Gracie’s Life Experiment

As with probably most first time parents I am beginning to worry more about how we are going to deal with our budgetting.  We’ve got used to having 2 incomes now and as our incomes have increased as we’ve got older we also seem to spend just as much proportionally with nothing much to show for it.  When I first graduated hubby and I lived off just my income (which I think was about £18k) and we were comfortable, ran 2 cars and managed to buy a house (albeit mortgaged up the hilt).  Fast forward 5 years and our joint salary is almost £60k yet it doesn’t feel like we are any more comfortable and there certainly isn’t a huge amount left in the account at the end of the month.  So question is… where does this money go each month?   And second question - how will we cope when we are down to one income again?

Hubby is rubbish at financial stuff so we have joint accounts and I deal with it all.  Financially things should be pretty much the same up till the baby is born, then up till October we will actually be a little better off because of Child Benefit.  After October however it will be hard as we will have hubby’s income with child benefit and SMP.  Come January will be extremely hard as we will be living only on SMP (ouch, until hubby starts his job) as we will hopefully have moved out to Oz.  I was also trying to work out Child/Working Tax credit and based on this year’s (Apr 08-09) estimated income we would prob qualify for 500 ish a year, but then I noticed that they use your past tax year’s income to assess in which case we are obviously well over.  I’m not moaning about it or expecting state handouts (as I appreciate there are people who really do need them to get by in life) - it’s just confusing me.  Still have yet to work out what I’m going to do about pensions and NI - think I may need a visit to the CAB.  From now till October I’m going to move 2/3 of my income into the savings to see how we cope.

Summary of the day:  Work (yawn), Tried to go to chemist on way home (no bloody parking outside, as I found out after spending few minutes trying to reverse into a space only to find out it was 1/2 a space and triangular shaped at that), Worked out our budget

Yes, it’s the start of a new year and I am again getting the twinges of the secondary wavefront of my early mid-life crisis.  This time it’s pensions.  I know they’re meant to be a good thing (as hey, I’ll need to eat and keep myself warm when we’re old).  But sometimes I do get a bit flummoxed by it all.  Currently for some reason I have 3 pensions that I have paid into.  One was a company I only worked for in the summer holidays between Uni years.  For some reason they always seemed to get my name wrong, I’d correct them each summer only for the plan date to come with the wrong name on again!!  I’m guessing this pension won’t be fruitful at all seeing as I’ve only worked a cumulative 18 months there!  Then there’s the Uni pension which is going well, but again have no idea, even with all the flashy web gizmos that help you predict this that and the other (seems like everything apart from the weather) that the pension company provide.  The third one is the state pension, where our NI goes.  During the years of summer placements I ended up with a few years where the contributions weren’t complete so had until April this year to pay up if I wanted to top those years up.  Decided I may as well do it to boost my years - now I’ve officially been in the world of work for 10 years.  According to the bumpf I’ll get about 16 squid a week once I hit 60 (I guess that age limit may be raised by the time I get there) - hmm guess not quite enough to retire now

Summary of the day: Took the Christmas tree down (boo), Made wonton soup

According to my bank accounts these are the last 10 things that we bought:

1. Bits n bobs from Tescos (think this must be things like bread and other little things we pick up between major shops)
2. John has bought some stuff off Amazon (hmm presents for himself!!)
3. John filled his car with petrol from Bunny station
4. Ergonomics Society conference booking fees
5. Tickets to go see Avenue Q on Boxing Day
6. An intelligent sensor bin for my brother in Sydney
7. John’s road tax disc
8. A black winter coat from Primark
9. Wine from Bargain Booze
10. Meal out at the carvery

So lots of random stuff at this time of the year. It’s quite nice looking through the statement and remembering the different items and events.

Summary of the day: Woke up sans headache (hurray), Work, Student meeting at 9am, Sat through and marked an afternoon full of student presentations, Rushed home, Got ready, Went to Lynroys (again) for work Christmas Do, Came home early (John has a cold now!!)

So, to reduce the stress of previous years I’m going to try and do most of the Christmas present shopping online.  Fed up of having to drive to Nottingham or Leicester go to mundane shopping malls where Christmas is overmarketed and everyone is stressed, mothers with young children are grumpy and hanging in there by the thinnest thread, their offspring are bored or having a tantrum, there are marauding groups of 12 year olds dressed like they’re off clubbing having a conversation in the narrowest thoroughfare so noone can get past.  It’s utter madness when you have all the greatest range on the ‘net and the best prices. Best yet they bring everything to you.  Of course there’ll be a few bits n bobs that I’ll pick up whilst food shopping (chocs, stocking filler type things - but even then theoretically I could get all that online too and never have to cross the store threshold).  Still weighing up whether to send cards, or do e-cards this year (save on unnecessary paper/stamps, but there’s something about receiving cards that is nice and feels like there’s more thought to it). 

• So, first step - must make a list of who I need/want to get presents for
• then look in the cupboard to see if there’s anything I’ve already picked up earlier in the year for them - you see something that is good and put it aside for later
• then think about what kind of present they’d like
• wait for new Capital One card* to arrive and batter it online (for the 4% cashback)

* had been using my trusty Morgan Stanley for quite some time (more…)

The leaves are going/gone brown, 1/2 are on the ground already.  I can see my breath in the mornings when I leave the house.  Yes, it would appear to be autumn.  I quite like this time of year as it’s not too cold, but not too hot and there is a golden sun (not so much fun when it’s low while driving though).  We’re getting our chimney rebuilt and house repointed towards the end of the month - then we’ll be able to have nice open fires again (currently the smoke comes out the side of the chimney, not good!).  Nothing nicer than a Sat late afternoon after having been for a walk with the dog through the crispy leaves, sitting down in front of the open fire with a glass of wine.  Can’t wait.  It’s gonna cost £3k+ for the building work so I’m going to have to make a visit to the bank, but hey it needs doing before the cold really sets in (or the chimney falls into my neighbour’s house).  Wonder what are the chances that the council (next door is council owned) will pay for 1/2 the chimney rebuild (prob zero as they totally ignored our previous requests to start initiating work even after we found our neighbour’s chimney pot in our garden).  I can wait no longer so we’ve decided to get it done ourselves.

So it’s gone totally Halloween in all the shops lately.  Apparently there is shortage of pumpkins this year so people are being advised to buy them now (think it’s prob just a ploy).  Christmas stuff has been in the shops since early September (hubby has been eyeing up the Christmas pudding aisle each time we go to the supermarket).  I’ve come to the conclusion that there is always some kind of season just beginning, mid or ending (all at the same time) at any on time of the year hence leading to supposed sales.   Sometimes I wonder if they’re just waiting to see who will buy something at full price (like in those sofa ads, there’s always seems to be some sort of sale).  Am wondering whether the Easter eggs will be making an appearance before Valentines Day, and whether stuff for that will appear before Christmas!

Summary of the day: Went to work, Had meeting with student group, Met a friend for lunch, Queued for an eternity to get a newspaper, Did student support all afternoon, Went to Tescos to get John some new emergency shoes

So I’ve been a happy internet banker for the last ten years.  Randomly last week my account details weren’t being accepted (strange as I use a money manager hence know that the details entered hadn’t change).  So I re-register in case it’s randomly forgotten (on 3 of my different computers).  5 days later the new details come and they don’t work either.  Telephone banking doesn’t work either.  Spend 30 mins on the phone this morning and can’t get through the security check (answered 5 questions, then was stumped by the last question about the month and year the account was opened - who can remember that after such a long time?).  I was seriously beginning to think that my account had been hacked so went down to the bank.  All they told me was that I must be entering the details in wrong, and that I have to re-register again tomorrow!  Apparently when the new details come you can’t actually use them till 7 days after you register (as opposed to what it says on the letter which says it will work that day).  Thankfully the accounts seem to be intact as there’s no transactions that shouldn’t be there.  Phew.   Had forgotten the total convenience of remote banking - how did we cope before phone and internet banking?

Summary of the day: Went to work, Had meetings, Got stressed and went to the bank, Rewrote a magazine article, Went to archery (form a bit pants, but nice to be back shooting)

Paid the home and contents insurance today. A bit like taxes, insurance irks me. How come every year I get a discount for no claims yet the premium always goes up faster. I think it’s all a fiddle as I’m pretty sure that insurance does not go up at a rate of over 10% a year, yet my 10% for EACH year of no claims makes no difference. This year it’s my 5th year of no claims - so I sign up for my latest quote and it says wow I could save up to 70% for 5 years or more no claims - yet still the premium is a tenner more than last year. Which leads me then to think, wow if I had had to make a claim does that mean the premium would be ~3x more? I don’t think so.

Also why is it whenever you want to buy insurance of some sort they ask you all the dates of your other insurances so they can send you yet more propaganda (I’m pretty sure I always tick/untick/check/uncheck if i do/do not want their rubbish through the door). I’ve also learned to not put my telephone number in properly, I found one year that within 30 mins of filling in the form I had people trying to sell me insurance and that I had to make a decision there and then before I put the phone down because XYZ deal was only on offer for 361 seconds (I put in our old telephone number which I know isn’t being used as it’s dead and hasn’t been reallocated). They try and tempt you to stick with them for other insurance types with some kind of discount, yet again it seems to make no difference whatsoever after the first year.

That’s it, I admit, I GracieK am an insurance tart. Every year I browse the net to find my next insurance company because they have good offers for new customers, and after a year the renewal premium is shitty again, so I move on. Luckily I haven’t run out of companies to get it through (also have you noticed that in the end it’s only one of a handful of companies providing the cover, but lots of different brokers). Also with the change of surname (through marriage, not some kind of fraud!!) I now count as a new person again.

It’s like that episode of the Simpsons where The Flanders house is destroyed by the hurricane and they haven’t got house insurance because they think that’s a form of gambling. I wonder over the lifetime of paying insurance premiums whether you get out anything near the amount you put in on average. Thank God I haven’t had to make any claims on any of the various insurances. I suppose if I needed to rebuild my house then I would pay far less than that amount in insurance over 50 years.

Summary of the day: Last minute dash to Tescos this morning to buy a leaving present for a colleague, Lunch at the pub (mmm kiddies mealtastic), Got beaten at Scrabulous - twice (d’oh), May have nuked the spare laptop, Went to a concert rehearsal

We had our immigration medicals (for Australia) today at Handsworth Wood in Birmingham.  It was double ouch, as a. they stuck needles in my arms and b. we had to part with 430 squids!

The medical itself wasn’t actually too bad and the staff there were very nice.   Bonus too that I only ended up with one puncture wound rather than a few (like at Loughborough Hospital where I routinely get a few in each arm as they search for veins).  Blood pressure was 120/72 which I’m dead chuffed at as it’s apparently normal, John’s was 133/82 - he blames it on the teaching.  John passed fine, I have to go back to GP and get some letters from my consultant about my DLE though.  Hopefully it will be OK.

Summary of the day: Drank loads and loads of water (had to have a urinalysis), had a medical, ate a Double Bacon Cheeseburger (reward for coping with needleage), read for a couple of hrs at work, played piano and went to Tescos (though not at the same time!!!). 

The distribution of birthdays in my extended family is very much skewed around my birthday (end of August) through to mid Sept.  Today I had to buy 5 presents for a mother, uncle, nephew, sister-in-law and brother-in-law.  I’m quite an efficient shopper (can’t stand the going in and out trying to make decisions) I sit down and decide what kind of things I want to buy, where I’m gonna get them from and where I’m going to park.  I go, it takes less than an hour and I’m relatively stressfree!

Bad news and good news on the laptop front.  Laptop HD is screwed but am going to get new HD.  Data probably not retrievable so I’m going to have to try and remember what it is I’ve lost.  Am currently using my ressurrected old laptop (trusty blue BenQ Joybook) - it’s quite a bit slower and isn’t widescreen, but hey it actually goes so I’m more than happy with that!

Summary of the day: Did 1.5 hrs of washing up (after the dinner party on Thurs), Read for a few hours at work, Had lunch by the lake and then was tempted to go to the pub for a drink, Back to work, Shopping, Piano practise for Harvest Festival.

Well, as with probably 99.5% of the adult population I am wondering why so many things are being made taxable. We have income tax, council tax, VAT, CGT, inheritance tax, breathing tax, stax o’ tax. Am in the middle of applying to “get outta here” (emigrate to Australia) and suddenly we have to pay VAT on the medicals (which are already costing £400). What is it with this VAT on medicals lark, one month it’s on, next they’ve relented and taken it off again and now from 1st Sept it’s back on again. Maybe we’ll be able to claim it back again in Nov when they decide it’s off again (doubt it!!). Ah well, if it’s gotta be paid it’s gotta be paid… especially if it’s going to get us out!

Summary of the day: Went to work, forgot my lunch, wrote an abstract, piano lesson, fish n chips for dinner, exercised then pub quiz!