Paying the car tax via EBay, and other shenanigans.

mfmaybe · 20 March 2018 at 7:52PM

[STRIKE]Washing on[/STRIKE] All done. Even got it out on the line!
Pack for Thursday STARTED. This is tricky as I still need most of the stuff I'm taking.
[STRIKE]Go to post office on way to horse.[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Horses[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Shower and make up (a new pact to wear some every day!)[/STRIKE] DONE. I look gorgeous

[STRIKE]Check DH scanned forms, and email.[/STRIKE] DONE
Phone vet and maybe collect medication for cat. Drop off other insurance form if so. Made the call, to collect tomorrow.
Arrange Lorry MOT.
Arrange car MOT. Not due till 5th April.
Call groundworks contractors
Continue to plan for Friday (homebuilding show) DONE but ongoing.
Go through old show catalogues and pick out contractors to phone. DONE but ongoing

mfmaybe · 21 March 2018 at 8:28AM

A quick list to get me started. DH now away (I'm meeting him down south tomorrow evening) so I'm on solo parenting and packing.

Fuel in car
Horses
Do Lorry stuff (fuel)
Shower. Make up on

Check I can remember how to remove car seat.
Carry on packing what I can for me and DS.
Look at hotel booking and see if I need to confirm
Collect cat medication.
Nursery AM and PM.
Check in for flight.

I must be tired this morning as I just ended up microwaving my cereal instead of DS' porridge. Ugh. It's truly disgusting

mfmaybe · 27 March 2018 at 2:28PM

Posting with a very heavy heart. We sadly lost cat number 2 (as beloved and important as the one we lost in August). And worse, it was pretty sudden and not entirely pleasant. The saving grace is that I was here when the distress happened and I was able to get him straight to the vet and out of pain. But we are bereft again. Life is just full of hits at the moment.

Money wise I guess my bank account looks ok although there was the bill at the vets last week which is now on my credit card. But day to day spends are remaining under control.

Will be back at some point when I feel a little more cheery.

enthusiasticsaver · 27 March 2018 at 3:32PM

Sorry about the cat

Good that your health issue appears to be ok for now and build project going ahead.

mfmaybe · 2 April 2018 at 10:24PM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Sorry about the cat

Good that your health issue appears to be ok for now and build project going ahead.

Thank you

. There is a lot to be grateful for, I know; but I just wish maybe the top 10% of things in my life would be going ok, rather than just the top 3-5%. Still feel very sad indeed.

But money stuff. Well firstly I nearly had a heart attack when I checked the Amex today. It was absolutely huge. Some of it has turned out to be DH's work expenses but there is also a £675 charge for a piece of furniture. DH has bought it. I don't know which room in our new house it's for, when it arrives, what it looks like - even what it is. All I know is it was expensive :eek:. Also bear in mind the planning isn't even approved yet so also not sure where it is going in the meantime. Sigh.

In better MSE news we went to look at a replacement car for me today but maybe fortunately it was sold. And for now I've decided to hang on to the one I have.

In less good money news, there is a separate vehicle issue that may or may not get resolved at reasonable cost. And I've started a single income budget for when I am no longer working. I am almost certainly getting VR and, combined with the critical illness payout and other savings, we are hoping to have little to no mortgage on our new house. So this allows me to take some time off work before DS starts school. Being mortgage free this is achievable; the really scary part is in the interim where we will still have to pay rent. We can probably hold it together for a few months but not much longer. However lots of the budget goes on the many many savings pots I have, so part of the strategy will have to be top them up as much as possible now and then leave them idle while we are paying rent. There are also lots of "generous" lines on the budget that could be cut. The difficulty is DH will be travelling a lot more for work and it's not clear how much will be at his cost.

Anyway I've started it; it's given me food for thought.

mfmaybe · 2 April 2018 at 10:40PM

mfmaybe wrote: »

First, money stuff. Current Amex (my share) is £490 but I'm due a £16 refund. So a little worse than I'd hoped. Will be adding a night in a hotel for Thursday plus a meal somewhere and I am going to need more fuel. Wail. The bill cuts off on Saturday so will try not to spend anything else on it.

OK so it finally cut off at £540, which was another fuel fill. The hotel is on the current month. So that's already at £340 (my share) as I put fuel in the truck too. (Although the hotel bill can come out of my holiday fund). But between food shopping and fuel I expect that to be much the same as last month.

mfmaybe · 3 April 2018 at 12:50PM

Slept very badly last night, worrying about money, worrying about all the logistics of the vehicle problems I have to sort, worrying about going back to work, worrying about pets, worrying about why my DS starts every day saying he doesn't want to go to nursery. And the weather is back to atrocious so that doesn't help.

But can't mope about. I need a list

Make cereal bars
Make something with the soft bananas
Chase up doctor
Call breakdown company about non service
Follow up with timber frame companies
Groundworks contractors

I've been having a look at my savings pots to see where I should be prioritising. I think the vehicle repairs, car insurance, some costs for the flat, and the road tax. I also don't have much in the presents fund yet, and given Christmas will be at a time when we will have spent huge amounts on the house and be feeling very cash poor, I should get that one topped up too.

brizzlegirl · 4 April 2018 at 9:20AM

Just catching up MFM...bit of a rollercoaster this last few weeks now then. So sorry youve all this stress too. I am sure the Finances will work themselves out. You and your spreadsheets are usually in control of things...but OH spending on furniture?? Without talking to you...I think he needs a LBM

I know this will have been hugely stressful time for him too, but spending on random stuff (even though I am sure its very nice) wont make the MFM household a better place.

Really pleased VR and CI policy payout will give you breathing space.

Keep posting lovely and glad youre old enough to know Yazz :rotfl:

brizzlegirl · 4 April 2018 at 9:22AM

PS I vote for banana bread. Especially if you have a bread maker.

Kids do that sometimes ..but worth talking too his named carer at nursery?

mfmaybe · 4 April 2018 at 1:04PM

brizzlegirl wrote: »

PS I vote for banana bread. Especially if you have a bread maker.

Kids do that sometimes ..but worth talking too his named carer at nursery?

Well first up, I made muffins, but we do have a breadmaker so this is good to know. Do you have a recipe you swear by?

Re DS, we have mentioned it as he has been saying one of the boys hits him. We've asked about it and they said this particular boy is actually very polite and she thinks DS is confusing accidental bumping with hitting. Not entirely convinced, but let's see. He always seems happy when we collect him, at least.

I guess on the furniture, right now we both have our own income and DH probably feels like he can spend his as he wants - which is how we've always managed before. He has taken a look at my budget, and he does keep saying we will need to live more frugally; but that isn't translating into practice yet

So I've applied for a 0% purchases credit card as part of the housebuilding strategy. The idea will be to use that for certain purchases we can pay by card as it gives us 31 months. I am writing it down here though....assuming I am accepted, other than spending the £200 in Sainsbugs to get the bonus nectar points, I will only spend it on build or fit out stuff - appliances or flooring or tiles or whatever.. Once I know about this one, I'm going to open a second current account and start putting my flat income and outgoings in here too. And I need to start overpaying that mortgage so that's another target.

Paying the car tax via EBay, and other shenanigans.

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free