The Little Cottage by the Sea

Squirrelz92

Morning @BrimfulofSascha. Have just finished reading your diary and have subscribed! You are doing immensely well so far and I am rooting for you! x

BrimfulofSascha

Scott_Weiland79 said:

Just had a read of your diary — sorry to hear about the passing of your friend.

I know what you mean about the purse strings. My son’s 23 now, and I often think, where did the time go?

Today I was watching one of the Toy Story movies with my mate and his 4-year-old lad, and it felt like just five minutes ago my own son was watching them on repeat. Crazy how fast it goes.

I know you’ve been doing a fair bit of decluttering — you’re doing really well with it! Are you working on anything else alongside that?

I also noticed you drive a diesel. Have a look at this — you can put in “Diesel / your location” etc., and it’ll show you the cheapest petrol station nearby. Every little helps, right?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=apposing.petrolprices

Check this out i cant standing petrol companys. I have a petrol station next to my work a Jet Station petrol is £138.9, same company 1.2 miles away on my way home from work £129.9 gerrrrrrrr

On the subject of cars, what are your long-term plans? We had a similar situation with a 10-year-old “Fix It Again Tomorrow” (Fiat 500). Getting rid of it and leasing a new car was the best thing we did.

• 12,000 miles per year limit
• Brand new
• No car tax
• 55–60 mpg on motorways, 40–45 mpg around town
• £225 pm 

Hi Scott,

Thank you for reading, support is always welcome.

On the subject of leasing, I'm not sure that would work for me. My commute is 80 miles a day 4-5 days a week. I drive 22-24 thousand miles a year. My current car, thankfully, averages 67.4mpg.
The petrol prices thing is very handy though.

Sascha

Scott_Weiland79

Wow thats a lot of miles

my advice use that app lol what you save on fuel build a new car/repair fund.

Nectar cards/club cards and that jazz too every lil helps.

I have just had a look on the site we leased our car from, leases are avaliable on 

10000
12000
15000 
20000
25000 

and 30000 miles

with our car leasing 25000 miles would cost an extra 75-100 quid.

BrimfulofSascha

Happy Monday Loves.

This weekend I had the last event of the season for the sport I do.
The reality is the weekend was expensive, but the race fees and hotel were paid months ago (the hotel was only £100 and I shopped around) the outlay to hit this month I'm really happy with. A dinner on Saturday with my race team (£27 for my share with tip) and £7 for the dart charge. My trusty little car managed 68.8mpg and the car already had a mostly full tank.
I managed to avoid spending on Breakfast or food from one of the vendors at the event and packed race nutrition and breakfast from home and I didn't buy any shiny new equipment from any of the stalls.
Got a small basket of things from the shop in the village. Lots of yellow stickers. Other than cat food I probably won't need to spend anything else until the weekend. I know I must actually stick to a meal plan to make sure that happens. I have a WFH day 1 day this week as DD has a school thing we need to go to. Honestly I never imagined her final year of schooling would be the one that required the most of my attendance. It's always difficult to balance when home and school are an hour away from where I work. Thank goodness for hybrid contracts.

Just plodding on a bit until payday when I can see the scores on the doors and have a good money shuffle. 

The weather should be quite nice here for a good week so entertainment will be running when it's light, and reading when it's dark. DP is working away all week not that we often see each other in the week anyway. It still feels weird when he is overseas. This weekend we have an activity that was gifted to me for Christmas which I'm really looking forward to.

No other money stuff or life stuff to report.

I hope all is well with you?

L&L
Sascha

londoner2019

One thing I'd say is take all your annual leave. Assuming you're employed and get X amount of days per year, that's money you're throwing away by not taking it. And if your workload is too busy, then tell your team that some things will need to get deprioritised. Taking time off is so important! You sound like you're running on empty and a week off, not doing anything, would help you recharge.

Companies shouldn't be holding employees to ransom over workloads and holiday days. If someone can't take all their time off because it's too busy, then that's on the company for not staffing correctly, or expecting too much of people. Unless you're literally saving lives (and even then it isn't great to have someone working exhausted), then no work project is that important that it can't be delayed.

BrimfulofSascha

Good afternoon loves,


I completely agree @londoner2019 and I would be the first person to say as much to anyone else in my team.
I'm going to look in my diary this week and make it a priority to get some days booked. I can carry over 5, but that still means I've got to take at least 7 days.

My WFH days yesterday was nice, I went for a long walk in the fields around the village before I set myself up in my home office. Movement and the company of just pheasants and cows was such a nice start to the day. I'll probably WFH tomorrow as well, road works meant it too an hour to go the last two miles to the office (could not stop or park enroute). That will save me about £8 in fuel.
Today has not been the NSD I had planned. In fact I was overly organised ( I packed a sandwich for lunch) and then scuppered. I have a regular walk, talk, and lunch with a colleague. Once a month we sit and talk philosophy and science over a (university café subsidised) lunch on campus. It was his turn to pay, but their card machine hated all his cards, finally got it to work on mine. So that's £16 unplanned spend. At least I'll now not have to pay the next two. I shall save the sandwich in the work fridge until Friday, hopefully I can revive it in a toastie bag!

Last night it was an open evening at one of the local sixth form colleges. I cannot believe we are already thinking about higher education for DD. I swear it was only yesterday that she was three years old narrating our lives through song like a live action Disney princess. We started the evening with no clue as to what she wanted to study, and ended it with 2 subjects she would love to do and a handful of other options. The college was incredible. There's a lot of investment in state education where we live, especially in STEM. The college is only a couple of years old and the facilities are remarkable. I'd actually love to swap places with her and study my A-levels there. Youth really is wasted on the young. I'm excited for her. We have another couple of places we want to scout out over the coming month, and then go back for the weekend open morning at this college with a few more questions. I think College will suite her far more than secondary school does. It's such a relief. These moments are so hard as a solo parent, there's no-one else as invested to talk to about it.

The big conversation i need to have with myself at the end of the month is the car. Things are starting to go wrong and I can't just endlessly sink money into it. It's only 11 years old, but has 170k on the clock. I've spend as much as it's worth in the past 18 months keeping it on the road.
So far my options are
1) limp it through the MOT in November and hope it lasts another six month's until i can save to buy something new to me. 
2) cut my losses, it owes me nothing, it cost £4k 6 years ago, and scrape together what savings i have now to but something older and cheaper knowing i'll probably have to replace in 2-3 years
3) scrape some savings for a chunky deposit for a newer, lower mileage, more reliable car, and take out debt. I've decided the 'take out debt' phrase is better for my mindset, debt isn't good, 'taking out finance' sounds more twee and less scary and not really in reality with the impact.

...obviously with option 1, if it fails, thats £50 wasted on an MOT, and then do I actually pay more for diagnostics, and even more for repairs. At what point do I draw the line?

Another money thing i need to get better is sinking funds. I used to do it, when I was a lot poorer. But I have fallen out of the habit, or rather, I forget about it until it's time to renew the car insurance, or it's Christmas. Currently, service, MOT, Car insurance, Home insurance, and Christmas all fall within 6 weeks from Payday I'll need to actually accrue for these. I'm currently undecided to accrue 1/12th or more given that they are going to be wiped out by January, or just pay as it comes for the next 2 months, suck up the panic and start with a clean slate in January. The decision fatigue is real!

Wow that was a big brain dump! I'm no clearer on anything. I'll sleep on it.

L&L

Sascha







 

BrimfulofSascha

Good morning loves,

It's cold here in the countryside. I really need to sort out my work winter wardrobe so I can try to avoid a) freezing to death, and b) spending money on new work trousers.

I did a money saving thing last night. I have two kitties, they are indoor kitties, a few months ago at their annual check up the vet said I didn't need to get them wormed and flee treated as they don't come into contact with other animals. I currently pay the pet health care plan at £20.99pm per cat. They are already chipped and neutered. I looked up the price of an annual check and annual vaccinations, it is a total waste of money, so I contacted the practice and cancelled it. I do pay insurance, that's only £27pm for both so I think that is cheaper than insuring through savings.

I also bit the bullet and booked some annual leave, so I have three long weekend to look forward to in the next couple of months. I forced myself to do it before coming on to update my diary. I'll still have 5 to carry over which will need using for March, but they can be used for some plans I have in February.

Even with sleeping on it I'm still flip-flopping about what to do with the car. I think I'll have to cost up the scenarios and do a SWOT analysis. A car is a need, so it's not a frivolous holiday or nice-to-have new furniture decision. I know I just have to bite the bullet and make a decision, it will free up so much head space once I do.

I was craving a takeaway on the way home last night, weighed up the cost vs the enjoyment and knocked up a really tasty curry at home instead. I do not have the budget this month for any unnecessary spending. I need to reframe seeing this as a win or a saving. It's not a saving, a takeaway is a treat, it shouldn't be seen as a normal thing to do on a random Wednesday. Especially given the cost to enjoyment balance. I really need to remind myself what things really add joy to my life and what things have just become a habit or a sticking plaster. 

L&L
Sascha

londoner2019

SO pleased you sorted your leave! and yes, using 5 carry over days in those miserable Jan-March months will be a great idea too