Fiwen takes flight(?)

fiwen30

Had my first proper day at the new job on Monday, and it went really well! The staff and management are all lovely, and I got a day of proper, thorough training which was a breath of fresh air after some of my jobs. There’s me and another new start, and we’re both scheduled for our contracted 8 hours for the first 3 weeks, till we find our feet. I’m really hoping our hours will be flexed up once we’ve settled in - I’m very conscious about needing to work 12 hours to break even on our budget. Managed to score an extra 4 hour shift tomorrow though, as an extra staff member was needed.

We put in a 115k asking price offer on a property yesterday - we were the first to view, it had been agreed twice before but the prospective buyer’s chains collapsed both times. They have 2 more viewings tomorrow morning. We can’t afford to offer higher than 115k, so hoping that our quick asking price offer, first time buyer status, and whatever rapport we were able to establish with the sellers will be enough to secure it. If not, we’ve offered all we can. It’ll be a nerve wracking shift at work till I can get back to my phone.

moneyonmymindsam

Everything crossed for you. Exciting times 
Sam 

fiwen30

We had our 115k offer accepted! We’ve instructed our solicitors, had our MIP confirmed, and mortgage application gone through.

Paid for our mortgage valuation survey, just waiting on that being carried out. Partner has started looking into specialist life insurance policies that will cover his CF, just for a ballpark figure for when we go back to our mortgage advisor to look at insurance policies.
I’ve started a bunch of Pinterest boards for interior decorating and renovation inspiration, and we’re going back for a second viewing in a few days time.

Work is still going well, it seems like a lovely company to work for. Still only rota’d for 8 hours for the next coming weeks, which is a little concerning. But our Christmas drop is arriving soon, and there’s been talk of potential overnight shifts becoming available to get the shop merchandised, which I’ll be putting my name down for, and hopefully the hours will ramp up coming to Christmas too. Trying not to worry too much, and using my days off to start decluttering.

My divorce process has started too. Ex is contractually obliged to pay half my fees, as per our separation agreement, but I have to front the whole cost and then recoup it from him once the process has finished, to the tune of about £1700. Have paid the initial retainer fee, and the Petition cost to get the ball rolling. Will be glad once to draw a line under this sorry business - it’s been 4 years since we separated, and it’s just felt like the worlds longest break-up. I’m just Done and tired of it at this point. My mum couldn’t wait for me to get divorced, and I’m really sad she’s not here to see it, and to see us purchasing a house. But I know she would’ve wanted to help any way she could, and would’ve been happy that I’m able to use my inheritance to get my life in order.

fiwen30

Well today marks the breaking ground of our brand spanking new joint account!

Partner gets paid 4 weekly, and I get paid at the end of each month. He also receives PIP benefits 4 weekly, the day before his pay day, and working tax credits on the Monday after pay day.

So today we sat down to do the first part of our budget, using the budget-by-paycheck and budget-to-zero system by The Budget Mom.

For anyone interested, here’s a breakdown of our process:
Partner’s personal fixed expenses (direct debit bills from his current account - mobile&insurance, Spotify, Amazon, a sports subscription, Xbox subscription, Google storage subscription) get totalled, and that amount remains in his current account.
Remaining income from partner’s salary, PIP & TC’s go into our joint account with M’nzo.
I withdraw our shared fixed expenses (rent, electric, internet, Netflix) amount from the joint account, as these direct debits come out of my ‘Online Out’ current account.
I withdraw our monthly Pet expenses (food, medication) into my current account earmarked for Pets which is set up with direct debits for repeated food orders. Any money remaining in here at the end of each month goes into an emergency Vet Fund pot.
I total my own personal fixed expenses (phone, Apple subscription, car insurance) which come out of my ‘Online Out’ current account for direct debits, and withdraw that amount from the joint account.
Now, all monies left in the joint account are for food shopping, partner’s petrol, and my petrol.
When I get paid at the end of each month, I make up any shortfall towards our fixed expenses, or towards the Pet expenses, and the rest gets deposited into the joint account.
Depending on how many hours I’ve worked that month, we may each withdraw an equal amount from our joint M’nzo account into our personal M’nzo accounts. This will be personal spending, for whatever we chose.
Anything remaining in the joint account by the next 4 weekly paycheque, after all fixed expenses, Pet expenses, food, petrol, and personal spending, will go into a savings pot.

This will ensure all money is given a ‘job’, that personal spending money is capped and kept separate from money earmarked for uses, and that each of our accounts with scheduled direct debits are kept balanced. 

This also ensures that we keep our house deposit untouched by pooling our incomes and paying out collectively; rather than the previous 50/50 split, which was leaving my partner with lots of money leftover which he was blowing through and spending on what he calls ‘mindless crap’, and causing me to deplete my savings which make up most of our deposit money.

It makes me feel like more of a team with joint finances, like we’re working towards a common goal, and taking it seriously, and I’m excited to see how we get on.

fiwen30

So we're a week into our new budgeting/finance system, and while it's been going great, there's 1 thing that's been bugging me.

My partner is in receipt of PIP - his mobility component goes towards his Motability vehicle, and the care component is paid to his mum's bank account. His mum was his appointee of benefits when my partner was still a minor, I think, but since he turned 18 (10 years ago!) they've just never amended this for whatever reason. They've also never set up a direct debit or anything, so my partner never receives his PIP on the day it comes in.

Currently, he's been messaging his mum every month to ask her to transfer the PIP money across. In the last couple of years we've been dating, there have been countless times that both he and she have forgotten about this PIP money, and so he'd often go a month or two not receiving it at all.

When our finances were separate, I'd just laugh and roll my eyes whoever he remembered about his PIP and got a 'surprise' £300-odd quid. But now that we've jointly agreed to combine finances, and we both know that we need every penny from all of our income sources in order to balance our budget, this lackadaisical system he has going with his mum isn't quite so endearing.

It's been a week since his PIP came through, but it's yet to hit our joint account. With him paid 4 weekly, and me paid at the end of each month, I'm fretting about the food shopping and petrol money that comes out of the joint account not being covered, and we've yet to pay into our Pet account this month also.

I know that no-one likes a nag, and that neither he nor she behave like this maliciously, they just seem to have a different concept of time and urgency to me. Having a £300+ hole in our budget makes me feel very nervous and insecure; because the money is there, it's just not where it needs to be, and it's driving me to distraction!

I'll be so relieved to get paid next week - to see the numbers cover our expenses, and to pay what little will be left into our savings.

fiwen30

Got the PIP sorted the following day after my whinge-post. I also got my first payslip from my new job, which was a pleasantly healthy amount, and so was able to finalise this period’s budget, and balance everything out.

This period, we’re on track to save about £600 - £200 into Partner’s ISA, £46 into our Vet Fund, £46 into the pot for my friend’s July wedding, £50 into our Emergency Fund (aiming to save 3 months of expenses in this pot, currently at £1900/£4800), and £250 into our Household pot (for decoration, furnishing, repairs etc. in our new home).

I’m still really enjoying my job, but the manager has this really annoying habit of chopping and changing the rota all. the. time. Our rota is updated via an app, and we get an email notification when a new week’s rota has been posted, 3 weeks in advance. Trouble is, we don’t get a notification if the rota is amended, and the manager likes to play with it, and so we have to constantly keep an eye on it.

I checked the app last night, and found my shift tomorrow had been wiped off. Not only that, but I had been scheduled to work 3 days a week, over the next 3 weeks, and that had been cut to just 2 days each week. It’s still giving me my contracted 8 hours, but as previously mentioned, I need to be working 12 hours to keep the budget green. So I’d been expecting 16-20 hour weeks, which have now been cut to 9-11 hour weeks. I’m really not pleased, but not a great deal I can do about it. Crossing fingers that there’ll be opportunity to cover shifts, or that I’ll maybe get out back on for a day or two. In the meantime, I’ve made up next period’s budget based on my forecast reduced hours, and will just have to be putting less into savings next month.

We’re still waiting on having our mortgage application accepted by Halifax, and it’s really stressing me out. The valuation came through fine, but they’re nitpicking over Partner’s payslips. He had been shielding on full pay March-July, and then a phased return in August and September, where he had used some of his holiday entitlement to take an extra day off each week. Trouble is, Halifax didn’t like that his March-July payslips had ‘Company Sick Pay’ on them, or that he had been taking holidays for the last 2 months. Bear in mind he has never actually been off work sick during any of this! But our mortgage advisor says that banks are really tightening down their lending, and they need to see a full, clean payslip to be sure that he’s definitely back to work full time 🙄 They have all of our most recent paperwork, and Partner will get a clean payslip on the 7th October that they can have, so it’s just waiting, waiting.

fiwen30

We got our mortgage offer! Absolutely thrilled. We've an appointment with our MA on Friday to go over it, and to look at insurances. We've had some difficulty with my partner's Cystic Fibrosis and finding a company who will give him life insurance right now, but maybe our MA will have some more advice on that.

After talking to a couple of people at work, it looks like our manager has been trimming everyone's hours the these few weeks. We're overdue 2 new rotas, as usually they're available 3 weeks in advance. Will just have to hope that this trimming of hours doesn't continue. I do love my job, but I simply have to be working at least 12 hours per week to keep us in the green, and this coming month I'll be averaging just 9.5 hours per week. This covers my 8 hour contract, but just isn't enough.

I've been applying for other jobs, and have an interview tomorrow. It's full time, but the ad was calling it temporary. I've decided to go along anyway, because interview practise is always a good thing, but if it's just a Christmas contract with no opportunity to extend, then I won't be taking it. It'd be nice to get another part-time job but with a fixed pattern of hours, so that I could slot my increasingly random current job in around it. I really wish I could see what goes on in the manager's head when she draws up these rotas!

Our budget runs 4-weekly in accordance to partner's pay schedule. This budget has been from September 11th - October 8th.
We are 3 weeks through right now, and we have -

• £84 left for 1 weeks grocery shop (budgeted £350 for 4 weeks - we were trying to be a bit leaner than previous months budgets of £450 for food, but this last week's shopping may be a stretch on £84!)
• £85 left allowed to Household Misc. (budgeted £100, but we bought 3 new cushions - unnecessary, technically, but the old ones were looking tired, and sometimes it's nice to say yes instead of always saying no)
• Partner has £73 left for Personal Spending (I budgeted £100, despite him saying that he 'didn't need' a personal spending allowance, because I know he spends about £5 on food at work every day. He did well on cutting back this spending in the first week, but then fell behind on meal prepping, and I'd rather budget in for this spending, rather than nagging him about preparing and taking food with him instead)
• I have £96 left for Personal Spending (budgeted £100 - I picked up some craft essentials of glue and tape that I'd run out of. From December, COVID permitting, £42.50 of my monthly Personal Spending allowance will be spent on my dance class, which runs in 8-week blocks. The class is currently paid for till the next block, from before we started combining finances. Because we're working to such a tight budget, it's only fair to take my leisure activities out of my Personal Spending allowance, the same as my partner would pay for his video games and takeaway food from his allowance)

I imagine that £85 Household Misc. won't be spent, and will go into savings, along with probably about £80 from my PS, and about £60 from partner's PS if he continues at the same rate for the next 2 weeks; to total about £205. This 'leftover' cash from each pay schedule will start a separate 'Household Fund' for things like redecoration, repairs, and household bits for our new home.

This is in addition to our current budgeted saving of -

• £200 in Partner's Help to Buy ISA
• £42 in my Car Insurance fund (paid annually, aiming to save the average amount of £500 based on previous years)
• £46 in our Emergency Vet Fund (aiming to save £750 by January 2022)
• £50 in our Emergency Fund (aiming to save 3 months of expenses - £4800)
• £46 in a pot to hopefully attend a friend's wedding in Wales in July 2021, COVID permitting (aiming to save £500 to cover flights and accommodation)

I must admit, after that very bad initial wake-up call, coupled with a shaky start, I do really enjoy budgeting. It makes me feel purposeful, and in control, when so much can often feel incredibly out of control.

Fingers crossed that either my current lovely job can give me the extra hours I had been assured of during interview, or that I'm able to find different/supplementary work elsewhere. I'm very thankful that we're both currently working, and that we're able to put away any money at all, but I can't help thinking about how pleasant it would be to be able to put more aside, if I was working more hours.

In the meantime, it turns our focus to the things we actually want - our own home, the freedom to decorate and alter that home as we please, and to know that we can lead happy, fulfilled lives which don't revolve around mindless spending, which only costs money and creates more junk to be got rid of.

fiwen30

Yesterday’s interview was the weirdest I’ve had for a long time.

I was sat down, given a brief overview of the role, then asked for my availability and when could I start? No other questions about my application, or my experience. All the alarm bells went off in my head.
The last time I worked for a company whose ‘interview’ process was to hire anyone who walked through the door, their staff turnover was huge, their treatment of staff was abysmal, and they were just after ‘warm bodies’ rather then being interested in you as a person.
That, coupled with no guarantee that the temporary Xmas role would become permanent, meant that I turned the offer down.
I’m a bit disappointed that it wasn’t the opportunity that I’d hoped for, but I know I made the right decision.

On the plus side, after 2 weeks of cut hours, the next 2 weeks rotas were released today, and I’m working a healthy 17 & 18 hours, respectfully. Hoping that there are no more surprise edits made between now and then, and crossing fingers that hours will ramp up now that our Xmas stock is beginning to arrive.

Partner and I went to see our MA today to go over the mortgage offer made by our lender, and it’s actually worked out at £360/month, rather than the £403 we were quoted in July, which is nice! I’ve got my life insurance sorted out, just waiting on the buildings & contents, and my partner’s specialist life insurance to be quoted.

It’s all feeling very real, and I’m very excited. If all goes to plan, we might be moved in before Xmas!
Next is booking the building survey, and getting in touch with our solicitor for an estimated completion date.

I’m also looking forward to our next budgeting period starting on Friday 9th, and beginning to move our leftover cash into our different savings pots.

fiwen30

Woke up feeling rotten today. I’ve been getting these runny nose sniffly colds about once a month through lockdown, but this is the 2nd since I started working 4 weeks ago. Not unsurprising, given that I’m back out mingling with people, despite distancing, masks & hand washing, but still frustrating. Hoping it’ll have cleared by Friday, or else I won’t be able to get my flu jab done.

Emailing the surveyor now to ask for a full building survey on the house - have been quoted £575. Partner’s parents very kindly offered to cover our buying fees and expenses, since they weren’t allowed to gift us money towards the deposit. We’re very grateful, and lucky too, as it would’ve been very tight to stump up 15% plus all the costs on top, without running all our savings dry.

The boiler in our rented house has started playing up too. It’s taking forever to light when the heating is on, and it’s very slow to get the radiators hot. It’s overdue a service tbf, so hoping it just needs a simple, cheap once-over.

I’ve had a real hankering for potato bread recently, and it’s impossible to find a gluten free version in the shops, so I might have a bash at making some myself this afternoon.

Looking forward to work tomorrow, sniffly nose and all. We’re starting to get our Christmas hobby and craft stock in, and so our manager has been roping me into making up the craft kits for the displays, which I love. Nothing better than getting paid to do crafts!

fiwen30

Potato bread turned out really well for a first try the other day! For the cost of an egg, a bit of butter, and a bit of flour, 3 almost dead potatoes made 10 farls, which did for 2 lunches. Used the leftover potato peeling to make some quick crisps, so nothing went to waste, which felt good.

I've mentioned that our budget resets on 9th October, when my partner gets paid. Well, we had our last weekly grocery delivery today, and so I can say we went over our £350 grocery budget this month If I was just accounting for the 4 weekly 'big shops', plus the couple of bits I've needed to grab, we've come in at £360. If I was also accounting for the food my partner buys at work for lunches/dinners, we'll be coming in at about £410. We need to have a chat and see if going forwards, his work food will come out of the general grocery budget, or out of his personal spending allowance.

I've been thinking more about food than I ever would've done previously. I've always been of the 'can't cook, won't cook' opinion, but I've been taking more of an interest these past few weeks. Partner can cook, but often can't be bothered, especially after a long shift at work, and so I've stepped up to cook his dinner a few times and surprised myself by how much I enjoyed it (I have a separate, specialist, diet, so we always have different meals to each other).

He's very easy going with food - doesn't mind cooking something with 4+ servings and eating it all week, or taking leftovers to work - but he often lacks the inclination to cook, and I lack the knowledge/experience. However, if it could save us some ££ on buying ready made/prepackaged food, or partner taking leftovers to work instead of buying lunch/dinner every day, then I'm very keen to learn. I took £12 from our Household Misc. budget to buy a couple of Jack Monroe's cookbooks on my kindle, and will chat with partner about getting some ideas together, and maybe even making a 'meal plan' for the week! For someone who exists mainly on tea and crumpets, I'm a bit daunted by this

My mum taught me to make a fish pie, and a chicken stir fry for 4, I can do a bland but edible cheese pasta bake, I do a mean baked potato, and last week I made an enormous pot of chilli because there was 500g of mince that needed using (actually the first time I've ever cooked a meal for partner, in 2 years of dating!)...and that's about the extent of my cooking ability thus far.

I'm hoping to expand my repertoire just a tad, hopefully without having to buy anything new. We've somehow amassed a large collection of various small pots, but only have 1 medium-size frying pan? Plus a large wok, 1 enormous pot, a blender and a food processor. Don't really want to be buying anything else before the move.