Courgette gets her life in order

A question about : Courgette gets her life in order

Hi All,

Am gonna have a go at an online diary mainly to help me make sure I get everything I want/need to do this summer done.

A bit about me: I'm very quickly nearing the end of a PGCE (teacher training) and have a job lined up for September. However, other than Child Ben and a little bit of Tax Credits we have nothing coming in until I get paid on Sept 26th other than my boyf's rubbish wage which only just covers him. We have a joint account which we both pay Ј250pm into and which goes on bills and food but other than that we keep our finances pretty separate (my choice really, I have a real fear of not being in control. More about that later if you're lucky). There's a mortgage on the house (see below) which is entirely in my name and entirely paid by me. We have a little boy who is from a previous relationship but Mr C really does treat him like his own (I'm so lucky).

I have a number of goals:

1. Pay mortgage off as quickly as possible
2. Make sure the savings I have are in the best possible place
3. Spend what needs spending on the house and do the work that needs doing (windows need painting, hall stairs landing could really do with skimming, kitchen needs to be finished off etc etc etc)
4. De-clutter the house - get as much of it as possible on eBay/Amazon/car boots
5. Don't forget to spend the money I do have spare on fun things!!
6. Maximise income and reduce waste

Obviously there's quite a lot there and to make sure I get stuff done I need to break it down into smaller tasks. This diary will help me to do that and, I hope, keep me on track.

So, jobs for today:
1. Phone previous employer to find out exact leave date last summer DONE!
2. Phone Tax office with this info so they can finalise my Tax Credits award for last year. DONE!
3. Spend at least another 30 mins cleaning living room :rolleyes: not done. I hate cleaning
4. Cancel organic veg box delivery. Now I've got time I can go to the greengrocers/market and this will be quite a bit cheaper (plus I'm sick of bl**dy cabbage, do those wretched things never go out of season!) DONE! Didn't enjoy it though. It felt good to be supporting a small local business and not good to cancel
5. Contact new school about a day I can go in and meet the department properly :rolleyes: not done - felt suddenly shy. Will do first thing, promise

Think that will do for now. Not that much I know but only finished placement at school on Friday and am just so tired

Courgette

Best answers:

• Hi Courgette! Just to say good luck-your goals are much the same as mine -and I am also a bit of a control freak,lol.Me and OH started our MF quest in April ,no more frittering and tight budget! Know how you feel re being knackered-we had great wee hol last week and I am back today ,working extra which am now wondering if it was such a good idea Well done on your qualification and good luck in you new job
• Since you are claiming WTC I would strongly recommend that you put your savings into either ISA's and/or NS&I tax-free products. The reason for this is that all interest from either of these savings vehicles does not have to be included as income on the CTC/WTC application forms.
• Lots done today, although different from what I put on the to do list. Phoned the Tax office about the possibility of having overpaid tax during the last financial year. Only worked 4 months before starting my PGCE and earned less than Ј5000 so shouldn't have paid any tax at all. They've said I can reclaim the amount I did pay and they're sending the forms out. Over Ј500 - result
• Good luck with your plans;keep a record of each and every saving, even do as WelshLassie did today and calculate the saving each small amount earns in interest over the mortgage term to get a bigger "kick" out of the amount?
  Regarding the independent bank accounts, I can fully appreciate your position. Started our relationship 23 yrs ago (gulp) and even when we got married we retained separate accounts. Then had to make mine joint so OH could cover cheques etc when I was away on business. Then to give fall back in event of card loss etc, made her's a joint account too... This carried on for some years, even when OH went part-time once DD came along and that in itself was hard as OH obviously no longer had enough money to continue to contribute to the same amount as before and needed of course to use "my" account more.
  Then after being together 21yrs we decided the offset mortgage was the best option when moving our mortgage and of course, could only have one current account.... big psychological hurdle that one I can tell you
  Not sure that helps but you're not unusual in this concern about accounts. What I would say is it is absolutely essential to be completely honest about income and outgoings with each other; you can't derive the best strategy if you are both reticent to discuss the true cash position.
  I'm trying to recall a statistic on the ratio of couples who don't share all information but it won't come to mind (age must be catching up!) - I doubt they have offsets or use the tips on MSE; perhaps a poll on here would prove this? :rolleyes:
• Good luck
• Other than starting the process of reclaiming the tax, I have sent off the documents needed to query the tax I paid during 2005/6. Had three part time jobs but only worked 31 hours and earnt £9k yet one of the jobs taxed me at Basic Rate. Don't think that can be right and have written to tax office and sent them my P60s/P45s for that year. This is a perfect Courgette example of lack of financial organisation, I should have sorted this BR tax issue out years ago (only that year - not ongoing, not that bad!) :rolleyes:
  Also being a student I shouldn't have paid Council Tax but of course I did as I didn't get in touch with the Council to tell them this. Done it now and thankfully they've backdated it to Sept 1st so I haven't lost any money. Not exactly gained money either as they're just gonna reduce our bill for this year, but that's fine as it will free up a bit of cash elsewhere.
  Regular mortgage DD was taken out on 16th. I am now £14.20 away from being in the £33s! Am so excited by this!!! Found some Cyprus Pounds when I was attempting to declutter yesterday as well as few lose bits of change. Will get this converted/paid in asap. Dead chuffed about that.
  Last night's trip to Morrisons was pretty successful too. I usually avoid taking DS as he tends to add at least a tenner to the bill. Last night I gave him a calculator and told him to keep track of everything we were spending and that our budget was £50. This worked really well as it kept him occupied and therefore unable to nag me for rubbish expensive food (his favourite) and really focussed my mind too. I think an aspect of my control-freakery is food hoarding. Am getting much better though and don't have cupboards full of a million packets of the same thing.
  To do list:
  1. Pay in extra £14.20 to tip mortgage into £33s Done
  2. Bit more decluttering/cleaning done a bit, then the vacuum broke
  3. Find out what interest being paid on savings and compare to other accounts partially done
  Courgette
• Good luck Courgette.
• Quick update re my financial situation:
  Mortgage (see sig) is with Halifax at Fixed Rate until Feb 2011 (wanted to fix as was still at uni and didn't know whether I'd get a job for September. Will find rate and post it up here)
  Savings as of today:
  Co-op ISA (@4.75%): £2750.16
  Co-op Pathfinder (0.28%): £726.13
  Co-op Current (0%): £25.93
  Bradford & Bingley Kidzone (4.8%): £5734.40
  Brad & Bing (dunno any more details): £16.31
  I have no income until September when I will earn £20,600. Over summer I will be living off Child Ben, £10pw WTC and savings.
  I treat the Pathfinder as my current account. The Current is for cheques. The Kidzone is my son's but still in my name. All the money in there belongs to me and is money I have saved but put it in my son's name as I was on Income Support when I first starting saving and didn't want to be penalised for the fact that I saved everything I could for our future and never frittered anything away. He's 10 now and has no idea about that pot, neither does anyone else actually.
  The interest rates on my Co-op accounts are shocking I know but I am concerned about the ethical actions of many of the High Street Banks. However, mortgage interest is where most of my money is going and I doubt whether Halifax are particularly decent when it comes to not funding the arms trade etc etc etc. I could easily justify getting shut of the mortgage asap in ethical terms - I will be able to decide exactly where all my money goes. I am open to advice about this is particular.
  I am allowed to overpay mortgage by 10%pa (but not sure what it's 10% of:rolleyes: ). Will incur £1000 penalty if I go over this but I assume this is a one off so may well end up cheaper to overpay every little thing I can and take that hit.
  Next steps:
  1. Empty Current (Co-op) not gonna do this - there's a cheque for nearly that amount waiting to be drawn out
  2. Empty and close second B&B account - this money will push me into £33s on mortgage too - yay! done
• Well done with current progress and good luck for teaching in September. I'm just finishing my last bits of marking before I go on Mat leave - takes longer than you think! Doing a few at a time then taking a break.
• Courgette,
  I think you will pay tax on some of those savings account. ISA's are far superior and don't have to be declared for WTC. If possible, I would suggest you consider transferring from that poor co-op ISA to a better one. Also can you put some of that kid-zone money into an ISA also? (3.6k allowed per tax year).
• NPD, NSD although latter was not a good thing as I went into town for something to wear to ours Teachers' Ball next Thursday and couldn't find anything. :rolleyes: I hate shopping, I really do.
  Good news is I closed down the B&B account and paid that money to mortgage plus all the scraps of change I'd found around the house (like, why???). Overpayment today was Ј35.06 - don't forget that 6p! Wasn't very popular as it was all in loose change and I was there at lunchtime. But hey, I'm a paying customer too
  Annoying thing is during a brief de-clutter I found some Cyprus Pounds from a holiday a couple of years ago. Took them in to change them into GBP and it turns out they converted to the Euro on 1st Jan so bank wouldn't change them. It's only about Ј10 so not the absolute end of the world, but annoying to say the least. Courgette strikes again :rolleyes: Anyway, will investigate further, I may be able to convert yet.
  Anyway, upshot of today is my mortgage is now in the Ј33s -
• Courgette- worth checking whether Cyprus pounds can be sold on ebay. I found a 50 franc note recently while cleaning the house, and someone on the other side of the world bought it for about Ј8. No idea why!
• Done a few bits this morning:
  1. Joined Quidco
  2. Did a survey - I think this is gonna generate a massive amount of junk mail and phone calls though. Got a free voucher for Foxy Bingo so will give this a go at some point today or tomorrow
  3. Had a small de-clutter and now have a big pile of books and CDs to put on Amazon.
  4. Established that the vacuum has definitely sucked its last
  Next steps:
  1. List stuff on Amazon DONE, expiry of listings 20 Aug
  2. Do vacuum research and buy new one for cheapest amount.
  Had a good night last night; me and DS went for a curry then came home and watched Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Had one pint of beer with curry and am such a lightweight these days that I kept drifting off during film .
  We're wondering about going strawberry picking today although it may well rain
  Courgette
• Can anyone help me with the following about ISAs:
  My mortgage is repayable at 6.29% fixed until Feb 2011. The highest rate ISA I can find is the Bradford and Bingley at 6.25% fixed for a year. I know there isn't much in it but I would still be better off overpaying on the mortgage rather than saving. What do people think I should do, overpay or use ISA allowance for the year?
  My second question is regarding ISA transfers: As well as opening a new ISA for this year can I transfer money from an existing ISA into a new ISA or would that count towards this year's allowance?
  Many thanks
  Courgette