New Mission, New Diary

MoneyMission2015

I spent some time today reconciling YNAB so all account balances were correct & then I set my budgets. There are a few categories that I've added again because this month I found that if there was an unexpected spend I was just trying to fit it in one of the set categories, so for instance I went to the gym which cost me £5 & I put that in the Spending Money category. So going forward I have set a Gym category now so I can see exactly what my 'Spending Money' is being spent on. I also was giving my daughter the occasional few pounds for various reasons such as going to the cinema, but again I was just fitting them in the categories already on YNAB, so now I have allocated a proper Entertainment budget so I can see if that spending gets out of control. I am going to show my daughter this so that she can see & understand that there is a budget, otherwise I find she just thinks money is always available. I would like her to be more financially savvy than I was at 18, she's got a few years yet but nothing wrong with instilling it in them sooner rather than later.

Luckily there was a lot of surplus in last months budget which I ended up just putting in to a miscellaneous category to start with, because I knew I was going to end up having to add categories as I go along, so it is nice now to know that my proper set categories are being accounted for.

I had a nice time last night at my friends house. I felt a bit bad because it turned out it was a Body Shop party & I didn't take any money with me because I'm not a fan of their stuff, so I didn't want to buy anything. But when the time came for everyone to start filling in their order forms, I was just sat there trying not to make eye contact with the sales rep & ended up going up to the bathroom for a few minutes then out to the kitchen to top up my drink, to avoid that awkwardness. In fairness though she was not pushy at all & I didn't feel like I had to buy anything & it was fun when all the products were being handed around for a test & some of the smells weren't to everybody's taste, so some of the reactions were amusing. On the plus, I won a bar of soap in one of the games. I'm going to keep it wrapped up & give it as a present to somebody for a birthday or maybe even Christmas.

I have upped my grocery/household budget ever so slightly. It's still nowhere near as high as it used to be when we were just spending constantly, but I just think I need a bit of slack in it as I found that by this last week there were things we actually needed but I was trying to avoid buying them, even though they were necessities (toilet roll anyone!!)

I didn't bake a cake today as I had some other work in the house to get done, but I should get some free time tomorrow so will get that oven on. I do need to do a stocktake of our cupboards, fridge & freezer too so I know what I need when I do the shopping next week. If I don't work out a list I'll just chuck everything I want into a trolley & not have any proper meals sorted. I've got lots of mince & chicken in the freezer so at least I have plenty of meat, so I think I'll focus on vegetables & some tinned goods. I know I definitely need chopped tomatoes & passata. We always seem to have a good stock of these in our cupboards but I noticed this week we were down to our last 2 tins of tomatoes & 1 carton of passata. I like to keep the quantity up on these as they are a good base ingredient for some of the meals we enjoy.

I've got to pay for our holiday this week (all budgeted) & have to finally get round to renewing our home insurance. I will get the quotes again tomorrow & get that up and running so it's sorted. Hopefully get a bit of cashback out of it too. I did notice a cashback thread on the Insurance board on here, where people have had some really good deals, so I am going to check that out as I want to make sure I'm getting the best deal both in the actual insurance premium & the rewards.

Speaking of cashback, I have used TopCashBack for a long time now & have earned nearly £500 on it. I always check the website if I'm going to buy anything to see if the retailer I'm buying from offers cashback through TCB. When cashback becomes payable I usually get it paid out in amazon vouchers because they give a 5% bonus. I noticed today that I've currently got £80 on my amazon account, which is great. I have a few birthdays coming up so hopefully they will come in handy very soon. I also have some gift vouchers in my purse that were given to me for Xmas etc, but as I can't find anything that I want at the moment I am going to use them towards some of the birthday gifts I need to get. I have my budgets in mind but will include the voucher spend in those budgets.

When I was Christmas shopping last year there was a toy I wanted to get for my youngest, which was quite expensive. Because we'd already spent a lot of money on her & had luckily managed to get everything on her list, I decided not to get this toy. Anyway, in true kid style, one of her friends had this toy for Christmas & my daughter loved it. She didn't ask me if she could have one, but you could see how much she enjoyed playing with it. Luckily I was browsing one day on amazon & this particular toy was 50% off. I was secretly smug about the fact that I had been sensible enough not to buy before Christmas but I purchased it then at the discounted rate. I did have the very silly idea that as soon as it arrived I would give it to my daughter as a late Christmas present, stupid, stupid!! Anyway, when it arrived I had by then had my LBM I suppose, so instead of giving it to her I left it in the box & it has been hiding in my wardrobe since then. My plan is I am going to give it to her for her birthday in June. It benefits me in a few ways -

1. I have saved myself money because if I'd given it to her at Xmas I would now be spending more money on a birthday present.
2. I know she enjoys playing with her friends one, so I am confident she will love it, which is always my main concern when buying a gift for somebody.
3. I know other family members will ask for gift ideas so I can ask them to buy accessories for the toy.

I have started getting the bug again for keeping fit, which is good. It's so hard to find the motivation sometimes, especially after long days in work, but because I'm enjoying it again it is much easier for me to get off my butt & go do some running or something. I just hope I start to feel the benefits soon, because at the moment I just feel tired most of the time : (

MoneyMission2015

I've renewed the home insurance today. Our current policy ends on 7th April so I looked around online & have managed to find one a lot cheaper. The annual renewal price with our current provider was £292 but I managed to get a quote for £200 so I'm happy with that. I will also get some cashback because I went through TopCashback. I am fed up of looking at insurance quotes now though, I've looked at loads of quotes for our home insurance but I've also had to get the business insurance renewed in work so have been dealing with that too, they ask so many questions!!


I have the day off work tomorrow & I really need it. I have felt so tired this week. But then my house really needs me to have the day off too, it is in a right mess at the moment. I've been so tired so to be honest that's made me a bit lazy, my washing basket is full again & my bathroom could do with a clean. I'm sure it's probably all in my head but I feel like my house goes from clean to a total disaster in a matter of hours :rotfl:


The painters finished the work that needed doing & we have loads of paint left over, so I think I'm going to paint my bathroom this weekend. It's not a huge bathroom & it's tiled around the bath, sink & shower anyway so it shouldn't take me long at all. I'll also be able to do the woodwork because there is a whole tin of the eggshell paint left over. The painters told us how much paint we would need when we were having the other work done, but I think he overestimated because we have LOADS of paint left over.


I'm disappointed that the weather forecast for this weekend is so bad. I was looking forward to some sunshine. I'm sure I'll find something to do with the kids, but I was hoping we could just spend time in the garden, getting some of the small jobs done that need doing.


First day of the month today so we've had a lot of bills leave the account, which I will need to reconcile on YNAB later today. I know I am constantly going on about YNAB but I really can't believe how much it has changed the way I manage money & how these little changes has already meant I have been able to put money in to my savings. I am annoyed at myself that I didn't ever do it sooner. But that's life, we live & learn. My budgets are set now & I think that going forward we will be in a much better position with our money.


Even though our home insurance has gone down quite a lot, I am still budgeting the higher amount because I think if it does go up for some reason next year, at least I do not have to scrape the amount from other categories. In the meantime I will put the extra amount in to savings. Hopefully if it stays at a reasonably low amount each year, these little savings will add up. Of course at some point the budget might have to be increased but for now there is plenty of room there.


Our car insurance is up for renewal in August but I don't expect that to change much really as it's been the same amount for the past 3 years, give or take a few £'s.

MoneyMission2015

I've had my statement for my Halifax credit card. It's so great reading a statement that says my estimated interest next month is £0.00.

I've already set the Direct Debit up to take the minimum payment, just to make sure I didn't miss the payment. But now I know what the minimum payment is I can set the DD to take a fixed amount instead. I had set a budget of £250 per month & the minimum payment is only £33 so I will more than cover it.

Just got to wait & see what the Barclaycard statement says now. I've also set a budget for that card but it's a higher balance on it so the minimum payment is going to be higher. Luckily it's all on 0% & the BC is actually on 0% for 36 months. I plan to get both cards cleared within 12months but at least if something drastic happens I have plenty of time on 0% if I did have to divert the money somewhere else for a while.

MoneyMission2015

I feel like money is literally running away from me this month & it's only the 7th! We had to pay for our holiday, so I did that on the weekend. We had budgeted for it so it's not had to be taken off other categories, but now that I am trying to pay off the debts & have some savings I would much rather keep that money in my account. Never mind, at least it's not been paid for on the credit cards.


I had a busy bank holiday weekend. We did get a lot done around the house but still have a lot more to do. It just seems like there is so much at the moment it is overwhelming & hard to know where to start . I am going to try & make a list tonight of everything that needs doing so I can break it down into smaller chunks. If I make a list I can also see what jobs I can do myself & what jobs I need my husband to help with. I will also give a few jobs to the kids to do.


All accounts are on track. I have budgeted for an emergency fund, a Christmas fund and a birthday fund, which I have now transferred over to my savings account so that's all covered. The joint account has all the money it needs to pay the remaining bills for this month & my account also has enough money in it to cover things like groceries, fuel etc.


For some reason this month though I have already almost spent my grocery budget. I went shopping on Thursday, with a shopping list. I have put stuff in the freezer but I was annoyed with myself because I bought a fresh chicken to cook on Sunday, but we were out visiting family all day on Sunday & ate a lot while we were with them, so didn't end up cooking the chicken, but then Monday I got the chicken out of the fridge & noticed the use by date was Saturday! I usually don't pay much attention to the use by dates but as it was chicken I didn't want to chance giving the family food poisoning.


The grocery budget thing isn't a huge problem. My budget is only half the family budget, my husband has the other half and hasn't spent anything yet, so I will now tell him to get the fresh food every week. We do it this way so that either of us can go shopping for any groceries we need. As long as we stick to the monthly budget it is fine. We have to split it because we have both deliberately not memorised our PIN's for the joint account because we just have the bills coming out of that account. With our previous joint account we both had cards & would spend money without thinking, then end up overdrawn when bills came out.


I've had my statement for the Barclaycard now too and the payment I had set is higher than the minimum payment, which is exactly what I wanted to ensure. I'm glad that's all sorted because I don't have to worry about it now. I am going to let the Direct Debits come out every month, then at the end of the month pay an extra lump sum on to the cards to get the balances cleared as soon as possible.

MoneyMission2015

I just realised I haven't set myself any targets this month, so I think I had better get that sorted.


1. Stay on budget!
2. Keep track of no spend days. I know I have them quite often now during the week because I take my own lunch to work a lot, but I never remember how many days I manage.
3. Make an overpayment on to one of the cards. It doesn't really matter which one anymore as they are all 0% :j
4. Look at opening a bank account with 'pots'. I have a normal savings account which is linked to my personal current account and I have been putting everything in to there, but I would like an account that lets me split the money in to pots, so that I know for certain how much of it is for Christmas, birthdays etc.
5. See if there is room in the budget to increase my pension contributions.


I think that's all for now. I'm sure I'll remember some of the other things I wanted to achieve as I go about my day, but at least I have something down now to refer to at the end of the month to see if I managed to achieve any of it.

MoneyMission2015

I've got a little extra money paid this week that I forgot about, so I have split this between groceries as I think my grocery budget this month was maybe set a bit too low to begin with & then the other half is going to be paid towards a credit card.


I had 3 no spend days last week so I'm happy with that. I will have a spend day today because I have to buy some bread & a few other things from the supermarket but I will be making a list & will get all the shopping done in one trip. The small trips on the way home from work are the worst because I go in for one thing & come out with 5, so to avoid doing this I want to get my list of shopping all done today so I don't have to go back to the supermarket again this week then.


I haven't looked at bank accounts yet with pots for my savings. I need to get this done this week so I can get that all transferred over & making sense to me.


I have looked at the budget regarding my pension contributions though & I think I have room for it. At the moment my employer doesn't do one & our staging date for auto enrolment isn't until 2017, so for now I will have to sort my own out until we go ahead with setting up a company pension.


We had a busy weekend of cleaning, moving furniture around & building furniture. The house is starting to get tidy again, but with all the decorating & moving around it's taking a while to get everything back to normal. I am hoping to get rid of some of our clutter while I put things away, which is why I'm taking my time with it as I don't want to just put everything back without really deciding whether we need the stuff or not. And it is all just 'stuff', we had boxes in the garage that have been in there now for at least a year so obviously don't need any of it. So that was the first thing to go.


I managed to get to the gym as well, I will try & go again this week if I can find the time and then hopefully keep up with 2 visits a week. Unfortunately I don't think I'd be able to make it more than twice a week because of work, kids & OH also needing to go to the gym, so I will go twice a week & then maybe try and squeeze a 20 minute run in when I can find the time.


The Direct Debits for my new credit cards don't come out until close to the end of the month & it says on the statement that if a payment is made before the DD date they will adjust the DD amount, but I don't want them to do that, so I am going to make an extra payment the day after the DD payment goes out.


That reminds me I have to ring Tesco CC. This is one of the ones which I balance transferred from. When I made the balance transfer it had around £10 left on it but I had a DD set up, but I logged on to view the statement on Friday and they have charge a missed payment fee! So I need to ring them as I double checked and the DD is still set up, its how I have always paid them. So I am going to ring them to query this & ask them if they will remove the default fee & make sure this does not leave a mark on my credit file.

MoneyMission2015

I called Tesco today about the late payment charge on my account. The person I spoke to said that it must have missed the DD because I changed the DD from a fixed amount to full balance, so their system couldn't cope with that. Anyway, he kindly cleared the late payment from my account & I just made a debit card payment for the small balance that was left.


I know I say it often, but it does feel really good knowing I am not paying interest anymore & all my payments are actually paying off the debt rather than more interest. The banks have made enough money from me!!


:j

snowscreamer

Hi MM,

Just playing catch up. Sounds like you are right on track with the help of the amazing YNAB. Great not to have to worry about interest payments (I had my last overdraft usage payment come out of my current account this month and it feels great - plus OH credit card will no longer be accruing interest from next month when he's able to put it back onto monthly repayment without worrying about going into overdraft).

Our total "bank charges" should be 0 from June. From a high of £78.21 in December!!! Last month was £38.84 in total bank charges and this month so far £10.50 but will probably end up around £15 when OH credit card interest is added. Then next month should be less than £5. Hope from June to be able to hide this nasty category!

However, we do both have to resist the temptation to pay off our debt at a glacial pace because there is no interest. Equally paying off too fast and we might come off the rails... I am going to try to keep going at around £500 per month. This is enough to pay off the card before the interest free period expires but not so much that purse strings break because they are too tight. Sustainable.

Hope your April is going well so far - nice to see the sunshine!

Snowscreamer

MoneyMission2015

Snowscreamer, you have hit the nail on the head there. I was doing a calculation for about the hundredth time working out how much I need to pay each month to get the cards cleared in 9 months, 12 months, 18 months etc.


Then it dawned on me that what I should be doing really is just paying a small amount on the 0% cards and put the 'overpayments' in to an account to earn a little bit of interest. I know it won't earn much interest, but every little bit earned is money I'm taking off the banks :rotfl:

MoneyMission2015

I've had such a busy few weeks & still got another busy few days coming up. I hope next week is a bit quieter as I need a rest!


It's coming up to payday again & I'm pleased that my budgets are looking ok. I've gone a bit over on one or two areas because it was my daughters birthday, but I had money left over in another budget that was a one off budget for this month, so the money can be put towards my overspend in the other areas.


One thing I am surprised at is my fuel budget. I budgeted £160 but still have £95 left over with only a few more days until I can allocate my budgets again. I think I have another day or 2 left in my tank so actually by the time I need to fill up it will be payday again. With the excess I think I'll just transfer the money straight in to my emergency fund.


I've got a few payments that I need to make today but I also need to spend a bit of time reconciling YNAB as I haven't done that for a while now. I will do the reconciling tomorrow when some of the payments I make today have left the accounts.


I am really enjoying the sunshine at the moment, especially now that it is actually starting to feel warmer too, rather than just looking sunny but still being cold. I hope it continues to get warmer so we can have a lovely summer. The sunshine always seems to put people in a better mood. I hope we can spend a lot of time outdoors this summer, as our garden is looking lovely now so I want to make the most of it.


Work is very busy at the moment & a bit frustrating at times too, as the Directors are always changing their minds about things, which directly impacts my job because I report directly to them & manage everybody else, so I find myself having to tell everybody one thing & then having to change it all when the directors decide to go in another direction. Oh well, I guess it would be boring if everything was straightforward.