Finding Strength and Balance

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  • helsbell
    helsbell Posts: 208
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    Wednesday is YNAB Wednesday! I get a weekly tax credits payment on Wednesdays so that seemed like the ideal day to update it, plus, alliteration for the win :p

    I have developed a habit over the last few months of working out whether or not there will be spare money once all the bills are covered and then allocating some (guilt free) money to categories like Dining Out. The thing is, this seems to have led to an average monthly spend of around £80-90 :eek:. I think it's because I only allocate a little bit at a time, so it seems ok. Except that I do that every time I receive a payment so actually it works like this:
    • every Wednesday (tax credits)
    • every 4 weeks (child benefit)
    • every mid-month (salary)
    • every month-beginning (child maintenance)
    Well, aren't we just living the high life :o


    So this month, I'm trying to ignore the future payments in my head and just allocate money to whatever needs to be paid. This should mean that there should be a decent amount left over at the end of the month, although at the moment it's just making me feel skint :rotfl:. I'll let you know how it goes.


    I've joined a couple of challenges this month for the first time. I wasn't sure how helpful that would be but actually, it seems to be helping me keep a better focus. I was a bit annoyed yesterday that I had to buy some tubs for my daughter to take for her cooking class today. I only spent £3 and I didn't begrudge the money at all, it's in the budget too - but it meant I lost a No Spend Day :rotfl:. Still, Ive managed 2 out of my target of 10 NSDs so far, and it's only the 6th so I should achieve my target.
    SPC 11, No. 062 DFD November 2020 :(
    Aug 2017 B'card £5006.83 BoS £1086.59 MBNA £0 Total: £6093.42
    Aug 2018 B'Card £995.06 BoS £863.43 MBNA £3,644.98 Total: £5503.47
    9.68% paid off
  • helsbell
    helsbell Posts: 208
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    I've just logged in to check my new credit report and realised that it doesn't show all my accounts. I'm not sure what to do about it, or if it's even a problem. The report shows no mention of my main bank account, my gas and electricity supplier (but my water company shows), or my new credit card.

    I can almost understand the new credit card (even though it was opened before the report was produced) but I've been with the other organisations for years.
    SPC 11, No. 062 DFD November 2020 :(
    Aug 2017 B'card £5006.83 BoS £1086.59 MBNA £0 Total: £6093.42
    Aug 2018 B'Card £995.06 BoS £863.43 MBNA £3,644.98 Total: £5503.47
    9.68% paid off
  • Well done on the NSDs so far.

    YNAB seems to be working well for you...
    If you have built castles in the air, your work should not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

    Solicitor/survey savings 300/1700
    Emergency fund 0/1000
    Buffer fund 0/200
  • hi helsbell, looking forward to reading.

    Best thing I did was bought the which guide to divorce, it saved a lot of expensive questions to the fee earner(solicitor!) at six minutes a time. Cost is unfortunately driven by reasonableness or not of parties concerned.
  • helsbell
    helsbell Posts: 208
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    Well done on the NSDs so far.

    YNAB seems to be working well for you...

    It really does work well for me, DIA. When I knew I was likely to become a single-adult household I used MSE to help me do all my sums and make sure I could actually afford it. That led me to starting to read the forum again, and I heard about YNAB that way.
    SPC 11, No. 062 DFD November 2020 :(
    Aug 2017 B'card £5006.83 BoS £1086.59 MBNA £0 Total: £6093.42
    Aug 2018 B'Card £995.06 BoS £863.43 MBNA £3,644.98 Total: £5503.47
    9.68% paid off
  • helsbell
    helsbell Posts: 208
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    hi helsbell, looking forward to reading.

    Best thing I did was bought the which guide to divorce, it saved a lot of expensive questions to the fee earner(solicitor!) at six minutes a time. Cost is unfortunately driven by reasonableness or not of parties concerned.

    Oh, I didn't realise they had one of those. Thanks for the tip, I'll take a look.
    SPC 11, No. 062 DFD November 2020 :(
    Aug 2017 B'card £5006.83 BoS £1086.59 MBNA £0 Total: £6093.42
    Aug 2018 B'Card £995.06 BoS £863.43 MBNA £3,644.98 Total: £5503.47
    9.68% paid off
  • UncannyScot
    UncannyScot Posts: 2,070
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    helsbell wrote: »
    Hi Uncanny Scot, thanks for the welcome. I love reading your diary, you always seem so upbeat :)

    I was thinking about you earlier, actually, as I completely failed to make pizza dough :o. I was trying to extricate my hands from this pile of sticky goo thinking, "I bet this doesn't happen to all those MSE people when they make bread, I certainly won't be posting any pictures of this on my thread :rotfl:". I kept trying to do something to make it into a pizza but it wasn't working, and I'd already made the tomato sauce as well. So in the end, I chucked it in the oven with a frozen garlic bread while i changed the plan to pasta, and then served it up as dough balls (well not balls as such, but definitely dough :D) and used the tomato topping as a dipping sauce. It actually went down really well with the smalls too :j. That was my second attempt at pizza, and this was the most successful one so I'm not sure there [STRIKE]should [/STRIKE]will be anymore :D

    I haven't tried making my own pizza dough, so I'm not sure if I could do it without making a pigs ear of it ;)
    I still cannot get my own home baked bread to rise properly and have cheated and got a bread maker until I master the art of "proving" the dough...
    When making home made Pizza I use a basic cheese n tomato pizza as my base and then add on what I really want as toppings ;)

    Good to see you making progress with YNAB. I tried it but I just didn't like using it as much as my own wee system which is a mix of a One Note journal and Excel spreadsheets. I use my system to set my budgets for the month ahead and I stick to them.

    You're doing good, keep the faith, you'll get there
    :A
    BUGGRITMILLENIUMHANDANDSHRIMP I TOLD EM! - Foul Ole Ron
    It is important that we know where we come from, because if you do not know where you come from, then you do not know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you are going. If you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong.
    R.I.P. T.P.
  • I have spent no money on eating meals out of the house so far in September. (I did spend £1.50 on a coffee while waiting around at a children's party last weekend.)

    The only top up shop I did last week was to buy a pizza for a night that I had not expected my children to be eating with me.

    I am excellent at saving up leftovers in the fridge after a meal. I am also excellent at throwing those leftovers, untouched, in the bin when I next go shopping and need the space in the fridge. I always think about using up the leftovers but I always seem to have waited too long and they've gone off by the time I get around to it.

    I have had a very unproductive weekend. This seems to apply to about 90% of my weekends and it's getting me down. This weekend I have been on my own and was really looking forward to the nice long lies that I could have. The problem is that when I get up late it always seems too late to do the things I was going to do so I don't do them. There always seems to be so many things to do that I become overwhelmed and do none of them.
    SPC 11, No. 062 DFD November 2020 :(
    Aug 2017 B'card £5006.83 BoS £1086.59 MBNA £0 Total: £6093.42
    Aug 2018 B'Card £995.06 BoS £863.43 MBNA £3,644.98 Total: £5503.47
    9.68% paid off
  • helsbell wrote: »
    I am excellent at saving up leftovers in the fridge after a meal. I am also excellent at throwing those leftovers, untouched, in the bin when I next go shopping and need the space in the fridge. I always think about using up the leftovers but I always seem to have waited too long and they've gone off by the time I get around to it.

    Snap! I always have such good intentions.
  • I left the house for the first time today since Sunday. I've been completely floored by some bug or other that stole all my energy but wouldn't let me sleep; made me nauseous without actually being sick; and made my whole body hurt :(

    Needless to say I haven't been working, let alone anything else. Today is about trying to eat little and often so that I can hopefully go back to work tomorrow. My job is fairly active so I need enough energy to keep up with it, or there's not much point being there :p

    The kids have been great, sorting themselves out with breakfast (and dinner one night - is it wrong that I'm secretly quite pleased they don't eat what they choose to make themselves either? :rotfl:) DD1 also picked up the shopping she needed for school on her way home, at her own suggestion :T

    A friend from faraway popped in unexpectedly yesterday, as she was in the area. Luckily she's the kind of friend who was totally unphased by the state of me and it was great to chat, however briefly. Just what I needed, I reckon.

    Will try and get back to slightly more actively MSE ways soon.
    SPC 11, No. 062 DFD November 2020 :(
    Aug 2017 B'card £5006.83 BoS £1086.59 MBNA £0 Total: £6093.42
    Aug 2018 B'Card £995.06 BoS £863.43 MBNA £3,644.98 Total: £5503.47
    9.68% paid off
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