LBM in 2003.. What have I been doing since??!

brizzledfw

Crumbs this weather is extreme! Kinda like it but a bit of shock to system after being told yest in Brizzle was hotter than the Caribbean!

OH has mended bath leak for £6.50 and garden is part tidied. I am now having my nails done ( very decadent! I have discovered shellac:D) whilst he starts cooking dinner for friends

Wood burner lit..kids begged to have the fire on!

Hope everyone is good

brizzledfw

Thankfully the woodburner wasn't used much as Saturday evening and Sunday were glorious and its looks like its turning into another fine day today.

A lovely sociable weekend. Lots of good food eaten and wine drunk. Found the Al9i Picpoul far too acidic..but the Rioja was good value. As ever its a question of a bit of luck and some avoidance of some of the lines there..

Off working and travelling again today. Going it alone is working out well and looking forward to putting in my first substantial invoice at the end of the month. Sold an item on EBay for £13. Have meal planned this week. Solar panel output is good - around £4 a day Kids almost off school which is lovely - they can't wait.

YNAB OK - reconciling it all will be a nightmare - especially as we work in 2 currencies (our local pound and the sterling one) - need to think about that one. But I do like it as a system..in fact I like it very much

peaceandfreedom

brizzledfw wrote: »

YNAB OK - reconciling it all will be a nightmare - especially as we work in 2 currencies (our local pound and the sterling one) - need to think about that one. But I do like it as a system..in fact I like it very much

Sounds like a lovely weekend, Brizzle. I spent most of my weekend preparing for a car boot, doing the car boot, then sorting out the resultant leftovers (lots more sorting out to do, it's time this house was decluttered). I also sold the trampoline, disassembled it, cleaned the bits I hadn't been able to get at before and piled it all up ready for collection. OH has mowed the grass where the trampoline used to be and the garden looks very strange without it (it was there many years).

With YNAB, you could have your Bristol pounds money as a separate Budget account could you not and simply transfer money between the two? There are no conversion problems and they could both use the same budget categories. That way, when you transfer money between one currency and another, it doesn't affect your spending totals until the money is actually spent.

I do this with ordinary cash - I have a 'Cash Spending' budget account into which I transfer my allocated 'cash spending money' every month. I like to keep track of cash spending in complete detail and this allows me to do so. I actually have an entire set of budget categories just for cash spending but there is no real need for this - it's just that I like to plan what I might spend my 'spends' on and I like to see how I'm doing against that plan.

What I like about the cash-spending system is that when I withdraw cash, it doesn't actually affect my overall spending in YNAB - I've just transferred funds from one form to another. It's only when that cash is spent that it shows up as spent on YNAB, which I like.

Another thing I do on YNAB is have a couple of 'off-budget' accounts where I note down potential earnings for this month and the next month. As these are only potential earnings I don't want to include them in the budget and spend them before I get them but I still want to see what extra I MIGHT bring in. An off-budget account does the job nicely.

YNAB is a bit addictive, I do find myself looking at it a lot, just thinking, plotting. But that's because I have over-budgeted at the moment (clearing up from massive spending from April-June) so I am working my way back up to zero. Hence the extra effort going into selling stuff.

brizzledfw

Thanks P&F for such a long, helpful post. Yes I think I will have a £BP account set up and then I can add it to the overall budget/transfer funds etc. I found the fact that if you spend on a CC it shows up on the summary but not on the actual spreadsheet a bit disconcerting, but I assume this is reconciled when you pay the money off ie.pay the bill?

I like software that makes me plot and plan....its the only way to go. As I do a lot of Tilly Tidies I am not sure that I will have the energy to keep up with reconciling them... but we shall see.

Looking forward to a quieter day tomorrow. Need to visit the allotment and see what I can salvage! Then busy for the rest of the week..but that means paid work which is always useful. Some more irons in the fire - hope to be meeting up to see whether we can move forward next week so very exciting. Will be a lot closer to home, still a journey but nothing like the previous role so all moving in the right direction.

Not much else to report... think OH has posted EBay parcel and we are having some wine delivered this evening..I am looking forward to sampling some when I get home tonight

peaceandfreedom

brizzledfw wrote: »

Thanks P&F for such a long, helpful post. Yes I think I will have a £BP account set up and then I can add it to the overall budget/transfer funds etc. I found the fact that if you spend on a CC it shows up on the summary but not on the actual spreadsheet a bit disconcerting, but I assume this is reconciled when you pay the money off ie.pay the bill?

I'm not really sure what you mean. I don't spend on a credit card (I no longer trust myself to have one ) so I'm not sure how it's meant to work on YNAB. However from this article:
http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/using-your-credit-cards

it looks like any balance that was on there when you set up YNAB stays in its own section. Any spending after that will affect the credit card balance and will affect the budget the spending is recorded against.

Not really sure which bit you mean when you say 'the actual spreadsheet'. I presume if you click on the credit card account you can see your transactions?

brizzledfw

Thanks P&F...I have to use the CC sometimes for work expenses but I also like the loyalty features including free hotel stays I pay it off on full though.

That makes sense. It is confusing as it shows up on the CC account but not the consolidated budget. Anyway, should be fine as long as I bring it back to £0 when I pay the bill.

Thanks again for helping out. You are doing so well...great to see such positive diary entries

peaceandfreedom

brizzledfw wrote: »

Thanks P&F...I have to use the CC sometimes for work expenses but I also like the loyalty features including free hotel stays I pay it off on full though.

I wasn't casting aspersions on your credit card use - merely explaining that due to my profligate 'buy now, pretend I'm going to pay at the end of the month, don't, then wonder why my credit card bill is in the thousands' nature, I no longer allow myself to have one. :rotfl:

Your own story is an inspiration to me, keep it up. Reading other people's success stories makes me realise I can do it too. :T

Sun_Addict

Hi there Brizzle! Like you I have a card I use for perks reasons that I pay off in full. I'm trying to train myself to keep in budget with it but you know how it goes sometimes! The plan is to have the cash to one side in a separate bank "pot" in advance of the spending rather than catch up on payday. Once I've mastered the art of this I will be on the right track to get debt free again.

joedenise

Sun Addict - you could do what I do which is when I spend on the CC I transfer a rounded up amount (eg I spend £41.50 then I'll transfer £45) to my savings account then when the bill needs paying the money just gets transferred back to the current account to pay it. All the little extra bits stay in the savings so there is a bit more in savings than there would be if it just had my regularly monthly savings in, iyswim!

Brizzle - sorry for hijacking your diary.

Denise

brizzledfw

That's hardly a hijack JoeDenise and that's a great idea. I may borrow it

Thanks for dropping by. How's you SA?

Beautiful sunny afternoon. So relaxing when weather is this glorious