Dancing in the Rain

doingitanyway

I need to be careful with what I tell myself. I can be too hard on myself. I just said I wouldn't be here if I had been more obsessed in the past. Not true. 95% of the debt was a new boiler and paying my mortgage with the card because my self employed earnings couldn't meet my essential costs for the best part of 2 years.

I should have recognised it as an emergency at least a year ago and taken action but I have now and that's what matters

MuffinTops

Hello DIA,

Thank you for your cheer post in my diary.

YNAB is like a very clever spreadsheet that only includes the financial details you put into it. I name my accounts differently to the bank name and I never add account details.

Well done on your productive weekend and also for pushing yourself to work. Have a lovely few days off.

MTxx

MuffinTops

Oh, as for obsessing on here. That's what it's for!!! If it feels like updating your diary is what you want to do then why not? It's not the worst thing in the world to obsess about

MTxx

doingitanyway

Thanks MT :A I think I'll give YNAB a go. I was thinking of waiting until I have more funds but it sounds as if it will help me now as well

doingitanyway

The plan was to use the money I would have spent on fares this week to get a new inner tube fitted on my bike. It involved walking 3 miles to get there with my dead bike. And reader I did it! The bike is fixed as are the gears and I cycled back! As everywhere I might need to go (when I’m not going into the office, like this week) is within a 5 mile radius I plan to cycle. Tomorrow is a big test as I plan to cycle to the gym and then swim and then cycle back.

Now the bike is fixed I can start saving a few pounds here and there on fares instead of just getting a standard travel pass every week. It should also help shift the other type of pounds that have crept up over the Winter

There seems to be a philosophical element to my postings lately. Today, I realised that without an emergency fund or a credit facility or a somebody I can ask for money I am vulnerable and that might be part of my anxiety about finances at the moment. If something should happen whilst I am paying off debt :eek:

I can have the cost of a season ticket as an interest free loan deducted from my salary. I will apply for one tomorrow at work. I will put it straight into an emergency savings account. Hopefully I will not have to use it. In addition I will add to it from August when I have slightly higher income. This is what I will use to eventually build 3 months salary as a buffer.

I am going to give YNAB a go. There is a free trial and kind MSE folk have answered my questions so I feel a bit more confident….

April showers today but my blanket dried on the line and can now be packed away until Winter.

On the way home I stopped at Lid* for nuts, Sainsbu*** for a new hand blender. I thought of not buying the blender but it only cost £6 and I’ll save that with a few batches of hummus and a few pans of soup.

I nearly got a DVD in Sainsb*** but oI went to the library instead and returned a book, got another and took out a DVD for 50p

I called Council Tax and got a new bill

I checked by bank and I should have enough money to get through the next 3 weeks until pay day. I don’t want to spend again until Saturday apart from fruit and veggies.

Menu planning from what I have and came up with:

Breakfasts:

Scrambled eggs and mushrooms and sundried tomatoes
Yogurt, nuts and fruit (breakfast)


Lunch:

Hummus and carrot batons
Fruit
Puy lentils
Bacon, potato and sun-dried tomato tortilla and salad

Main meals:

Giant fish-fingers and homemade chips
Curried lentil, beetroot and carrot burgers with raw veggies
Bacon, egg and beans

This isn’t an exciting meal plan I know, and I'll have to eat the same meal more than once, but my plan is not to buy anything other than fruit and veggies as my remaining budget until Saturday morning is £4.80 for food.

Feeling optimistic this feels doable and I have loads to keep me occupied until Saturday.

3 good things

Kindness from people on these diaries.
Cycling gives you a feeling of freedom and I'd forgotten about that
The man in the repair shop moved the position of my seat to see if it stops my knee from hurting when I cycle and it does

I hope your week started well
DIA x

RosaBernicia

doingitanyway wrote: »

I need to be careful with what I tell myself. I can be too hard on myself. I just said I wouldn't be here if I had been more obsessed in the past. Not true. 95% of the debt was a new boiler and paying my mortgage with the card because my self employed earnings couldn't meet my essential costs for the best part of 2 years.

I should have recognised it as an emergency at least a year ago and taken action but I have now and that's what matters

I'm so glad you said this - and that you have got to that realisation a whole lot earlier in your journey than I did!

We don't have complete control over our lives and circumstances, however much we may think or wish we did, and there are many different reasons that people end up here. Whatever the reason, there's nothing to be gained from beating yourself up over it - it only stresses you out and makes you less able to deal with the right now.

Let it gooooo... :rotfl:



Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Woop woop to new wheels!

I won't bore you again with how much I love YNAB but just to mention, there are tutorials and online classes and YouTube videos so plenty of support in getting you started.

Your meal plans always sound fab!


Rosa xx


Rosa xx

doingitanyway

Thanks Rosa. You are very wise and the visual is hilarious :rotfl:
I've been watching YNAB Whiteboard Wednesday mini lectures...getting there x

MuffinTops

... or you can do YNAB how I did.

Create a budget, lose track of spends, break it trying to get it to where you think it should be, look under the hood of dropbox etc (which you can't do online), delete it all, create a new budget, lose track, create a new budget, wonder why you set it up the way you did, create a new budget, get confused with all the budgets and their names, delete them all, realise you also deleted the one you wanted, create a new budget!!!!

I also had a look at my categories today and thought "I'm sure I can organise these better" So far I've left it alone, but it won't be long until I'm guilty of YNAB fiddling again!

Don't let the above overwhelm you though. I'm in IT because I have a strong need to understand and deconstruct a piece of software and what it can do, and that's why I tinker about with it so much. I'm the equivalent of a self taught (without reading a book) car mechanic who describes your car by its colour (as they just don't know the make and model on sight) and you just know you'll get it back worse than you left it!!!

MTxx

doingitanyway

A WFH day but feels like I made progress today...

Ordered a collection from my local council. They won't come for another 4 weeks but I can start collecting junk to throw out starting from now

Binned: turpperware, old cake tin gone rusty, chipped plate
Charity shop: cutlery, books added to to charity shop bag
Made beetroot burgers. Adjusted my recipe in line with River Cottage light and easy recipe
Washed up 3 xs
Bleached kitchen side boards
Contacted HR and I can't have a season ticket loan unless I use it for that purpose, they want receipts now, they've tightened that policy up Fair enough, will just have to save and not panic about lack of an emergency fund :eek:
Got a new date for a training course that I want to do
Dried clothes on the line
YNAB research by watching stuff online and it made me think about the future so I started a 5 year plan More on this to follow...

I might cycle to Ald* later and pick up some fruit, but then again I might cut the grass or do neither. Who can say

3 good things

I'm not so tired and my mood is lifting
I feel like clutter and other stuff I don't need is going and good riddance
Some bluebells sneaking through my weedy borders

I hope you had a good day
DIA x