Balancing not just the budget

RosaBernicia

Sunday shuffle time... all looking good .

The mortgage application and survey payment has gone out, everything balances, and the YNAB pots are running to plan (despite having a bit extra chucked in this month - I need my hair trimmed so upped that pot, and put an extra £50 in the buffer fund). I've already allowed for the extra travel over Christmas and the gifts pot is healthy (so much so that I might shuffle some of it over to charity donations, as I really don't think I'll spend it all and I generally start it again in the new year).

I've claimed another £10 4ma50n voucher from 5hopN5scan - free books! , and a payment has FINALLY shown up on TCB - only five months late - so hopefully that's another £30 coming in soon.

My electricity direct debit went down last month, which I was not expecting... so will probably go back up again sharpish! And the vet bills and dentist bills YNAB savings pots are almost 'full', well if I stop them at £200 they will be sorted next month, and that's enough for most bills for both things - anything bigger would go on the insurance for the mogs and hopefully be mostly NHS covered for me, so I don't think there's much point in increasing these further. I will just keep them topped up in case needed and the spare money in future can go in the general buffer fund.

Haven't done much more about Christmas things, but then there isn't much more to do - need to buy something for my mum, pick up something for my dad (but I know what he wants) and write cards. I went out for a meal today with friends which was a pre-Christmas thing and we'd already agreed to meet up but not worry about exchanging presents, so that was all good. It was a lovely meal and we had a wander by the river too.

So all is well here, hope everyone has had a good weekend


Rosa xx

moneyonmymindsam

Evening


Just popped in to see how you where getting along Nothing much going on my end stacks to do as always.


Thinking of you and wishing you well
Sam x

Tinkerbelle2000

Love your Sunday Shuffles Rosa. Sounds like you've had a lovely weekend.

Going to start looking at YNAB again to start in the New Year so wish me luck lol. I just need to get my head around the fact that it will be a minus sometimes as I get paid four weekly and my tax credits go in weekly.

Tink xx

RosaBernicia

Tinkerbelle2000 wrote: »

Love your Sunday Shuffles Rosa. Sounds like you've had a lovely weekend.

Going to start looking at YNAB again to start in the New Year so wish me luck lol. I just need to get my head around the fact that it will be a minus sometimes as I get paid four weekly and my tax credits go in weekly.

Tink xx

Hi Tink

It took me a while to get my head around the new YNAB and to begin with I was quite cross that I couldn't allocate any money I didn't already have but eventually it's sunk in that that is really the point. It's made me focus much more on what needs paying next and what do I have available now, so that you really do roll as you go and it becomes about watching a constant flow in and out, instead of having artificial boundaries between months. I think if you put in your regular outgoings, you will be able to set goals to meet them so that it will show if you've enough in the pot. I'm pretty sure they have a webinar on using YNAB for variable income so it might be worth you joining one of those


Rosa xx

EssexHebridean

You mentioned on my diary about your phone contract being up in April - I could be wrong but I have a hunch that 90 days might be the key point where they will do decent deals including waiving the end of the contract, so it's probably worth you making a note to call at that stage. There are several cracking deals on the PlusNet site for lighter users too if you need a bigger stick to beat EE with!

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean wrote: »

You mentioned on my diary about your phone contract being up in April - I could be wrong but I have a hunch that 90 days might be the key point where they will do decent deals including waiving the end of the contract, so it's probably worth you making a note to call at that stage. There are several cracking deals on the PlusNet site for lighter users too if you need a bigger stick to beat EE with!

Thanks EH, will look at that :A


Rosa xx

Tinkerbelle2000

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Hi Tink

It took me a while to get my head around the new YNAB and to begin with I was quite cross that I couldn't allocate any money I didn't already have but eventually it's sunk in that that is really the point. It's made me focus much more on what needs paying next and what do I have available now, so that you really do roll as you go and it becomes about watching a constant flow in and out, instead of having artificial boundaries between months. I think if you put in your regular outgoings, you will be able to set goals to meet them so that it will show if you've enough in the pot. I'm pretty sure they have a webinar on using YNAB for variable income so it might be worth you joining one of those

Rosa xx

Thanks Rosa. I'll look into the webinars. I still have a couple of weeks to get clued up lol.

Tink xx

MuffinTops

All going well Rosa. The Sunday shuffle sounds like a great organiser and a way to focus the week ahead.

YNAB makes me think differently about money which was what caused my initial confusions. I separate the accounts and the budget in my mind now. They're both important but the accounts are there to provide the money for budgets. So as more money comes in it just needs to be given a job, no matter when that happens.

Have you paid for YNAB Tink, as they do a student discount?

MTxx

RosaBernicia

MuffinTops wrote: »

All going well Rosa. The Sunday shuffle sounds like a great organiser and a way to focus the week ahead.

YNAB makes me think differently about money which was what caused my initial confusions. I separate the accounts and the budget in my mind now. They're both important but the accounts are there to provide the money for budgets. So as more money comes in it just needs to be given a job, no matter when that happens.

MTxx

Yes, I think I can see what you mean. Having YNAB as the overall view means that the accounts are much less important and the budget lines are the thing. I only pay attention to account balances to check that they match what I expect! However, I think that's partly because I now have much more flexibility - when there was no cushion, it was a lot more important to check that the right amount was in each account to cover the next payment.

It does help to have a point in the week for a regular review, as I found when I left it too long to balance up things got out of sync. And I find it fits nicely on a Sunday evening as there isn't usually a lot else going on, plus it follows any spends going out on the weekend and means I can see what's available for grocery shopping etc in the week.


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Survey went OK and mortgage offer has come through

I'm going to wait and go through the report when it arrives (next week) before doing anything further,as there are a few things that do need doing and I may consider dropping the offer to compensate. But the valuation was fine and so hopefully all will be well.


Rosa xx