Time to Face The Music

alt80

@RelievedSheff you'll get there with the costs covered in full for the van expenses and if you don't you'll have a plan to pay for it rather than just throwing on a card and 'forgetting' about it. 

Also planning to have a quiet month. Similar evening planned tonight apart from mine will be af.

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

@RelievedSheff you'll get there with the costs covered in full for the van expenses and if you don't you'll have a plan to pay for it rather than just throwing on a card and 'forgetting' about it. 

Also planning to have a quiet month. Similar evening planned tonight apart from mine will be af.

Thanks Alt.

It does feel strange coming to this time of year and still seeing the credit card balances decreasing. When we had the boat this was a horrendously expensive time of year. We would be paying for the parts for the winter maintenance, paying for the storage ashore, paying for the annual moorings, insurance and rivers licence. 

Although we have a few bills for the van coming up they are only a fraction of the costs we would have had with the boat at this time of year!

Hope you enjoy your evening on the sofa. 

EssexHebridean

So - from next month you’ll be budgeting 1/12th of the expected costs of the tax/servicing/mot test and from the following month the same proportion of the following years insurance, yes? 😉 Even once you’re out of debt and have more truly “disposable” income budgeting for these sort of predictable annual expenses just makes life so much easier and less stressful. Vehicle ownership is far less nervewracking when you have a “fund” ready to pay stuff like this straight out. Add in a chunk for depreciative costs and a bit extra on top for inflation and you might even start to build a contribution to the next replacement vehicle that’s needed, too - that really IS a good feeling! 

You’re doing brilliantly with the NSD’s too - although by that ticket so must I be as I’m at the same level - 3/3 as of yesterday. 😇 😂

alt80

@RelievedSheff haha we all know what they say about boats, appears to be true given your account lol.

@EssexHebridean I budget for my Range Rover in that way these days; all part of the household expenses. As I've a longer term plan I'm working towards, I've budgeted for the extended warranty when the manufacturer warranty runs out on the car - I know it may potentially work out more cost effective to self warrant but I got to that point with my previous RRS before I bought this one and found it was costing c.£3.5-6k/a just to keep it on the road. So, I'd just rather be covered under the same terms as the manufacturer warranty and at the point Land Rover won't let me extend it again buy another car. Worked out the rate at which I need to save to buy another at the likely point they'll stop letting my have the extended warranty although I may just get another electric car through the business and put the money aside for some silly toy ha. Anyway point is I'd agree it's a good feeling even if I've got the balloon payment to find first ha.

RelievedSheff

The plan is to put away enough to cover the car costs and a bit more and start to build up an account for these bills that we know are coming and also the unexpected bills. Just need to get these next couple of months out of the way with the extra spends and then we can start saving properly and will hopefully have enough put away by October when it is time for the cars MOT, service and insurance.

EssexHebridean

It really does make a difference to how in control you feel of your finances. It never entirely removes the worry of a big bill, but it certainly lessens it! 

RelievedSheff

The other half has found out he has got a 3.75% pay rise today. 

He wasn't expecting anything so it was a nice surprise.

Sun_Addict

That’s brilliant news. 

alt80

Good news re your OH. 

I tend to account for the car expenses but not any separate account etc just on the spreadsheet, as you know I still use credit cards and 0% just in a better way not racking up balances. Still accounted for. One thing you could do if you actually want a separate account for this stuff is set up some kind of instant saver attached to your main current account. Tbf actually plan to do something like that when I get into a position of my personal finances being less reliant on credit cards.

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

Good news re your OH. 

I tend to account for the car expenses but not any separate account etc just on the spreadsheet, as you know I still use credit cards and 0% just in a better way not racking up balances. Still accounted for. One thing you could do if you actually want a separate account for this stuff is set up some kind of instant saver attached to your main current account. Tbf actually plan to do something like that when I get into a position of my personal finances being less reliant on credit cards.

That's what we will do. We won't have separate pots for separate spends just one savings account that money gets transferred into each month.

We do have a savings account attached to our current account already. Current balance is a literal pittance though 🤣🤣🤣