Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

crunch_time · 30 October 2016 at 8:28AM

Morning diary land!

Very foggy here today! Husband just about to go out for a run and it will be my turn later.

No spend day today. Need to do some school work while dd naps and we are planning a roast chicken for dinner.

My month has already started so I have been collecting receipts for budgeted spends ready to update ynab on Tuesday.

Feeling very glad and happy in life and pleased that I have a plan to ditch the credit cards once and for all.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone!

Crunchy xx

remote_control · 1 November 2016 at 3:01PM

Hi Crunchy,

I followed your last diary as we are extremely similar in our life set ups! Just to say when you say about out growing your house, I used to think the same thing about ours. But then I read 'The Life Changing Magic of Tidying', subscribed to 'Becoming Minimalist' and 'The Minimalists'. Now we plan to stay in and our house, live within our means, have less possessions and spend our money and time on adventures! I just mention it because if you let them brainwash you like they did me it saves a lot of money!

crunch_time · 3 November 2016 at 11:27AM

remote_control wrote: »

Hi Crunchy,

I followed your last diary as we are extremely similar in our life set ups! Just to say when you say about out growing your house, I used to think the same thing about ours. But then I read 'The Life Changing Magic of Tidying', subscribed to 'Becoming Minimalist' and 'The Minimalists'. Now we plan to stay in and our house, live within our means, have less possessions and spend our money and time on adventures! I just mention it because if you let them brainwash you like they did me it saves a lot of money!

Hi remote-control!

I'd love to stay put and not have to move again but I'm afraid we literally will grow out of our house. DD's room can only fit a cot bed in it. She is currently 2 and we reckon we will grow out of her cot by the time she gets to school age. To stay put we would need to knock down walls to extend her room into another bedroom. We have seen this done in one of the other houses on our estate and even then there is not enough room for a single bed. When we moved here we already knew we would have to move again and this is our 'sorting our house out financially' house. Husband can afford to mortgage it by himself despite having a £11k loan and car finance. Its not much of a jump square footage wise from our old house but it work for us now BUT we know it wont in the future.

We are minimalists already. I got rid of all clutter during my first maternity leave 4 years ago, have minimal clothes as do the children and husband and pretty much everything in my house is beautiful or useful or its in a bag ready to be removed from the house or put on gumtree.

We don't want a huge house next just something with enough space for us to live comfortably in. I don't want a massive mortgage as I want to have LOADS of adventures in the future.

Its great to find fellow minimalists on here who aren't addicted to buying stuff!!! I think I have subscribed to yours ill check later.

Thanks for following my diary!

Crunchy x

crunch_time · 3 November 2016 at 11:43AM

Morning diary!

Phew! What a week! Working week over for me. I am exhausted but managed 3 NSD's! I have to go food shopping today but hoping for a low spend one as we still have food in the cupboards. I'm going to make a meal plan later.

YNAB all updated and on track. I love having the things I forgot to budget for section. A few things have popped out of the account which I did forget to budget for but they are no biggy now and would have been almost catastrophic before.

A nice fat check for £468.39 arrived in the post today from the mortgage transfer. I will take it to the bank tomorrow when I go and clear out my ISA as well.

That will pay just over half of my childcare bill for DD November which came in at £850 and with the £600 from my ISA I will retrieve tomorrow (originally earmarked for the dog) will mean I can pay my bill upfront this month - woohoo!!

The minimum payment for the loan has come out which means it stands at £11,325. At the end of the month I will level it to £11,300 because I like nice round numbers.

I've got lots of organisational jobs to do today including checking I will be paid on the 19th and registering for childcare vouchers for me. I also need to find out when our mortgage payment will go out.

The best news however is I got a new credit card in the post today as it was up for renewal and I literally pulled it out of the envelope and immediately cut it up!

I'm starting to feel very different in my approach to money now. Less panicky.

Have a lovely day all.

Crunchy

remote_control · 3 November 2016 at 1:20PM

Hey,
Glad to hear you are minimalists too! I think by minimalist standards we have a long way to go but compared to anyone else I know we are!

Sounds like you will have to move then, unless they can share a room. Our box room is just about big enough for a single bed. We spent a long time planning giant extensions and now we are really peaceful and happy that we're not going to do any of it!

I liked when you described your debt as a hang over. That's exactly what ours is, moving house costs plus maternity leave. It goes down every month and its all on 0% but I can't wait til it's gone.

xx

pennywisepoundstupid · 3 November 2016 at 2:20PM

Hi crunch_time.

Just wanted to say good luck with your new debt busting journey and that i'm really enjoying following your new diary.

Good luck and take care.x.

Seasidegal58 · 4 November 2016 at 8:35PM

You're doing great crunchy!

crunch_time wrote: »

YNAB all updated and on track. I love having the things I forgot to budget for section. A few things have popped out of the account which I did forget to budget for but they are no biggy now and would have been almost catastrophic before.

I keep thinking of regular outgoings categories to add to YNAB. Next month I'm adding a category for vitamins! I've noticed that these are beginning to run low and I buy them again as soon as they run out so a category makes sense to me!

crunch_time · 5 November 2016 at 8:27AM

remote_control wrote: »

Hey,

I liked when you described your debt as a hang over. That's exactly what ours is, moving house costs plus maternity leave. It goes down every month and its all on 0% but I can't wait til it's gone.

xx

I very much know the feeling! Lets smash it once and for all!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time · 5 November 2016 at 8:29AM

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

You're doing great crunchy!

I keep thinking of regular outgoings categories to add to YNAB. Next month I'm adding a category for vitamins! I've noticed that these are beginning to run low and I buy them again as soon as they run out so a category makes sense to me!

I think I am going to do the same for toiletries that aren't shampoo and shower crème. Makes sense!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time · 5 November 2016 at 8:40AM

Morning all

So I closed my ISA yesterday and emptied the funds into my bank account and paid my cheque in for the £468. It wont clear until next week but I have updated YNAB to reflect it and now its in the green. I have also lowered the amount for DDs childcare bill to £850 which is what it is for November. So not included December and also got rid of DS's childcare bill as I wont be billed until December for that, apparently.

This along with some other tweaks means there will be circa £350 extra to go towards my credit card at the end of the month. What a great start! Considering the extras this month.

I get paid on the 19th and this money will pay for DD's December childcare bill and DS's November childcare bill. Everything left over will go on debt as this is the idea with the husbands and my budget. His money pays our bills and lifestyle and mine pays for childcare and debt and then once the debt is paid off - adventures.

On my spreadsheet this is £770 so hopefully we will get very close to clearing the credit card soon! I really hope so as a I so want to smash the loan. Been waiting a long time to really attack it.

Crunchy xx

Happy Saturday everyone!

Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

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