Tired of playing catchup!

denialanderror

(I know I still have a Misc cash budget. I'll use the memo field to record what is spent from this so then I can start seeing patterns and setup categories for the reoccurring things)

denialanderror

Just a quick note for the end of the weekend -


Could probably introduce a category of "other people" in my budget.
Total spend for the weekend ended up being 16.15.


Breakdown
- Pub 1, Saturday Evening with a mate I haven't seen for a long time while waiting for the others to arrive
Total of 6.80 - A Peroni at 4.70 and a coke at 2.10


- Pub 2, Sunday Evening with other half, who is now considering staying in the country
Total of 8.35 - Sauvignon at 5.85 and a coke at 2.50


- 1.00 in the air machine at the petrol station for the car tyres. "Minimum Vend".


The rest of the spend has been fuel, picking up a few people for the pub, picking other half up from work last night and dropping her off this morning. I don't mind picking people up for the pub, it's sort of on the way and they then buy my cokes all night instead of fuel money.


On the face of it these seem like reasonable spends, I net just under 100.00 per working day and I guess in my mind I figured I should be able to afford these luxuries now, coming round to the idea that my money won't in reality go as far as I thought it would back when I was on a much lower wage aspiring to the job I've now got.


Off for a run tomorrow evening, at least that's free excluding the drive to the woods I run through.

snowscreamer

Making sure all spends are logged is a great start!

We ended up restricting our "drinks out" budget to £20/month for both of us, and our train (in London) budget to £20/month. It does mean sometimes we have to say no when our monthly budget is out - so we have cut back on going out with friends but it's a good compromise. Means we actually enjoy it a lot more when we do have a night out!

denialanderror

snowscreamer wrote: »

Making sure all spends are logged is a great start!

We ended up restricting our "drinks out" budget to £20/month for both of us, and our train (in London) budget to £20/month. It does mean sometimes we have to say no when our monthly budget is out - so we have cut back on going out with friends but it's a good compromise. Means we actually enjoy it a lot more when we do have a night out!

Wow £20 between 2 is really good, especially in London!
I'm not far out of London myself and drinks prices locally are just ridiculous.


I've noticed it seems to be either when I go out with GF or just a very small group of others that it gets expensive as it becomes a bit awkward not to buy a round and even more awkward to start getting tight about the difference in drink prices, especially with people I've known a long time who would think it out of charachter for me to be like that.


At the beginning of the year I did hugely cut back on going out to things like this, instead staying in with GF and cooking, and it did make a real difference to me getting the money together to settle the car loan, need to get back to that mentality, seeing the cost of it in black and white focusses the mind a bit lol.


I've just noticed your signature - £6000 of debt gone in 7 months is amazing!. Hoping with a bit of work I can achieve similar results.


Sadly run has been postponed till tomorrow by an unexpected invite I got this morning, bit of a drive at 69 mile round trip but it's a very old friend and invite gave the impression somethings happened so feel a bit obliged.

denialanderror

Ok, becoming a little frustrated now.
Too many "social obligations", not sure how I can cut this down without either offending people or letting them know I'm worrying about money.


Total for last night - 16.62 plus fuel.
31.77 in the "Food and Drink out" category for this week.


I'd like the 40.00 I've got left in the budget for this sort of thing to last till end of the month, might get a break this weekend as most people I know locally are off to Download so usual pub trip on Friday night probably won't happen.


Can't foresee any spends till Friday evening now although GF is talking about going out somewhere Saturday as she is off in the daytime. I think it is her turn to buy lunch though so that's a bonus.

snowscreamer

I don't live in London (25 miles out) but when we do go out for drinks it is often in London as we have a lot of friends who live and/or work in London. So we allocate £20/month for the train into London. It cost around £30 for both of us to get into London if we walk from Waterloo so we just wait until the train budget has got enough before we accept an invitation. We probably end up doing London for drinks once every 7-8 weeks and then the rest of the drinks budget goes on impromptu drinks at our local pub in between times.

Our social situation is probably slightly easier because aside from the neighbours (and we normally socialise with them at their place! - must have them round ours soon though) we don't have many local friends. Our friends are all in London. So the social pressure is reduced because we just say we don't do weekdays (too much effort to schlep into London after work) and when there is stuff going on at the weekends we make an excuse that we're already booked or if the budget says we can we accept. I don't miss it that much - I like my nights in and I am a country bumpkin at heart! As I said when we do go out I enjoy it more now it's rare.

Re £6000 in my signature - that's net debt reduction. We have paid down our debts by around £2250 and the other £3750 is accrued savings - rainy day / annual expenses. But we never used to accrue anything before - so I suppose in a way it is like we reduced our debt that much It's a great feeling! It's all through YNAB and accompanying mindset change.

Baldybear

Afternoon, another local to London (not far from Guildford) here. Here is my two penneth worth (feel free to ignore).

If you are poor and are trying to stick to a budget then real friends will understand if you cant accept every social committment. There are lots of cheap ways of entertainment, picnic in the park, BBQ's or drinks at yours or friends that can be accommodated easier into your budget.

I dont see my friends as much as I like but so be it, a few know about my finances, not all but they appreciate that things are tight and I cant do everything.

I am at that age (37 eek!) that I dont care about keeping up with the jones, or keeping friends that dont understand the situation I am in and are not helping. I am me and if you dont like me and what I entail then fine by me.

Your financial situation seems as though you have enough money to cover monthly and most annual bills, may take a while to get there but like snowscreamer has said will take a few months or so then will slip into place.

I am short £300 each month at the moment which my parents subsidise me temporarily and thats just to cover the monthly bills. The annual expenditure and debt repayments (bar minimum) and everything misc (going out etc) over £50 a month I have to find extras for. I am achieving goals but only through a lot of hard work and dedication to what I want to achieve.

The £45k to take on mortgage plus the £30k to buy the ex out well thats something will be a long work in progress but I will get there one day

Am also on my own, single through choice at the moment so its all up to me to achieve it

snowscreamer

Baldybear wrote: »

Afternoon, another local to London (not far from Guildford) here. Here is my two penneth worth (feel free to ignore).

Not far from Guildford, keep horses, you don't live down my road do you?

denialanderror

snowscreamer wrote: »

I don't live in London (25 miles out) but when we do go out for drinks it is often in London as we have a lot of friends who live and/or work in London. So we allocate £20/month for the train into London. It cost around £30 for both of us to get into London if we walk from Waterloo so we just wait until the train budget has got enough before we accept an invitation. We probably end up doing London for drinks once every 7-8 weeks and then the rest of the drinks budget goes on impromptu drinks at our local pub in between times.


Our social situation is probably slightly easier because aside from the neighbours (and we normally socialise with them at their place! - must have them round ours soon though) we don't have many local friends. Our friends are all in London. So the social pressure is reduced because we just say we don't do weekdays (too much effort to schlep into London after work) and when there is stuff going on at the weekends we make an excuse that we're already booked or if the budget says we can we accept. I don't miss it that much - I like my nights in and I am a country bumpkin at heart! As I said when we do go out I enjoy it more now it's rare.

Sorry it's taken me a few days to respond, my work tends to either be dead or total chaos and the last 2 days have been chaos.


Yes, I think for me it's just a case of I've recognised the problem, now I need to go through the process of adjusting, as I move away from less of a house of cards, plate spinning, chaotic way of doing things with money, hopefully my social life and other things will also fall in line.


My other people / socialising category is currently standing at an average spend of 6.61 per day which is just ridiculous. I still have some budget left but there's no way it'll last the next 2 thirds of this month without declining things, also worried my fuel budget estimate seems to be about £30 a month under my actual spend so may need to fill up again before the end of the month which there is no budget for.
Shame really as if I could keep to the budget, I should only be a bit shy of my target for the house, and I'd have enough to pay the tax, service and MOT in a separate accrual and be halfway towards the insurance bill due in March.


All good in theory, it's the putting it into practice that's the challenge!


I haven't really planned beyond this weekend in terms of out of work commitments so will just have to try and be firm with turning things down for a few weeks although can't become a complete recluse for 3 weeks without people asking questions, especially other half. Hopefully won't upset anyone along the way.

denialanderror

Baldybear wrote: »

Afternoon, another local to London (not far from Guildford) here. Here is my two penneth worth (feel free to ignore).

If you are poor and are trying to stick to a budget then real friends will understand if you cant accept every social committment. There are lots of cheap ways of entertainment, picnic in the park, BBQ's or drinks at yours or friends that can be accommodated easier into your budget.

I dont see my friends as much as I like but so be it, a few know about my finances, not all but they appreciate that things are tight and I cant do everything.

I am at that age (37 eek!) that I dont care about keeping up with the jones, or keeping friends that dont understand the situation I am in and are not helping. I am me and if you dont like me and what I entail then fine by me.

Your financial situation seems as though you have enough money to cover monthly and most annual bills, may take a while to get there but like snowscreamer has said will take a few months or so then will slip into place.

I am short £300 each month at the moment which my parents subsidise me temporarily and thats just to cover the monthly bills. The annual expenditure and debt repayments (bar minimum) and everything misc (going out etc) over £50 a month I have to find extras for. I am achieving goals but only through a lot of hard work and dedication to what I want to achieve.

The £45k to take on mortgage plus the £30k to buy the ex out well thats something will be a long work in progress but I will get there one day

Am also on my own, single through choice at the moment so its all up to me to achieve it

I've had a quick flip through your diary, which in any other context would sound very strange, I admire your commitment to your future and your animals, although I've never understood the horse thing myself, they just cost so much!.


Yes, as long as I have an income each month for long enough to turn it around I should feel a lot more relaxed about the whole thing, then I can move on to the next thing which will be some sort of long term living arrangement. Bit worried about being 2.5 years away from 30, single and still flat sharing. Buying a house seems like a mid - late 30s possibility at the moment.


I do believe in balance a lot more than some people though, my parents sacrificed everything, including all of there friends to pay off a mortgage, and by the end of it, it was like they'd forgotten how to be anything other than penny pinching and miserable, guess it's why I've always feared becomming like, that and also why I get a bit paranoid about looking like I'm not managing money well, it would dissapoint them greatly.


Learning to budget and manage money better is very important to me though, and I will get the hang of it, this is after all only week 1.