Living life, loving life.......hypno's having a ball!

Buffythedebtslayer

I was wondering about a spending diary too.....I seem to be spending money like water!!!

hello btw the way, I still read, just got nothing to say!

xxx

hypno06

Hi buffy! I still read your's too

So, final addition to the spending diary for the day was milk.....but because I knew I would have to write it in the book, it was only milk, and not some additional minstrels.....thereby contributing both to the issues of spending and snacking!

gilligansyle

My friends think I'm mad but I still keep a spending diary. I don't include the 'big' shop because that's done online, but include anything I spend cash on, even a packet of polos. I very rarely use debit cards except for petrol.

I can tell you exactly how much I spent in cash each day for the last 2 years. For the rest I have online banking.
How about that for obsessive!

MatyMoo

OK, you are all giving me panic attacks. All this talk of percentages spent on living and spending diaries is sending me in to a cold sweat. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

First, the percentage thing. I can't work it out on what I earn now as I am being made redundant in September. I don't want to work it out on what I think I am going to earn if I get the job I am trying for as that will be at a much reduced salary (but a way better work/life balance) which leads me to think that the spending diary will be in my future

Think I am going to have to run off and hide under a blanket for a while

Buffythedebtslayer

Having just worked out how much i have spent on petrol in three weeks I might join you under the blanket!!!!

urg123

Lots there to think about and it links to some things I havd been thinking about re money. I too have fallen off the bandwagon recently and really need to get back on.

Not slept well so will get up soon and find my old 'money book' just an old exercise book where I put my monthly budget and keep q record of my spends!

Thanks to Souk and Hypno for helping me get back to it!

Urg x x

hypno06

Morning all - URG, I have been awake most of the night too, but I was determined not to put the laptop on - had I known you were up I would have joined you!

I think the spending diary thing is really going to be an eye opener for me. I know we always advise newbies to do one, and I am one of the first to suggest it to people, but I know it has not been something I have ever really faced myself.

So, in a way it is odd to think that I have gotten debt free from a huge debt, without the use of such a diary, and now that I am DF I have the need for it!

It is only, I guess, the same as having to keep watching what I eat having lost all that weight, and addressing the situation when the lbs creep up again, and focusing on what I am eating.....talking of which, the no snacking thing is working - I have lost a couple of those surplus lbs again, and so I am much happier with that.

Have a good day everyone, and happy hiding under the blanket

se999

Hi Hypno, not been around much so just catching up.

Pleased to hear the spending diary and no snacking are already showing results for you. We've not been doing the %'s but we have been prioritising spends to have more fun, we just do it changing our budgets for those bits.

Love your sound of a 'slush' fund, maybe we need to incorporate that into our budgeting to allow more planned slack for fun.

Anyway hope you have a good day despite the bad nights sleep.

hypno06

I'd not considered the % thing before - it was just an interesting exercise rather than something I want to be rigid with - I too have been simply adjusting the budgets to fit the requirements, but I can see that there is a danger that the "fun" budgets will get so big that they will become disproportionate, and will reduce other, more necessary, pots.....I would hate not to be able to have a holiday, for example, just because I have overspent on having coffees and lunches!

So, a very useful exercise for me, that will help me keep my fun elements of my new life, as well as staying on a reasonably level footing financially for the future for me and the children.

Right, the shower beckons, to go and try and wake myself up - have a good day everyone.

Karmacat

hypno06 wrote: »

...I would hate not to be able to have a holiday, for example, just because I have overspent on having coffees and lunches!

Ooh yes, that says it all really!