Looking to the Future ... My Mortgage Free Dream

pink_poppy

Forgot to say, still struggling with understanding the spreadsheet My DD said I should save it as an Excel document, but when I did that the Year column changed to ### & it wouldn't let me put a date back in, just kept jumping back to ### as soon as I moved away from the column :huh: Should I have kept it as a google docs document & worked on it that way??

Sorry, I don't mean to be a pest, I know you have other things on your mind...

mooomin

pink_poppy wrote: »

Forgot to say, still struggling with understanding the spreadsheet My DD said I should save it as an Excel document, but when I did that the Year column changed to ### & it wouldn't let me put a date back in, just kept jumping back to ### as soon as I moved away from the column :huh: Should I have kept it as a google docs document & worked on it that way??

Sorry, I don't mean to be a pest, I know you have other things on your mind...

It could be that the column isn't wide enough to display the whole date, try widening it?

yukkibear

I would try what FF said above, but I would also save as excel file. If you need more help shout.

Still no closer to deciding what to do. Part of me feels too guilty about just jacking it in when I could be jeopardising my family. I haven't seen my boss anyway this week so can't pass a letter to her yet.

I do perhaps have some other thoughts but they need discussing with hubby. For the rest of this week and into next I'm going to forget work as I'm not back until weds, and keep finding little targets and try to spend as little as possible to get into a good habit.

pink_poppy

Thanks, FF & Yukki, will give that a try

I hope you get sorted with the work situation & at least try to enjoy your time off for the next few days. It's a good idea to get into frugal habits, just in case

yukkibear

well according to the soa i did with me working, we have surplus and I'm disgusted that it disappears every month.

pink_poppy

I have a book (I use a school exercise book) that I use every day to write in all my transactions ~ money coming in (salary, child benefit & tax credits) & money going out (direct debits, shopping, cash withdrawals etc) & have an on-going balance so I know exactly how much cash is left in the account. I also keep all of my shopping receipts & every month I go through them (& tut at how much chocolate I've bought :whistle:). I always check my bank statements as soon as I get them (I actually like this job ) & tick off things in my book as I go along to double-check I haven't missed anything off.

Do you have any idea where the surplus disappears to?? Do you do a similar thing to me or have an incoming/outgoing spreadsheet??

I certainly can't account for every penny that DH spends, but if he takes X amount of cash out of the bank then that X amount goes into my book. I also make sure he gives me every receipt if he uses his card for petrol etc.

I know the above is not really SOA but just thought I'd give you an idea of what I do to keep track of my money

cha97michelle

I do the same as you pink poppy. My problem is I wish I could account for the pennies too, but it is really hard. If I knew £20 per month was on booze or £5 on chocs, I might pack it in. I think if I could do it, I would be better off, but then again, I don't NEED to account that closely for every penny, so is it really that detrimental to us?

Good luck getting your head round it all.

yukkibear

A LOT goes on alcohol which I am going to make an attempt to cut back on. A LOT goes on wastage in the supermarket when I can't be bothered to prepare food for work etc.

Some hubby wastes but we're changing that if he actually does what he says without me having to kick him up the bum about it lol. :rotfl:

Some money came in today which I have been waiting for so I paid £53.20 off the mortgage which rounded the balance down to £78,780.00 and also did away with Aug 2031 :beer:.

I also rounded up the ISA balance and the flexi savings that gets used for bits that come up to the next £100 in each.

Happy with that today. My next target is £62.10 after the mortgage payment goes out next week to round the mortgage balance down to the next £100.

pink_poppy

Woohoo, congratulations on doing away with Aug 2031!! I bet that put a smile on your face

I buy loads of carp ~ wine, chocolate, crisps etc etc... I know that I could reduce our monthly shopping budget easily by drastically reducing just that. I once totted up how much carp I had bought over the month & I can't remember the exact figure (probably blocked it from my mind in shame!!) but I'm sure it was £200+ I could have been saving that each month ready to do a mega-overpayment in November!! :wall:

Actually, now that I've reminded myself about that, I think next month I'll make a concerted effort to reduce my shopping budget by doing & sticking to a meal plan, buying less carp etc. Can't start straightaway as DH has just gone to Morrisons to buy a load of BBQ stuff for tomorrow :whistle:

yukkibear

see that's what this weather does for you. Let's have a bbq turns into a £30 spend in the supermarket on "let's just get a couple of burgers"

Yep that did put a smile on my face