2019 Frugal Living Challenge

PipneyJane

FrankieM wrote: »

Hi All

I've been reading avidly for the last couple of months but not posting. All my concentration has been on getting rid of the debt....and here I am...heading into March debt free

I'm so pleased and it's like a weight has lifted.

But now it's about finding a 'frugal' life balance and not going crazy 'treating' myself

Congratulations Frankie!

Now you can use the budgeting skills you've learned and start planning and saving for big treats! (As well as the inevitable regular bills, of course.)

- Pip

PipneyJane

Earlier this week, I received a 2019/2020 Notice of Coding, telling me that my PAYE tax code will be K279 (meaning that instead of the £12.5k tax free Personal Allowance, they've decided that my entire salary is taxable and that I will earn an additional £2,790 of taxable income on top). I own a rental property, so I wasn’t expecting to receive the full personal allowance (more like 50% of it), but this is ridiculous. They’ve assumed that the entire rent I charge on the flat is taxable with nothing deducted. Forget the service charges/ground rent for the block (about £1,500 per annum) or the management charges from my estate agent (about £1,000 p.a., but worth every penny) or something for maintenance…as far as they’re concerned it’s all taxable. They’ve also assumed that the meagre bank interest I earn is taxable, ignoring the £1,000 Savings Allowance. Ditto the dividends I receive through an investment club (all my personal stock market investments are in a Share ISA).

What this means is that, instead of having about £300 in the bank on payday after all the bills, the housekeeping and the various savings pots* are accounted for, without changing my budget I would have nothing to live off for the month. After some frantic chopping and changing, I’ve managed to scrape back £250 for Money-to-Live-Off each month. The changes include not investing any money in my ISA, cutting my Regular Savings Account monthly deposit to the bone and – with the agreement of my husband – only putting 2/3 of my usual contribution per month into the Joint Running Away Fund for holidays. All these changes hurt. Having spent years bouncing along the bottom of my overdraft, I hate not saving or investing any money. I’m not broke by any means and I’ll still have an income, but it gives me comfort to have pots of money set aside for the inevitable, so cutting those back hurts. God knows how much this would have hurt back in the debt years.

None of it can be corrected until I file my 2018/19 tax return AND their systems process it. Last year, I filed in June and got a revised Notice of Coding in early September. By my reckoning, that means that if I manage to get all the paperwork together and submit my tax return at Easter (possible – I do the payroll), it’ll be August’s pay packet before my tax code changes back to something reasonable.

- Pip (and there I was feeling so smug because I ended the month with cash in my purse….)


* car maintenance/insurance/replacement, football season ticket, cricket club membership/match ticket fund, New Glasses Fund, petrol fund, choir membership, iPhone/laptop replacement, birthday/Christmas presents, etc

Igamogam

PipneyJane wrote: »

Have they given you any guidance or physio to help mitigate the problem with your knee?

Yep....keep moving, take pain killers, keep losing weight. Actually upped the "movement" side this week - I can already do 10k steps a day just on a normal work day - so I have now signed up to more yoga and water based HiT classes and this has helped. I wont be upping the painkillers though - pointless! Weight is on a steady trajectory downwards too:D Hopefully it will be enough. I could have the surgery done privately......over £10K :eek:

Started March spreadsheet - most of my regular bills go out in the first 3 days. February's "gains" from vouchers surveys sales and cashback etc amount to £134.44 and I have slewed that straight into OPs onto CCs.:)

Treating ourselves to a night out tonight - ENTZ budget wont cover it but some in there to go towards it . Coffee and cake catch up ended up being free yesterday as friend paid Have another coffee and catch up with another friend tomorrow ENTZ budget taking a hammering but at least there is some money put aside and it will build again!

stirchleygirl

Igamogam
Wow well done on the monthly saving that's a pretty impressive achievement.
Sorry to hear that they won't do your surgery - well done with the walking and weight loss.

stirchleygirl

Lifeisforliving19
Well done on your grocery budget and number of NSD

stirchleygirl

Living proof
Thanks for the reminder about the GOV savings scheme I do remember seeing it in one of Martins emails - but then forgot about it. I'll write it on my to do list so that I don't forget about it this time.

CapricornLass

I can sympathise, PipneyJane. HRMC have told me that I owe them £2300 due to not be taxed correctly by an agency last year. It means that I will be over £100 a month worse off next tax year. I've got to sit down yet and work out what I have to give up.:(

stirchleygirl

Treasurequeen
Thanks - I have got some items in bulk as a normal thing to do - but I think I need to look at what I use and be more intentional and strategic about doing it especially when I need to make up the total spend to claim the voucher off a high spend shop (I usually just wing it and add loads of loo rolls and washing powder) but if I had a list (I'll get my PA [AKA carer) to write one up for me) for future use then I could maximise the vouchers and balance out what to bulk buy each time.

Treasurequeen
Do you have any other tips for living frugally with a disability to share?
Does anyone else?

stirchleygirl

TryinToDoItRight
Well done on not using the credit card

stirchleygirl

squirrelgirl
Self care is so important - so do look after yourself.