Getting it together...one £ at a time!

Homegrown0

elly68 said:

you are doing fab on paying off the debt and saving x

@elly68 - it's an ever moving feast, just trying to keep on top of it all as best we can.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Homegrown0 said:

Childcare payments left: NONE!! We are now £550p/m better off (although we have lost 20% of husband's wages and will be paying for after school clubs when things return to normal). But this is such a wonderful feeling after paying tens of thousands to nursery over the last 7 years

Well done on dropping to sub £7K and having all those savings for your extension!!
How lovely to no longer have nursery fees, I remember that sense of freedom well school clubs etc are comparatively cheap, especially when using tax free childcare to save 20%

Homegrown0

Absolutely @ohshithowdidthathappen - I feel like I've been counting down to this day for so long, I almost can't believe that it's here. Of course, there's always something else to spend the money on but at least now we will be spending it on something we've been waiting 6 years to be able to afford. And yes, 3 days at an after school club with 20% savings is a drop in the ocean compared to what we were paying at the height of our childcare payments (£1500 per month...eye-watering). 

Homegrown0

Today is the day we were supposed to be going on holiday. I'm happy to be safe at home and healthy, of course, but I think i'm allowed to still be a little sad. 

A few more DDs came out today and husband got paid as planned. Things are ticking along nicely. Looking forward to pay day to reset things for a new month. 

Really must start thinking about school uniform - I have two to kit out this year and now we believe they may be going back to school full time straight away which means I'll not be able to scrape by term 1 with just a couple of each. Step one - write a list! My MIL has kindly offered to pay for both kids' school shoes (as she always does) so that's one less (or two, depending on how you look at it) thing to pay for. 

I have some annual leave coming up and now restrictions are easing slightly here, the temptation to book a log cabin/ lodge for a week  is overwhelming. The money would need to come out of savings and I'm reluctant to touch that. Although it's severely tempting to get a break and a change of scenery for us all. It may be that we'll go camping instead and save our money like sensible and controlled adults... we'll see. 

Days until pay day: 3

doingitanyway

Renovations sound exciting. It is totally different spending money on things/changes you can see rather than on repaying debt isn't it?
A family holiday is a brilliant idea.
You sound less stressed than a few weeks back?
Have a good day.

Homegrown0

You're right - it makes such a difference. I'm not quite there yet but after waiting so long to get this started (then having to delay due to Covid), I'm so ready to get cracking. 

We are still swaying between a mid-level spend on a cottage (husband isn't keen and wants to spend as little as possible, which I get) and a super low cost camping trip. I wouldn't be adverse to the latter if the weather had to be at least dry, but my weather forecast says rain, rain and more rain with a side of rain

The stress is easing up a little. I still have a lot to do but I feel like I have a plan, and I'm very much looking forward to some time off and giving my brain a rest from it all. Still unclear what's happening (for definite) with the schools and about my husband's return to work, but I'm trying not to think about that too much. Whatever happens, we will manage. No point in worrying about it until there's something to worry about (I'm trying to live a little more by this motto). 

teafor2

Hi HG Just catching up with all your happenings. The Christmas countdown being added to your list has made me smile. Thankfully mine are older and prefer cash so at least I can budget properly. In the past it's been hard to know whether their absolute must have toy was going to cost us £20 or £200! 

I'm going to vote that you go on holiday somewhere with a proper roof over head    I take my hat off to you and every other family who've gone through LD with small children in tow so I'd be making sure I got a lovely break and change of scenery just in case it all happens again in the not too distant future!

You must be feeling really excited that work on your house is going to start soon. It would be nice if your company met you at least halfway with the promised wage rise. Fingers crossed something comes through for you. xx
 

Homegrown0

Hello everyone, 

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been on. I had a bit of a digital detox during my time off and it was exactly what I needed. Back to the grindstone, so thought it'd be a good time to catch up on finances and in here. 

We did, in fact, get away for a few days in a lovely cabin (not a tent, thankfully!) and it was bliss. Great weather (unexpectedly), lots of walks and most importantly, quality time with the kids. It was the quickest three days ever, but much needed. 

Money
Money-wise, we took a little bit of a dip in the savings to cover the costs of the holiday but things are still looking healthy. 

Should be able to get the savings account close to £11,500 by the end of the month if we keep our belts tight. 

I mentioned a few weeks ago that there was a bit of confusion regarding an agreed pay rise. I've got a meeting with my boss tomorrow to discuss it further. I'm hoping he's made some progress on it since we last spoke (and not just forgotten about it) since it was meant to come into effect in this month's pay. 

HMRC
I've also just realised (thanks to someone I know asking a question on Facebook) that since I received my first pay rise in December, I'm over the threshold to be eligible for child benefit. I went on today to cancel it so I'm hoping that takes effect soon, but that leaves a £137 every-four-weeks hole in my budget. It's not a disaster, it just means that I can save £137 less every month. And it also means that if i do get the agreed pay rise, it will be mostly absorbed by the new child benefit shortfall. 

I'm also interested whether i'll end up owing HMRC money. I worked out for the 2019/20 tax year, i still fall under the threshold, but from April until now, I've been paid CB 4 times I think. So I could end up with a £500+ bill in April next year potentially. I'm not sure whether they'll write to me about owing them money or if they'll just deduct it from tax. I've never really had any HMRC complexities. It's just irritating that i wasn't aware of it sooner really! 

I have amended my spreadsheet accordingly. 

Days until pay day: 17

Homegrown0

In some nice MSE news, i just logged onto our energy provider to see what the latest is. It was offering me another tarrif and it seems our current one has been 'coasting' since last year.

I've just signed up to another 12 months with them and will be saving £32.34 per month! Bonus! That takes my total monthly 'loss' after the child benefit to less than £100. It made me wonder how else I might be able to recoup some of the CB loss... 

Our car insurance is up for renewal in September and due to complete disorganisation on my part, last year I let it auto-renew. I'm sure I could get it down from the £77p/m it's at right now (that's for two cars - it's a multicar policy). 

I'm even toying with the idea of trying to save to pay it off up front if it's affordable at the time, but I won't get ahead of myself. We do have a good pot of savings right now, but as you know it's ear-marked for the renovations so I don't want to go spending from there unless it makes it really worth it. I'll see when the time comes. Should be getting a renewal 'letter' in next month so that will start the ball rolling. And i WILL NOT let it autorenew this year. 

Home insurance isn't up until January 2021 so no movement there and there's not much else I can be saving on right now except the dreaded grocery bill!! It has been sky high since lockdown and I'm struggling to keep it down, particularly because we're following a very protein-rich eating plan, so i'm spending a fortune on meat, fish and veggies. I need to put a little more time into the meal plans, but it will help massively when the kids go back to school and stop eating me out of house and home! 

I'm sure there's more that can be done to save some money here and there so tomorrow i'm going to spend some time looking for it. 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Glad you enjoyed a break away
With child benefit, it's a sliding scale between £50-60K.  It reduces after £50K, but doesn't completely go until £60K. So if you're at the lower end of that bracket, you'll still get something.  Obviously if you're on over £60k that info doesn't help at all
I still find that whole system a stitch up... when they introduced it, we had £230pm wiped off our monthly income, it's when I had to start working Saturdays.  They take no account of your childcare costs or mortgage payments.  The most annoying thing, is a couple earning £49999 each still get it, but a couple where one isn't working, but the other earns £60K don't.  Where's the logic??!
I'll get off my soap box now