Little by little, and with love

RosaBernicia

All accounts reconciled in preparation for payday shuffle. 

The good news is that YNAB's loan feature made a mess of the van loan and it is a whole month smaller than I thought - so that's a nice feeling - it may actually be paid off when I hopefully go away in the summer!  Also good to know that the flooring refund did go through - worth the nuisance of setting up an online account to check, and it clarified the date that account needs to be got rid of before the insane interest rate kicks in (in hindsight, it might just have been simpler to put it on the 0% CC and face up to it all in one place).  Horrified to see the amount that would be owed if I went with the default credit option since of course it is structured over 3 years with interest immediately added for the first year that is otherwise 0% and in short it doubles the cost of the actual sale.  I will be avoiding these deals in future, unless there is a major discount for me I can't get otherwise, as that's just such a rip off it can't be justified.   

Savings allocated but not converted to PBs yet, mostly because I need to get my online access reset to log in. 

Weirdly the groceries budget is lower than usual - not sure if this is because of stocking up before the holidays, or because I've been deliberately stretching time between shops, or both, or what! 

Not so good that there may be a huge vet bill coming as the cat needs dental treatment - hoping the insurance will cover at least some of it, but no real options as she is in pain and I don't currently have enough in her emergency fund to cover it (working on building that back up). 

Some thinking needed on house stuff and hoping to talk through plans with a friend who knows about these things, that will help get priorities in order.  Still need an estimate from roofer... sigh... may have to give up and call another one. 

But budget for next month is still green (just), which is something, given that it's been a five week month with Christmas in it and professional expenses too. 

Plans:

• Think I still need to pay an invoice, but now can't tell which one as I've written paid on the one with the amount I thought was still owing - must call them tomorrow
• Call about getting back into PB account
  
• Call another roofer
• Skim through a book and see if it's useful enough to keep or should go back to A-zn (annoyed at author who promised bonuses on receipt of a pre-order receipt, and didn't specify they had to come in before the launch, but is now refusing to provide them). 

doingitanyway

RosaBernicia said:

• Skim through a book and see if it's useful enough to keep or should go back to A-zn (annoyed at author who promised bonuses on receipt of a pre-order receipt, and didn't specify they had to come in before the launch, but is now refusing to provide them). 

A bit mean of the author 

EssexHebridean

Aww poor puss cat - hope the vets are able to sort her out and she's more comfortable soon, and that the insurance pay out for you. 

Good news on the loan, well done on the flooring, and pah to the author! 

RosaBernicia

Invoice paid, another roofer emailed, stuff for PB account en route.  CCs also paid - interest bearing one cleared, 0% reduced by a chunk but not as much as I'd like due to need to keep cash available for roofer.  Friend confirmed my plans for the house are in about the right order.  And groceries budget still intact - I wish I could say this was due to marvellous new planning schemes, but it's actually just me spinning out another and another day of the freezer to avoid going shopping or having to be organised about an online order - still, whatever works, and hoping to get through to the end of the month with a little left over.  The huge pan of risotto from tonight should help! 

RosaBernicia

Sigh.  Budget entirely busted by vet bills for cat - before the dental treatment.  £200 already for excess for new condition and 10% of costs still to come will be probably another £100.  This is why I wanted to build their pots back up.  I had managed to 'find' an extra £100 in February that was going on house repairs - that will now have to come out of money that would otherwise have been lowering the 0% CC.  Also a takeaway for the evening that turned into a vet appointment instead of shopping. 

Nothing to be done about it though, so still just need to keep watching the pennies.  I am trying to build better habits - getting round to unsubscribing from email adverts instead of deleting them, not browsing 3bay if I don't need anything, staying off 4mazon.  It's easier as life opens up a bit and real life comes back (crosses fingers). 

EssexHebridean

Ouch to the vets cost - even knowing they're worth it doesn't make it much less painful does it! Thank goodness for insurance though. 

I'm also trying to get into a routine of properly looking at stuff that arrives via email subscriptions and deleting it/removing the subscription if it's not still needed. So much stuff has been subscribed to through the years when signing up for offers - many of them from MSE ironically enough! Makes sense to unsubscribe from those I'm not interested in now though in order that I can sign up again in the future if needed! 

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean said:

I'm also trying to get into a routine of properly looking at stuff that arrives via email subscriptions and deleting it/removing the subscription if it's not still needed. So much stuff has been subscribed to through the years when signing up for offers - many of them from MSE ironically enough! Makes sense to unsubscribe from those I'm not interested in now though in order that I can sign up again in the future if needed! 

Exactly... all those newsletters I signed up for to get an extra 10% when I actually wanted something, now just filling my inbox and causing temptation!  Slowly weeding them out now. 

RosaBernicia

Start of the month review!

Well, it would be on budget if I had nothing else planned but there are several expensive things that need doing. 

• First up is the cat - fortunately better, but still needs dental work and it's not at all clear what that will cost.  If the insurance covers some of it and there's not too much to do it may be ok, if not it may be up to £700. 
• I need some stuff dismantled and disposed of from the garden that will probably cost a couple of hundred to get done - I really don't want to try it myself.  That can't really wait much longer so needs doing in the next few weeks.  I've already asked for a couple of estimates.  Must do some sorting of smaller items at the weekend.  I think there is one thing in there I can return to B&Kew for a refund, so at least that's a little back in the pot. 
• House repairs also need doing - no reply from company who visited to estimate, no reply from another requesting a visit, must ask friend to remind me of the one they recommended hopefully tomorrow! 
• New smoke alarms needed to fit with the new rules for Scotland - that's looking to be about £200. 
  

Meter readings done, actually looking ok considering this is likely to be about the coldest month.  Well within my estimate and I've actually revised it down as hoping February will be similar (and anyway, it's shorter!).  So that situation is probably OK til April, and the summer will be lower usage even if higher prices. 

YNAB subscription comes out this month - not cheap, and I'm still cross at how much it went up, but I don't think I can face spending the time to learn my way around new software just now. 

Oh and it's very nice to see the van loan shrinking.  It's nearly down to a month's disposable income which is a good feeling.  Still not worth paying it off any faster, but will be nice to see it gone. 

So I guess just plodding and see how things pan out for the expenses.

MuffinTops

Hello Rosa,

Just managed to catch up on your lovely new diary.  You sound like you're really progressing in so many areas.  I felt the same about the new YNAB subscription. 

Well done on being in a position to pay off the van loan if you want to.  The potential vet bill sounds scary though.

You've inspired me to sort out energy readings each month to keep an eye on it with the new proposed increases.

MTxx

RosaBernicia

MuffinTops said:

Hello Rosa,

Just managed to catch up on your lovely new diary.  You sound like you're really progressing in so many areas.  I felt the same about the new YNAB subscription. 

Well done on being in a position to pay off the van loan if you want to.  The potential vet bill sounds scary though.

You've inspired me to sort out energy readings each month to keep an eye on it with the new proposed increases.

MTxx

Hello MT, lovely to see you!

I'm glad I started checking my fuel bills too.  I now do readings on the first of the month so that it's close to the previous payday but not confused by weekends or different month lengths etc. 

Also glad that I didn't click on the fixed tariff I was looking at last night while worrying abou the announcement today - it would have been even more expensive! Looks like most of the money I save from the van loan finishing will be going on fuel bills    .  I am trying to be grateful that I have the flexibility to do that but of course it's also disappointing.