Thistlewhistle 2014 - A Fresh Start

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

This is definitely a question for GallyGirl, Lois or Edinburgher.

Night, Tilly x x

Thistlewhistle

Payments to mortgage & credit cards are just a movement in funds, not an expense therefore its a cashflow issue. The money hasn't left the system.
The expense was incurred when the item(s) were bought - a budget issue - money left the system.

I'm sure that's right.

GG, Lois, Edinburgher????:wall:

gallygirl

Stop over thinking it Thistle - it's just innies and outies, a bit like belly buttons. Basically you're looking for more innies than outies

Bet you're glad I popped over to give you advice :T

I don't over-complicate it. Basically I have a list of regular DDs which get populated on main account spreadsheet a year in advance. I add to that a regular cash amount every week. Then my monthly salary (which is where it's harder for you). The day before payday I have a formula to remove excess funds so the balance is zero before payday. In theory that surplus gets transferred to savings but in reality it's usually already at zero as I run at 10 pound surplus on budgets :eek:

Included in budget is a monthly amount which goes to savings - that gets divvied up between around 10 pots. That is for irregular bills such as car stuff, clothing etc, also diesel as that can vary a lot. This is the one I struggle with so I can see your issue. Ignoring whether I'm using the correct technical terms (depending on where I'm sitting the window may be on my left or right ) I credit the cash then debit with the credit card bill when I do my monthly reccie. But when to do it? When I spend it or when I get the bill? Or when I transfer to the current account (and enter bill in outie column). Plus I use 2 different cards. And have house spends which need to be innied and outied elsewhere. And also the 'oops' category which has to come from the ten pounds excess.

So, no real help, but I feel your pain.

And yes, I suppose it is a projected cashflow

Lois_E

Firstly, glad the op went well. Take things easy, and I hope your recovery goes swiftly and smoothly.

Secondly, well done on getting the card below £4000. Onwards and downwards!!

Thirdly, I'm with gally - no idea about the technical terms and don't care anyway.

My "financial master spreadsheet" has in/out and balance columns for each of my accounts and cards, but also has one called net assets which is the total adding up all my accounts and taking away any overdrafts or credit cards, and another called net owing, which is a very big negative number found by taking net assets away from my mortgage amount. Paying off a credit card bill doesn't make any change to either of these. I have graphs of both of them over the last nearly three years - I find it exciting to see the daily wiggles adding up to an upward trend.

A while ago I was also running a spending diary, which had everything that I spent, by card or cash, and any other outgoings (like mortgage interest) in about 14 categories, and income in categories too - salary, maintenance, child benefit, tax credits, savings interest. I had two stacked bar charts - one for innies and one for outies, side by side for comparison. A spending diary like that is very helpful if you feel you don't know where the money is going, and want some help deciding where it would be most effective to cut back. It's also helpful if you want to set a budget and have no idea where to start. I decided it was too much work to go on keeping it in that level of detail forever so I'm not doing that bit at the moment. I did like the stacked bars, though.

What matters is not whether you have the right terms for things, or whether you have some kind of "right" system of tracking your money. What matters is that it works for you. Find a system of your own that you're comfortable with and that you find motivating, and go with that.

Thistlewhistle

Gallygirl and Lois.....you are amazing. It's really helped if only to know that you'd struggled a bit with it too. I think I have a clearer picture of what I'm doing now. Just need to do it.

Cheers! I appreciate your galloping to my rescue!!!

tattycath

gallygirl wrote: »

Stop over thinking it Thistle - it's just innies and outies, a bit like belly buttons. Basically you're looking for more innies than outies

Bet you're glad I popped over to give you advice :T

I don't over-complicate it. Basically I have a list of regular DDs which get populated on main account spreadsheet a year in advance. I add to that a regular cash amount every week. Then my monthly salary (which is where it's harder for you). The day before payday I have a formula to remove excess funds so the balance is zero before payday. In theory that surplus gets transferred to savings but in reality it's usually already at zero as I run at 10 pound surplus on budgets :eek:

Included in budget is a monthly amount which goes to savings - that gets divvied up between around 10 pots. That is for irregular bills such as car stuff, clothing etc, also diesel as that can vary a lot. This is the one I struggle with so I can see your issue. Ignoring whether I'm using the correct technical terms (depending on where I'm sitting the window may be on my left or right ) I credit the cash then debit with the credit card bill when I do my monthly reccie. But when to do it? When I spend it or when I get the bill? Or when I transfer to the current account (and enter bill in outie column). Plus I use 2 different cards. And have house spends which need to be innied and outied elsewhere. And also the 'oops' category which has to come from the ten pounds excess.

So, no real help, but I feel your pain.

And yes, I suppose it is a projected cashflow

I like the 'I don't over complicate' bit. My brain is already fried just reading it!

Thistlewhistle

Hi TattyCath,

I know what you mean!! I think I'd just spent so long trying to sort it, I met myself coming back!!!

T;)

Thistlewhistle

Evening all,

Enjoyed a lovely day today, driving along the North Wales Coast to Bangor and then onto Anglesey. Rained a bit this morning but the afternoon was fine but really moody with dark clouds and snow capped mountains. The tide was ebbing when we got to Penmon, and the sun came out briefly. It was one of those really nice "glad we made the effort" days.

Just time to do a couple of quick TTs (31p & 84p), then a nice bath and off to bed. Need to do some work tomorrow after 4 days off. Just light duties though - nothing strenuous. Armchair stuff!!

Night all.

T;)

norfolkdream

Sounds like a lovely day T, if only every day could be something like that

Thistlewhistle

Went out for lunch today and my friend picked up the bill, so I'm counting that as money saved so need to transfer £9.99 across to the savings account. I'll do that later when I do the days' TTs.

Paid £450 into my business account today which has bolstered that balance a bit. My colleague is running my group for me tomorrow as I'm "out of action" (not allowed to lift!) until 28/02/2014. I pay her £90 to do this but I'll earn the rest. It's a great opportunity to catch up on all the admin that never gets done.
If I'm up to it, I'll do a group visit tomorrow evening so I can claim the £90 back in expenses. It's not a strenuous job doing a visit so this'll save me paying out the cover fee.

Speaking of going out, must get ready for a meeting at 3:30pm with potential group venue. If it all pans out, once I recruit, the venue will already be sourced and that'll cut down on the stress of it all.

Wish me luck!
T;)