A bit of a strange month, a few meetups with friends but mainly expenses which seem to get more expensive every time I look.
I now have my motorbike fully repaired and now the weather has changed, I guess my changes of going out on it are now limited. I will have to start looking at how to prepare it for the winter as it will remain locked away in a garage until better weather appears again, sadly. If there is a chance to go out I will try to.
I have had the trees in my garden trimmed by a tree surgeon which has costed quite a bit. I have also had to renew my car insurance which has shot up by 30%, some people I have spoken to have had their shoot up by over 50%. I had to shop around to get the new insurance quote down to a 30% uplift as I wanted to retain a like for like insurance provision. I have noticed on my renewal letter that the company have yet again tweaked the policy and have reduced the cover offered so to gain some of that back I have to seek out comparable quotes. I have also noticed that their market value for the car is now quite low and it is likely that if I was to be in an accident they will write off the car as the cost to repair will be greater than the value of the car. So I will need to make sure I have the funds to replace the car should this arise. I doubt I will get much back from the insurance company based on their current valuation.
I did buy the car in cash 10 years ago and have basically took the view that I would just run the car until it became unviable to run then replace it. So that has been my plan, I did get a quick trip to Scotland and back this month and with it happily achieving a 75mpg I cannot complain about its ability to sip fuel and enable me to travel some distance. By comparison to get to the same location by train would have cost me 3x as much and taken probably 5 hours longer due to the weather and delayed train connections.
I continued to have a poke about looking for Christmas jobs, but could not find a part time one that suited my needs. I did manage to find some part time Royal Mail ones at a mail sorting centre but they had listed physically fitness requirements to make sure you could cope with the workload. I don’t think i could handle the bag lifting weights all day, so I would struggle to perform that job so have given up looking. Most of my jobs have been office based so really I should be looking for something office based and part time. There isn’t anything matching that near me. It is only warehouse working or cleaning jobs for budget hotels. This is where I realise I do not have the fitness required due to my age.
I have tried out my heating system in preparation for any cold snap. It seems to be working fine but I will refrain from putting it on to conserve money. My bills are up over 50% mainly because of the standing charge. Basically I have to pay £300 just for the connection without any energy being used. That is just madness given that this seems to just feather the energy companies and enable them to keep their profit and dividends consistent. After listening to Martin Lewis there is one energy company that does not have a standing charge so I may crunch some numbers and see if it is worth me moving to them. I used to have a tariff which had no standing charge and a higher energy unit rate which worked out well for me. I would have to see if that would be viable now that I am at home more.
The benefit of not working was that I could have a short notice trip to Scotland to see friends which happened between the storms and I had a great time up there and could see the aftermath of the flooding in a few locations. I was glad I wasn’t there when the flooding was at its worst.
Income
A little bit of paid survey income, some premium bond wins – nothing big sadly. Some more dividends including some good ISA fund ones. The interest from cash accounts continues to increase as the UK interest rates go up again, which is helpful. As I have all my personal allowance available, I can use this to cover the savings interest earned so currently have no additional tax to pay. I now get some interest on cash in my ISA accounts which are being taxed. I queried this with the ISA provider and they responded by saying they will always deduct the tax and I will have to claim it back from HMRC at the end of the year. That is something I will need to put on my SA form and see if I can get a rebate from HMRC.
Expenses
Expenses this month, other than the norm, are tree pruning and car insurance & road tax. I also bought myself some new clothes as I had a discount voucher and needed to use it before it expired – and needed the clothes too! So I have had quite an expensive month. Looking back this is quite normal for me but this year seems to be quite a high value given the inflationary costs on services and how this seems to be knocking the prices so much. What makes it feel worse is that my ISA and pension funds have dropped due to the market drops. My pension has a reasonable exposure to bonds and has lost quite a bit of value now. It is down quite a bit on last year and every time I look, the bond element seems to be dropping. I am just glad I am not drawing from it yet.
Month End Summary
An expensive month for me as I prepare for the winter. I try not to look at my ISA and pension as they both continue to drop in value. My pension is getting a bigger hit due to its bond exposure. At the moment my pension is only showing a 2% growth for the year which is terrible. My cash savings have done better which says something. My ISA is also being hit by the fluctuating stock market and I just try to keep going and balance my spending as much as I can.
I do worry about finding a job as I think it is a matter of networking to find a job and I just do not have that any more. I don’t think people have a good view of me as I don’t seem to get much help so I guess I am not very good or I am not see as the sort of person anyone wants to promote or suggest for a job even though I am a hard worker and get things done. I guess it is also because the jobs I have done have required long commutes and not been in the local area, so I have no contacts or people who could help me find a local job. I do feel I am on the scrap heap and I just try to hang on and try to make the FI fund work and support me until I reach SRA. Everything feels like a constantly moving target and I just feel glad that I have no big demands which make work a mandatory need to live. I keep looking for hustles I could do from home but nothing has seemed viable at the moment. I will keep researching things and see if I can find something which could give me some extra cash.
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Sparkle Bee's Journey to FI 