Tm's MFW ramblings

turtlemoose · 18 January 2019 at 11:59AM

2.5% pay rise from work, is around £40 pm after deductions, bringing my shortfall down to £110 a month. Feeling pretty rubbish that I'm still in negative figures every month but it is slowly coming down so trying to see that as a positive!

turtlemoose · 27 April 2019 at 12:16AM

Oh wow, my tenanted house FINALLY sold! I am officially no longer a landlord!

This is SUCH a relief for me. My tenants are in several 000's of arrears, I was unable to afford the second mortgage AND all the credit card debt my ex left me in.

I ended up clearing 37k after fees which is phenomenal! Sadly (or not) I immediately spent 26.5k of it paying off those credit cards and everything else I owed (kids' savings and my parents and a catalogue). I've put an extra 1k each to both kids. I've had a little splurge on a new small chest freezer, some bits from IKEA I've been eyeing up for ages, a couple of toys for the kids, and Merlin passes. So there's just under 8k left, which I'm going to keep as my emergency fund as I didn't have one before now.

I had a bit of a childcare nightmare, the holiday club my eldest goes to shut down, and my youngest's childminder has gone term time only. After much deliberation, I approached my work and asked if I can take all of my annual leave during school hols and the remaining 8 weeks I need to cover as unpaid, until my youngest goes to school (Sept 2021). They agreed, and so I'll use these savings to cover that time unpaid without worrying. Hopefully by then, I'll have been able to fund suitable alternate provision for them both for the holidays. I'll be able to look further afield because dropping them both at the same place takes less time than dropping them at separate places like now.

It's all so fresh and new that I haven't even redone my monthly figures yet. It's a treat I'm saving for myself for this weekend I think! It'll be so nice to see, for the first time in a long time, that my wages will actually cover all our bills if I'm sensible! What a wonderful feeling.

Mortgage_Minimiser · 27 April 2019 at 8:37AM

What a wonderful outcome and a relief for you! Ive read your diary from the start, so I feel so very happy for you this morning!
x

SuperSecretSquirrel · 27 April 2019 at 10:37AM

That's fantastic news on the house sale turtlemoose, must feel incredible to get that weight off your shoulders!

Great use of the cash realised too - paid off your debts, a few little family treats, and a very respectable emergency fund, all in one fell swoop. Excellent! :T

Shame about the childcare situation putting a damper on things, but at least you're now in a strong position and can roll with the punches. I doubt taking time off unpaid would have been a realistic option until I now, so well done again.

Sounds like you're in a nice clean slate / fresh start kind of place now. Looking forward to your next lot of figures. No non-mortgage debt, outgoings below incomings, solid emergency fund in place, able to start saving and overpaying. A massive turn around. Like MM said, very happy for you this morning :cool:

turtlemoose · 3 May 2019 at 1:08PM

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2240
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 137
Other income............................ 237
Total monthly income.................... 2614

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 625
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 119
Electricity............................. 34
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 8
TV Licence.............................. 12.5
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 45 (this is Virgin Media, cheapest bundle plus Netflix)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 (I've upped this as we've been so strict on this the last year, also one child with multiple allergies so the free from stuff is pricy!)
Clothing................................ 0 (Mine comes out of my personal spends, kids is account for below)
Petrol/diesel........................... 0 (work pay for this)
Road tax................................ 1.65
Car Insurance........................... 62
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0 (work pay if work related)
Other travel............................ 0 (occasional bus/train will come out of personal spends)
Childcare/nursery....................... 770 (this is an average across the full year, and I don't work school hols any more so will be zero in August but I figured average was best way to go for calcs)
Other child related expenses............ 120 (this is for 2 of them, for everything. Clothes, shoes, haircuts, Beavers, other activities etc etc etc. Any surplus is saved and rolled over as there'll inevitably be a bigger purchase somewhere down the line!)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 (rare I would have a spend here, would use personal spends)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 15 (cat too old to insure, put this aside each month as 'vet fund')
Buildings insurance..................... 22 (contents included in this)
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 11
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 80
Haircuts................................ 0 (I only go twice a year - from personal spends)
Entertainment........................... 150 (this is all for me - explained below)
Holiday................................. 0 (we have two short UK breaks and a week in Wales already booked and paid for, so I won't be allocating any money to this for this year, will review at end of year)
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Green party............................. 3.4
DS2 ISA................................. 10
DS1 ISA................................. 10
Help2Save............................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 2458.55

Assets
Cash.................................... 8000
House value (Gross)..................... 140000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 148000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 112638...(625)......2.88
Total secured & HP debts...... 112638....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,614
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,458.55
Available for debt repayments........... 155.45
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 155.45

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 148,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -112,638
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 35,362

Things of note:
Salary sometimes a little lower, sometimes a little higher, depends on business mileage - this is an average of the last 5 months so pretty representative.

I'm taking £150 a month for ME. All for me. I don't really want to get derailed in to the whole story, but in a nutshell the kids don't see their Dad nor their paternal family, my family live 200+ miles away. So I have the kids all the time, with no breaks. And work full time mon-fri. So this £150 is for me to book a babysitter twice a month (£30 x 2) and go out and be turtlemoose, not Mum. It's also to cover my clothes, haircuts, shoes, whatever, anything I want. I've deliberated a lot over whether to do this or not, but I've realised that for my own sanity I *have* to do it.

I have included child maintenance in my SOA, but I have not included any Universal Credit because it's a total shambles for me, some months I get £200 some months I get nothing, it's all over the place and I have an outstanding mandatory reconsideration as I think they've underpaid me, but I'm at 6 months and counting awaiting the outcome still. Also, they might decide because I had £37k from the house sale, that I'm no longer entitled - however I have used it to pay off debt which I believe does NOT count as deprivation of capital, so I have asked if I can continue to receive it - awaiting a decision. If I don't get UC any more, I'll go back to tax free childcare. Either way, I've not included it because I don't know what's happening - so if I do get anything, it's a bonus. Once the issue is resolved either way, I should be able to update with accurate figures for this included as income, whether UC or TFC.

I also need to take in to account that I've got 6 weeks unpaid this year still to come. I should still get my car allowance but salary will be nil so that is £2640 I need to cover - this will come out of the £8k savings. I also haven't accounted for our outgoings being higher in the school holidays, particularly the summer hols. I bought Merlin passes (discounted through work, £285 for us) so that will help with days out, my fuel is free, one of the passes is VIP so parking will be free, and we always take packed lunches anyway due to one being fussy and one having allergies. But there will be other things we'll want to do, and I'm sure my food budget will be higher too! I don't want to spend excessively but don't want to live like paupers either - and it's a novelty to me to be able to spend this much time with my children. I'm going to allow £40 per person per week - so £120 a week. There's 1 week in May, 6 in summer, 1 in Oct - that's £960. I expect we won't spend anywhere near that, but I want to know it's there if we want it. Also to come out of the £8k.

This will have me at the end of December with £4400 left in savings - BUT this might be higher because if I get UC then I think it'll be around £2400 for June - Dec, but if it's TFC then £1080 for the same period. Until I get more information, I can't add this in so having to presume it doesn't exist at the moment.

What I've also not accounted for is my average £150 a month budget surplus :T which I feel unable to commit to any particular purpose at the moment - still feeling the pinch of the last year, so I think I'll put it in a separate easy access account and perhaps in December when I review the year, if I'm feeling more secure I will OP it on the mortgage.

I should hit end of 2019 then with no debt except mortgage, and worst case £5480 (inc TFC) in the bank and a £1050 mortgage OP made, or possibly £6800 (UC).

Then 2020 - I will get the 30 hours funded for my youngest which is going to make a huge difference to my childcare bill! I can up my personal spends to £200 a month, add in a £200 a month mortgage OP. Because childcare will be so subsidised, my salary + CMS for the year (even incl the unpaid leave) will actually cover everything. I'll have 11 weeks school hol fun money budgeted at £120 per week like before, so that's £1320 to come from savings, and also Merlin passes renewal, I'll have to buy three this time as youngest will be 3 then, so approx £430 which is £1750 total. From my worst case, that is now £5480 - 1750 leaving me at the end of the year with £3730 savings. However if I get TFC that'll be £1k higher, if I get UC then £3k higher.

2020 should see my last student loan payment made in December! So after that i'll be about £90 ish a month better off :j

2021 again I won't need any savings to cover my unpaid leave, just 10 weeks hol budget - £1200 and merlin passes, £450 let's say - so £1650. Going with the conservative option that's £4730 - 1650 so ending the year with £3080 savings, having made £200pcm mortgage OP. PLUS I will have had my help2save bonus of £600 which I'll stick on the mortgage too. Not accounted for in income is either £980 TFC or £1400 UC.

2022 no more unpaid time off work, but both kids in school so childcare much lower overall (but higher in school hols). OP still at £200pm, not using savings as not taking school hols off. Savings estimated at £4160. Second help2save bonus will come at the end of the year so extra £600 off the mortgage, plus the account will be finished as the 4 years will be up so there will be £2400 to add to savings - might do £400 on fun spends with the kids and then £2k off the mortgage.

Obviously the 2020/2021/2022 stuff is pretty vague and generalised but it helps me to have a little vision that actually things are probably going to be ok! I have a spreadsheet with much more detail on of course!

turtlemoose · 3 May 2019 at 1:10PM

And I wanted to say separately, and it not get lost in the big wall of text above, thank you mortgage minimiser and SSS for your kind words and support :beer::beer::beer:

turtlemoose · 4 May 2019 at 11:46AM

Had a look at MF dates - realistically looking at April 2031 at the moment, when I will be 46. Not bad but not deal either. Doing it on my own though, so I guess I need to take that in to account! So that's my starting point and let's see how I can improve on that!

turtlemoose · 18 November 2019 at 12:06AM

Wow 6 months since my last update, whoops. Fair few big changes here.

A couple of weeks after my last post, my dad (70) fell off his roof and died. My mum was there, at their home in France. My parents were planning on selling up and moving near to me (hence why Dad was on the roof - fixing some loose tiles before the estate came around to take pictures) - with the plan that they would actually retire (as they were still working, Dad at 70 and Mum 69) and be a big part of my kids' lives (as most of their other grandchildren are adults themselves now, I'm the only one with very young children). My mum has still sold the house and is moving to a flat (on my road actually!) but obviously it isn't the same and there has been a lot of heartache over the last 6 months for everyone involved. Also a lot of bureaucracy due to their assets being French and him dying in France - inheritance rules there are very different to the UK and if I wanted to, technically I could force my Mum to hand over "my" share of Dad's assets as cash.... yikes! Obviously I have no interest in doing that and as far as I'm concerned, everything they owned was jointly theirs and now solely hers. Subject to completion dates etc, she should be moving here around mid-end Jan, I'm looking forward to her being a lot closer and so are the kids.

I've also had lots of court stuff with my ex - long story short, it has had a positive outcome and I'm really pleased, especially compared to how things were say, a year ago. He is now having the kids, unsupervised, which is great that he has done the work he needed to to get to that point... the kids are getting settled in to a routine, I am getting a few hours 'off' here and there which is nice.

In money news:
1) my youngest is eligible for the 30 free hours from January, WOOHOO! In 2019 my childcare bill will finish at £9018 for the year (that's term time only, 38 weeks). In 2020 it will be £4832. What a huge difference.
2) Universal Credit created an imaginary £22k in my bank account (yes really) in May and cancelled my claim. I had 2 x mandatory reconsiderations where they said they were right. I went to tribunal and submitted the exact same bank statements showing I did NOT have 22k that I had already submitted to them several times before... and guess what, I won! But it took from them cancelling the claim in May until only a couple of weeks ago for them to pay me backdated
3) I have to pay my ex another £3k as part of the divorce settlement... so thank goodness for the backdated UC as that was £2k so that pays a chunk of it! Plus £400 sols fees of course.
4) I only have 11 months worth of Student Loan left to pay (£97 a month, Jan to Nov 2020) - this is pretty exciting, feel like I've been paying it forever.

Still not quite back in to mortgage overpayment territory - but feel like I'm getting everything back on track towards that route, and it is still the goal. There are officially 19 years left on my mortgage, which would make me 53. I'd like it gone by 45.

Mortgage_Minimiser · 18 November 2019 at 8:34AM

Welcome back! I shall carry on following - still doing great and being strong I see!

MM x

BVic28 · 18 November 2019 at 3:50PM

I’ve just found your diary and read through it all over the past day (while breastfeeding a hungry baby!). You’ve had s but if a rollercoaster but it seems like things are on the up (although I was so sorry to read about your dad just as things were becoming more positive).

I’ve subscribed so I can follow along

Tm's MFW ramblings

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