The Little Cottage by the Sea

BrimfulofSascha

Thank you @Humdinger1 that means a lot. Why on earth are you awake at 3.47am though? I hope you are ok

BrimfulofSascha

Good Afternoon loves,

I am finally in the possession of a courtesy car so back in the office this week. No idea how the car repair is progressing, no update on my insurance app.

Saved loads last week in fuel as I had no car, but spent more on groceries with an almost daily 'pop' to the village Co-op. Somehow managed to do barely any exercise despite being home. For the first week my back was twinging from the impact, then last week I just wasn't motivated.

My current account is showing my first wage from this temp job pending, looking forward to doing my regular money shuffle tomorrow.

I'm going to have to be careful with spending this month as it's DD birthday in 5 weeks, and I'm looking at buying her a block of driving lessons. £495 for 5x2h lessons. it is not 2004 anymore that is for sure.

I'd over-egged my sinking fund for annual car expenses, or so I thought! However, I now have £300 insurance excess to pay for the accident. It may be tight when insurance, new brakes, and annual service/MOT are all due in November. The pot currently contains £621, and I add £100 each pay day, so it will be c. £900 in November. I think I'll be short by about £300 (what a shock) but need to work it out. Thankfully road fund isn't due until May.

I've had a(nother) letter from CMS stating that my ex's maintenance payments have been paused until October. which is hilarious. I get an annual review each October, in 11 months since that review he has managed 6 payments which is probably a PB in the past 15 1/2 years. However, only 1 was for the actually amount due, 2 were close, and the other 3 were between 1/3 and 1/2 of the monthly amount due. Arrears are in the thousands. I doubt I'll ever see that financial contribution, despite the fact that CMS are supposed to be garnishing wages.

I also had a whatsapp message from the hire car company i used for our holiday, apparently I have a police fine, but I need to look into this to check it isn't a scam.

All fun money news today! I am so grateful that despite whatever the world throws at me now, and it's thrown a lot this year, I now have safety nets in place to be able to cope.

In, hopefully, positive news, I had a job interview for a permanant position on Fridaym, which I feel went well. I have another, with a different company on Wednesday 2nd. keeping everything crossed that one of these is a positive move.

Will update numbers when money shuffle is complete.

Love & light

Sascha

Rhyddid2026

Good luck with the interviews.

BrimfulofSascha

Thankyou @Rhyddid2026 I'm trying to think positive thoughts. I can't keep having this negative luck.

Money shuffle of the month complete, £771.02 towards the credit cards this month, the usual DD to the boiler and car loans will go out over the next couple of weeks (£236.75 for both), nothing to savings this month which feels rubbish. I've kept some back for the car excess and I did dip into my O/draft a little bit last month. I need to stop doing this.

A couple of months ago I started doing a weekly S/O from my current account to my spending account. I used to just put the whole months spending money in at the start of the month and then find I'd spent 2/3rds of the allowance in the first week topping everything up/doing a big shop etc. I have been mostly sticking to the weekly way of doing things. knowing I'm only a few days away from the weekly 'payday' does stop feast or famine spending. But obviously I've not been perfect as I have been taking things out of the current account that need repaying on proper payday. We can only keep trying to be a bit more disciplined.

Applied for DD's provisional licence yesterday.

DD; "mum why does it cost money, why is it so expensive". Me: "oh my sweet child, it's only £35, of all my bills that is pennies".

Need to order her a 16-17 rail card before college starts proper next week, we have been getting away with her paying child prices despite turning 16 11 months ago, the conductor doesn't care if they are in school uniform. Possibly morally wrong of me to have encouraged this, but I think it is absolutely rediculous charging children adult ticket prices to get to school when they legally have to stay in education/training until 18, so I will not be made to feel guilty about this. Annoyingly even with the discount rail card the new rail fare will be double the child's return ticket price. The bus is the similar price and takes an hour rather than 7 mins on the train.

Making a promise to myself to get out on a run when I get home from work tonight.

Other than that we are just plodding along.

L&L

Sascha

BrimfulofSascha

Afternoon Lovelies.

First of all, RIP Dolly, what an incredible woman, what a loss to the world. "What would Dolly do?" is a bit of a mantra between me and DD. She was always so soft and kind without being hard, feminine without being a pushover, 100% unapologetically herself.

I did my run last night as promised. It was so lovely. Should cycle tonight. maybe swim tomorrow.

Money news, well not much. I've updated my signature. EF is higher than the online experts suggests, but having just been made redundant, and all CC debt being 0% it makes more sense to my life.

Yesterday was a NSD,

Today spends:

£22.05 petrol (only doing little bits as I don't know when I'll get my car back, don't want to gift the garage a full tank)

£10.00 for DD, she has college and will stay at Funcles tonight to avoid a weird early train, so should pay for 2 days lunches. not very money saving but will be packed lunches most days.

£14.50 dry cat food.

This leaves £138.45 of the weekly spend pot.

I heard back from the job I interviewed for last week. I was the 'top candidate but above their budget'. That's ok, not the only job in the world. I have another next week that should be better suited.

L&L

Sascha

Rhyddid2026

'top candidate but above their budget' sounds like an excellent reason to not get a job! I'd take that as a compliment.

ArtyJ931

if recruiters put the actual offered salary on adverts it would stop wasting people’s time. Got my goat when I was job hunting!

BrimfulofSascha

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116305#Comment_82116305

I Agree, to be fair this one was advertised by the recruiter as £XX+ which I knew the XX was a bit lower than I expected, as did the recruiter and the company, but with start-ups there is usually some negotiation for the right candidate. The company agreed to interview me knowing what my salary expectation was. The one I have next Thursday I have already spoken to the internal recruiter and my expectation is in range. I think I'd really like the role so just need to nail the interview. My contract at the temp job is another 5 months so we aren't desperate yet, but it will be one less thing to worry about once I have something suitable and permanent.

BrimfulofSascha

Good Afternoon Lovelies,

No BH for me, the joy of manufacturing!

The weekend was fairly uneventful and low spend. Saturday we continued with project Utility room, all plaster boarding now done. Queue a garage tidy out of scrap materials and a visit to the recycling centre. Followed by lunch at our favourite café. DP paid. A cosy Saturday night was spent cuddled up watching a film. It felt very autumnal Saturday afternoon.

Sunday we all went for a morning swim £13.70 for me and DD), popped to the supermarket on the way home (£38.96) and the DIY shop (£5.40). Then DP and DD drove home and unpacked and I ran the 5 miles home. Double exercise! feeling it today.

DP finished filling/taping the joints while I batch cooked green risotto and a veggie lasagne. Halloumi Fajitas for dinner and a nice evening with our heads stuck in various books.

The weeks spends also include £35 for a 16-17 railcard for DD. The spends account is looking light given DD has 2x train to college this week and the car is running on fumes. I have 235ish miles of driving to do before my next spending allowance hits the account. At least we have food, although need wet cat food too for the baby cat, oh and I need to order more medication for him (claim on insurance but need to prepay)

I've been reading and researching my impact quite a bit recently. The western guilt is setting in. I had been veggie, and even vegan, for most of my life, started eating meat again shortly after I met DP 4 years ago. It made sense at the time as I was doing so much intense exercise and was very time poor. But I just don't feel good about it. So we are transitioning back to veggie, and reducing dairy as much as can be enjoyable. (Oat milk is fine in cereal and tea, but I'm not substituting good cheese, also eating up anything I do have in stores to avoid food waste). Will try to get more consistent with batch cooking to reduce both food waste and energy consumption.

I've also switch mobile to an environmentally conscious supplier. This was also money saving taking my bill from 18.26 to 14 (DP switched his too- he was paying £32 and that was sim only!!!). I've also switched my energy to an eco supplier, thankfully I was out of contract with the sea creature. This isn't quite as money saving and my bill will go up by £6pm but that is a tiny price to pay for the smug feeling of all my electric coming from renewable sources, and it's fixed for 2 years. I can afford to make better choices so I should.

My interim contract job is slightly further than my old commute by 5 miles a day, but I'm only commuting 3 days a week not 5 so I'm saving 124 miles a week. So that feels better, even if the company I'm temping for has a worse ecological/ethical impact than my old job.

I've been doing that star gazing thing of 'what do i do when the CC debt is gone' If i stick to plan that's only 15 paydays away. I keep tying myself in knots between investing to retire earlier, or paying the mortgage off, or making the house nicer and doing more (slow) travel. The reality is DP and I will probably live together in the next 2-3 years, but I want to make financial plans based on things in my control only, so assuming we don't live together and share bills. I 'could', with some estimations, completely pay the mortgage off in 9 years, so just after I turn 47. But, I'm also aware that this next decade is the fittest and healthiest I'm likely to be for the rest of my life. I think I need to create and cost a couple of bucket list things each year into the MFW plan. best of both worlds?

Anyway, waffling as usual.

L&L

Sascha

in_need_of_direction

i parked non essential home improvements until the mortgage was cleared. while i don't exactly regret it, the joy two projects continues to deliver should not have been delayed