Young And Dumb

Mx_Emmin

Shorter post today, as I'm very tired haha

~*~

So my work bonus came in - I got £2980.48 total, approx £1400 ish more than my normal salary. The amount I had planned was between £1770 and £2270 so I need to prioritise.

The main variable is the gym membership. If I put aside 2 years of full gym membership, that's £950. 2 years of swim only membership is £650. Putting money into a gym category also has the advantage of it being a very WAM-able category if cost of living gets dire, but it does only leave £450 for spending, and £350 of that will be fixing my budget snafu with the house deposit.

With the remaining £100 I'll probably get a food processor so I at least have something tangible for myself, and then just sprinkle the remaining over some yearly goals.

It's a little depressing that I get so little of it to spend on treats for myself, but I'll also have 2 years of gym membership sat in an envelope, and that's not nothing.

~*~

I sent documents off to get my passport updated a while back. I checked the tracking information Thursday morning and it said they'd received and signed for my documents on 2nd March. Then later Thursday afternoon I got an email from them saying they hadn't received my documents yet 😬😬 So I called them and they just said to check tracking again on Monday.... and then on Friday morning I got an email saying they'd officially received my documents, which I'm sure is 100% coincidental. 🙄🙄

Mx_Emmin

Humdinger1 said:

Impressive plans and you think them through so clearly @Mx_Emmin.  There are lots of pet friendly rental websites; sorry but don't think I can post other websites on here.  I'd move because if the lead tenant gets turfed out for his habits, where would that leave you?

Haha thanks  
 
I think he's unlikely to get turfed out, as the landlord isnt even in this city - but if they did, I guess I'd ask if I could become lead tenant? 

Mx_Emmin

Birthday spending has been intense this past week, but things are starting to wind down now, hopefully. I still have two spending events left - but one has been delayed, potentially into April, depending on how rescheduling goes. Given that April is next weekend. So far this month I've spent £82.75 on Takeout and £63.03 on Social (with one, possible two, social events remaining)!! My goals for those categories are usually £25 and £50, respectively.

In a related note, I'm trying to have a freezer food week, where I clear out all the random singular portions of food I have left over from batch cooking instead of buying a full weeks shop. The math works out, there seems to be enough tupperware in there. For next weekend, I have £39 left in my grocery category, so I better pick something cheap to cook. (I'm actually planning to make Rice, Cheese and Potatoes, a cheap family recipe with 3 main ingredients, and seasoning/spices to taste)

~*~

I originally left this next bit as a comment on someone else's blog, when when I went to dig up the link, it seems like Wordpress has eaten it. So I'm just going to reword it a bit to make sense without context and then plagiarise myself here. But I'm being honest about my plagiarism!

Sometimes I see people going on vacations, or even just living alone, and I get very bitter that I cant afford that, even though deep down I know that a lot of their spending is funded by debt and I'm debt free... it's a trade off that, most days, I'm happy to make. Most days.

I'm in a weird position where I have more in the bank account than most people my age but I also feel able to do less.

This is compounded by the fact that when I try to access help for physical and mental health conditions, most of them are means-tested, so they look at me - no kids, living in a shared house, working full time, has savings - and decide I have enough funds to pay for help myself. Are we saying that Depressed and Disabled people aren't allowed to save for a house? Because that really doesn't help with the Depression.

~*~

Today I got my decree nisi - the first stage of the decree ending my marriage. I am not divorced yet, I will only be divorced when the second stage is complete and I have my decree absolute.

I need to wait 6 weeks after my decree nisi is granted before I can apply for my decree absolute. Technically, the court can cancel/rescind the decree nisi at any time up until the decree absolute, if it’s presented with new evidence showing why I shouldn’t be given a divorce - but I'm not really sure what that even means in my case so I think that's a pretty slim chance of happening.

~*~

I'm really tempted to sign up for Coinbase and try start trading crypto properly. Maybe if I can scrape together £100 in my April budget I might give it a try. Am I getting swayed by the hype though? I know I'm vulnerable to that kind of thing, I get swayed very easily, I'm pretty gullible unfortunately. (But I'm also self aware about it so that helps somewhat)

If I only put in money that's budgeted for trading, if I'm not risking rent money, then that's ok surely? I'm allowed to choose crypto instead of a new sims expansion pack. I'm allowed to waste my Fun Money on whatever I want.

I might need to set rule for myself though - firstly, that if I'm going through Coinbase, I'm looking for coins that aren't accessible through Paypal. For those who don't know, Paypal only offers 4 cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. If I went onto something like Coinbase I would looking at more alternative coins, whose values fluctuate more wildly. These are inherently more risky coins, but if I want Bitcoin, I already have a way of accessing Bitcoin. Also I think as soon as (or maybe that should say "if") I made my original £100 back, I withdraw it pretty quick. Maybe I use it on something else, maybe I donate it to charity, but I think getting that original £100 out pretty quickly will be important. I would need to spread it over as many currencies as possible, to maximise the chance of returns & minimise the chance of losses, at least until I learnt what I'm doing. I dont know if Coinbase has minimum trading rules, as in I need to buy at least £x of each coin.

Concerns - well firstly that I lose my original £100, this is probably pretty likely tbh. I need to make my peace with that before I open a Coinbase account. But how much money have I "lost" on lottery tickets over the years? Did I have fun spending it, envisioning my winnings? Did I seriously think I would win millions? Did I secretly hope for just a couple of K to smooth things over? These are valid questions. My main other concern would be something similar to a gambling addiction... Sometimes I think I may be slightly prone to that. It's not got me into trouble yet as I manage access to things like that and refuse to go into Casinos as a general rule (not that it comes up much) so I worry that Crypto trading may be too much.

~*~

On the note of lotteries and birthdays, the other day I was checking my emails, because some companies send you birthday vouchers for discount products, and I noticed I had an email from the national lottery saying "you've won a prize! check your account". So of course I was like "omg is this it, and on my birthday no less?!"

It was a fun 90 seconds. I won £2.50 so I just bought another ticket with it.

But maybe this one...! :P

Mx_Emmin

Right after my last post, as in an hour later at most, I received an email about the dog’s insurance premiums increasing – by about £3 pm, so could be worse, given the inflationary environment we’re in. (I’m told that phrase makes you sound smart 👀) Also bus prices going up in my city. Story of everything right now – 20p here, £3 there…

I was going to review my mobile phone contract in April, I was paying £18pm for 2GB data. I know, I know, but I like 02. Anyway I saw a 12 month £15pm 5GB plan, I was just holding off because 02 (and probably most other networks) apply inflation price rises in April and I wanted to see what I was signing up for.

Anyway I stopped by the 02 store yesterday and asked if the new prices had been announced yet – they had – £16 and change – so on the way home I tried to upgrade in the app. I was having trouble though so I ended up calling them and doing it over the phone. In doing so they pointed out that if I went for a 2 year sim deal it would only cost £10pm. (It was meant to be £12pm but she misspoke and then said she’d honour her mistake)

My device is entirely paid off but it’s still doing what I need it to. Theres no real reason, other than convenience, for sim contracts and phone contracts to align, so if need be I can redo my phone later. So now I have a phone bill that is £8 cheaper pm and 3GB richer. Nice. I forgot to ask if the April ’22 price rise applies but I assume the April ’23 price rise will. Itll be in the T&C that they’re allowed to account for inflation.

~*~

Someone on another forum reminded me that I might need to pay tax on Crypto profits, if/when I do sign up to Coinbase, which is a valid reminder. So I looked up how Crypto tax works in the UK. The UK Gov page is hard to understand, but this page breaks it down a bit easier – but in summary, I don’t think I have to worry until I reach £12k gbp of profit. What I am seeing though is that I need to take records – I feel a new spreadsheet coming on. You know how I like my spreadsheets 🤓

~*~

Once I have my Decree Absolute in early/mid May, I can break into the leftover money I have in my Divorce fund. There’s £400 approx – at one point I did think about having a party haha but at this point I’ll probably just have a quiet night in w my new partner. I’ll use £100 to celebrate, buy myself a lil something, probably some expensive whiskey and takeout. Maybe this is where I get £100 for crypto? Then £200 would be left for yearly goals.

~*~

I was doing an Aldi shop, and trying to penny pinch a bit today too. It wasn’t until I got to the checkout that I realised how bland and beige everything I’d picked out was. Ah well. Not all weeks can be vibrant and colourful. Not ideal in terms of nutritional content but some weeks be like that. I batch cook on Sundays, so I make two big dishes to last the whole week, one for lunches and one for dinners. This next week will be a rice, cheese, and potato bake for dinners, served with baked beans… and a curry with rice for lunches.

Still, I was quite pleased as I had about £20 left in my grocery category and thought I could pick something up later in the week…. aaaand then I remembered I had to chip in on my Mum’s birthday & mothers day present. My mums birthday is fairly early in April so sometimes it sneaks into my March budget 

jusferbrowsing

Sounds an absolute win on the mobile front.

Sim only really is the way to go. We buy a new phone outright every three years which then becomes my 'new' phone. Makes my toes curl when I hear of folk paying £60/month *faints

One thing that may be worth considering in the future is giffgaff, a virtual provider using the O2 network. I've found them very competitively priced and in 7 years of using them there was only one day's outage which was immediately credited with a free months sub. Price has remained pretty static during this time too (£5 increased to £6 for my bundle). 

I love your take on money saving. You have such surgical precision... and it obviously works. You have achieved so much in the past few years. 

PS how did the temperature blanket turn out?

Mx_Emmin

jusferbrowsing said:

Sounds an absolute win on the mobile front.

Sim only really is the way to go. We buy a new phone outright every three years which then becomes my 'new' phone. Makes my toes curl when I hear of folk paying £60/month *faints

One thing that may be worth considering in the future is giffgaff, a virtual provider using the O2 network. I've found them very competitively priced and in 7 years of using them there was only one day's outage which was immediately credited with a free months sub. Price has remained pretty static during this time too (£5 increased to £6 for my bundle). 

I love your take on money saving. You have such surgical precision... and it obviously works. You have achieved so much in the past few years. 

PS how did the temperature blanket turn out?

I'm half assuming that I'll probably going to end up paying for a device plan at some point, when my phone starts to lose backwards compatibility 
 
But hopefully by then I'll have a 80% deposit or something. I'm up to £620 so far, last time I spent £800-£900 ish and I'm saving £31pm... so actually if I can hang on a year I might just outright buy a new phone  🤷‍♂️
  
I know a lot of the fringe networks piggyback off other networks, but I prefer the customer service if 02. I've just had really !!!!!! service from fringe networks before. But hey, maybe in 2 years I'll reevaluate.
 
Also, temperature blanket (I'm going to include a November pic as well because theres a person for scale) :

Humdinger1

Love your pics! I think you should label the relevant one 'dog for scale'.  You are doing brilliantly keep going love Humdinger xx 

jusferbrowsing

Love the colours of your blanket and omg its HUGE!!! Blankets I've crocheted in the past have taken an age. I get bored and start knitting (more) hats and socks - instant gratification wins out every time.

Your dog is gorgeous !!

Mx_Emmin

jusferbrowsing said:

Your dog is gorgeous !!

Oh, he knows it haha

Mx_Emmin

It looks like the work enhanced overtime opportunity is continuing into April, so I told work I’ll do an extra day a week. I can maybe increase the number of days later, depending on how fatigue and expenses go. I was also offered the option of 4 long days, 3 days off, but as tempting !!!!!! that is, it wouldn’t work currently with after work appointments – maybe once I’ve decided to leave therapy? But an extra little bit in the pay packet wouldn’t hurt. I’ve had a few tight months in a row and I’m starting to worry it’s not actually just a few tight months – its the cost of living increases sneaking in under the radar.

~*~

There was a Spring statement about a week ago by the UK government, which has & Martin Lewis has released a tax calculator to show how the announcements and tax changes will affect people. I will be £30 per month better off. Well, £30 is £30. That’s like…. two-thirds of a take out or something haha.

~*~

I was thinking on my next phone category earlier this week, I’ve been saving up for a new phone. I was intending to just save up for a big down payment, but my current phone hasn’t been showing it’s age much. I just noticed that if I can hang out about a year, I would have enough to just buy a handset outright. I do like the idea of getting out of the contract cycle with phones.

~*~

My crypto “investment” on PayPal is almost into profit territory. I spent £15 and it’s now worth £13.69. Earlier this week it was worth £14.26…. getting there! :P This reminds me I need to update my “current situation” page.

On 31st March 2022:

My Bank Accounts Net Worth Is £12,360.41

£3075 of that is my Emergency Fund

£2980.48 is in my “Next Month Income” category (March was bonus month)

£1466.21 is my House Deposit

£1000 is in my “Next Move” category

£750 is in my “Next Laptop” category

£620 is in my “Next Phone” category

£500 is in my “Canal Boat” category

And then the rest is in smaller categories

My Investing & Pension Net Worth is £12,625.56

£12,171.47 of that is in my work pension, to which I am currently (that is, from my March Paycheque) contributing 8% and my employer is contributing 12.5%

£338.39 is in my bank’s Investment service, I put £25 a month in there and some fund managers do hopefully smart things with it. It’s telling me that over time my investment through them has gone up in value by £3.61

£81.93 is in my Freetrade Account, where I like to pretend I know how to day trade. I dont contribute to this on a regular schedule, but so far I’ve put £71 in it so technically I’m making a profit.

£13.69 is in my Paypal Crypto account, where I like to pretend I know how Bitcoin works. I dont contribute to this on a regular schedule, but so far I’ve put £15 in so I am making a loss at this point.

£20.08 is in a Crowdcube account. This doesn’t seem to change in value so I think it was more of a GoFundMe rather than an Investment.

~*~

At the risk of being a complete and utter nerd.... I do enjoy the monthly rollover and love the budgeting admin of the first and last days of the month. I shall see you tomorrow with my plans for how to spend next month!