Mighty Titan Overdraft will crumble!

hohum

CRT86 wrote: »

Hi Hohum, I feel the pain of self-employment tax return. Trying to muster up the energy to do my own accounts for the first time this year, I need to do it to sort out my student finance but it sucks. I feel like we have a similar sort of lifestyle - enough to keep your head afloat but not enough to make too much inroads on debt.

Keep going!

We can keep keeping on!

I have to say, now we are handling the money better I am feeling a little more positive about being able to make inroads. It's never going to be steady because our income isn't...But I am understanding more about how I work with money, and how my boyfriend works . from this I'm working with my money better, as opposed to how I 'should' be doing it. I sometimes think I should be paying a certain amount, should be snowballing, maybe should be saving....I'm starting to realise it's realising where your weaknesses are and then working with them rather than pretending they don't exist.

I think that this month is going to be more flush than usual for us - boyfriend has just got paid for his work in April and I was successful with a funding bid which means I get paid a 'proper' wage this month. So what I've got to do is just manage having money, which I think is where usually I go a bit devil-may-care and live like I always have this income. This time, it's going into future bills, debts and a bit of good living.

Case in point - my birthday is coming up and we have a voucher for an overnight stay given to us at Christmas. I'm going to use it as birthday treat. However, when you add up travel there plus even a cheap dinner plus an activity..it's going to cost us £80 :eek:. I really want to go but part of me is thinking it's far too much money. we can however afford it, it just means maybe less payment than we could do on the debts. I think it's pretty clear that I'm not a 'throw everything at the debt' type...but still...£80...

hohum

'Big' shop done for £63 odd, although we'll need to pick up veg from the market and some odds and ends. Expecting to use the full £150 this month as we'd run down on some essentials. I don't mind empty cupboards. Too much in the cupboards makes me mentally itch . I used to live with a girl who was exactly the opposite. A fully stocked larder was her feeling of security. Me, it just makes me start worrying about needing to eat it all up!

I have retrieved my weekly meal plan from the envelope, so I don't lose it we have:

Spinach lasagne (this was a big hit last time so I'm making again. Plus, leftovers hurrah).
Pearl Barley Risotto (I fancy with roast butternut squash but I'll see what's in the market. Plus boyfriend not world's biggest squash fan)
Keralan fish curry (using el cheapo frozen pollock fillets and reduced price coconut milk!)
Mushroom soup (or other cheap veg soup. If I manage to get the carrier bag full for £2 deal at the market it'll be mushroom everything)
Chilli salad bowls (not the cheapest because tortillas plus cheese plus salad is expensive. But it makes boyfriend very happy!)
Home made beef burger (using other half of mince. Served with whatever I decide I fancy. Mushrooms? )
Spanish chicken chorizo bake

See this is the part of frugal living I enjoy and do well. There was a time (cue the accordions) when I got to eat a lot more steak, parma ham and other now luxury items. It's the deli type items that are fatal, it's why Lidl/Aldi is never a budget shop for us because I can allow myself to consider purchasing more than just cheddar cheese, or that nice juice and boom we spent £40 on three bags of shopping. But there's a satisfaction in planning out a menu and inventing meals from apparently nothing in the cupboard.

I have also resolved to start trying to create more spaciousness in my life. I spend a lot of nothing time looking at the internet (just been doing that before posting here) and I think it's partly I'm trying to (falsely) create the sense of having unfettered, unpressured time. I developed hives a year ago - the kind where you can 'write' on your skin and it's totally stress related. This was evidenced last night by realising the address was wrong on the online order the laptop running out of juice. In the 5 mins it took to resolve, I cam up with bright red lines all up my arm. So more yoga, more running, and...maybe a bit more meditation although I'm so rubbish at keeping it up.

sunnyskies2

Hi there,

Having a browse and came across your diary, I like your down to earth, as it is style:)... And tonight I re-started my ynab budget and feel pretty excited seeing how it works and I CAN budget ahead for the first time ever (she says hopefully!) - thanks again for the advice:)...btw have you tried Pinterest - arty/foody spending free - it's my new online addiction (apart from MSE);)

Sarah

Matilda80

Your food sounds gorgeous! I must do the chilli bowl. Yum.

Totally agree about Aldi/Lidl not being a budget shop for those exact reasons.

hohum

Matilda80 wrote: »

Your food sounds gorgeous! I must do the chilli bowl. Yum.

Totally agree about Aldi/Lidl not being a budget shop for those exact reasons.

so glad I'm not alone in the Aldi thing

The chilli bowls are based on this recipe http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chilli_salad_bowls_22404 which is also low calorie...but we eat bigger portions then they suggest ie they suggest recipe is for four and it does well for two of us! . The genius is how they make the 'bowls' out of tortillas. You can make cheaper by using iceberg rather than romiane lettuce, I leave out the salsa or make my own. It's worth holding on to creme fraiche in there though

hohum

sunnyskies2 wrote: »

Hi there,

Having a browse and came across your diary, I like your down to earth, as it is style:)... And tonight I re-started my ynab budget and feel pretty excited seeing how it works and I CAN budget ahead for the first time ever (she says hopefully!) - thanks again for the advice:)...btw have you tried Pinterest - arty/foody spending free - it's my new online addiction (apart from MSE);)

Sarah

Hope you find YNAB useful! I'm not sure people in offline world would describe me as down to earth, flighty is the one I used to get called! I think people mistake extroversion for impracticality. then they get surprised by how much I like spreadsheets...

I go on binges with Pinterest, find it really useful to mood board for design or if you're redecorating. And also a great place to store sewing tutorials if you like that kind of thing...

Matilda80

Thanks for the link that's going on next week's menu. Looks lovely.

hohum

Hmm not too much to say right now. Holding pattern until I can allocate some monies.

As predicted, we have gone slightly wild what with having actual money this month. However I know it could have been so much worse. As it stands, I have spent £35.77 already this month of my spending money. Groceries (inc household items) has crept up to £97, so I can see we may well be over £150 this month. I will need more dairy and veg basically to feed us for the rest of the month. Plus there's no cheap easy food for boyfriend, who actively likes such items as chicken nuggets.

We still have money sat in holidays, rent and car tax fund so in that sense am feeling OK. Car gets picked up tomorrow and who knows, maybe it'll be fixed in time to take us to night away!

sunnyskies2

Hi There

Well done persevering with the budgeting against all kinds of obstacles - tricky OH spending and extra money;) - I'm loving ynab but I can't imagine OH getting out his phone to update a spend on diesel or something lol - I'm lucky that he remembers to give me receipts every few days! I've started it 'in the red" ( that doesn't include my humongous debt) just expenses that have to be paid and am hopeful in a month or so I can get into 'black'

I used to sew loads - into vintage etc etc - but now like Pinterest for arts stuff - relates to work and recipes of course:D

Good luck with the car and enjoy your birthday treat

hohum

thoughts for today:

YNAB is showing a lot of red at the moment. Boyfriend has been getting jiggy with spending on future income. I'm having an experiment with it. Rather than WAM (whack-a-mole) as the YNAB forumers call it, and reduce other categories to fund the overspend, I'm just going to let the overspend sit there and he'll have to cover it from that future income he's enjoying spending....Some of it's unavoidable but also predictable. So I'm going to try (again) and get him to think about what his income needs to do for him before he next gets paid. Rather than overpay one category, then borrow from that to fund the 'unexpected not actually unexpected' spends.

OTH, he's still shopping for lowest priced items and adding stuff in so we're on track.

Another thought I had: must phone bank because I honestly don't understand how I can be paying more interest last month than the month before, when my balance seemed to be mostly not at my OD limit as usual? Same interest rate, but thought occured do they calculate daily or on balance on x date. If it's on the balance on a certain day, I need to make sure I leave money in for then!

Getting cocky with how I have been able to be £200 off my OD limit for 2 months give or take. Thought occurs to me 'you could balance shift to a lower paying interest CC card'. Hmm. Let's see me achieve this for 6 months before I start looking at additional credit shall we. On paper, it's daft to be paying 19% on £1940 of overdraft (sitting at £1695 OD at moment:A, although not all of that is repayment, just funds allocated to future spends) when I could shift some to 0%. But the amount of time I've had this OD suggests on paper is different to in practice.

Am actually getting paid a really proper wage this month. Cannot wait to allocate it all. Can't decide whether to put surplus into buffer or to split the income to be allocated across June & July. This will do pretty much the same thing - start me living on last months' income. It will just look different.