Where is my January Tax Credit Payment?

Finance & Insurance, ,

If you are wondering what has happened to your January tax credit payment because you believe it was due on January 21st then you might need to go back and check your November payment date. The reason for expecting your payment on 21st January may be that you were paid in December on 24th December and 4 weeks from then is 21st January. However, the December payment may well have been paid early due to the Christmas holidays.

So, if your December payment was due on 25th December, it will have been paid on 24th December instead. So this would mean that your January payment would be due on 22nd January and not 21st. Likewise if your payment was due on 26th December then you won’t get paid until 23rd January.

Go back to your November statement to check when that was paid. If you were paid on 27th November then your January payment will be made on 22nd January. If you were paid on 28th November then your January payment will be made on 23rd January.

January is always a confusing month for working out tax credit payment dates due to the Christmas holidays, so try not to panic if you don’t see the money in your account when you think it should be there!

Potty Training Manual

Children

So I’m thinking in advance in terms of potty training my little boy. He’s only 15 months old at the moment but I can tell when he is pooping so this is a good point at which to start thinking about potty training.

however, having never done this before I am not really sure where to start so I thought I would get myself a manual that had good reviews and would get the process over with quickly. I may not use it straight away as obviously he is a bit young right now but i thought I needed to get myself ready for potty training as soon as possible so that I know what I am doing.

Anyway, this is the manual I am buying and I’ll let you know how I get on with it when I start using it (this might be in 6 or more months time – OK I am a bit ahead of myself but forward planning is always good!

Hostgator Discount Coupon

Internet, Money, Technology, ,

So if you are looking for some web hosting and you want a reliable and great value host then I can vouch for the great hosting from Hostgator. In fact if you came here searching for a Hostgator discount coupon then you probably already know that Hostgator has really great hosting plans where you can create as many sites as you want all for one price. Personally I host all of my websites with Hostgator and of course you get economy of scale if you host them all in one place, so even when I create new websites I don’t have to pay any extra money for them.

Hostgator have lots of options on their hosting plans too. I create all of my sites in WordPress so you can get an unlimited number of WordPress websites with your hosting package but there are plenty of other options that you can choose form to create your websites.

So I have a couple of Hostgator discount coupons. All you need to do is to use the following codes as the checkout and you can get one of the following discounts on Hostgator web hosting:

AZURE25OFF This will give you 25% off whatever hosting you chose and however much you pay for up front.

AZURE994OFF This will give you $9.94 discount from your web hosting.

How Many People Will I Reach for a $1 Boost?

Business, Social Networks & Online Communities,

So this was on my mind recently when I realised that the only way to reach the majority of people who had liked my facebook page was to boost one or more of my posts.

I had, like everyone else with a facebook page, come to the realisation that effectively facebook pages are not free advertising any more, because facebook limits the number of people who see what I post. It seems like my posts only get seen by about 15% of people who like my page (at the most, sometimes less) and most of those people are friends of mine who are probably not really the people I am trying to reach, much as I love them 🙂

So I wondered, if I paid to boost my post, how many people will I reach for a $1 boost?

I put in $1 to the amount field but it told me it couldn’t compute how many people this would reach! So I thought I would conduct an experiment with that $1 and see what the results were.

The result was that 41 people were reached by paying $1. Now I guess it depends on demographics and area etc as to whether it would be the same again for another day or another page, but at least this gives a bit of a guide. The other interesting thing was that unpaid reach was much more than on any other post too, I would say at least 25% more, so it seems that maybe paying this dollar helps to spread your post in other ways too.

I will likely pay the odd dollar here and there to keep my posts in people’s feeds although I’m not totally sure how much extra business it might get me!

Renovating Property For Profit

Home & Garden, Money

Renovating for Profit

OK so I don’t profess to be a total expert, but I have done up 4 properties for profit, all of which i have made money on, so I hope to be able to give you some valuable tips if you are doing this for the first time.

There are some key things that you need to remember to start off with before embarking on this project:

  1. Buy the property at the right price: this means knowing what the property will sell for once you have done it up and knowing how much it will cost to do up. Once you have these figures then you need to figure out how much profit you want to make and figure out what the maximum price is that you will pay for the property;
    Sale Price – Cost of Renovation – Profit = Purchase Price
  2. Know the costs involved in renovating the property. This is a bit of a tricky one if you have not done up a property before as a lot of this knowledge comes with experience. It is easy to put a budget together with big ticket items like central heating and double glazing but also easy to forget things like doors, light fittings, paint and wallpaper etc that can all add up to hundreds of pounds. It is also really difficult to know exactly what needs to be done on a property by just looking around a few times as there can be hidden problems.
  3. Know your market. For example, if you are buying an ex-council property on a housing estate then you may want to keep the budget relatively low key and not go for top level fittings as you may not get your money back. Conversely if you buy a property in a nice or up and coming area you may want to spend that small amount extra on say nicer bathroom fittings or wall sockets.

Living in a property whilst Renovating it

This is a key fact that you need to decide on before you go ahead. There are (some) pros and a lot of cons for doing so.

Pros:

  • you may have all of your money invested in the property and not be able to afford to live elsewhere, thereby saving you rent or mortgage payments on another home.
  • you can keep a close eye on the works as they happen
  • you can be there for any deliveries
  • as the property will be your main home, you will not have to pay Capital Gains Tax on it when you sell.

Cons:

  • never underestimate the amount of dirt and dust involved.
  • you will likely have to have a lot of your belongings in storage for a while.
  • there will be times where you probably won’t have heating and/or hot water or possibly even a toilet!
  • you can’t get away from the place.
  • dust
  • dust
  • and more dust

Kitchen

The kitchen is one of the key areas that can sell a house for you. You don’t have to go out for a high spec kitchen as quite often, a brand new kitchen from a budget range will look really good anyway. Choose light colours and nice worktops with neutral tiles and incorporate as much storage as possible. If you have space then add in a dishwasher as this always looks impressive.

Many of the high street DIY chains have good value kitchen units and will provide a service to plan out your kitchen for free. Some stores sell the carcasses, doors and handles separately (B&Q and Homebase to name 2) and some sell the units as a complete package (e.g. Wickes). Work out which makes better financial sense for your design.

Some kitchens come with soft close doors and drawers which can add an extra touch of luxury to the kitchen.

The Kitchen Before Renovation
The Kitchen Before Renovation
The Kitchen After Renovation
The Kitchen After Renovation

Bathroom

The bathroom is the second key room. If a house has a brand new kitchen and bathroom then you are already half way to selling. As long as you keep it pretty neutral. Try not to put your own taste on the design.

Hunt around for bargains for bathrooms. You can get a really nice bathroom suite for less than £500. Don’t forget to also factor in taps and a heated towel rail. There are lots of bathroom stores online where you can check out their designs and prices. If you can fit one in then a separate shower is good but if not then a shower bath or else a bath with a mixer tap and riser rail will do just as well.

You can buy very cheap taps on eBay and some of them can be quite good but others you get what you pay for and they may not be great quality. Watch out for items that are for sale in the DIY stores as a half price sale tap there can be great value.

If you have a small space to work with then don’t forget that you can get smaller baths to fit in these kinds of spaces. For one bathroom I used a 1500mm bath as there was not enough room for a full length one but it worked just as well.

The Bathroom Before Renovation
The Bathroom Before Renovation

 

The Bathroom After Renovation
The Bathroom After Renovation

 

 

 

 

 

The Budget

OK, now this is the trickiest part, and I think the best thing that I can do is to include a list of all of the items that I ended up paying for in my budget so that you maybe don’t miss anything. Of course some properties will require different work and the costs will be different depending on the size of the property.

  • Stamp Duty
    Light fittings
    Tiles for bathroom
    Bathroom Suite
    Bathroom taps
    Bathroom floor
    Bathroom fitting
    Towel Rail
    Kitchen units
    Kitchen tiles
    Worktop
    Extractor
    Kitchen Fitter
    Cooker/hob
    Paint
    Wallpaper
    Flooring
    Plasterboard/Plaster
    Plywood
    Skirting/architrave
    Electrician/Wiring
    Outside (painting/gutters/fascias)
    Knock through walls
    Double doors
    Plastering/Coving
    kitchen tap
    kitchen sink
    Loft ladder
    Dishwasher
    Plumbing/Central Heating
    Garden
    Doors + handles
    Light Switches & sockets
    Skips
    Fireplace
    Hall
    Radiators
    Double Glazing
    Building Regs Fees

This is obviously not an exhaustive list. It also assumes that you will do the painting and decorating yourself to save on labour costs. Hopefully you will also be able to do some of the other jobs yourself too as this can significantly save on costs which at the end of the day means more profit for you.

I would say that if you want a rough estimate of what I have spent in the past I can give you the following info:

  • Small 2 bed terrace that needed general minor updating, most of which could be done by yourself – up to £5,000 including updates to kitchen and some extra double glazing
  • Large 2/3 bed terrace, full modernisation including adding central heating upstairs, moving bathroom upstairs, new kitchen and bathroom – £15,000
  • 2 bed bungalow – in low value area but needed complete CH installation, new kitchen and bathroom, some rewiring, plus redecoration and some plastering work – £12,000
  • 3 bedroom semi – new kitchen and bathroom, complete rewire, new ceilings and total replaster, boiler moved, walls knocked down – £20,000 including stamp duty.

It is possible to cut down on these costs, as I say, if you do more of the work yourself. You also need to remember to add in fees when calculating your profit. Also none of these projects needed a full new set of double glazing so that would add to the cost.

Summary Tips

  • Know your market in terms of buying/selling prices
  • Stick to your budget if possible (sometimes things will come up that you just have to pay for) and don’t add personal touches
  • Know what you are going to buy in advance and wait for special money off deals or try and get big budget items when there is a sale on or 10% off weekend.
  • Get an expert round to tell you what needs doing before you buy somewhere if you are not totally sure yourself.
  • Add in a contingency as there will always be extra costs.
  • Be prepared for delays.
  • Book tradesmen in advance as the good ones will be booked up.

Do It Yourself

If you are keen to do some of the projects yourself then there are loads of tuition videos on YouTube that you can follow. It is likely that you will need a whole bunch of tools for a house remodel but you may well have some of these already.

Be aware that one way of learning is by making mistakes! Try not to make ones that are irreparable but just accept that if you do make a mistake on something then you know that you will do it right next time. Also be aware that sometimes there is no substitute for a skilled craftsman for some jobs in the house and also you will need to be certified to carry out jobs involving plumbing and electrics.