TravelGirl84's DFD

TravelGirl84

OnlyPariah wrote: »

Happy New Year TravelGirl.

II totally get the need to get the debt rid off quickly. Like you said though, you've made really good progress and are in a better position now than this time last year. Hold onto that thought.

Hi OnlyPariah!

That feeling is tough isn't it, but we will both get there!

Thank you for the support and encouragement

TravelGirl84

Hi All

This weeks update:

1p Challenge up to date
Mortgage - it turns out that my new mortgage rate didn't start until 3rd Jan, so as I pay my mortgage on the 1st, the new amount hasn't started yet, so it was £21.58 less than I thought it would be. Have transferred to my emergency fund.
Phone Bill - This was also cheaper this month. I changed my contract and I think I must have paid extra for a day or something, so they have reduced it to £28.80 this month. I had budgeted £35 as I wasn't sure when my new tariff will start (usually £31 now), so I have saved £6.20 and have moved it to my emergency fund. So that's £27.78 saved in total from lower bills this month! :j
Shopmium - I found out about this grocery cashback app and it looks like I have already got £3 cashback from one item!
I remembered yesterday that as long as they are still giving them out, I should receive a 5 year work bonus this year as I have been there 5 years in June or July. I think it's £300 so after tax maybe a couple of hundred.
I also remembered that I have 1000 points at work. We have a points system where your colleagues/managers/anyone at work can award you points for your work, say if you've gone over and above or done something people think is really good. I think it equates to roughly £30 in vouchers for different shops, or you can book hotels etc. I will need to see what I can get!
Loan minimum payment has come out, which means the statement for my loan now shows under £24k!

Back to work tomorrow I'm so not ready for all the office politics. It's a new year though to try and save money on work lunches and maybe breakfasts. I have my car service tomorrow so I'm hoping it all goes ok and it won't cost me too much!

Have a good week all!

TravelGirl84

Hi All

So today was the first day back at work and car service day.

Work was actually ok, I think I've de-stressed more over Christmas than I thought because I felt quite chilled today and managed to get some project work done that I've been putting off / getting around to. Starting to feel a bit more organised. Just need to keep it that way!

Car service. This came in at £550! :eek: In the end as well as the full service, it needed a new tyre, new front brake pads (75% worn), new front discs, air-con re-gas and tracking (which was so out it felt like I was driving through strong winds!). When the guy said brake pads I thought great, this going to cost about £800, so £550 wasn't so bad. In actual fact I had another new tyre over Christmas and that was cash funded too, so that totals £616. The good news is that I had all of the cash. Every single penny! Including the first tyre. I don't remember the last time I was able to pay out that much of my own money. Bad news is that as well as my car fund, it wiped out my emergency fund (I had about £262 in there) and £8 of my January spends, so now I have to build funds back up, but the money was there and I haven't added to my debt! :j

I was saying to someone at work today that this is the year I really want to get more financially stable, and I think having this money meant that my new money ways are working for me

Now I'm just not sure what to do about building the emergency fund back up. Ideally I want to get that to £1k before I overpay my credit card, but if I do that I feel like I'm never getting anywhere with my card. I don't have an awful lot of extra money each month on top of the £105 in my budget to pay in to the EF and also overpay the card. At the moment I'm kind of in limbo land a bit until I find out about rises and bonuses in March. I think until then I will start building up the EF again and then reassess in March. I will be re-building my car fund as of next pay day to get the money together for the next service (in about 9 months), plus the MOT, tax, breakdown cover etc).

Hope you've all had a good day!

FootyFanDan

Hey!

Expensive things these cars!! Not such great news on the cost, however i had a similar feeling to you when i paid for car repairs without need for credit. The feeling of wow this new way of doing stuff does work haha. Whilst i do understand your concern of the depleted funds i think the fact you have not had to dip into credit shows how far you have come.

Good news re work been better, i still have a little spilling over but decided i am not getting involved in stuff that i keep getting dragged into that isn't my issue.

Good luck building back up the pots, i am sure you will get there quicker than you imagine.

TravelGirl84

FootyFanDan wrote: »

Hey!

Expensive things these cars!! Not such great news on the cost, however i had a similar feeling to you when i paid for car repairs without need for credit. The feeling of wow this new way of doing stuff does work haha. Whilst i do understand your concern of the depleted funds i think the fact you have not had to dip into credit shows how far you have come.

Good news re work been better, i still have a little spilling over but decided i am not getting involved in stuff that i keep getting dragged into that isn't my issue.

Good luck building back up the pots, i am sure you will get there quicker than you imagine.

They sure are. Fingers crossed I won't need anything major done next time. I had an advisory on something that said would cost about £60, so I will have to remember that for my next service! In fact I've just added that cost to my monthly car service savings in between typing! Haha!

Good on you for not getting involved, it can be really difficult to not get in the middle of office politics!

On to my next rant.....

TravelGirl84

Does anyone else live in a block of apartments/flats and have a complete nightmare with service charges?

Our company is rubbish. I've lived here nearly two and a half years and in that time they've got my invoices wrong three or four times! In my most recent invoice, they said they are charging an extra £18 per month, which totals £5000 a year across the building. Plus the extra the houses will pay about £20 extra. £5000! What?!

Some of the residents in the houses noticed some double charges, so some of us queried the invoices and they told us they were sorry and would re-issue the statement. We then received a second invoice, with even more money - £208! - on it with no explanation. After a furious Email on my side and me cancelling my direct debit so they can't take any more money (hopefully I've cancelled it in time), they have now said that this is a deficit for 2018. They also said that the extra is £185. So which is correct?

Our invoices are always for 6 months, so it looks like (and I need them to confirm), they want the whole invoice up front (they charge every six months), which now totals around £750, or they will now want £50 more a month when you add together the increase and deficit. I know there is always this risk, but they are messing with people. How do they expect everyone to find this extra money just like that, and how can we be confident the new invoices are correct?!

So I did some workings out and if I can pay on my payday, I can scrape it together by using the following money from savings and next months pay:

January allocated Payment (I was on DD before) 119.00
February DD Payment 95.00
Greece money currently in Fund 134.02
Greece February payment 134.00
Feb Emergency Fund 105.00
January Petrol? 50.00
January Food? 23.00
February Food? 25.00
Dentist Fund 15.33
Feb Car Service Fund 30.00
Feb MOT Fund 7.50
Feb Ground Rent 12.15
750.00

I am refusing to pay until they get the invoice right, but hopefully this doesn't then fall in to a late payment. The invoice is dated 1st January, and the due date is the same. How????? I'm sure I read somewhere they should be giving us 30 days?

Although it means depleting funds, I'm surprised I can pull this together in two months worth of money, which says alot about how much I actually have/can find. It just means I'll have to make the pots up over the following months, which means at the moment in some months I'm only projected to have £50 for personal spends, and only £30 in March (though I have a weekend away in London for my Mums birthday which is already budgeted for and I haven't had to use this, phew!).

If I save the DD I would have paid for the other 4 months, I'll have some put aside to put towards the next bill. Hopefully I'll be able to find the rest and I won't have to go back on DD, which will save me a £24 fee over the year. Also a great step to getting annual (or six monthly in this case), bills paid up front, which is great.

Anyway, rant over :rotfl:

TravelGirl84

Hi All/Diary

Long time no update!

Hope everyone is good and Happy February!

I thought I would start doing an end of month figures status, so here are January's (I will run payday to payday):

Left in main (bills) account: £32.54 (£20 comes from the account buffer I have)
Left in spends account: £4.66
Left in cash: £2.41
Groceries: £138.52/£200 - Saved £61.48 which I am so shocked and happy by. I had bits left from Dec and had a week off but I'm still shocked at how much I saved. I really want to get my bill down to £150. Baby steps, so going for £175 a month from now on.
Petrol: £128.17/£230 - Saved £101.83! This is rare but I was off work for two weeks over xmas (1 week in the January budget). Not sure how I saved quite so much though.
In Emergency fund: £14.10 - this has been depleted from around £200ish due to car service and buildings service charges
Refunds: £4
Grocery cashback sites - £4 (so means grocery shop was actually £134.52 - I found an app on instagram called Shopmium and I love it! There are some others too that I need to investigate.

So overall an extremely healthy January! So happy with this!

Other updates:

Scottish Power - still annoying, didn't call me back when they were meant to. I should Email the director but I've explained stuff about 5 or 6 times and cried on the phone twice. All for something that is nothing to do with me. It's exhausting.

Service charges - After all the issues with my estates service charges I decided to cancel my direct, scrape together money from various pots, plus the money I would have used from last months and this months service charge DD, I have managed to scrape together the £730 to pay it up front. This is for the next 6 months and the 2018 (:mad:) deficit. I'm still not convinced that it's correct but have paid it to avoid a late payment charge. If it turns out incorrect they will have to refund me. It was painful seeing that £730 go, and I thought that could have been money in an emergency fund, but I just don't trust them with my direct debit details anymore. Means aswell that I can now save up for the next one and pay that up front too which is great. First bill being paid upfront :j
NSD's - I'm actually having some of these now. I'm taking lunch in to work alot more and sometimes breakfast as well. I've been making pasta that lasts three days and whilst it gets a bit repetitive by the third day it's better than the food at work and is saving me money.

Side Hustles:
Mystery shopping:
I have got my first shop booked for tomorrow. A little nervous but once I do a few it will be less scary. Have downloaded some apps so I can keep a check on them, otherwise I don't get to check until the evenings and by then there might be less available.
Surveys:
I have downloaded a couple of apps. I get a bit fed up of these but will see how I go.
Grocery cashback apps:
I mentioned Shopmium above. So far I've had a really good experience with it. As long as I'm buying things that I either would have anyway, or it's something I will use, then it will be worthwhile. I'm not going to use it to buy stuff just for the sake of it though because that defeats the object!
Ebay:
I have a couple of things on Ebay that didn't sell last week, hopefully they will this week. I want to get some more bits on there this month.

Budget Book:
I received my new budget book :j really excited to use this. I am tracking my spending, bills, debts and side hustles. Will be a good place to have everything written where I can see everything from the whole year.

I declared this year as the year I get more financial security:
- Building £1000 in an emergency fund
- Paying off my CC - £4701.01
- Staying within budget and not using credit

So far so good. I've managed to find money for big bills (about £1340 since my last two pay packets), have a small amount in my Emergency fund (now sitting around £40), getting started on some side hustles and thinking more before I spend (with the exception of a sudden Maccy D's obsession which needs to be kerbed!). I'm trying to be alot more thrifty, especially with food. I'm getting pretty good at using what I have in the fridge/cupboards before I buy more.
Still having the odd panic moment but I recognise when it's coming and know to step back for a day or two.

Trying to find some other ways to save money. I found that if I colour my hair myself this year I could save about £300, and the same again by bringing my groceries down by £25 a month. I want to put the grocery saving in to my emergency fund where I can but Feb and March I might not be able to as it's a bit tighter.

I am a little annoyed with myself though. I need to sell my old phone which was coming up at £110. Now it's showing as £90 and I still haven't done it!

At the moment I'm only paying minimums on my debts which is annoying, but want to get the emergency fund up first.

If you read till the end of this post then congratulations :rotfl: and thanks!

Lets smash February!

FootyFanDan

Hey Travel,

Really good work keeping well within budget on most spends - especially the food budget ( I also have a maccy ds obsession hahaha) It does seem that you are really well focused and working well to reach your goals.

Here is to smashing Feb out of the park!

x

Sarahwithlove

I’m in a leasehold property and dreading how much it’s going to go up by this year. I pay mine by direct debit at the moment as they don’t charge extra for this. Hopefully you won’t get any more unexpected surprises on that front.

It’s hard sometimes to get the debt free vs living balance right, but just think the sooner you have them cleared the sooner you can save up for all the things you want to do.

After seeing your posts about monzo I think that’s made my decision to leave things how they are. Good luck with rest of your journey.

TravelGirl84

FootyFanDan said:

Hey Travel,

Really good work keeping well within budget on most spends - especially the food budget ( I also have a maccy ds obsession hahaha) It does seem that you are really well focused and working well to reach your goals.

Here is to smashing Feb out of the park!

x

Hi Dan!
I also seem to have a cheese and onion pasty problem from a well known bakers at the moment. I'm keeping a spending diary so will be interesting to see what the damage on this and Maccy D's is this month