A new chapter, An empty nest, Drama school & Last year of Uni

Spendless

I usually get paid on a Friday so was a bit surprised to say my wages already in before I realised that's because tomorrow is a BH! Then I noticed another pending payment and it's the back dated pay from my weekly rate not being correct, another £557 to go in. Can't believe how quickly it's been processed. I'm so pleased my boss spotted it. It only came about as a result of my agency saying the NMW was going up and what was happening with my hourly rate. If my job had ended on Friday instead of being extended, it would never have been spotted as I was completely unaware. I  can't exactly remember when DD's next rent is due, I know it's roughly £2400 though and I think I will come close to having the lot without having to borrow much if anything from savings.

DD hasn't had auditions this week, they resume next week. She has split up from her boyfriend though. He did this  a few days before her birthday, on the brink of her auditions  and shortly before his sister was due to get married and it had previously been spoken about her being his +1, just like it had been mentioned to him about being DD's  +1 for her brother's wedding this summer.  I can't say I ever took to him tbh, not from the start, he didn't initially turn up the first time she was due to meet him and didn't tell her till too late, I wouldn't have given him a second chance after that. There were other things too, he expected DD to pay half of all dates, despite her being a skint student and him working f-time and living at home, I get her contributing to dates  but it felt a little mean to always expect this  given their differing circs, , in addition she would fund any time they spent in her digs eg buying food and on the few occasions he did make the effort to arrange something, he inevitably got it wrong, such as the London  NY fireworks when he hadn't bought tickets and they ended up going back early. Unfortunately this has meant she's spent this week at home moping about unhappy. The one friend she has back  here hasn't made an effort to see her. This does have me worried for when she does come home this summer.  

EssexHebridean

Argh - tough situation. Best off that she knows now if it's not going anywhere, but still devastating particularly at her age though. 

Spendless

She's now gone out on a couple of dates with a local lad so didn't mope for too long. He has treated her which is nice. He told her of a driving ban though and gave a story  as to why that I don't think is believable but he insists is true, so I'm wary but she returns to the other side of the country till mid June, so it probably doesn't really matter. 

My underpaid wages have now hit my account and I have £1892 towards DD's rent. I also found another £1 coin in a bag and added that to my make up the £40 I spent, think it's £17  I have now. The next week takes us over more of DD's auditions, so I changed my work hours round to enable this. Does mean I have no commuting expenses this week either, not that it costs much.   

And the reason why you should keep accurate records came home last night. My parents asked us to go round and create a spreadsheet for my Nan's estate from her dying until her final bills are paid, prior to my Mum being able to divide up Nan's estate to the beneficiaries. As they didn't initially move Nan's money into a separate account, but put in theirs before moving, so some transactions were going in and out of their account. Anyway DH spotted that my Dad had mistakenly put over £850 of his own money into Nan's account. It got transferred back and pleased Dad who had been unhappy about his £900 duel fuel bill. Glad it got spotted before being shared out! . 

Spendless

Wages have gone in which fetches me to £2236 towards my £2442 target for DD's student rent, which makes me a little over £200 short. Next weeks wages will pay some of that, so I think I will be close even if I don't have the full amount.

The cost of travel, accommodation and especially eating out whilst DD auditions is taking it's toll on our joint account though, so I'm moving some money from my savings towards this. Once the rent is paid then I will move the amount back from my wages. 

Spendless

I can see my wages pending of £183. I worked less hours last week due to doing more the week before. Tomorrow I will work it out exactly but a rough estimate says I'm £22 short of DD's student rent, which if I hadn't bought DH the £40 bag I'd have had it all. However I found around £17 in forgotten coin purses so when I work it out exactly tomorrow I'll take being £5ish off as a win, I have that in my purse and made sure yesterday was a NSD.

Today though I have a chiropody appt and with no petrol I'm either going to have to put some in or buy a train ticket to get there, haven't decided which yet.  

EssexHebridean

That really is a win - it's  a big amount to save for and you've done brilliantly to get to within a whisker! 

Spendless

Thank you @EssexHebridean  - I am so pleased I've managed this because we have been paying student rent since September 2018 and this has been the FIRST time it has been achieved by saving for it all out of wages rather than dipping into savings for all or part of it. That is partially because I lost my f-time job after DS first term at Uni and with DD then ill I decided not to look for work until she had finished school and was at college, the pandemic throw another curveball as I lost my job, but there's also been times when I could have saved towards accommodation and didn't because we weren't on top of our finances. By that I don't mean  having debt, we still do, but being on top of anything needing paying.


So the final amounts for this work out as follows. My wages going in this morning meant I was £22.84 short. However I did have £17.45 saved from loose change found in 2 coin purses. Last night just before bed I discovered a further £4.16 in another bag, this time partially stuffed in a card holder. Together I am exactly £1.23 short of the full amount.

What I discovered by doing this is that IF you are able to syphon off some money to an additional cause it builds quite fast - admittedly I was helped by the discovery I'd been underpaid, but if I'd been paid the correct amount I'd have had more money to start off with.

If there's no plan B for how to pay a bill on time , then you can't give in to temptation, no matter how good you think the deal is. I would have had the full amount if I hadn't bought DH a bag for a birthday/xmas present.  I bought because it was a pre-loved BNWOT at around half than the site's main price. That will help at the point I give him the gift but in different circs the complete focus would have had to have been on finding every penny.


As a personal note I've also  realised that if I'm using a coin purse/card holder for whatever reason I need to empty it back into my main purse at the end of the day! 


I doubt I'd be able to pay DD's rent £1.23 short if I really didn't have any more money and would now be having to look down cushions and in every pocket for the shortfall. As it is I have it in  my main purse but I am tempted to see if I do come across the additional money. Might give myself till Monday to see if that happens. I've found an extra 5p whilst typing this. £1.18 short - lol



 

Spendless

Ok - so I actually have already found the money buuuttt I'm not going to use it. This is because I have found 16USD in a drawer. I'm not using it because DH goes away with work again in June to the States and it'll cost me more to cash it in and then have to buy some more back but it's another example of how for some there's no choice but to go ahead to pay an imminent bill even if it's not going to be cost effective. Now if I'd found Euro notes I'd have cashed them in because DH has cancelled his work trip to Spain that was coming up. 

Honeysucklelou2

Well done for having built up the amount for your DD’s rent…that’s a lot to find.  Hope the auditions have gone well for her.

Spendless

Honeysucklelou2 said:

Well done for having built up the amount for your DD’s rent…that’s a lot to find.  Hope the auditions have gone well for her.

Thank you Lou. Unfortunately no not so far. A couple more to go but if unsuccessful she'll be looking at a year at home. It's frustrating. She did an open mic night in London this week - this one is aimed at poetry/rappers. She performed a poem she'd written. After she finished the venue owner said 'Not sure how anyone will be able to go on after that'. Can she perform and get fab feedback - yes. Can she get onto a 3 year degree at a drama school - it's proving very difficult. So far her only offer has been yet another foundation. Very prestigious school but it's a No, too expensive for what is only a 10 weeks course  and for what  anyway she's already done 2 that haven't yet led to offers, why try a 3rd, even if the finances were there.

It might be that another approach is needed or see  if she's prepared to look at a different direction.