How much to live on

louby40

I've had a random tax rebate. It's not much, just over £200 but very welcome. I believe it's because I went part time so things are realigning. 

Organgrinder

Always nice to get a small windfall that allows for maybe an unexpected treat. :-)

louby40

I'm putting it towards a new laptop as I will have to hand my school one over when I leave in 6 weeks time.

Organgrinder

louby40 said:

I'm putting it towards a new laptop as I will have to hand my school one over when I leave in 6 weeks time.

Gosh, bet you're counting the days!

Here I've done my monthly accounts. I say monthly but in reality I just redo them every so often, eg when bills change or I get a pay rise etc.

One of the bizarre things about teaching is that part time work earnings are amended to full time equivalent for the sake of pensions. In my case my TLR (additional payment) is a full TLR even though I work part time. Bingo! It makes my pensionable salary for the final salary part worth a little more. Not much I hasten to add!

I've also factored in this year's proposed pay rise. Fortunately insurance premiums have gone down and a few of my outgoings are fixed so all in all despite inflation the savings are still growing.

Stoozing is now up to £29,0000 though new deals are harder to come by. I have three cards that will need sorting in a year, and two with 31 months to run. With interest rates coming down it might be time to bring this to an end.

So still on track here albeit impossible to get anywhere close to the PLSA figures for a comfortable lifestyle!!!

;-)

Humboldt

louby40 said:

I'm putting it towards a new laptop as I will have to hand my school one over when I leave in 6 weeks time.

@louby40 not long now! Sending best wishes.

Humboldt

Nebulous2 said:

Here I go again, with another round-up. Another month, another reckoning, and overall quite a mixed bag. 

This month has been characterised by a good few small gains, more than offset by some big expenditure. 

Small gains first. A cheque for £35 from the Inland Revenue, for 22/23. I'm not entirely clear why, but banked it anyway. I'm a member of the blue light card panel, they do a monthly draw, and I won a £25 Amazon voucher, spent on printer ink.  I've started doing surveys and in the first flush of enthusiasm I made over £100 for the month. I haven't drawn it yet. My house insurance came in at £130 less than last year. I very rarely use cash, and dump change if I do spend any. We did a clean out and found £160 in assorted change. I've switched an account to Coop bank, and I'm expecting £100 soon, with a further £25 a month for the next three months. We've had some family responsibilities this month, that haven't been very taxing, but do mean we might need to drive at short-notice, so there has been a saving on alcohol. 

Then big one offs or annual expenditure. I'm going on holiday, so although my house insurance isn't due until mid-June, I paid it now. We finally did some life-admin and got wills and POAs, both paid. Some extra expenses for travel insurance, European recovery and servicing my caravan, all paid. Then to cap it all our washing machine died, and we bought a new one. 

The end result is that on top of a £700 deficit in April, I've a further £1200 deficit in May. Being on holiday for most of June is unlikely to improve the situation this month. 

I'm not disheartened by that though. Either my spending is going to be heavily front-loaded, or my budgeting is widely optimistic. Possibly both are true.  Some of the expenditure has been hanging over me for a while, so it's good to clear the decks. It's all affordable, as we have the resources, but I had intended a year of purely living on income this year. 

My other spreadsheet, with our ISAs and SIPPs, has had a good month, and has recovered more than half of the Trump slump. 

Work isn't going as well as it previously did, so I'm mulling making a clean break and stopping at Christmas. The winter nights have been an issue for me, since I mostly retired, so it might not be the best time of year, but for practical reasons it works well. 

A really interesting and informative update @Nebulous2.  Amazing amounts gained via surveys, loose change and a bank switch.  Good that you have such a pragmatic view of your deficits.  Sorry to read that work isn't going so well, but great that you have a fabulous holiday on the horizon.  Thanks for sharing. 

helensbiggestfan

Good evening everyone.  

What a glorious day.  Have been happily pottering in the garden, it's starting to take shape.  

Well now I too have now done a "State of Play" round up. 

I am now well settled into my new house. I have now received all refunds due to me which have gone straight into my savings.  All the utilities etc are now established and so I now know all my numbers, my income and fixed outgoings, regular bills etc 

I have set myself a target to add £2k to my savings by Christmas to replenish my war chest.  Some of this will come from repayment of a small loan I made to a family member. They are paying me back each month. The rest will come from going "Scorched Earth" for the next 6 months. I am going to allow myself £300 a month for housekeeping, petrol and general misc.  

I have set aside a separate budget for renovations, decorating etc. but ideally I would like to make this as near to cost neutral as possible by selling some of my unwanted "treasures".  

So that's two separate challenges.  It's not the end of the world if I "fail" but I do enjoy setting myself these challenges. It keeps me sharp.  

Humboldt

helensbiggestfan said:

Good evening everyone.  

What a glorious day.  Have been happily pottering in the garden, it's starting to take shape.  

Well now I too have now done a "State of Play" round up. 

I am now well settled into my new house. I have now received all refunds due to me which have gone straight into my savings.  All the utilities etc are now established and so I now know all my numbers, my income and fixed outgoings, regular bills etc 

I have set myself a target to add £2k to my savings by Christmas to replenish my war chest.  Some of this will come from repayment of a small loan I made to a family member. They are paying me back each month. The rest will come from going "Scorched Earth" for the next 6 months. I am going to allow myself £300 a month for housekeeping, petrol and general misc.  

I have set aside a separate budget for renovations, decorating etc. but ideally I would like to make this as near to cost neutral as possible by selling some of my unwanted "treasures".  

So that's two separate challenges.  It's not the end of the world if I "fail" but I do enjoy setting myself these challenges. It keeps me sharp.  

Hi @helensbiggestfan I just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your informative and uplifting posts.  I wish you well in your new home and look forward to more updates. 

helensbiggestfan

Thank you.  That's very kind. 😁

not much news tbh. This hot weather is wiping me out.  I know I know, I shouldn't moan but tbh once temps climb over 25C I'm done for.   We Brits are never happy are we, it's either too hot, or too cold, too wet or too windy or whatever. Apparently temperatures are set to drop to more manageable levels tomorrow, so hopefully I will have an energy surge....lol. But today, it's put my feet up, read a nice book and maybe some Netflix. I am halfway through the John Wick films.......what a hoot.  A lot of blood and gore but it's comic book stuff and so funny.  Total mindless mayhem.  But that's one of the perks of retirement. I can waste time watching a trashy film with no guilt feelings. As John Lennon said .......something along the lines of "wasting time on something you enjoy is not wasted time". I think he pinched that from Mark Twain.  

I always said I would have the summer off from diy/decorating and just concentrate on the garden. However it's been so dry here I've been somewhat thwarted in my gardening efforts.  Due to the lack of rain I've  decided not to plant trees and shrubs etc until September/October.  I think they would struggle at the moment especially if we need to have a hosepipe ban.  No point wasting money and effort for them to die.  So it's mainly pruning and weeding and trying to improve the soil. 

This week I applied some Claybreaker granules.  I've used them before and they do help.  I am aiming to do a couple more treatments before the autumn so hopefully any new planting will stand a decent chance. And because I'm using the claybreaker I've not even planted any summer annuals.  Just a few bits and pieces in pots. So my garden is looking a bit sparse.  

One of my main issues with my new house is there's not much built in storage, so that will be my first job. Or I should say either my handy man or a joiner.  And of course decluttering as we go.  Time for some "Swedish Death Cleaning". 😱😂.  I have bought a couple of flat pack items - media unit, bathroom cabinets to make a start,  just waiting for said handy man.  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.  

And in my defence for not doing much......I have been struggling a bit with my right shoulder (old car crash injury) and right knee (torn meniscus).  I have decided to try acupuncture as well as my normal chiro. I have found acupuncture very helpful in the past so I thought I'd give it another go.  

Re the finances and my "scorched earth policy". It's going well.  I should be able to save at least £500 a month this month and next to meet my £2k target by Christmas. The acupuncture is about my only additional expense at the moment.  There's my grandsons birthday next month but other than that I'm just sticking to general household/food etc.  October is my next heavy month - car tax and insurance but hopefully a clear run till then, 

I do like to be a generous grandparent but at the same time I don't want my grandchildren to become over indulged entitled brats.  So generally I don't spend a huge amount on gifts.  Not that they lack anything. They have more than enough toys.....so I give them my time instead. 

Now that I have moved and have worked out how my budget will pan out my plan is to set up some long term savings for them.  I need my youngest sons input there for investment advice.  I will also name him as trustee.  He's got his head screwed on right.  His elder brother, my grandchildren's father, is ok with money but he isn't quite as money savvy as his baby brother. Strange really because when they were children it was the opposite way round, Son 1 was the saver and son 2 was the spendthrift.  Now I pick son 2s brains.  

Speaking of Swedish Death Cleaning .......I have decided to investigate funeral plans.  I know, I know it's a morbid subject but I don't want to leave my children with the burden of it all. I know how stressful it can be - our family had three funerals in the space of 2.5 years so anything I can do to lighten the burden off my children's shoulders.  So, some time soon we need to have "the talk". I've done my will, powers of attorney so there's just this one last final thing to sort out.  

Right time for brunch. I am trying. Intermittent fasting to lose some weight.......it's going well.  Have lost 7lbs since I moved. Still got a fair bit to go but I'll keep at it.  I'll get there.  

Have a great weekend.  Don't forget  the Factor 50.  Lol 

Organgrinder

It's been scorching here this past two days - which has meant for very stifling conditions in the classroom. But equally school prom night saw the glorious weather continue. So proud of the students that I taught. 

On the side of money my exam marking is coming along - 1600 questions out of 2000 marked. And another paper starting next Thursday.

I also rechecked my tax for this year - I underpaid last year by some £600 so HMRC sorted my new codes out and provided an estimate of how much tax they expect me to pay. One of my income streams is taxed at 40% with no tax allowance - I make sure I pay enough into my personal pension to offset the 40% tax. So last year's underpayment will turn into a £600 overpayment this year. Happy days. Even more so when I realised that my projections have all used this year's montly income, so I've adjusted future income accordingly. 

I finished last months's clubcard challenges too and got almost £40 in additional vouchers which with my clubcard points comes to £92 off next year's trip to Poland. In total so far clubcard deals have got me over £350 in easyJet holiday vouchers and there's a new round of clubcard challenges starting this week so fingers crossed for another £30 or so in vouchers and another £60 off the holiday! (If so that'll will be half the holiday paid for in vouchers alone!).

I've also factored in the now proposed 4% pay rise for teachers this coming academic year. As mentioned before the fingers are also crossed for a DCA payout from Black Horse but this will be added to the holiday fund should it come to fruition.

And with that update done, fingers are also crossed that it doesn't rain this evening as I want to fire up the pizza oven in the garden!