New Mission, New Diary

MoneyMission2015

In other news everything else seems to be ticking along nicely. I am still enjoying using YNAB but have around 7 days left on the trial so will need to purchase it soon. I definitely want to buy it as it has been helpful to me just in the trial period as I can see exactly where all my money is going.


Before YNAB I would be counting down the days to payday because I'd be panicking that I was running out of money, but now I am counting down the days to payday so that I can allocate the monthly budget, put some money aside for savings etc.


I'm still getting to grips with what categories I need and it will probably be a few months before all my categories are sorted. But I do have all the bills covered in separate categories and then I have a Birthdays category, Christmas, Emergency Fund and some that I have added in myself.


My plan is that once I have paid off the credit cards I can just put all of that money in to savings accounts because by then I will know where all my money needs to go & will have hopefully made savings in some areas too.


Groceries seems to be going ok for me. I've not gone over budget yet but only have around £20 left of the budget. This shouldn't be an issue because I have loads of chicken & mince in the freezer and also lots of other things in the house. That £20 should be fine just to keep us going with the fresh ingredients we might need & if we do run out I also have plenty of pasta in the house anyway & some pasta sauces.


Our decorating is going well. The painters managed to get quite a bit done yesterday & was gone by the time we got home. I was glad they had already left because I don't really like having people in the house while I'm home. I actually want to book a day off work soon to get some things done around the house, but I will have to wait until they are finished now as I really don't want to be there while the decorators are there.


Anyway, I had better get on & do some work! It's pretty quiet around the office today so I have managed to get completely up to date on everything I needed, but I've had a few emails in this morning now which I need to action.

MoneyMission2015

One of the balance transfers has gone through now, which is good. I'm hoping the other transfer will go through soon so I can see the remaining balance that needs sorting.


I was thinking more about the payments that I mentioned yesterday. I calculated that based on my current level of repayments I will be debt free in around 17 months. But then I remembered that I have the PPI money coming to me, so this will reduce the time it takes to get these debts paid.


I'm also hoping that I can continue to make extra repayments on top of what I am currently paying. Rough figures suggest I should be able to make at least an extra £150 payment per month. I don't think I'll be able to do this every month because I'm still getting to grips with budget categories etc, so some things that I didn't think of might crop up in some months. But the budget is looking good as it is so eventually everything will be in place and as YNAB says 'all £'s will have a job'.


I've not got much left in the grocery budget for this month. Fuel budget is fine, my tank is almost full so should get me to the end of the month now but even if it doesn't I have got enough left in the budget to top me up for a few days if I run out towards the end of the month.


Can't believe it is the Easter holidays soon! It feels like the kids have only just gone back to school & now I've got to start thinking about how much childcare is going to cost me again. I might look at booking a few days off & I do have the 2 bank holidays off anyway, so I've got 8 days to sort out. My childminder is only working for the first week but there is a holiday club run at my daughters school in the second week so I will look in to booking that for a few days if I need to. Hopefully my husband will also be able to take a day or two off.

MoneyMission2015

Today has been a good post day : ) Came home to my Halifax card & my cheque from MBNA. Will make sure I pay that in tomorrow & get it paid off a card. Can't wait to see the debts reduce so much.

MoneyMission2015

Ok, so a few things sorted.


My transfer from CC2 to the new Barclaycard has gone through. So that is now on 0%.


I've paid Next with my CC2, so Next account is now completely cleared. I will now transfer this amount from CC2 on to Barclaycard so this will also be 0%.


I've had my Halifax card through & have set up the online banking, but it's not currently showing any balance transfers pending. I don't want to set one up in case it then duplicates the transfer & takes me over the card limit, but I really want it sorted. So impatient :rotfl:


I will leave it a few more days & if it isn't showing up I will call them to see if there is anything pending. If there isn't then I will set it up myself online. Then everything will be on 0%.


I am slightly disappointed that I wasn't able to get to the bank today to pay my cheque in. I really wanted that in my account so I could pay it straight on to one of the cards. I was considering putting it in to a high interest account to earn a bit of interest and just carry on paying the 0% cards off as per my previous repayment plan I mentioned in a previous post, but I think if I do this I will end up dipping in to it and also I am looking forward to seeing a big reduction in the debt. I'm going to think about it for a bit because obviously it would make sense to earn some interest on it while all my debts are on 0%.


It's been a lovely day where I am today. A bit cold outside but lovely in the sunshine. I've been stuck in work for most of it though, am actually still in work now but taken a later lunch today because I had a lot of work to get through earlier today that I didn't want to stop before I'd completed. All done now though & get to go home at 4.30 anyway, so not a bad afternoon for me really.


I've got a quiet evening planned tonight. I will get home, sort dinner out & get some washing on then my plan for the evening is to catch up on some TV. Although looking outside at the moment I think I might be tempted to go for a little run later. I'll see how the rest of my afternoon goes.


I'm doing ok on budgets. Not much left of the grocery budget but I don't think I really have to get much & if it does get a bit tight I can probably borrow some from the fuel budget because it doesn't look like I'm going to need to put anymore diesel in before the end of the month. I've had a few no spend days this week & hoping to have more next week.


I've got to work out how much my childcare is going to be next month with the easter holidays. I'm going to take a few days off & my husband said he will be able to take 2 days off, so hopefully between us we only need to pay for childcare for 4 days.


I think next month I'm going to up my budget a little bit for my gas & electric. At the moment we're fine & the DD covers our usage, but it is only just slightly in credit so I would just like to start building a buffer now so that in the winter I can increase the DD if I need to when we start using the heating again. We should be able to keep it relatively reasonable because we have solar panels, but I would rather have a slightly bigger budget now so that if the DD does have to increase I'm not having to adjust my budgets again & shave the money off other categories. The reason I am unsure of this category is because we have only been with our new supplier for a few months & the DD is very low compared to what we were paying with our previous supplier. I know this is because the new supplier is cheaper, but because it is so much less (£49 compared to £80) I am worried that they have made a mistake or something :rotfl:. I did have proper annual usage in front of me when we did the comparison & made the switch, so all that was accurate, but I would rather err on the side of caution. Besides, if the DD doesn't have to increase I can just keep that money ticking over in the bank account anyway to build up a little buffer for other emergencies that might crop up.

thegreenone

You are inspirational! I'm going to sit down and look at balance transfers. I looked at snowballing but think I have a better idea, based on that, for our debt.


Do you have a slow cooker? I don't work but still use mine frequently. Throw the ingredients in the bowl the night before to marinate and leave the bowl in the fridge, switch on in the morning. Also, have you tried the Hairy Dieters Bikers books for their Fakeaway meals. Brilliant and so easy. I prefer the first book personally and excellent if your hubby is still watching his waistline!


My tablet won't accept YNAB so I need to find an alternative or build my own. I won't even tell you how much our energy bills are (and our food bills, about what yours WERE!) but hopefully soon to be less as we've just had our roof replaced with NASA-tech. Insulation.


Your diary has really got my mind whirring, thank you.

MoneyMission2015

Thank you greenone! Nice to think I've helped somebody : )

If you are able to get a balance transfer it will definitely be worth it, save so much money on interest so all your payments are actually paying the debt rather than making the banks even more money.

I don't have a slow cooker. I have been thinking of getting one, might have a look this weekend & get a few recipes together. We have sooooo many cookbooks & I know we have got a hairy bikers one but I don't know which one it is. I must admit we've got lots of cookbooks that we haven't even used but we've been having some decorating done in the house at the moment so I've had to move the books so I think when I am putting them back I will get rid of the ones I'm not fussed on & pick out some recipes from the ones I keep.

Grocery bills seem to be a big issue for loads of people. It's so easy to go into the supermarket & fill the trolley without even thinking about how much you're spending. I was shocked when I worked out how much money we'd been spending and I knew that we had thrown away lots of it too, so makes me mad to think of the waste.

Good luck with your plans. Keep that mind whirring.

MoneyMission2015

I'm a bit annoyed at myself today. I was awake by 7.30 this morning & was laying in bed for a bit thinking I would go for a run while everybody else was still in bed. Then I decided against it, thought I would just relax for a bit while the house was quiet. But now I'm wishing I did go for a run, it would have been a lovely start to the day & would have done me good too.

Never mind, next time I will make sure I get straight out instead of letting myself think about it.

I have had a productive day though, despite the lazy start. I made a smoothie for my breakfast, so no bad food & it meant the fruit was used up as opposed to being thrown out (it was looking a bit unhappy). I have also done 4 loads of washing, made some cakes, put up some pictures & had a general tidy up. So I'm quite pleased with myself after the bad start.

I had a panic yesterday. I was in work & at lunch time I planned to pay my PPI cheque in to the bank. I checked my bag & couldn't find it, so thought I must have left it on my dressing table at home. When I got home I checked straight away & it wasn't there. I checked everywhere, the pile of post in the kitchen, the small pile of post I'd stuffed in my bedside drawer to deal with in the evening & the stuff that my husband had put on the hallway table to take into work with him. I couldn't find it anywhere! So I resigned myself to the fact that I had misplaced it & I decided to ring MBNA today to ask them to cancel the cheque & reissue it. Then today while I was tidying up I remembered that I'd thrown some of the envelopes from my post into my bedroom bin. I checked it & found the cheque, luckily.

So I've put it straight into my purse now & plan to get straight to the bank on Monday before I lose it again!

I realised today that I still haven't received my cheque from Sky. I found the letter regarding that & called the number on the letter but it doesn't give any option to speak to an advisor, so I will have to ring the main number I think to find out where the cheque is. When I first received the letter & made the phone call, the automated confirmation said the cheque would be processed in 10-14 working days, but this was around 20th February so I should have received it by now.

I've had some cashback payable on my TopCashBack account. It's around £18 so I'm going to add it to my amazon account. I always use cashback websites & more often than not I just convert the payout to amazon because we use amazon a lot for Christmas & birthdays. Plus topcashback give an extra 5% on top if I have amazon vouchers instead of having the money paid into my bank account.

The Halifax balance transfer still hasn't gone through so I think I am going to call them to check for any pending transactions & if they can confirm there isn't any, I will set up the balance transfer myself through my online account.

Chilli for tea tonight, yummy. I have defrosted enough mince to make a large batch so we will have leftovers. I do need to go shopping tomorrow but only to buy bread for packed lunches, yogurts & some vegetables. I should be able to stay within the grocery budget this month & I have a lot of chicken, sausages and mince in the freezer plus loads of rice, pasta, tinned foods & other frozen food. I have got some frozen veg also, so when the fresh stuff is used up I can just use frozen to bulk out my meals.

I'm trying to lose a bit of weight myself at the moment so need to stay away from crisps as much as possible. I can feel I'm in my health kick mojo at the moment though, so I should be able to do this.

MoneyMission2015

I rang Halifax today & the person I spoke to on the phone confirmed that there were no pending transfers on my account, so I set that up. As soon as that goes through all my debt will be on 0% :j
Then it's just time to knuckle down & get them paid off as quickly as I can.


A few posts ago I commented how my credit report must be looking better lately because of the 2 new cards I was accepted on for the balance transfers. Well today I've had a letter off my longest running credit card saying the usual story, reviewed the account blah blah blah, and they're increasing the limit!! It seems like money is being thrown at me at the moment, almost like in the old days before the credit crunch. I won't be spending on it though. I suppose for the time being that can be my absolute dire emergency fund, if something really drastic happens & we don't have enough money to pay for it.


Payday this Friday & I'm glad to report I've not gone over budget on anything and still have money left over. This month anything that is left over in the joint account on payday I am going to transfer it in to a separate account as a buffer. Then I will do this every month & maybe every 3 months decide what to do with the buffer money, split it between maybe debt repayments, emergency fund, Christmas/birthdays etc. These categories have got their own budgets but if I can top these up every few months I should start to see nice little pots build up. At some point then we will start overpaying our mortgage again, so I suppose I could start putting that buffer towards these mortgage overpayments.


I am going to the gym tonight! It's not my favourite place in the world but a friend has asked if I will go with her & I felt like I couldn't say no because I know she hasn't got anybody else who will go with her & she doesn't like going on her own. I went for a run yesterday too so if I can keep up 2 runs & 1 gym visit per week, I should be beach ready for our holiday later this year :rotfl:


I can't remember how many no spend days I've had this month, I need to start keeping track a lot better. I know I've had a few per week & didn't spend anything at all this weekend because I didn't go anywhere. I was putting it in my diary but every so often I would forget & it's just trailed off a bit. I will have to try harder.

MoneyMission2015

All the transfers are now done so everything is on 0%. I've set up minimum payment Direct Debit for now just to ensure nothing gets missed, but as soon as my first statements come through & I know what the minimum is on each card I can then make overpayments and will then amend the Direct Debits to pay a fixed amount per month rather than the minimum. I was going to set up a fixed amount now but I was worried that it might not be high enough to cover the minimum & then if I didn't pay enough I'd lose the 0% promotional offers. That wouldn't be good!


I just can't wait for payday on Friday now so that I can get on with the new monthly budget.

MoneyMission2015

Oh my goodness, this has been a long week!


It's payday today so I've got all the account balances written in my diary now. I will update YNAB later. I purchased YNAB this week, my trial had run out & I have really found it works great for me so I went ahead with the purchase. I bought it through Steam as it was £29.99 on Steam, so cheaper than direct with YNAB, even with the discount code they give.


My budgets went slightly haywire towards the end of this month though. Unfortunately I ended up going over on groceries & some other categories. Some of the overspend will balance out in April because it was stuff I've bought for my daughters birthday, which I thought I might as well buy in March, so in April I wont have that spend even though I budgeted for it. Groceries went over because I ended up running out of a few household things but didn't realise until I was almost out of grocery money, so I had to 'borrow' from another category to buy toilet roll & other household items.


All my balance transfers are done now which is good so I'm not paying the banks any more interest :j. I just want the statements to come through so I know what the minimum payments will be, I will be paying more than the minimum every month on them but need to know what the minimum payment is to begin with.


I've got a busy weekend planned. I have an invite to a friends house for a few hours tonight, just for a catch up. I'm glad it's not a night out, don't want to spend money if I don't need to. Then for the rest of the weekend I have planned to have a spring clean, well as best I can with everybody else in the house. I always find I get more done when I'm in the house on my own, which doesn't happen often, so most of the time I'm just trying to tackle one job while mess is being made in another room.


I have a busyish few days in work next week but then have some days booked off over the easter holidays, including the bank holidays. It will be nice to have an extra few days off work & hopefully the weather will be nice so we can spend some time outdoors.


I fancy baking a cake again too, so I might do that tomorrow. I know I've got all the ingredients so it's not going to cost me anything.


I have dinner all planned tonight for the family. I don't know whether I should eat before I go to my friends house as she did mention she'll put a few nibbles on. I might have something light to eat before I go, then if she doesn't do food I can just eat the leftovers from the family meal but if my friend does do food at least I won't be too full to turn it down. Then any leftovers can be kept for the kids to split for lunch tomorrow.