Lois_E begins a long MFW journey

Courgette

Well done, Lois :T:T What has your spending diary taught you about your spending then?

As for spreadsheets, would love one! Bit rubbish with that kind of thing, I suppose because I never use them. My current one is very very basic but would love to be able to put my children's ages on, I find it much less abstract to think DS1 will be, say 15 years 4 months, rather than, say July 2015 and would be much more motivated by that, if that makes any sense!

Lois_E

Courgette wrote: »

Well done, Lois :T:T What has your spending diary taught you about your spending then?

Thank you! Areas to look at are utilities, groceries and kids' non-essentials.

Courgette wrote: »

As for spreadsheets, would love one! Bit rubbish with that kind of thing, I suppose because I never use them. My current one is very very basic but would love to be able to put my children's ages on, I find it much less abstract to think DS1 will be, say 15 years 4 months, rather than, say July 2015 and would be much more motivated by that, if that makes any sense!

OK. Put DS1's date of birth somewhere - let's suppose you put it in cell H1. Now, suppose there's a date somewhere (for example, in cell D150) and you want to know how old DS1 will be then. Type in:

=YEAR(D150-$H$1)-1900 &" years, "& MONTH(D150-$H$1)-1 & " months"

This will more or less get it right. It will sometimes be a day or two out in when it clicks over to the next month because of leap years and different numbers of days in each month, but for something that's only calculated monthly it should be good enough.

In other news, I have made a plan for where OPs are going to go.

Until all my building work finished and paid for, all spare money goes into a savings account to pay for building stuff.

After all the building work finished and paid for, I will keep no more than £200 in my current account, and any spare money initially will go to the slush fund. This is a savings account with the same bank as my current account, so I can move things in and out instantly. Its purpose is to even things out when I get a big bill for after school club one month and no childcare expenses the next month, for example, or to deal with the MOT or Christmas.

When the slush fund gets to £1000, any spare money will be split 50/50 between OPing and the safety net. The safety net is another instant access account - a slightly higher IR than the slush fund, but with a different bank. Both my current account bank and the safety net bank do FP, so I can move stuff easily as long as it's not a w/e.

When the safety net gets to £5000, all spare money will go to OPing the mortgage.

LilB_3

Lois_E wrote: »

After all the building work finished and paid for, I will keep no more than £200 in my current account, and any spare money initially will go to the slush fund.

I do this too. It used to be £500 until we bought the house but now I just chuck anything over the £200 into the pot and savings.

Well done on your challenge too! :T

earthgirl

That all sounds like a great plan. Have you set it all up automatically?

Lois_E

earthgirl wrote: »

That all sounds like a great plan. Have you set it all up automatically?

Thanks for the encouragement, earthgirl. It's not automatic - I'll just do it online. If I'm going to keep up this spending diary lark (which I need to because it stops me spending too much ) then it'll be no trouble to log into my bank and check balances every few days.

gratefulforhelp_2

Hope you are enjoying your bank holiday?

Lois_E

Thanks grateful. I've got a few things done in my house this morning - some sorting-house-out-after-moving-into-it things and some general everyday housework. Now I'm having a bit of a break this afternoon, and will get back down to it later. I'd like to finish half term feeling that my house has taken a few steps towards normality.

Lois_E

Two NSDs in the last 3 days! Yay! Go me!

gratefulforhelp_2

Well done. I've paid £16 for a riding lesson for DD1.

GeorgieFTB

gratefulforhelp wrote: »

Well done. I've paid £16 for a riding lesson for DD1.

Not that this is a pi$$ing contest... I've just spent £45 in AP for what is, in effect, random food... I think I'm getting buyers remorse, its a weird feeling, I don't think I've ever had it before!:D