Balancing not just the budget

RosaBernicia

Aren't humans strange?

After I got my lovely YNAB straightened out again I've been playing with it most days to keep things sorted. I had a budget set for this month but have got a couple of surprises - good ones - first I wondered where my professional association subs had got to as they haven't put up the direct debit yet, and when I checked I realised I'd sensibly opted to pay monthly instead of yearly. I still get the 5% dd discount but can cancel when I want without any hassle of getting a refund on unused subs. So that was £130 straight back in the pot. Then I went and chased up my new mobile contract as that dd wasn't done either, and it's set up for not the 28th but the 6th of the month... so that's another £40 that April didn't need.

What did I do with this bounty?

Did I buy the suitcase I need for work trips?
Did I buy clothes? Perfume? More chocolate? Book a holiday?


I got so uncomfortable with seeing all that unbudgeted extra money, I upped the allocation for the buffer fund so I don't have to look at it. :eek::rotfl:


I haven't even got used to the figures in my accounts being positive rather than negative yet. Six months ago having the spare cash I do at present would have been a cause for great celebration. I think maybe I should do something to actually celebrate so I remember that. At present I still have the 'no money, need money' feeling, and while I don't entirely want that to go away - I want to still be very conscious of what I spend and why - I would like to take the associated anxiety down a step, as it's not really necessary any more.

Anyway, off to see if I can do any better at getting 0% card deals now


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Successfully got new CC with 0% for 12 months and only 0.85% balance transfer. Not enough to completely shift my remaining card, but enough to move most of it and conveniently it just about matches my standard budget amount - so I should safely be able to pay it off in the year. I will concentrate on this card as of course the rate shoots up to 20.9% after the introductory offer. It should save me about £150 over the year which isn't bad as that's half a monthly payment.

The rest will stay on the low life of balance card as that will stay at 6.9% til it's gone - I feel happier leaving this there knowing it will stay low and can be cleared as soon as the other one's done. They've also been very good at allowing me to transfer more at the same low lifetime rate, so I'd like to keep this card as a fallback option.

Happy with that though not really addressing my out of sync sleep cycle here


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Payday came, payday went... I haven't actually made all my debt payments yet, as I haven't received the statement for the new CC, but once done it should leave me with a total of £4,891.52 which is heading in the right direction.

I'm paying less off this month as have been spending a bit not on anything silly but it all kind of happened together. I finally bought myself a Kindle, as I had my birthday money still sitting there and obviously didn't really want a suitcase :rotfl: and so have bought books for that too (oddly the charges for Amazon don't seem to match what I thought the book prices were, so may have to check that. It's only £1 or so but still irritating). I also got a couple of memberships for places I go to regularly, so that will save money in the longer run but is cash out this month. Finally bought a new battery for the laptop so it has a whole new lease of life and it only cost £13.

Next month will also be a bit spendy as am going away for a weekend camping with friends :j so that means petrol and event ticket... but will all work out.

Nothing sorted on the job situation yet, still being told there will be news soon. Have applied for something else, and told them I was doing so as it's in a department my director has links to. Am really missing the extra cash as it was great to be able to both enjoy myself and also see a proper dent in the debt each month.

And am back on gluten which is not fun, already asked to have the antibody test again early and waiting on results.

Siiiigghh... not sounding much fun at the minute am I, am hoping things will all fall into place one after another shortly.


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Not so skint next month after all :j

I remembered to check up on my old electric company as STILL hadn't heard from them - turned out there was a message in my inbox and I should now be getting £40 back into my account in the next few days. Not entirely impressed as appear to have been charged £9.70 for three days electric... but not worth arguing any longer as the only meter reading I had was a couple of days later so just agreed their estimate was reasonable. Stretching the word, but not much option. The heating bills here are stupid and I really do have to move before this winter.

Also logged onto Quidco to try and find cheaper insurance for one of the cats - the renewal has taken it from £4.40 ish to £6.70 ish. Sadly it seems this is still a better deal than any of the other options so will just take it for now. I'm building up a vet bills pot but think I'll keep them insured til I have my debts cleared and other things more settled. Oh, and it didn't seem to make much difference just insuring him for accidents so have stuck with the year on year cover. I notice that the £10 in store voucher has changed to a £5 off when you spend £25... not too impressed with that either.

Anyway, I had forgotten about the cashback for my new phone - so that's another £55 coming through budget now covered with a few quid to spare.


Soooo, turned out it was well worth checking up on anything I was due... must find a way to make notes in future! I tend to put the transaction into YNAB now, so perhaps I'll just add blank or estimated ones as reminders.


Rosa xx

vasseur

Nice to have some payments coming in to bump up the pots :T I took my eye off the ball for a while and it was all spend spend spend. I much prefer the empowering feeling of saving money

RosaBernicia

vasseur wrote: »

Nice to have some payments coming in to bump up the pots :T I took my eye off the ball for a while and it was all spend spend spend. I much prefer the empowering feeling of saving money

It's all just gone sideways due to a £150 vet bill - but having £100 already in the pot made it much less of a worry and I didn't really have to think about whether to wait til the usual vets opened. And moggie is better already so that's the main thing


R xx

kerri_gt

Hey Rosa, just popping in to say well done, and good news on the card x I've been a little spend thrifty of late mainly due a our holiday (just back from and was lovely) which I swore I wasn't going to buy anything for ...but did, although not too much. And also trying to stock up on some much needed new sportswear.

Have some of the holiday to pay on my normal cc that I use for spending (get a small cashback) but took the plunge and paid the last remaining amount on one cc that had a 0% ending in July. So really only have one left to focus on, which is a nice feeling.

How's the fitness going? I ran the Pretty muddy Race for Life 5k yesterday, great fun, one leg a little sore today but otherwise feeling fine.

RosaBernicia

Hi Kerri!

Congrats on the race, well done you :T

And great you've had a lovely holiday, and down to one card yay! :beer: Re spendy phases, I think maybe there's a period of adjustment in between the 'really focused must get debt down to feel it's controllable' and the 'it's OK all that's sorted now' so am trying to allow myself a little leeway. Some things really are much needed.

Fitness is not really going anywhere at the moment - I found a fantastic Pilates class but have stopped going while I do the gluten challenge, and I will have to finish it as the antibody tests came back normal, so another 3 weeks to go (now feeling rubbish, so can't wait to get it over with). As soon as I get that done and my system settled a bit I will go back to class. I do also want to go back to running and it will be easier now the evenings are light, so will pick that up again too. I have now just about decluttered and sorted the flat, and have organised all my clothes etc - mainly as I do hope to move soon, but it also means I should have very little stuff to distract me from a new fitness goal.

Am thinking will take a day out and do some new goals once I get the endoscopy over with - once that's sorted I should be feeling better and it will be time to think about new plans


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Well I shall make the CC payments tomorrow in order to keep things straight on YNAB, but in short it looks like the balance will be down to £4,776.something. I shall find a way to round that down to £4,775 somehow

This month has been rather tight due to the extra vet bill and messy food shopping while eating gluten. However, the gastroscopy is done now and I get the results later this week, so am getting back in the swing of cooking at home again. The work situation is just utterly silly and I am now looking elsewhere.

I also had confirmation that I'm going back to college in September, and am kind of still in shock at a) the amount of work I'm letting myself in for and b) haven't dared ask what the fees will be. I only have two modules to do this way and the option won't be there much longer, so it's definitely the cheapest way of doing things, but I really wanted to get my debts cleared asap . Oh well. Things should be clarified further at work in the next couple of weeks, and then I'll see. I'm considering house sharing again just to get my costs right down for a year and get things sorted.

Still, this is all good as it's well below 50% of the original debt and I am making steady progress, even if not as rapidly as I was managing on the secondment salary. Must keep plodding!


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Payments now made and total debts £4775. I've been good and switched my PayPal to the current account to avoid running anything up on the bank CC, and may see if I can close this.

Have been rather naughtier in clothes shopping - bought a new summer dress just because it's so gorgeous and to celebrate my skin clearing up enough to wear summer clothes now that I'm off gluten again :j . Biopsy was negative so I've been diagnosed as non coeliac gluten sensitive.

Still no news at work, though did discover I can join a membership scheme that will get me English Heritage membership and discounted gift cards for Costa, Pizza Express and Sainsburys. May have to work out how to be cleverest in shopping with these but apparently most can be topped up rather than having to buy new ones, so it might be a fairly simple way of getting 5% discount every time

Not much other news... really happy to be gf again, my energy levels are bouncing back to real-me levels and it's wonderful to be able to wear summer dresses for the first time in about 3 years. And saves buying other clothes :rotfl:


Rosa xx