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hello Fox.foxandflowers said:Chased up insurance = they are awaiting information from the vet from before we had Ronnie to ensure there was no pre-existing condition. No idea how much longer that will be.
Spent my lunch on the phone to Stepchange. Monthly payments of £110 resuming in September this year. 23 years and 3 months until DFD with them, so I would be 57. The advisor mentioned that there was a possibility of splitting the plans and looking at separate options. If we did that Mr Fox could potentially get a DRO and would write off £16.5k of the overall debt. But I don't know enough about it. And obviously I've been supporting him for the last several years, but they want to check that you haven't disposed of assets over £500 in the last five years, and we were very spendthrifty during the Covid years, so I'm a bit worried about that. I will discuss it with him.
@MFWannabe figures at YTD are below. Have put in bold where I know we have an overspending issue.
_____ FIXED SPENDS _________ VARIABLE CATEGORIES _____
Groceries £3,028.54 Sky Internet £245.00 Welsh Water £184.42 Gas & Electric £526.00 Tesco Mobile £140.21 - When is this out of contract? You can get sim only for far less than this Vodafone Mobile £115.56 - As above Adrian Flux £343.88 Transport £333.20 Fuel £866.50 RAC £66.00 - When is this up for renewal? I pay less than this for the year Monzo Plus £31.00 - Do you really need to pay this? Home Insurance £35.76 Council Tax £537.92 DVLA £26.25
Ronnie £2,547.88 Cloud Storage £11.75 - Do you really need to pay this? General £791.36 - You’ve rightly highlighted this is high Eating Out £709.49 - As above Takeaways £637.73 - As above Clothes £117.65 Spotify Family £77.96 - Do you really need this? Netflix £54.97 - As above Amazon Prime £26.97 - As above Ring Doorbell £24.00 - As above Playstation Plus | GTA + £15.00 - Is this amount correct?This would be only £2.50 per month Chris £160.00 - Not sure what this is? Smoking £428.98 - I don’t need to tell you this is ridiculous illumicrate £36.38 - I believe this is for you so you need something x Home Improvements £378.98 Shopping £1,198.49 - What is this for? You’ve already listed groceries? Youtube Premium £29.98 - Unnecessary expense, do you really need this? Discovery+ £7.98 - Do you really need this? Holidays £330.85 Invoices £496.93 - What are these for? Vaping £57.86 Subscriptions £65.00 - What subscriptions
RAC is not up for renewal until next January, where I will be looking to see what I can do. It covers Mr Fox regardless of which vehicle he is in, which was useful when we had two vehicles, and now is useful as OB (Oldest Boy) learns to drive and needs an adult in his janky car with him.
Monzo Plus, so far yes I have found that it has been incredibly helpful as I can create custom categories etc and it means I know where my money is going. The family and friends railcard has been useful too! But I will review this at the end of the year.
Mobile phones are both in contract – Mr Fox until next summer, and me for another two years, so a fair while yet. I think I have about £600 outstanding on my handset. Mr Fox is sim only, and we are going to look at changing his plan as unlimited everything just isn’t needed.
Subscriptions were two x annual subscriptions in January – mine for Finch, a self care birb app, and Mr Fox for MyFitnessPal. Discovery+ & Youtube Premium have both been cancelled. Illumicrate is for me, but I tend to skip it most months unless there is a theme I really like. It probably averages 4 boxes a year, so £140 for the year. I’ve had two boxes so far in 2024. Cloud storage is necessary currently – I have a lot of photos etc I have digitized to downsize physical space and until I sort them all, I need to have the additional storage online. That will be a project for winter. Playstation Plus & GTA + is £20.48 a month (6.99 for GTA and £13.49 for PS) This is being looked at as a matter of priority. Netflix/Spotify/Amazon Prime are must keeps unfortunately, at least for now.
Takeaways are now banned in the Fox household after a long discussion on Sunday morning down the harbour with a [free] coffee. More on that later. Smoking is also no longer a necessary category.
Invoices are work done on the previous van, I had to keep them separate somehow – not sure why but that is what my brain decided. I suppose because its not in our possession any more therefore is not an ongoing cost?
Eating Out is a difficult one – as I really enjoy going out for food, and at my current job there is a monthly book club which is always held at an eatery. I will start ordering less! I budget £50 a month for eating out so am obviously overspending, but I don’t want to cut it out entirely.
Shopping is where I put all the things I buy for the household, like bedding, or diary refills, or hamster bedding, or lightbulbs etc. It’s quite high because we bought quite a few bits for the dog, including an under the stairs freezer for his food (since sold). We also spent over £400 on an awning tent and accessories for the new van. So realistically, this is probably closer on average to £100 a month, and that really needs to be cut down on. General is my own stupid spending, and stupid tax. Where I’ve forgotten to cancel something, or had to withdraw cash, or bought something incredibly daft like coins for an online game, it goes in this category to shame me. This also covers paying for the yearly parking permit at the country park, and heavy waste collection from the council. General nonsense that doesn’t have a better category!
Actual post about this weekend to follow.....
