as the cats are liable to snag them) and a light for the plants in the conservatory as the venus fly trap appears to be struggling. The rose that I ordered from an online garden centre about a month ago is due for dispatch this week, and that will be getting potted around the front. I've got a pot I can use for now, then will have to have a shuffle down the line. The rose has the name of my late grandfather combined with my maiden name, so it will be sentimental. I never had myself down as a rose person, but the one I bought last year has converted me! It helps that they typically have bold flowers and are cat safe; so many of the 'pretty' plants are toxic to cats.

When I write it all down, it seems as though my shopping urges should be satisfied! Must hold on to that thought...

DD265

I was able to collect the B&Q order today, so the new roses (two climbers and a shrub) are planted, and I put an ornamental grass and Jasmine out from the conservatory. Could've done with more compost; will keep an eye out on our supermarket trips. Have ordered an obelisk to support the Jasmine as it's branching out from our tallest canes at the moment (it's been inside all winter; I bought it when we were going to make raised beds and we didn't get to it), but I couldn't plant it any closer to the railings behind it. Waiting on the other rose; it has been despatched, and I'm hoping it arrives tomorrow otherwise that'll be 6+ days in the postal system and I'm a little worried about how well it will fare. I'm looking to get the other plants outside this week (though will have to keep an eye on temperatures) and I need to find room inside the house, as opposed to the conservatory, for the 'office plants' that I rescued from work, as these don't seem to be coping well with the sun/heat in there. I either need the lock down to continue long enough that I can nurse them back to health (two of them were a bit sad when I collected them, but a few others have taken a hit) or to end at such a point that I have time to go out and replace them so nobody notices! 

It was OH's birthday this week, so he finally got to open all of the Lego I bought him and have had hidden around the house for a couple of months, so he was very happy. We got a takeaway; our first since.. I'm not quite sure when. We had McDonalds the weekend before they closed their restaurants and that was the last time. Normally we'd go out for a meal, but a takeaway still felt like a treat, and it was cheaper. I was able to get him a birthday cake from the supermarket, so it still felt like an occasion, and he's not usually one who likes a big fuss anyway.

I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling as though we should be a lot further into the month than we are. I think part of it for me is that I budgeted on 80% salary this month, and paid off the Barclaycard in full, so I've less disposible income than I would normally have, and I don't really have a way of making any more right now. We've started a list of purchases and are deciding what's (hopefully) going to be this year, vs what we'll push out. Things like garden landscaping are likely to be next year, or later still, but we need to start trying to save a bit towards the other things. There's a balance between paying debt off, building savings (to keep as savings) and also making some larger purchases so we feel like we're still moving forward. Normally I'd receive a bonus and spend a lump sum on something, but we need to get used to prioritising and saving up, because we can't rely on those lump sums any more!

DD265

Animals, kids, cars... they all know when it's not a good time. This week it's one of the cats; he's in the vets on a catheter with suspected urinary tract issues. Initially they were going to keep him for a couple of hours observation, but got his blood results back and potassium (and something else) were very slightly elevated, so they decided to intervene at this caught-it-early stage rather than let it worsen. I'm obviously worried about our cat, but I'm also cross with OH for not ringing the vet during the week when I asked him to because we thought something was a bit off, even though on the whole cat seemed fine. In the grand scheme of things it's only money, and the cat comes first without question, but this is a veterinary hospital on a bank holiday weekend as an emergency admission, and they're throwing numbers around like £1500. The initial consultation was £174, and I've paid a £300 deposit. We are insured and hopefully can claim it back; I believe we'll be required to pay initially, which thankfully we're able to do so in cash.

I think it's going to be a long month.