Cottage Countdown

LeighofMar

Today has been a good day for mini goals. Overpayment made today of $318.60. Balance is $41,581.40. Savings deposit of $100.00 today finally brings me back to my goal of $10K minimum in general savings. The house fund received $60.00 and the Efund $30.00. I paid off the line of credit that had my car repair on it :j and I paid off the rest of the fence work that was charged to my house credit card. Now I will need to budget to pay off the 6-month car insurance premium I just put on it $400.00 but I will make a goal to pay that in full before it gets to 30 days. Groceries budget of $200.00. I spent $154.00 for two weeks' shop and DH will spend another $10 to $25.00 for his lunch, fruit, and snacks that he likes to pick out. So I'm happy with being under budget and stocked up on all we need. Seriously, I have three frozen 1/2 gallon milks in the freezer. I thought there was only one in there so I bought another one.

Unfortunately, the real estate investment is going slower than we'd like. It was going along fine until somebody dumped a massive amount of tires on the property and the city won't clean it up so we have to pay for that out of pocket. Plus the city dragged their feet on putting a water meter in, which we can't test the plumbing until that's there and then we can FINALLY get an inspection once the tires are gone and the water's tested. But of course the tire guy we found is dragging his feet to do it. :mad: And I completely messed up. I don't know if you have similar arrangements in the UK, but here in the US if you pay somebody as contract labor, you have forms filled out to show that you paid them and didn't take any taxes out, they'll pay their taxes, no big deal. Only problem was I submitted that information to my payroll company and completely forgot that I was supposed to submit it before Dec 30. So for them to process those forms will cost me $250.00 :mad:. So annoying but it's my fault for being so distracted that I didn't get to it. Oh well. I'm sure we will owe in excess of 3K for business taxes this year but since the real estate investment is going slow, who knows if it will sell by then and we recoup our investment in time. So we will probably have to pay that out of the dwindling business coffers . Worse comes to worse, I can pay in installments but I've always liked paying the government once and be done with it for the year.

My car still needs tires. I will need new glasses. And DH's work van now is showing fuel pump problems which will be another $600.00 repair. And our client has been late with the past two checks, recently deposited our checks and then he shorted the last check by $550.00. What the heck? I usually don't vent since I'm a problem solver but it's gray and gloomy outside so I've decided to vent away I guess it's this way for a lot of people whether they're self-employed or not. Money just seems to be flying out the door around the beginning of each year both personally and professionally.

I think I will exercise to try to relieve some tension and then get back to my budgets.

Moneyfordreams

Vent away ... hope its all resolved soon for you

LeighofMar

Thanks, Moneyfordreams. I got back to my budgets and my spreadsheets and did what I do best. Dissect and project and figure it out. Now that I've exercised (and snuck one of my paleo fudgy peanut butter swirl brownies) :drool: I feel much better. It will be tight this month and I still have to deal with taxes but that's not until March so hopefully, I can get some reserves stored away by then. I'm about to finish work for the day and enjoy some Netflix and act like the next brownie I eat is the first one of the day

Enjoy the weekend, all.

ktinbrum

Hi LeighofMar, hope things pick up with your real estate investment- how frustrating!

I will be following along with your diary- really interesting to see the journey from an American point of view x

LeighofMar

Thanks Ktinbrum. We just had some severe thunderstorms sweep through last night and damage some electrical services so we will be busy over the next week and will put that money towards the project. Hopefully, that will help get this thing moving. Hope you enjoyed your weekend as well.

savingholmes

Good that business is picking back up. Frustrating over the fly tipping and the $250 charge. You will get there - you are still way ahead on the over-payments.

LeighofMar

Thanks SavingH. We did get a couple side jobs to put towards debt. Real estate investment is still sitting unfortunately until the tire guy finally comes.

But in other news, I made an op of 81.40 and then today I paid the regular mortgage payment since today is the last payday of the month. Balance should be around 41,250.00 or so. Slow but steady. I'm so close to the 30s I can taste it. I'll probably pass out when we hit 39,999.00.

Efund got a small boost and so did general savings and house fund. I paid 75.00 towards my CC and will pay the remaining balance next paycheck.

Will enjoy burning a fire outside as its rained a lot lately. Time for some hot chocolate, a cookie and a good book.

savingholmes

I love a real fire too. Great OPs.

LeighofMar

It's still a slow period so money has been trickling in but flying out. However, we did get an inspection on our real estate investment that passed, so that's good. But there's still a lot to do and we have only a little money left plus we owe on the business credit card. This is the time our biggest client has slowed down and is paying late more often, so not a good combo. But I really want to get the thing finished so it can sell and we can recoup some money. The plan would be to put 3 months worth of payroll in reserves and reinvest the rest. That way, we're not sweating it if a client is slow or checks are delayed. 
On the home front, we've been managing regular OPs. Balance is $40,810.27 and we are on payment 189 for 8/2031. Exciting times. DH is putting up the rest of the front fence run as we speak. It has been raining nonstop and heavy, so we haven't been able to do it until now. I'll go join him in a bit to help. Every time I see a cute house somewhere in another state I'd like to live in, like Virginia, for example, I think about how close I am to paying this house off and the feeling goes away. Maybe someday we might be able to get a small vacation cabin/cottage somewhere and rent it out when not in use. That would probably satisfy the desire to move house as I hate moving and I really just want to pay this house off. But patience is a virtue so I will keep making OPs and just take our travel trailer to different states to enjoy the beauty without committing to moving there. 
Off to help put up the fence. Have a lovely weekend, all.

savingholmes

Boo to clients paying late. Hope you got your fence up. I know what you mean about resisting temptation on other houses... I regularly look at other homes on the net - but our house feels undervalued for its size so I rarely see something of its quality elsewhere. I don't know if it is the same where you are but new houses seem to be getting smaller