A Diary of Reinventing Ourselves

brizzledfw

And glad he is talking BTs and Lidls. He's on his way - really good progress. (Despite the car!!;))

getmore4less

CC companies were told to change the way they charge and apply payments so the most expensive debts first,

Should be in the T&C so worth checking that meants if you move a bit to Zero it sits there being the last bit to get paid off.

If he is getting 0% offers he needs to find out how much they will let him transfer(they will often will up the limit if needed) and what the fee will be.

One you have all the details the shuffles can begin.

Budgeting, got to say this, hubby is starting to sound a bit of a tool on this one!
Budgeting is about reducing the future commitments so that when that future month becomes the "last month being paid of by this month" the commitments are lower and there IS some left over.

He will get there, I would save that I told you so in reserve for now.

Forward_thinking

My head hurts!!! Maths and me just aren't good friends. I am totally confused what I am talking about at the moment getmore - so it's probably me! All I know is that I have put all our figures into YNAB and we have £1,900 in the bank. Our costs are £6,600 on the budgeting chart for February so the overall number at the top is therefore -£4700. So I guess that means the money we got in this month has gone to last month?! I can't get my head around this - and I know it's me being slow which is frustrating me.

I just asked OH to confirm that our main money comes in on 23rd of each month but he said it doesn't work like that. He looks to see when we go into debt on the card and then draws from the company to pay it off. This is all so messy and I am a girl who likes things NEAT!!!! Getmore - I really can't wait for the day you can tell me "I told you so".

Forward_thinking

I think I need to just keep tracking things and will probably stay with YNAB for now. And then hopefully the fog will clear. I have been getting lots of support from the guys at YNAB and I do like the look of it. I just don't understand so much of it. I think having their support and it's ready state make it worthwhile to give it a chance for a while. They have offered me a few weeks extra as well.

getmore4less

Clearly his system has not been working if there is close to £40k debt on the cards.

I don't think YNAB will cope with this method of working it struggles with using CC to manage cash flow.

What you could do(as this is what your budget and YNAB will tell you) is tell him that by budgeting we don't need to wait till the cards are maxed out, we will know in advance how much we will need and when

Our current spends mean we need £6600(or whatever) to cover just our costs when will you be transfering that to the account?

By keeping the money in the company and not transfering it means you are paying an extra £600pm in interest.

Does he even have the money coming into the company every month to cover the expences.

He should know that.

edit:

Are you running an Overdraft and/or is he making payments to the cards on top of the min payments.

Forward_thinking

So. We have agreed that from April (after accounts are all sorted) we will put one lump sum into our account each month instead of just putting some in when we go too much into the red. He doesn't think it makes any difference, says he never over spends in each category so there is no more shaving off to do. However, he says that if it makes me feel better mentally he will do it for me. I'll take the insults - yes, it will make me feel mentally healthier thank you very much. I can predict what is coming in on a stable basis. I'm still trying to fathom why we are -£4k this month. OH says it goes back to paying off xmas etc. I'm sure the fog will clear soon. My wonderful parents in law have just walked in the door and given each of the children some decent pocket money to do something nice in the half term holidays. They really are holding us up here and it means so much. I think if anything good comes out of this mess it will be us getting much closer. Dad in law and me have always been a bit hit and miss but in the last two weeks we are getting on incredibly well and he has even confided in me about a couple of things. So there's going to be some great things to come out of all this mess. Right, going to spend one more hour on budget stuff tonight and two hours on getting work. The ironing will have to wait until tomorrow. I am busy and fired up to attack this thing. I am going to be on that roll of honour in the next couple of years!!!!!

Forward_thinking

Just read my last post back and welled up a bit about father in law and me. That really is one great thing in all this mess.

Forward_thinking

Ok. So a partial fog has cleared. We are showing as -£4,000 for this month in YNAB. However, I have just realised (told you I was slow in this area) that we are half way through the month and I haven't put in all the money we have spent so far. This includes about £4k we have already spent on direct debits, groceries, credit card payments. I also asked OH why we have only taken £4,500 from the company so far this month and it turns out we haven't had the rent of £2,300 go out. So I am feeling actually really happy - can't believe how much of a kick I am getting out of all this budgeting. It's so addictive - I'm driving OH crazy.

OH says he doesn't want to take all the money out in one go each month as we have to pay tax on it as soon as it leaves the company. He says it isn't much - only about £30 a month but it works best to do it gradually with flow like a river. He has agreed to do it for me if I can only deal with it mentally this way but isn't so happy.

One good bit of news - OH came home with our week's shopping for £95 from Lidls. We will only need a couple of top ups within the week although children will probably eat me out of house and home this week.

Looking forward to tonight to putting the recent transactions into YNAB. What has happened to me? This is really addictive.

Forward_thinking

Oh, I am so confused. Of course I can't put in the recent transactions because the balance reflects these. Or can I - will it still be reflective and just adjust the - figure of £4k. I need to walk away and do something else. I'm bamboozled.

KxMx

Would it be worth starting a spreadsheet and tweaking as you go along?

Mine is quite basic but then my finances are!

12 sheets one for each month.

Columns to total outgoings: cash, debit card/BA, CCs, "other", all with running totals at the bottom.

A column with my fixed expenses totalled at the bottom

A column with expected expenses totalled at the bottom.

A few sums and I see along the last row how much i've spent, how much i'm expecting to spend, all taken off my income figure so I can see how much I have left.