Learning to pretend, in a good way

EchoDelta

Pay day rocks! Friday for me.

Hope that you are having a good week.

Suziebabe

Oh dear, so much for a weekly check in - more like monthly! There's something about doing the monthly updates to my totals in my signature, that guarantees I'll write a diary entry at least once a month, but not during the month. Maybe I'll get more frequent during the winter! 16% gone this month hooray!

Funny though, I've been thinking about the forum and this diary quite a bit recently. I think it's because I'm coming up to the 1st anniversary of my LBM, I find myself taking stock of how far we've come - in our thinking as well as in clearing debts. And this forum has been a big part of that, keeping me on track and giving me encouragement as well as some great ideas! OH is far more positive about life now than in the bad old 'la-la' days (so called because we were sticking our fingers in our ears and singing la-la-la-la-la to avoid the voice of conscience niggling in our heads about the debts we were running up! :rotfl::rotfl:) He's starting to believe that we will eventually be debt-free, something he hasn't managed since he left home 35 years ago.

And the savings pots are working! Reading back, we had a proper bumpy ride getting them started and funded to the right level, but this month I was able to pay for our holiday cottage out of our savings pot, with no impact to our spending or debts. Ditto buying car tax. And next month I can go and buy DS's school uniform for September with the clothing savings pot. And I know that there'll be the hard-liners out there shaking their heads and tutting at us having a holiday this year - well to them, we're in this for the long haul and I'm darned if we're going to not have family holidays while it's going on, even if it means extending how long it takes to clear the debts - so there!

Where was I ? Oh yes - looking back, I probably started at the worst point of the year - July/August seems to be when all the pots get emptied, so no wonder we were struggling to get in front of our spending at first! My only niggle is that the car pot never seems to build up - the age of our car means there's always repairs needed. It's still cheaper than paying financing on a new car though, so no change of tack on that, maybe need to up the saving into it each month to try and build up a buffer.

Oh, and sad news - I've decided to give up my allotment! When we were ill it exploded into a mass of brambles and nettles, and we just can't get in front of it. Realistically, while ever I'm working full-time, it's going to be hard to keep one, so it's better to go to someone who has the time to get it back under control. but better to acknowledge it and move on. We'll see what the man from the council says.

Righto, that's it for June, roll on July!

Suziebabe

Hello - End of July update !! So what's been happening?

First, let's get the bad news out the way ....

CC transfer fees mean I can't notch up another percentage point :( - I know they'll get paid off next month and I'll be back on track, but I'm missing the positive feedback of colouring in/striking through my spreadsheet!

confession time - I didn't get my a@@e in gear on the CC transfers so have ended up paying interest :mad::mad: - think I had my head in the sand a bit, but I'm so grumpy with myself about the interest payment hopefully I won't do that again. Next CC transfer is due in September, and it should be a bit more straightforward than this one (I ended up having to split this one between 2 cards, not ideal)

I've had to rein in OH and the grocery shopping - it was creeping back up, with mid week spends as well Had a good chat about the consequences, but not convinced he's properly on board yet so it looks like I'm back to fitting in the grocery shop around everything else

Ok, so enough with the gloomy, here's the positive/good news items!

Got all of DS's school uniform for September, comfortably within the budget in the piggy bank pot, a very good feeling!

The budget shows we should be back to crossing off a percentage point by the end of August - even with a holiday! That'll be a first :T

August is the 1st anniversary of my LBM, and I'm still keeping the faith! Another first, not falling of the bandwagon, facing the music when we've tripped up, and still trudging on in the right direction :T

I'm not sure if this will always be the case, but it looks like August is regularly the point at which all the piggybank pots get low, so it's no wonder that I had such a bumpy start, hopefully they're in better shape this year! The Xmas pot is still building up nicely, there's no birthdays to worry about for a few months so that pot can rebuild, fingers crossed the car won't need anymore attention until September, when the pot will be there for its annual service (not due until Nov but I might try to bring it forward to see if it helps avoid expenses in the winter.) And there's enough in the holiday pot to just about cover the spending on holiday, if we're careful. Which reminds me, must check T?sco vouchers to see if there's a day out anywhere near where we're staying, also for the 6 week holidays.

That's it for now, no doubt it'll be the end of August for the next diary update, hopefully with another percentage point to reduce!

in_need_of_direction

It's all sounding very positive. Keep up the good work.

jodles16

Hello!

Have loved reading your diary! I do my own version of pretending, I use my Santander account for all the bills and savings (the 123 so get cash back as well). With that account I have gotten rid of the bank card and its there to hold money, can access it online if need to transfer it to pay for house things etc but mostly it sits there paying bills and hopefully getting some interest! I use my main Barclays as my spending, I give myself x amount a month every month to spend on food shopping, car fuel and other expenses.

I really like the way you remain level headed about budgeting and though your motivated its attainable and hasnt taken over completely!

Good luck!


Jodles:rotfl:

Suziebabe

Hello diary! End of August update (see I was right, it is monthly!)

Thank you Jodles - my OH would disagree that it hasn't taken over completely though, I'm always on his case about not spending! but then that's because he's the sort of person that money burns a hole in his pocket, so I tell him it's necessary nagging, not something I have a choice about! :rotfl:

It's funny you should mention the 123 account, I'm thinking of doing the same thing as you. I've still got a Santander current account, but switched to 1st Direct last year to get the £100 bonus - which they said I didn't qualify for for some reason, so I've been grumpy with them ever since, and over the holiday I was looking at whether I can use both - get my salary paid into Santander, and set up the DDs for the cash back, then transfer my spending money to 1st Direct in the same way I do for the joint household bills and grocery accounts.

Part of the reason I was looking was that I've finally cashed in some of the shares I had from work that were tax-free, and decided to pay the proceeds in to the old account, just to keep some separation. I had been hanging on to the shares while they price was going up, but I was so annoyed when it dipped recently that this time they went up I decided it was time to bail out while I was ahead! My biggest fear now is that I fritter it away....

All in all, the shares should make about £5k, which would make a lovely dent in our debt total, and I'm very tempted to use it to pay them off - but I don't want to use it while I'm on 0% deals with everything, especially as I can get interest from the 123 account while it sits there. And I feel much better knowing there's almost a couple of months worth of salary in savings, just in case something goes horribly wrong at work, or the car finally gives up the ghost. My thinking is that if I run out of 0% deals, or the debts get down to the savings total, then I'll use it to clear the debts, otherwise I'll let it build up. With a caveat that if I can't resist dibbing in to it, then I get brave and pay off debts with it before I fritter too far!

So now I need to convert my old Santander account to a 123 and switch my salary and DDs, and set up regular transfers out. I'm hoping that if I do that, then I might be able to leave enough in the account each month to increase the savings too, I'd love to get it to £6k. And hopefully avoid the temptation to spend it, since I won't have to actively manage my spending on it!

Other news from this month - managed to have some no spend days on holiday, a first for us! Helped by booking a cottage in the middle of nowhere, and a wet bank holiday! The cottage was very comfy, so staying in with a good book was great for me, my teenage son was very happy to have time online (cottage also had wifi, and he's a gaming nut) so it was just my OH who had to get used to the idea - he cheered up immensely when he realised he could go to the pub at lunchtime (spending his own money, not mine ) And the debts are down another %age point :T:T and I'm all over the next CC transfer to avoid any interest, already have the next deal ready and waiting!

I love the organised feeling I get after being off work for a few weeks - just wish it could continue once I get back to work and back into the maelstrom !! I guess the next chance for that will be Christmas now :shocked::shocked:

Divingmad

Hi suzie,
Just as a thought, T S B do an account that does 5% interest on upto £2000, although you do need to add £500p/m to the account and register for internet banking. It looks like the £500 doesn't have to stay in there.
So (and anyone else feel free to jump in) maybe you could open a s4ntander account and a T S B account, split your shares money between them and set a transfer of £500 a month between the accounts. That way you get 5% on £2000, 2% on the rest (as s4ntander only pay upto 3% interest.
I am sure the more wisely members of the forum will put me right if I have got the deals wrong...but worth a look.
DM

Suziebabe

Hello Divingmad, thanks for posting - I looked into the Lloyds account after reading Martins savings page, but I've got a rather hefty chunk of my credit card balance with them, so I'd be nervous they'd help themselves !! Might just be my incipient paranoia kicking in but better safe than sorry ... My 0% deal with Santander finishes this month, so I'll be moving the cc debt that's currently with them over to virgin, so they can't decide to pay themselves off either ..

Frustratingly, the transfer function on Santander doesn't seem to work with an iPad, so I've got to power up the steam-powered laptop to convert my account ... Grrrrrrr

And it looks like bad weather will give me more time to do diary updates!

Suziebabe

Well, back to work this week, and managing to keep the faith by focusing on the NSD challenge. My aim for the next few months is to establish a habit that every day I'm not travelling with work is an NSD, so I become a stranger to the coffee shop I work next to. This week I really enjoyed finishing the week with £10 still in my purse! A bonus plus is that by taking in everything I need for the day, I'm eating healthier as well, less sugar and processed food.

Next habit I need to tackle is to get back to sweeping the bits over to my virtual savings pot each week .... Off I go!

brizzledfw

Keep going Suzie. ...and agree dropping the coffee shop habit will pay off quite a bit over the months