Blurred Lines Back In Focus

MuffinTops

I managed to do 3 surveys during my lunch break today, so I'm building up a little reserve there now.

I have decided:

Vouchers - including loyalty award vouchers.
Save for Christmas/Birthday present buying. This includes food shopping loyalty vouchers too.

Unexpected money - Cashback, selling items etc.
This will go to debt or freedom fund.

RosaBernicia

lots going on there MT then - well done you :j

Work treats can add up can't they? I often get flowers for our reception or some fruit for the kitchen, but then feel a bit guilty about my budget as it's money that hasn't gone on something totally practical. I've decided to do it anyway and count it like random acts of kindness


Rosa xx

MuffinTops

Hello Rosa,

Work treats really do add up. It started with me treating myself to a muffin of a morning and then others started coming in early to join me. It seemed rude not to have something for them too, and one does reciprocate the food with a coffee.

It's lovely of you to buy things to cheer reception up. I like your thoughts on that, that it's money towards random acts of kindness. MTx

MuffinTops

Has it really been a week since I updated!

I did update YNAB last Wednesday evening with pretty much everything. There's been a few things I'd forgotten so they've been updated too. I've confused myself slightly as I get paid on the last working day of the month, which is then money for the following month. But all I need to do is stop thinking of payday being the end of the month and make sure I have enough in the bank for things like groceries and petrol to last until 1 July. :cool:

I've also not allocated enough on a few categories, so I'll keep an eye on those and keep "rolling with the punches" to figure out what I'm really spending! Such an eye opener and one well worth keeping!

I had my hair done at the weekend, which came to £59 this time as I had a colour and cut. Next time is just a colour so should be back to £30. I'm really happy with it, and it was desperately needed.

Otherwise, my overspends are in silly areas that I should have more control over. I'm going to work towards a bare bones theory soon as I'm becoming more mindful of what I'm spending.

It was my bosses birthday on Monday and he took me for lunch when it was mine, so I've offered to take him out today. Just another Pizza Express trip as it's local and he loves it there. Sadly my stomach isn't doing great today , but I'm sure I'll find something I can eat without making it worse.

In other news, I've been given 3 radio shows to do this week. My first is the usual request show on Thursday for an hour and a half. That's quite ad hoc for me as I just need to figure out some snippets to talk about. Then I have a 2 hour show Friday evening and a 3 hour show on Saturday lunchtime. Very exciting!

On Saturday I wantt the 3 hour show on The Greatest Popular Recordings of all time. Some of these go back to the 1920's but there's enough energetic and uplifiting songs.

On Friday evening I'm considering doing an old skool disco show with songs from the 70's and 80's.

I've also been asked to do my own show (I've been asking for a couple of weeks, but I'm thinking she didn't hear me ask?) so we're figuring out what another presenter is going to do before I can sort my slot(s) out. He currently does Friday evenings but he suggested that he may want to change to Saturday mornings. If he moves then I'll take his slot as it's a pretty good time (18:30 - 20:30). Otherwise I'll have to work around his time. From there I want to do 70's & 80's music. However, I also like doing much older music, so I'm considering doing 2 shows a week so I can dig up some golden greats. I'll see what's said on Thursday.

Halfway through the week again! The sky is blue and I didn't need a coat today! This is the life!!!!

I hope everyone is having a good week.

MT xx

MuffinTops

Last week I reduced the credit limit on 2 of my credit cards down to £1,000. Today I've closed an unused credit card and have also remembered to close my virgin money account. I'd got the figure wrong though, it was only £104 rather than the £200 I thought I had. Still not to be sniffed at! :cool:

Phoning Lloyds credit card section was painful with their automated system. I almost gave up, but it's sorted now.

Virgin Money made it all really easy and had great customer service! So easy that I want to use them again. I'll consider them when one of my regular savers matures as their fixed rate interest looks promising. PLUS, you get to use the Virgin Money lounges around the country for free!:D

Financially I'm almost fully organised. I do need more time to get use to the ways of YNAB which are very different to the ways I've been using before.

Right, back to work!

MuffinTops

Oh! I forgot to mention (I think it's upset me so much I keep blocking it out).

My car was given it's MOT on Monday and ... it passed! Yay! Except, there's a pending serious problem about to rear it's head which is likely to cost around £500 to repair!

I really want a new car, but I think it'll be much more savvy to just pay the £500 and stick with what I have!

I'll book it in for July to get it done and sorted. If it's going to cost more than £500 I'll have to really weigh up my options.

RosaBernicia

Woooo to radio shows and organising :T sorry to hear about the poorly car - hope it turns out to be something less serious.

It took me a little while to adjust to YNAB working on calendar months, but it makes sense once you get used to it. I get paid slightly earlier in the month so I split my pay for a couple of months until I had kind of caught up and could just go for the whole lot going to the coming month. Of course now I am reversing that as I want to pay money to the cards the minute it comes in, so my paycheque gets split into rent (due on the 27th, so covers a tiny bit of the current month as well as the coming one), money allocated for the current month (bills to pay) and the coming month. I do love the 'roll with the punches' idea too as it is rather closer to my reality - I have pots to cover the essentials that need to be saved for, and then the rest just has to balance out. It's not bothering anybody if I decide to cancel my haircut in favour of a better backpack, for example .

You might like to have a look at your credit report a couple of weeks after you've gone through your old accounts - mine went up a point when I cut down my unused credit.

Enjoy Pizza Express - I like them too, they do gluten free pizzas


Rosa xx

MuffinTops

Hello Rosa,

I love doing my radio shows. I still get such a buzz from forcing my music choices on other poor unsuspecting people!

Thank you for the reassurances with YNAB. I love it and I know it's worth changing my mindset, but it's a big leap to what I'm used to doing. I may have to close some accounts!

Regarding my credit rating, I'm a little sad in that I check it every month. I do that generally to make sure it's all as expected and no dodgy searches going on. Due to the work I've done, my score is the highest it can be. I just wanted to reduce my credit as I was getting to the limit allowed and that's not good! I still get tempted to spend when I want something and don't want to save or wait.

MTx

MuffinTops

I won a 2 person share of £25on the lottery this weekend. So my £12.50 has shot off to my Freedom Fund! Wooh!

However, I visited poundland yesterday and spent £6. I bought a pack of hayfever pills (for £1!!!), 4 CD's and a huge pack of different sized googlie eyes. I have a spoon that belongs to a friend and I want to send it back to him all pimped up! (weirdo )

I've really suffered with hayfever this week. I'm really hoping the pound pills will do the trick as I hate spending a fortune on allergy pills! Pollen count must be low today as I've had no issue and taken no pill.

Yesterday, I also bought 2 CD's and a vegetable washing brush yesterday online. I shouldn't really have bought those particular CD's ! I did need the veggie brush though .

Nothing bought today! :cool:

So, more focus needed. I don't mind spending money on good things or bits I need, but I'm spending on unnecessary clutter again. YNAB should really help me become more aware in that respect too.

Tonight's radio show is all ready to go. I've chosen the songs for Friday and Saturday, so just need to put them on a disk for ease of play.

Right, I'm off to find a pollen count app! Happy Thursday to you all!

MuffinTops

Happy New Week to everyone!

Weekend spends were good. I only bought what I really needed, even taking a shopping list with me when I went to buy food.

I submitted my shop & scan, but didn't record the bits I'd bought out! Must remember to keep up to date with those.

Petrol - £20
I had a lot of driving to do this weekend.

Food - £30 for the week.
Too expensive, but I also bought things to take with me to a friend's house.

I'm in work today (shocking to be at work on a Monday!) and haven't done too well so far. I bought breakfast on my way in which came to £3.65. I was also going to buy a coffee, but it was my 10th one so it was free! I think there's a sign there that it's now a good time to stop buying them!

Online I've ordered an ear dropper as I think I may have the start of an ear infection. To start with I'll just try to give them a good oiling and see if that helps before sitting in a highly infectious waiting room or pharmaceutical counter!

In other news, I updated YNAB yesterday and reconciled all accounts that I could, so I know it was all perfect at that date and time.

I also put on radio 2 shows this weekend, which was amazing and exhausting all at the same time! We still haven't managed to give me a regular slot as other presenters keep changing their mind on what times they want to do! I think it's all figured out now, so I can put something in place. It's likely to mean that I lose the Thursday night show though, which is really sad for me as I LOVE that show . But it's progress and will be nice to sit and finally write up a show I really want to do. The Thursday night show is a training show which is why I'll lose that.

Ooh, almost forgot, my cheques came in the post from Virgin Money So I'll be putting those away at lunchtime ready to whip over to my Freedom Fund.

Let's get this week started !

MTx