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

Spendless

Ha, you're not going to believe this but the magical power of the coin purse has struck again! It's come back with a vengeance, I have just found a £20 note folded inside a money box! No idea when it's from or why it got put there. It *might* be from when DD was fund raising and I switched all her coins (because she raised money at car boots) over to notes and left one there just in case needed. I now have £35.25 in the coin purse. This is going to be added to all the interest payments etc that we have coming in and will go towards DD's rent. Still expect to be a few hundred pounds short but am bridging the gap as much as possible.

I found it because DH started with his 'one folder of paperwork' de-clutter, only the folder he picked up was all things personal to me like my old wage slips etc and old tax codes and currently I don't care if they're all historic, I want to know that I have the relevant P60s for that particular tax year and then I'll get rid, not just destroy them anyway! So we disagreed on the way to proceed and I asked for a different approach ie lets got all the empty good folders together first from the other week and then look at the paperwork. I decided whilst he's visiting his Dad this lunchtime that I'd make a start on tidying it and that's when I came across the money.

 KxMx said:
Does your bank offer digital cheque imaging through their app? Saves a trip to the bank if so.

Thank you for this. Yes it does. DH once paid a cheque in that way and I'd completely forgotten. Thanks for the reminder. 

DD came back briefly for 12 hours last night. She attended  a friend's funeral yesterday. She said it was so sad to see the girl's age (same as her own) on the funeral service. A poem about a rainbow was read out. I believe this one. https://cynthiaspencer.org.uk/look-for-me-in-rainbows-funeral-poem/
DD thought it nice but didn't give it too much thought until they came out of the service and a rainbow had appeared over the church.  

 I picked DD and another girl  who also attended the funeral  up from the station at 9pm, they stayed here overnight and then were   dropped  back off at the station at 9am this morning as they are going to  Edinburgh overnight and they will make her way back to London tomorrow. DH booked the girls a hotel o/n using his loyalty points so hasn't cost anything. It includes a buffet breakfast tomorrow. They had a Maccys breakfast before catching the train to Scotland. I created them a mini gift bag mostly with stuff I had in for them to have an alcoholic drink on the train and then we suggested they buy a meal deal before setting off back tomorrow so they don't have to pay train prices for consumables. 

Yesterday we saw the FA for the savings we still have to make them work better for us. The recommendation is for a new pension to be opened for me and money paid into that plus some/all of my historic pension pots once an answer has come back about them and then for us to have Isas for the rest. I was given some reassurance that should anything happen to me whilst DD is still a student, DH inherits the 'pot' and from it could pay DD's rent. 

Cupboard or more accurately the fridge is beginning to look bare again but we are eating at friends tonight and then tomorrow night DH is setting off to work abroad for a few days, so again I think I am going to eeek out best I can though I will need to buy some bits but keep the grocery budget low again this week.  

badmemory

You should keep the P60 for any tax year & also the last payslip for any employer (unless the P60 overrides it) in any tax year.  That way you have proof of any NI paid in any year for your state pension etc.  There is current proof that the DWP are not the best record keepers.

Spendless

badmemory said:

You should keep the P60 for any tax year & also the last payslip for any employer (unless the P60 overrides it) in any tax year.  That way you have proof of any NI paid in any year for your state pension etc.  There is current proof that the DWP are not the best record keepers.

Thank you. That would make complete sense the FA asked for the last wage slips and P45s from my last 2 jobs (P60 not relevant as still in same tax year). I think I'm going to ask DH to leave sorting the paperwork until we're towards the end of the de-clutter, because I felt his 'sort one folder' really meant throw away my stuff regardless. 

I have just spent the last 20 minutes becoming increasingly frustrated. I applied for a job online and at the end it said do you wish to take a test to make your application stand out, so I did. The questions became more difficult I had to google what some words meant having never heard/used them in my life to complete sentences. You were timed on them, I got timed out once trying to fathom it and this was for a temp zero hour role where the pay is 11.50 per hour, so from next month it's pennies above MW. I really didn't think looking for another job was going to be this difficult. 

The year long HI account DH opened and we've been putting savings in each month to pay off the CC has paid out the interest. I am taking that for DD's rent. I also took the monthly interest from our everyday savings accounts. I've got some 'pockets' of other areas to take money from but rough estimate says I will be around £300 short. I have it in savings but it's just annoying that this time I look like falling short of target. 

Yesterday we did a load of tasks we'd not got round to. Starting with dropping off an acceptance to DH's Godson's wedding.  Then I called at DD's Godmother's house as I had DD's 21st birthday gift as I picked it up for her and left it to be wrapped up and said I'd call next weekend for it. I then popped into a shop and got another item for DD's 21st that DiL had asked if I could get. All this was on the route to the hotel where the wedding is taking place. We called in to sort rooms out. Me and DH are invited all day and have decided to stay the night before too,  so easier on us for getting ready on the day itself cos I am having hair and make up done.  DD, DS and DiL are invited to the evening, so just need 1 night stay. There was a discounted rate due to the wedding, but what we weren't aware is there was also a stay 1 night, get 2nd night half price offer too and the hotel allowed both discounts. They had to juggle it because on the 2nd night DD will share a room with us. She's attending without a +1 so seemed expensive to book her a room of her own. So first night was discounted with wedding plus half that rate. 2nd night was wedding rate but with a £12.50 3rd person supplement. Total £177.50 was expecting to pay more than that.  

T

Spendless

I've just come across around £18 but I'm not using it. Strictly speaking it's not really mine though it originated from me.DS loved coins as a child. For years I used to collect any of the picture 50p ones and saved them for his Xmas stocking because when he got to his teens he was far harder to buy for than DD. At 18 he went to Uni looked for his coins and couldn't find them. He said he remembered threatening to spend them at the shops if I refused to give him money for sweets etc but didn't think he'd actually done it. We never found the coins until about 20 mins ago. A little lidded dish that is mine from early adulthood that I'd given no thought to in years was on the top shelf of the area DH started his de-clutter at the weekend. It must have been behind folders. I  saw it picked it up, thought it heavy and opened - that's when I saw DS coin collection. No kew gardens unfortunately. Several olympic ones and Beatrix Potter characters though. 

EssexHebridean

Well  worth checking on the value of those 50ps now - I think at least one of the BP ones has a good value, and the Olympic one - there were several variants of the swimming one IRC, once of which is worth a good bit. 

Going back to your car insurance, set yourself a reminder now to increase the amount that you set aside monthly for car maintenance by £32 a month or so from the month after you have repaid this year's into savings - that way it will be there ready for you when needed at renewal next year. we've done it this way for years - it's so nice knowing you can just pay policies upfront when the time comes! (And as you rightly say, save some money into the bargain!)

KxMx

Do remember with regards to DD's rent you currently have one wage coming in.
That wage is keeping you both, funding debt repayments, giving a little support to DS & Dil and DD's rent. That is an awful lot of stretching and it's perhaps not surprising that it doesn't stretch to cover everything.

On a side note my late Nan bless her gave me a Kew Gardens 50p to sell. I sold mine on Gumtree if I remember rightly. I wasn't confident with eBay selling, but if I ever have another one that's certainly being sold on there! 

Spendless

Yes I realise a lot of stretching is currently going on. Would you believe I'd forgotten about moving the £200 from savings to pay back the car insurance until EssexHebridean said. I'm a muppet. I thought the bank acc was looking a lot leaner this month and wondering why. I  had put it down to agreeing to fund travel expenses for DD to attend her friend's funeral.

As to the 50ps I think it's a case of 'close but no cigar'. There isn't the most valuable BP. I have 2 Olympic swimmers but they're both after the image was altered. I have the  50p designed by the Blue Peter winner but from 2011 not 2009. I have found a £2 coin this morning in the 'magic' coin purse  which has St Paul's cathedral for 60th anniversary of WW2. I think I'll give DS that one too. He does have other 50ps which I continued to gift him after he thought he'd 'lost' his. A few years back I also bought him a book about them called something like spend it or save it, but he probably needs a more up to date version. It's up to him as they're his but I'll say my recommendation is he goes through each one researching and should he decide to sell to put the money towards any costs (eg legal fees  if they buy where they currently live (no more news on that at the minute). 

Spendless

On Tues PM I saw an email with a job I was interested in, applied and within an hour and agency contacted me. The job was temp for a month, 4 full days and min wage I said I was interested, then despite chasing I didn't hear anymore till this morning. The job had changed the spec, now wanting someone with a qualification I don't have. I talked to the agency about how difficult I had been  finding it, looking for work. They told me they'd been extremely quiet with not much around and a contact at another agency had said the same thing. So this is what I'm up against currently. I'm kind of relieved to know this and that 'it's not me, it's them' because I was truly thinking it was me. So with that in mind I'm putting job hunting on hold next week till after Easter. It is DD's 21st over the BH weekend and we are doing a family buffet for her on Good Friday and I think just put my time and energy into that.

Yesterday I got a statement through from an old ISA with a rubbish interest rate (1.2%). It has £80 in, I'm going to withdraw it and  also use that money towards DD's rent as well. Tonight/this weekend we are going to look at all accounts, move any interest/cashback money out and see where we are with DD's rent and also pay the CB CC. DH WFH in an (enclosed) outside space. I've been tidying some of the area today (before he wants to throw away more important documentation!) and have found 72p, one is another  picture 50p - still not kew gardens lol, that will go to DS. The rest is going in the coin purse! 

Spendless

Tomorrow is the penultimate working day of the month and the day I usually do a debt round up, but I've got a lot to get done tomorrow so thought I'd do it slightly early.

Today the CC debt stands at £8305 with savings towards paying this off at £5400 leaving a balance of £2905.

In addition there is 5  monthly SO  payments of £80 to still go out = £400, pus 5 for the clothing account  @ £67= 335

A total of 2905 + 400 + 335 = £3640

Still feels some way to go. I have it in my head that I will feel differently once we get to May - we'll see.

I came across some starting points of the debt whilst we were doing a paperwork de-clutter, saved it and then forgot why I'd kept the book and got rid of it! I will eventually work it out to the best of my ability but I do remember I saw the £80 SO was initially set up for 17 months which means there was £1360 which was unable to be BT onto the 0% CC and was borrowed from savings instead.

As at least one of our Bank accs has now ended the year long high interest deal, DH has been switching money around and setting up new SO. I told him to move the one to pay off the CC to the 1st of the month rather than the middle that it had been. This means the majority of debt *should* be paid by 1st July but we may still have to wait until the 31st and the next payday to clear the whole amount off. Very dependant on what happens between now and then.

March has been an expensive month. Some planned for, some not including some eating out/ordering in due to unforeseen circs like my Nan in hospital and parents alternating staying with her on day of admission and getting a take-out as easier to feed us all. We paid the travel costs  for DD to attend her friend's funeral which I have no regrets about. I  do think we need to create not exactly an emergency fund as we already have savings to cover this but an 'unforeseen circs' budget for just the little things that all together add up. I had my first NSD in ages yesterday.

The payout of bits of interest from accounts maturing has gone into my account to pay for DD's next rent. I am currently £620 short for April's amount but there are still little bits of money to come in including from the CB CC and the small amount of money left over in the everyday account this month which will reduce this gap.

Spendless

Oh forgot to say one of the extra spends we did this month was a re-vamp of DD's bedroom. As we de-cluttered upstairs we became aware that what is now the spare room only needed a 'quick fix' of a new blind and possibly light fitting to sort it but as it's the 'spare' this didn't need to take any priority. The bathroom was done a few years ago, nothing needed there. Our bedroom needs completely re-decorating so currently too expensive to plan for, which left DD's room where some stuff looked tired but could be easily remedied. First was buying a new duvet cover in Dunelm. This was the most expensive buy at £24 but that was because I was looking for a particular colour/pattern/style otherwise it could have come in a lot cheaper. Curtains proved difficult, not only in terms of finding something I liked at the right price but also because of the unusual drop I have. In the end £20 plain  blackout curtains were bought at B&M and a relative took them up for free. In TK Maxx we bought a rug reduced to £16 which helped 'pull' the room together. Lastly I went to a charity shop and bought an Ivory embossed   table runner for the area DD uses as a dressing table to smarten it up. This cost £3 and I also got a crystal dish for £2  to display the healing stones she has.  Total £65. I also had a budget of £15 to replace her laundry basket, which is  old and the plastic has broken and split,  but the one I saw wouldn't have fitted the space and as the month wore on and there was extra expenditure, I decided to put buying one on hold. DD is only home a few nights for Easter, so we can manage. Once she's home for summer, she can use the one she currently  has in student digs.