Diary of a 30-something idiot

fantasyvsreality

Hi Fox, coming out of lurking to say that having owned a camper van they are real money pits, unless you can afford to buy one fairly new. My feeling is that if having the size of the van is so important then keep the one you have since you have already seen how much money needs to be thrown at them to keep them going. 

foxandflowers

Have found a Caddy Maxi with a bed in the back, and five belted seats, that is half the cost of running the van we currently have in terms of fuel/insurance. It's going for about half of what I would expect to get when we sell the big van. The car has been listed with Motorway this morning, they have quoted me £9,700. We will clean and list our big van this coming weekend. 

Have had a chaotic weekend with several more people in my house than I expected (kids, oldest kids bf, sil & wife, more kids) and I have been suffering with vertigo, for the first time in my life. I'm absolutely fine unless I lie on my back, and then it feels like the world will end. I really need to register with a GP, actually, as a reminder. SIL said that she likes this house the best out of all the ones we have lived in, as there are lots of different places to hang out. We sat in the conservatory and talked, and it was nice. I reached total overwhelm by about 9pm though, and went to bed to watch the UFC.

Someone has offered me £120 for the chain and bracelet I have pawned, so I might see if I can redeem those today. If I can, and its for less than the £120, then all the better. 

Scored a couple of absolute bargains on FB Marketplace - got a large sturdy bookshelf for £10 for my daughter's room which has entirely transformed the space. I want to introduce 30 minutes reading time each night, and this way her books are finally off the floor, and she can see them all. We are going to sit in the lounge, with no tech and hot chocolate every night at 7.30 and read for a bit. I also got a TV unit for the lounge for £15, that is the same wood as the dining table and chairs. We ended up watching From Dusk Til Dawn last night on the sofa with blankets which is the first time we have done that since we moved in six months ago. The movie hasn't aged very well (AT ALL), but it was nice to just spend time together. Celeb BB starts tonight so its going to be lovely to have the space to watch something together without distractions. Just need to buy paint, overboard the ceiling, and either shorten the curtains I have, or get new ones, and then that room will be nice. 

I have paid off £310 of debt so far this month, and the only two essential bills I have left to pay are the two mobile phones. I have £296 left in the bank to get me to the end of the month. Child Benefit due in on the 22nd the month, and Child Maintenance is sadly due on payday. So I have a guaranteed £96 coming in, which will cover "Week Four" of my pots. Week 2 has £80 in but I've bought my weekly bus ticket, and Week 3 has £85 in. Both have been slightly raided to cover the unexpected costs of the weekend but as long as we stick to a meal plan, we ought to be okay. 

I have gone off the rails slightly in terms of the budget, but at least there is money in the bills pot to cover the remaining bills, and I have bus money for the month. I do foresee a few nights of cheesey beans on toast in my future though, and I really really need to get myself in gear and get listing on Vinted, as I had sort of half hoped to make enough to fund Child #3's birthday in April. 

foxandflowers

PS. I have been sending my "auto roundups" to a seperate pot on Monzo - but I've made that pot a 24 hour withdrawal! It pays 4.58% interest, and I've named it "Boat Fund" to try and inspire me to not withdraw anything from it haha. It's my Emergency Fund, really, but I'm trying to trick myself into thinking its for my retirement plans. 

£15.78 in there and counting. 

Petal88

I'm so excited about the prospect of the van going!! Remind me, have you decided on where the leftover van money will go?

Love the bookshelf find too - reading is such a wonderful gift.

foxandflowers

@Petal88 my plans are all over the place now. Initially we were going to keep the van, but sell the car, and get a cheaper car and then have a few £1000 leftover. Now the car will be sold, and its pretty much a straight swap for the Caddy Maxi (including paying a years worth of insurance) and then when we sell the Big Van it will hopefully get between 15-20k. 
So assuming the low end of that - I would split as follows:

EF £3000
Gift Fund £1000
Mini Fox clothes £400
Bicycles x2 £500
Mr Fox Credit Card £300
Mayglothling £670
Vehicle Pot £2000 (insurance, repairs, upgrades etc)
General small debt £1000 (clearing all the small debts, leaving only 2 big friend loans & stepchange - also debating paying off my phone contract so it goes down to £11 a month instead of £35? It's £570 odd to pay off the phone in entirety, otherwise I am in contract until June 2026 which is a really long time away!!!)  
Friend loan £1000
Home reno £4000 - electrics, garden bits, overboarding ceilings, paint, stair carpet, retractable washing line, rubbish removals, etc. 

Leaves me £1130 that isn't accounted for. We had vague plans to take the younger kids to IoW camping for a week in summer, and would take the Caddy for that - it being able to fit under the height restrictions would be fab, as the Sprinter absolutely does not. Could probably use that remaining money for a holiday, but I'm not sure if we should, or if we should go next year. The older boy is 15 next month, and I don't think he will be interested in coming away with us for much longer, so I would love to be able to go away with him one more time. 

If on some off chance, we got the higher end of the scale, I would chuck extra in the EF and pay extra off debt I think. 

lucielle

As lovely as it would be to take them away I really think it should go off the debt. The holiday will always cost more than you think and once you start with it’s only a little bit here and there the flood gates are opened and the budget is out the window. Could you factor in cheaper weekends or long weekends away?
L

stymied

Can you sell the car privately to hopefully get more money?

What are you planning to do in between selling the car and buying the small van? Can the big van be fixed in time for your next journey?

Is child #3s birthday a big enough motivating factor to get DH taking photos of the potential Vinted lots (you can still do the actual listings but I find taking photos is where I procrastinate).

Have you figured out how much the weekend blew your budget buy (to help make plans for next time it happens)?

Great to hear that you’ve managed to pay all your bills and won’t be needing to borrow from friends to make it through the month!

SuzeQStan

Hey Fox - what kind of stuff is gonng on Mr Fox’s credit card?  Do you have sight of the statements?

foxandflowers

lucielle said:

As lovely as it would be to take them away I really think it should go off the debt. The holiday will always cost more than you think and once you start with it’s only a little bit here and there the flood gates are opened and the budget is out the window. Could you factor in cheaper weekends or long weekends away?
L

You are right in that - and we live by the beach, so not much need to go "away" once the weather is nice as its all on our doorstep anyway. Would like to do something though, it feels like forever since we've done anything as a family because I worked all through last summer aside from taking a week off to move... and then we didn't end up moving. We will have a chat about it. 

foxandflowers

stymied said:

Can you sell the car privately to hopefully get more money?

What are you planning to do in between selling the car and buying the small van? Can the big van be fixed in time for your next journey?

Is child #3s birthday a big enough motivating factor to get DH taking photos of the potential Vinted lots (you can still do the actual listings but I find taking photos is where I procrastinate).

Have you figured out how much the weekend blew your budget buy (to help make plans for next time it happens)?

Great to hear that you’ve managed to pay all your bills and won’t be needing to borrow from friends to make it through the month!

I could list the car privately, but likely wouldn't get a whole lot more than that. The plan is to sell/buy in a very short window. The big van is okay, as long as you don't turn the engine off if that makes sense. So worst comes to worst, it could be used to get the kiddos for a weekend. 

Mr Fox has suggested we tackle the Vinted pile together this weekend - I have been quietly impressed with him over the last week. He is really picking up the slack around the house, he is making sure Mini Fox is fed before I get home, keeping the kitchen clean, making the beds, and generally trying very hard to step up. He has been listening to the football on the radio, and then watching Match of the Day. (I feel a bit guilty about this, but not guilty enough to pay for Sports again).

The weekend was... a disaster. I'm £18 over my household renovation budget because of my Marketplace finds so will have to spend less there next month to recuperate. I only have £130 left in the Groceries pot for the next three weeks. And my "General" spends pot has been so far blown out of the water I don't want to look.(it's £70 over). As long as there is no issue with Child Benefit coming in, I should actually be just about okay, ie. squeaking through the end of the month on hope & prayer. I just need to be on best behaviour. 

It's a bit of a case of "look whose chickens are coming home to roost" only the chickens have been flying via hurricanes and are half drowned bedraggled creatures who are looking at me with spite in their eyes and hissing that I only have myself to blame.