Countdown from £28k...

enthusiasticsaver

I would get that car jump started and drive it around a bit then sell it.  If you haven't used it for a month you don't need it and it will only either be a target for vandalism/theft or deteriorate if not used.  As you say the insurance will go up if you are now in central London and parked on the road. Hire a car if you need one. 

warby68

Even I can get a flat battery going. Battery pack if you don't know anyone to jump from or its in an awkward parking spot.
Then again I can remember having a car with a choke, hanging my bag on it and forgetting to put it back in. Bump starting as well down a hill if you're brave. 

Sarahwithlove

Just check first that it's not dead. There should be a gauge on top and if line is black then it's dead rather than just flat. 

ryanm8655

alt80 said:

Fml mate I’ve already offered you more house than you’d know what to do with. Though tbh if you return the Range fully paid for and I could be tempted, desperate times ha.

Was the dev a build to rent place? 20% fees in London wow didn’t realise that would probably be rich if Icould charge that on a standard res unit in this part of the world. 

Can imagine a lot of accidental LLs London way, type you describe bought a property, lived in it and let it out no intention of building a portfolio.

Do you seriously not know anyone with a set of jump leads - or buy a battery pack not going to cost a lot get it running and !!!!!! it off.

I think it was a mix, but they'd set up their own agency to deal with the sales and lettings. Don't know the ins and outs but I assume it was set up for foreign investors in a buy to rent sort of fashion, some people did own and live there though (our cleaner had the contract to clean all of the devlopments and bought a flat in there himself). The dude that owned it had a very arabic sounding name ha. Can't have made anything on that place though...but yeah, only knew that from speaking to old landlord, we negotiated a deal to cut out the agent but then they revealed he'd have to continue paying them 20%, even if he didn't want them involved...he was very naive.

Haha, I know people with jump leads but not that are in London. Only two of my mates in London have cars and both of them are miles away.

Ordered a jump start thing, another £45 down the swanny (had to get a pricier one as don't have access to mains).

ryanm8655

enthusiasticsaver said:

I would get that car jump started and drive it around a bit then sell it.  If you haven't used it for a month you don't need it and it will only either be a target for vandalism/theft or deteriorate if not used.  As you say the insurance will go up if you are now in central London and parked on the road. Hire a car if you need one. 

Agreed! Will give it a clean out at the weekend and take some pictures and get it up for sale...

warby68 said:

Even I can get a flat battery going. Battery pack if you don't know anyone to jump from or its in an awkward parking spot.
Then again I can remember having a car with a choke, hanging my bag on it and forgetting to put it back in. Bump starting as well down a hill if you're brave. 

Ordered a battery pack. The battery has gone flat before a few times (from not driving it enough - plus it probably needs a new one to be honest), so should have bought one ages ago but was easier then as had mates nearby with jump leads ha.

Sarahwithlove said:

Just check first that it's not dead. There should be a gauge on top and if line is black then it's dead rather than just flat. 

Haven't checked but the other day I went and started it and left it idling for a bit in an attempt to charge it. It was a bit flat then but just about managed to start. The other day it did turnover very briefly but not quite enough to start. And then it wouldn't even do that. Hoping it'll come back to life. Hopefully restrictions ease a bit and people can buy cars...no idea if people still are...can't imagine so.

ryanm8655

Just taken meter readings for gas and electric...

If I used the same as this month then my yearly electricity usage is about 1650Kwh (which is in line with the projection based on the previous tenant's usage), my gas would be a lot higher though and based on this month would be 13990kwh. I have the heating on all day, so whenever it drops below 21 it'll kick in. I guess when it's warmer I won't have it on so much (gas is just heating and hot water) but previous tenant must have worn a lot of layers or something ha as projected was about 4450kwh. Even with the current usage exrrapolated over the year, my bill looks to be about £65 (depending on who I go with). Just doing a switch to EON as they seem to be the cheapest. London Power did come out cheaper but then the rate on their website is considerably worse, so not sure what is going on there...

Have also now got access to Amazon Morrisons...my prime trial will expire soon but tempted to keep it going for that as should be far more reasonable and speedy too. Will see how it goes.

Still need to work up the finances. Will do it this week. Working late this evening to get this impact assessment out of the way.

On the plus side, a shorter month so money should go a bit further.

Also going to compile a list of remaing household wants/needs and plan for getting them. Off the top of my head:

1) 2 x A1/A2 size framed pieces of art for the walls (Not sure on cost here...) plus some kind of picture collage thing. Thinking something like this: https://www.lawandmoore.co.uk/product/the-sopranos-alternative-minimal-tv-poster/?attribute_pa_size-and-framing=a3-white-frame&gclid=Cj0KCQiA6t6ABhDMARIsAONIYyxOVIFvdLdpcpMBz3yo6Y043cMnh574AwclroKkEyvW8QjsfGfO0I4aAoAvEALw_wcB as it's my favourite series of all time and maybe something else music related. There are some really cool artworks of Tony Soprano for about £2K

2) Sonos Beam (£399)

3) Spare kingsize duvet set (£30 possibly?)

4) Toilet seat (£70)

5) Cheap tool kit (for fitting toilet seat among other things)

6) Floorstanding lamp for the living room (Longer term)

7) Wine decanter (longer term - maybe a birthday present request or something)

8) Some kind of ornamental piece for the hallway table just to make it look a bit more homely (longer term again)

9) Small rug for by the bed (longer term again)

10) Bathroom mats

11) Futon/foldaway bed thing for when people stay

3, 4 and 5 are probably the immediate priorities, then 1 and 2...

Want to have £1000 EF by the end of this month, it's become pretty clear I need one ha. E.g. if appliances break etc.

ryanm8655

Today has not been a good day

Firstly found out the guy I line manage (a new grad) got a higher bonus than me (my boss sure knows how to motivate you). She did say she reserves the bonus pot for junior staff as they need the money more (I don't agree ha). It's a real kick in the teeth when I was working 12 hour days and having to walk him through everything I asked him to do step by step, correct it, redraft bits of his work etc. (normal because he is new). But getting less of a bonus is even more insulting (boss even emailed me to tell me ha). I know mates in other teams work far less hard and get the bonus I got pretty much as standard. Need out of this team at the first opportunity. My boss is just clueless at how to motivate people...I don't know if they're a crap manager or just like to make people feel crap  

Also car battery too far gone for the jump starter, made very little difference so need a new battery. £150 for a mobile fitter to come out (given cheapest battery I found was about £120 - it's a diesel so expensive...) I can't be bothered with the faf of getting tools and doing it myself. Then I'm putting it up for sale

So I decided to have some wine tonight ha!

But I have gone through bank and credit card transactions and summed up the spending and it makes some pretty shocking reading...

Household purchases: £836.16

Paypal: £95.99 - Fragrance purchases

Groceries: £428.71 (Ok, I had to stock up on a lot of bits but I reckon half of this wass booze :O, without going through and itemising it)

Takeaways: £266.63 (including the odd coffee out or food bought when driving...again pretty embarassing!!!)

Car: £50.02 (jump start kit)

Grand total £1657.51

This excludes the toilet seat as that has now been refunded, so still need to order the toolkit (£15) and toilet seat (£70).

It's all a bit of a shocker but glad I added it all up. Can sell the fragrances to recoup those funds (basically got a few bargains). Obviously home stuff won't be that high again, though there are a few small bits I need and I'd like to put up some art. But the groceries need some serious thought! On the plus side nothing has gone to waste on that front and I have loads of food in the freezer and cupboards (enough for the next month at least I'd say, just need to top up the fresh stuff like bread and milk. Takeaways is also pretty disgusting ha, definitely knocking that on the head! Every single time I ordered it was £20+...didn't even have any this weekend just gone either...and generally the delivery fee plus service charge was a quarter of the cost...9/10 turned up cold as well...complete waste!

Bills are presently looking like:

Phone: £12

Netflix: £8.99

Prime: £7.99

Council tax: £110

Energy: £62

Water: £41.42

Icloud: £0.79

TOTAL: £253.21

Water should be cheaper when reassessed and energy should be cheaper on average as heating on all the time at the moment. Don't need both Netflix and Prime, will likely cancel Prime soon.

Also have:

Car insurance: £46.66 though going to sell ASAP.

Rent: £1400

Income:

£3691.67 (should get a token payrise this year but not going to be loads, probably 1% or something and the pay freezes from April onwards for however long).

At the moment I'm £200 down a month (offset somewhat by small bonus this month) until new tax year...

I have £3k in the bank after paying rent but:

Amex balance: £960

All bills except water to come: £211.79

Car insurance: £46.66

Tools and toilet seat: £85

Car battery: £150 (but exploring cheaper options...mate reckons can get one on ebay for £50)

TOTAL: £1453.46

This leaves £1546.54 for variable spends...Groceries and will need to top up fuel in car so that I can drive it before selling. Without unnecessary purchases I should be able to save £1k no problem...

Some wants:

Art for walls x 3 large framed pictures - £300 including picture hooks (want stuff that means something to me but will look out for bargains)

Sonos Beam - £399

Spare duvet set (can put my double duvet on for now when washing stuff) £40.

Tom Ford Ombre Leather - £100 (a fragrance I really want but can't justify right now)

The wants will have to wait for now...

That has been eyeopening!

enthusiasticsaver

Sorry about the bonus.
Good that you added up what you have spent but better is to subtract it from available money as it is being spent so you always know what is left from your budget.  As you say the groceries and takeaways are horrific for just one person. 

gymgirl11

How annoying about the bonus - you’ve seriously got to question why your manager thought it was necessary to share that with you though? Not the best way to motivate your staff! 

Oh wow! That is some spend on the groceries and the takeaways. At least you’ve tracked it and can now look at how to bring the price down for both moving forward. 

Onebrokelady

Why is Netflix £8.99 I pay £5.99 for mine 😊
Edited to add
Check out the site Affordable Art, they have lots of artists on there offering original art that varies in price from about £50 up to £6000 😊