The Spreadsheet Diva's MF Diary

A_Frayed_Knot

[QUOTE=SueP19;71500725
On the vermin front, yes vermin, we have caught 2 mices this last week and on friday night after we picked the car up from it's mot OH spotted a huge rat, the size of a gocart (if he is to be believed) by the shed _pale__pale__pale_ YUCK[/QUOTE]

I remember when my brother bought his house, he needed 13 skips to clear the place, inside and out, his friend was there to help clear everything, then the environmental guy came round, he asked how big the rat was they saw, his friend replied - see that wheelie bin over there, yes he said, well it had that on it's back :rotfl:

I'm so glad you have decided to o/p each week or month,so good for the soul and self belief, the best comment I read was when someone (not sure who, but whoever it was, many , many, thanks) that every £1 you o/p, is a £1 you will never pay interest on, ever again. This spurred me on, no end. Boddington is quite right, it's £3.42 less for you to worry about, and £3.42 you won't be paying interest on over the term of your mortgage

SueP19

A_Frayed_Knot wrote: »

I remember when my brother bought his house, he needed 13 skips to clear the place, inside and out, his friend was there to help clear everything, then the environmental guy came round, he asked how big the rat was they saw, his friend replied - see that wheelie bin over there, yes he said, well it had that on it's back :rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:I have this vision of Rats as bin men now

A_Frayed_Knot wrote: »

I'm so glad you have decided to o/p each week or month,so good for the soul and self belief, the best comment I read was when someone (not sure who, but whoever it was, many , many, thanks) that every £1 you o/p, is a £1 you will never pay interest on, ever again. This spurred me on, no end. Boddington is quite right, it's £3.42 less for you to worry about, and £3.42 you won't be paying interest on over the term of your mortgage

£3.52 :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: I too love that quote and have now added it as a sticky on my pc screen, so I never forget it

No YNAB users??? I keep fiddling with it :rotfl::rotfl:

Well today is that horrible day in the month when the money you think you had just vanishes and reality sets in that the £200 you thought you'd saved this month was just a mirage :(:(

As always I have a serious food spend problem.........don't get me wrong we eat well................good stuff and I am part of a faceache group that helps to cut food bills BUT am not sure I want to eat sausages that are 5% meat and the rest sawdust...........................how do you compromise. November for me will be a trial of batch cooking (secretly added lentils so this week will be the test, will he notice or not :D)

Anyway other news, I am the new star of a high class soap

Fenroads ep 1

Drama yesterday as new fancy phone s7 edge decided not to work (ring out), OH being OH decided that this phone was carp so was only fit for the scrap heap. He duly phone in his normal tones screaming as such...........me for my sins had just showered and was making the bed before washing up then getting ready for work, yep you guessed it not a good time, so with loud speaker on I shouted back at him per his request for me to find the ole faith mini brick for him to use. Now any normal sane person would say ring Echo Echo and get it sorted but no not my OH lets chuck it (his philosophy in life). Fast forward, me a day of pensive worry over the mood to come, OH suddenly has new phone working...............it was an area/signal issue, does he tell me NO :mad::mad:

Watty1

Our food spends are high too. Mainly because I refuse to eat cheap meat - I want to know it has had a good life Things that helped get our spend down were cooking in batches, a few times this year I cooked for the month on a couple of days and froze dishes in individual portions. Also oddly having a roast on Sunday with a bigger than usual joint - we then ate leftovers for the first half of the week. And veggie meals helped too. Mr Watty not keen on veggie meals but I've gotten around that with eggs and he hasn't noticed

SueP19

Watty1 wrote: »

Our food spends are high too. Mainly because I refuse to eat cheap meat - I want to know it has had a good life Things that helped get our spend down were cooking in batches, a few times this year I cooked for the month on a couple of days and froze dishes in individual portions. Also oddly having a roast on Sunday with a bigger than usual joint - we then ate leftovers for the first half of the week. And veggie meals helped too. Mr Watty not keen on veggie meals but I've gotten around that with eggs and he hasn't noticed

Totally get you I use D R*ssell meat :eek::eek: less quantity more quality my motto BUT My food is about £400 a month :eek::eek::eek:

We do like pasta meals, which means the spreading of mince but have found OH was reluctant as he wanted bread with it and bread is a no no now for us. So I bought smaller trays and am going with adding chips/fried pots/steamed pots etc with the dishes to counter this :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Yeah not really italian but hey whats one mans poison is anothers manna :D My joints I buy larger and chop up :j:j

SueP19

Well the mince cobbler is up for testing tonight :D

OH pinched another £10 from my purse :mad: I get it he needs a bit of cash to buy a tea etc from those darn burger vans because quote "he hates looking like a t*t for not having money" BUT it does irk me it's such a waste and he had £5 friday and £3.50 yesterday, he can't keep a penny for even one day and he accuses me of being a spender . Trouble with OH is he sees me as having ALL the money, I don't pay bills or buy food with it I just spend it on me me me me (I wish)

I have to say I am tempted to assign myself £10 a week too as the unfairness kills me :mad::mad:

Am at a crossroads with YNAB, I love it but it's how to use it that will work for me, so options are "as they intend it to be used" Only budget when money comes in...............the risk here is that I won't be able judge correctly if or how much I will have spare or "forecast how much expenses will be next month, going red" this is more like how I used to do it ...............the risk is that you are budgeting with money you don't have yet and is contrary to their principles..........................ummmmmm lots to think on, step in if you have any ideas peeps :D:D

On the mortgage front I updated my spreadsheet and because my interest rate dropped in the summer my payment went down by £7.45, now the odd think is that any ground I have made OP'ing has been wiped out by this decrease, not sure how and I think it has to do with the interest I have in there, so am going to make up the 7.45 each month, as don't want to loose any ground I have made even if its only a wee bit :D:D

Watty1

No idea on YNAB. Confess I had to google it to find out what it was Have never had much luck with budgeting here, tried many times but just not made it. I need someone to snapshot it into a simple way for me - like Tilly once did for the meal planning - in one sentence I got it and my food spends dropped like a stone
The best solution I came up with for us was to create an account from which we pay into monthly and the bills come out of. There should be enough excess build up to pay the annual bills too.
Doesn't work quite like that as we keep taking the excess to pay for Mr Watty's dads extras (sigh) but the theory is sound.

SueP19

Watty1 wrote: »

No idea on YNAB. Confess I had to google it to find out what it was Have never had much luck with budgeting here, tried many times but just not made it. I need someone to snapshot it into a simple way for me - like Tilly once did for the meal planning - in one sentence I got it and my food spends dropped like a stone
The best solution I came up with for us was to create an account from which we pay into monthly and the bills come out of. There should be enough excess build up to pay the annual bills too.
Doesn't work quite like that as we keep taking the excess to pay for Mr Watty's dads extras (sigh) but the theory is sound.

Well I joined on 20th September and am out of a max'd £700 OD already which we have had since about 2000 :D:D:D I have spent a lot of time shifting money about (playing with it) and that causes it's own problems. I have used multiple accounts to try to save, not worked, multiple spreadsheet, not worked, rigid set amounts for set things, not worked and although I can budget for England and really pull my horns in when needed, find money when needed the elusive saving just never happened. YNAB is cool

Please do share Tilly's pearls of wisdom on meal planning she is a wise woman

Boddington

Hi
Never used YNAB, have a spending diary, which has a homemade budget sheet, a month by month plan, which sometimes changes month by month, and a year planner. So i know whats coming up in advance(some things we never know though do we) oh and i do a menu plan weekly as we live in a tiny place so stocking up is a no no! We do have a box under the bed for offers! That we use regularly! And i do shop from there weekly before i do my food shopping!
Hopefully you will find whats right for you soon! It took ages for me to get to this point! And i know it will change, but it's a big book i use and sometimes life gives you lemons.....

SueP19

Boddington wrote: »

Hi
Never used YNAB, have a spending diary, which has a homemade budget sheet, a month by month plan, which sometimes changes month by month, and a year planner. So i know whats coming up in advance(some things we never know though do we) oh and i do a menu plan weekly as we live in a tiny place so stocking up is a no no! We do have a box under the bed for offers! That we use regularly! And i do shop from there weekly before i do my food shopping!
Hopefully you will find whats right for you soon! It took ages for me to get to this point! And i know it will change, but it's a big book i use and sometimes life gives you lemons.....

I have spent 28 years perfecting budgeting but saving was always elusive :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: so believe me to clear a £700 overdraft is a miracle :A:A

You have my sympathy re your small place my DD and her BF live in a tiny flat in London and we are constantly trying to come up with space saving ideas...................Ik*a is a god send :T

Watty1

SueP19 wrote: »

Please do share Tilly's pearls of wisdom on meal planning she is a wise woman

She told me rather bluntly that I could continue to waste around £100 + a month in the supermarket or plan meals properly and put that towards retiring early.


Simple really. Blunt. Effective.