Simple, Slow Steps To Happiness & Mortgage Freedom

Muser1

I think I must be really dense, ynab blows my mind! X

nellis10

Muser1 wrote: »

I think I must be really dense, ynab blows my mind! X

It took me a moment or two to get my head around it...budgeting ALL your money in advance, but I think I have the hang of it now..Want to see my next wage go in, so I can really understand it!

Welshlassie

I took me a good couple of months to be comfortable with it to the point I was wishing the months away so my next pay packet came in so I could check I did really get it. Took DH a long time to get his head around how the credit cards are used, but he's there now. Just need to persuade him to start putting all our monthly expenses on there now for the cash back benefit.

I_want_a_baby

Thanks for all your comments!


I don't personally use YNAB but my spreadsheet I imagine is very similar. I have columns for each of my budgets and the total of all the columns equals my bank account balance.


Sorry I have been away - I have a horrible cold type bug and am really poorly with it, I cant seem to shake it and still feel rotten!


As a result I seem to have taken my eye off of the ball with regards to spending and whilst I have scraped in within budget a lot of my budgets are at £0.


The food purse has £45.60 in it.
My personal spends purse has £3.90 in it.


I have also put aside £30 to cover drinks at a wedding we are attending all day Saturday.
I have another £40 put aside for a planned day out on bank holiday Monday and a further £20 for half term next week.
The half term money is a new budget I have made after my husbands payrise. I am hoping to actually stash this in the sealed tin as we are having a day out on Monday and I can think of lots of free things to do. This money is for those long two week breaks when it is raining and we want to have the choice of going out somewhere or doing something special.


Very much looking forward to payday a week tomorrow!


In terms of savings:


£13.57 child tax credit - big plan savings
£3.10 save the change - big plan savings
£20.00 sale of coat - sealed tin
£20.00 sale of bed - sealed tin
£22.14 interest - big plan savings
Rounding down accounts - 65p vodaphone DD, 34p sky DD, 29p life insurance DD, 75p nappy budget, 66p days out budget - all big plan savings


MAY TARGETS:
Big Plan - Increase to £800 (£78.39/£62.92)
Cash Sealed Tin - Save a note a week (£43/£20)
Baby no 3 Fund - Increase to £50.00 (£6.67/£6.67)
TGW - Reduce borrowed money column to -£40 (£9.14/£9.14)
Mortgage Overpayment to round down to £88499.00 (£20/£90.94).
TOTAL TARGET £93.25/£189.67 (49% Achieved).



Anyway must dash, need to go and lie down to both help this cold shift and recover from the sparse looking bill account! At least the savings have been ok!


Speak very soon


IWAB xx

Beckyy

Nice to see you back!

I'm a total novice at spreadsheets, they terrify me a little but I might attempt to start one in the future as I think it would do me the world of good!

I_want_a_baby

Beckyy - you should have a go at a spreadsheet - I love mine!


So - Good news - wedding yesterday was just wonderful, had such a fabulous time and out of the £30 we took for drinks we came back with £16.50 which went straight into the sealed tin!


I really cant wait until moving day so we can open it up and see how much we have managed to save!


We were planning on taking the children out tomorrow however the weather is still looking rather iffy so we may still go out but to somewhere closer. Undecided at the moment but we have a £40 budget so we will see - again any spare pennies will go into the sealed tin!


So logging off for now but will be back soon.


IWAB xx

I_want_a_baby

Hey everyone,

Another £12.60 into the sealed tin - change from our day out yesterday.

Received a cheque for £57 for an old phone - this is going into the big plan savings.

Been using up lots of leftovers. Addressed the 1/4 sack of potatoes, put half in the fridge and baked the other half in the oven for quick and easy jacket potato/wedges based meals.

Did a big shop on Tesco £68 to top up lots of things we are running out of... Tea, coffee, loo rolls, toilet cleaner, tins, condiments etc. This comes out of Junes budget leaving £140 for the rest of the month.

Payday on Friday! Hurray!

When I am on the PC next I will update against my may goals.

Night all

IWAB x

nellis10

Beckyy wrote: »

Nice to see you back!

I'm a total novice at spreadsheets, they terrify me a little but I might attempt to start one in the future as I think it would do me the world of good!

Start with a simple spreadsheet, just a couple of columns, Balance, In, Out transactions, before you know it you will have about 4 tabs, 10 columns in each and will be converting so a software version like YNAB! :cool:;)

We all started small with spreadsheets...I love them...I am a numbers person!

I_want_a_baby

Morning All!


Well the payslip is in which means that I can do all the transfers for Junes budgets ready for the pay to come in tomorrow.


Really glad for it and the budgets certainly look a lot healthier now!


I have worked out how much cash to withdraw for the food & fritter budgets and also paid off the last £40 of the borrowed savings! Now ALL budget columns are green and there are no negative values!!


The big plan savings are now standing at a healthy £1026.68. The aim of this is to have £1000 for my husband to buy a car so he can get to & from work when we move to the village (bus's not an option). The next aim is to get the savings to £1500 so that we will have £500 to buy a cooker. The inlaws are taking the fitted kitchen and integrated appliances with them and we don't have a freestanding cooker here.


Finally we are trying to add every spare penny to the sealed tin so that we can use this for paint, polyfiller, sealent, grout etc etc.


The cost of moving walls, new tiles, new flooring, blocking up windows etc we are hoping will come below the £10,000 we are borrowing from my in laws.


I have done some calculations and we can afford to repay £235 per month to the in laws leaving a little spare. Hopefully we would be able to save up along side this and as long as we don't get any big bills along the way we can then pay the loan off early.


After that of course the spare £235 will be hitting the mortgage. As we will be letting the house out I am looking to reduce the mortgage as quickly as possible.


So much going on here that I am working hard to update our banks most days. We need to keep a tight grip on our spending so that we don't loose track.


JUNE's aim is to spend nothing! Ok well maybe that is a bit too ambitious. But the aim is to use up our food hoard, use up the dregs of toiletries and cleaning product and spend as little as we can on these things.
We are going away in the last week of June so I am planning a VERY frugal 3 weeks before hand to make us truly appreciate the treats we will have then!
I am going to keep a spending diary (and update it on here), from today until holiday on the 21st June.
Don't worry for holiday we have a budget too! £300 for all fuel, food, days out, entertainment etc.


Right must dash! Speak soon


IWAB x

Beckyy

Thanks for the spreadsheet encouragement! I feel I'm feeling brave enough o give it a shot soon. Will report back if I do!

You're so organised, it's fab! I hope June is a cheap month for you