First Pay Incoming

Big wallop of tax (expected - but I'll get it back later from HMRC). Hourly pay rate less than expected but still more than minimums. Overall though it'll pay the bills this month (just), and I had more hours than expected, so it's still a win.

My parking fines have been assessed, and the penalty is upheld (boo) but they're waiving one as they were within 24 hours (yay) and as I paid it immediately I got a 50% discount (yay). So I'm up for £35 instead of £140. Lesson learned, and that is, the council are essentially money-grubbing jerks. But hey what's new. I will attempt to always squeeze an extra free meal in at work, and once I achieve this a dozen times, I reckon that'll make up for the cost of the fine. Today was just an egg sandwich but it was all I felt like in this heat!

Major bummer, I realised belatedly that the holiday park retains a massive chunk of the site fees I have already paid, even if I sell. This makes it even more urgent to find a buyer as it drops dramatically each month and will become "no refund" by the end of August. I am looking at walking away from this van with £13k if a buyer coughs up this week, £12k in August, and less if it takes longer to sell. Oh well. It will still be a relief when it's gone.

TV in caravan blew up this week while a friend was using it. I am so disappointed in that stupid TV. I was thinking dang, gunna have to replace that, but actually what I think I will do is wait until I have a buyer and then drop it into convo in the last five minutes with a £50 discount.

This is Pugsley - not yet wearing his new shoes

I bought a milky way decorative wall hanging off Amazon that has arrived at a quarter of the size indicated. Have popped an email off to the seller - to be honest it was such a bargain that I am not too miffed, but who knows it might get refunded.

Car breakdown cover is due this month and the renewal has arrived, £88. I need to find the time to fit the new hub caps and seat covers!

What Was I Saying?

Parking fines! Bane of my life. Yes, again. And not just one but two of them slapped down in less than 24 hours. I am not a happy bunny. I've parked there dozens of times before but apparently it's now a permit zone. I didn't see a sign nearby, because I don't go wandering around checking for new signs in places I've parked many times before :(

I have written a pleading letter asking them to waive the fines but I think I will be lucky if they even lower or remove one of them. Perhaps I'll get lucky because they were so close in time? Several people have reacted with surprise and indicated they don't think that's allowed. We'll see... that'll teach me for foolishly thinking my money situ is improving!

Free cake from work. Also bread rolls again. And delicious lunch :)

I also got quite a lot of extra hours at work this week, which will help dent some bills. But only partly, because I have also bought seat covers for my car.

Musings For Today

I was all set to spend the day at the zoo - because why not - but when I woke up I realised that I needed a day off my feet, and traipsing around in the sun for hours is just not a day off my feet. Well, at least that's £25 I didn't spend (although I had already bought the fixings for a lovely picnic lunch, so I've enjoyed that today sitting at home).

I have gained an extra work day for tomorrow, ka-ching.

My car insurance is due this month. Last year, my insurer screwed me over royally on price, had to be argued with to honour their own quote, and then denied my cashback. This year, they've failed to alert me that it's due, had to be nagged for it, and even then were miles more expensive than comparison site prices. I counted the disappointments they've caused and it's 11. Eleven.

There's only one conclusion to be drawn and I will be accepting the quote I got from the comparison site of just under £400, saving 50 quid on the old insurer's "improved" quote, and also getting £24 in cashback on top for switching. I will pay it all in one hit on a credit card as I can clear it all next month before any interest kicks in and that makes it cheaper than monthly insurance repayments.

Speaking of which, I have learned in my travels that you should always use all of your credit cards regularly. This doesn't mean you should always buy things you don't need or spend in silly ways. But it's important that all the cards you have are being actively used (even if you clear the whole lot each month). Apparently this provides a pattern with every active card that shows you managing money correctly and is seen as favourable by companies who check your credit rating. Who knew? So instead of my one "go to" card I will try to use a different one each time I need to pay for something, just so that they all show as being used.

Unexpected: old job's last pay packet is going to be better than expected and very much welcomed. I am (stupidly) eyeing up a bigger car, which is mentally silly because I have a sweet, reliable and cheap-to-run, environmentally-ok vehicle. So I might compromise instead, and just buy him some new hub caps to make him look nice. :)

Gratitude.

Rampant Repaymenting

I'm pretending that's a word...

I couldn't help myself, I sighed over lovely flats for sale (again) and then ran off and did a mortgage calculation (again) and cursed a bit more, then checked it "if I had no credit card balance", then again with "if I had a bigger deposit" and then again with "if I paid out my loan".

Anyway the end of that particular rabbit hole was me paying out the last of my interest free balances. I officially only have one card with any balance on it at all, and it's the one I use day-to-day which gets paid out in full every month (I can't clear it right this minute... but 12 days and counting until payday and then I will knock it on its head and be officially credit-card-balance- free). Debt decluttering, or something.

I haven't had this low a bank balance in many many years and it is exhilirating and also, whoosh, terrifying. But mostly exhilirating because, you know, adulting and stuff.

If I keep getting this many hours at work, I can pay out my car loan in six months. #moreAdulting

Why is money suddenly so exciting to me? I actually hate the stuff! In general, I obsess over saving it just to not have to worry about it.

I think I will cancel my gym membership. I love the gym, but on my feet all day I am simply not going to the gym often enough to justify the expense.

It's Raining Cash

Well, not really, but I got a "dreaded letter" this week from HMRC which unexpectedly says I'm owed £400, which I should get back in my hands within a week. Get in, that's better than a slap in the face! I am so excited about that sum and the dent it will make in my loans. Adulting++.

I'm enjoying work, not so much the work itself which is... work... but the people are good fun and it is nice to have company. And to be honest the work is not at all difficult. I am not perfect by any means, but much of my job is washing dishes and setting dinner tables, so I muddle through ok. The manager has given me a few extra hours, and every penny helps.

I foolishly stopped at the local fête and somehow only spent £5, which included a burger, a drink coaster that I definitely didn't need, and a small flowering plant for my windowsill.

More bread rolls came home with me from work - win. Considering they were destined for the bin, it's also good for the planet.

Property Trawling

My credit rating has crept up a little. And my New & Improved Income™, while still not a king's ransom, evidently will qualify for a bigger home loan than I had expected.

I just re-read that sentence and laughed to myself. I still have a caravan to sell, a car loan to repay, and then I need to save the money for the legal fees and moving costs. It's not happening anytime soon. But baby steps, so they say.

Anyway as I was saying, the mortgage might well be higher than I had thought possible. This opens up better opportunities. I think I know where I would like to buy - in a tourist area - and while I can't afford the exact area I would prefer, it seems as if there are decent properties that need some TLC and can be flipped by someone willing to do the work. I'm not really willing to do the super-hard yards, these hands are not handling a sledgehammer. But I'll merrily camp in a single room and eat out of a microwave while I pay someone else to replace a kitchen. It's useful to be somewhat adaptable.

And as always I have found "the" property I want, and as usual, it'll sell to someone else a year before I am ready to move. Still, one does have to have dreams :)

Optimism Of A Sort

Job is going ok. It's not going to be mentally-taxing stuff, but I think I can be reasonably content there. They fed me again and sent me home with a bag of bread rolls and some salad, and a share of the tips (not a king's ransom but nobody rejects a few quid). Two very long days though and without breaks... we are encouraged just to eat when we can rather than taking organised breaks, so I do hope they pay the whole shift. I've also noticed they're doing the old "random single days off" trick that I disliked in a previous life. We will see if this is par for the course. I am not nearly as bone tired as that previous job was though, so the shift pattern might prove to be acceptable.

I found a second shirt for work at a charity shop (then came home and found a third one sitting in my wardrobe, d'oh). Still, they will get used and I won't be washing non-stop anymore.

Spent £5 getting Pugsley a bath. He really needed it, and I'm taken aback by how shiny he is now. Also got a well-overdue hair trim (£7.50). Accidentally switched off the fridge overnight and my hommous was inedible the next day - there wasn't much left but it was incredibly unpleasant to realise mid-mouthful!

Oh, and I also spent £2.40 on four drinking glasses. I had been eyeing them for a while and saw them reduced today, so I splashed out. Get it, splashed out. Uh, I'm here all week...

photo posed by models

Forwards, I Suppose

New job is going ok :) I am a little bit frustrated by the whole "looking around for something to do" thing but I know it's because right now there are many tasks I'm not trained in. They're training me in something new this week and I'm a bit nervous. I don't worry about the tasks themselves, I worry about the fact that they expect me to remember customers' names. I'm going to struggle with that because I simply will not remember their faces - forget names, if I am face-to-face with the man I spent ten minutes chatting with yesterday, I will still draw a complete blank when looking at him. Oh well, I guess I will just have to hope that giving them a smile will result in forgiveness.

Test results came back with good news. A weight has definitely been lifted off my mind and my mood has improved out of sight.

Spent: £2 on a black t-shirt for work (my work uniform is taking its time so I intend to go charity-shop trawling again today in the hope of finding a second one). I would also eventually like another pair of work trousers as mine are rather big and awkward on me. Ditto for shoes, I'm wearing my "good" boots to work but they'll be ruined if I keep wearing them in the kitchen. Even so, I will put that buy off as long as I can.

Win: work feeds me on work days and the food is lovely. Unexpected win!

I am averaging about one enquiry per day on my caravan. The agent had it two months and got zero. Maybe I should start a new career hahaha!

Enough.

The frustrating caravan saga continues, still zero contact from agent, so I drove down today, took some extra photographs and have listed it for sale myself on other websites. You never know. If it sells, I won't even bother to tell the agent. I'll wait until they contact me in six months time and then remark that if they'd ever contacted me, they would know.

I start my new job tomorrow and I'm equal parts excited and meh! I also do my last cleaning shift tomorrow so I guess after that, it will seem real. Moving forwards, finally.

Even knowing that I have a skint month coming up (since my old & new jobs won't have the same paydays), I am sort of surprised that my bank account is sort of looking ok. It's taking all my self-control not to just pay out my interest free credit cards. Maybe if I still look in surplus two months from now, I'll whack it on my car loan.