A Diary of Reinventing Ourselves

Forward_thinking

Thanks mumtoomany - already had some interest. Been an excellent day although my daughter cried because I didn't go out with them. I really needed to get a bit of work done but was difficult with it being Valentines Day. Just come up from my first webinar with YNAB - it was incredibly helpful and I have to admit to really liking it at this early stage. Plus everybody there is incredibly helpful. Tonight's job is to spend a little more time on YNAB, get the ironing done and actually - there's not much to do on the budget front. I know what's what and what needs to be done - thought it would take forever but I feel the overhaul has been done and we are just ready to go, guns ablazing (well, me anyway!). Hopefully we will be looking at a car tomorrow (if it doesn't rain!) and I will continue to pester OH about the credit cards; he tells me he is addressing it in the morning. I think I might take a night off and read a work-related book (which isn't a job at all!) Hope everyone is having a nice Valentines Day!:kisses::smileyhea:kisses2: Had to say that just so I could those brilliant icons!

Forward_thinking

Not sure this debt busting is very good for one's relationship, but I'm still positive and meaning business. OH and I barely speaking, let alone exchanging kisses for Valentine's Day. I just feel bitter at his denying everything and I suspect he is bitter at me trying to change his blissful little life. Hopefully this is a blip we can get past but I just feel we are on such different pages all of a sudden. It's quite scary. We just got cross with one another and I ended up saying at least I will soon have a decent car to drive in, will be earning my own money and will know how to track my own finances. Said I will be ready to live my life independently if needs be. Not the best of things I've said recently but he's driving me crazy. And not even the exchange of a hug on Valentines Day made me sad : (( Still upbeat about the rest of the situation though. But I do keep wondering if this is it now that I've realised how different we are. I just might need one of those Valentines Day icons for me:lovethoug

Turtle

Forward_thinking wrote: »

Not sure this debt busting is very good for one's relationship, but I'm still positive and meaning business. OH and I barely speaking, let alone exchanging kisses for Valentine's Day. I just feel bitter at his denying everything and I suspect he is bitter at me trying to change his blissful little life. Hopefully this is a blip we can get past but I just feel we are on such different pages all of a sudden. It's quite scary. We just got cross with one another and I ended up saying at least I will soon have a decent car to drive in, will be earning my own money and will know how to track my own finances. Said I will be ready to live my life independently if needs be. Not the best of things I've said recently but he's driving me crazy. And not even the exchange of a hug on Valentines Day made me sad : (( Still upbeat about the rest of the situation though. But I do keep wondering if this is it now that I've realised how different we are. I just might need one of those Valentines Day icons for me:lovethoug

:kisses:Here you are

I've only commented a couple of times, but have been reading along every day and think you're going great guns. I'm sure you will come out of this stronger on the other side, you've been together a long time and am sure you will have had ups and downs in that time.

Forward_thinking

Ah, thanks turtle. Feeling slightly sorry for myself after a really nice day with the children. Plus it seemed a shame not to give fellow posters the opportunity to use the once a year Valentines icons.

Forward_thinking

My new Facebook page is going crazy - I've even had a message from someone who lives at the other end of the country. Time to convert interest into business and, even more importantly, time to believe in myself. In Life in Half a Second, the author states that we can all do something if we are determined to. For example, he gives an example of needing to raise money to save your child's life - he claims everyone would manage it if it was absolutely essential. All fear and doubt and laziness would be cast aside. Well, I am so blessed not to be in that position but I do need to save my family from losing the roof over their heads and the stable life they know. This is the impetus working at the moment after years of denying I can do this!! Wish me luck though because I am scared - scared of failing.

mangle101

Being scared of failing will be what will ensure that you won't fail :kisses3:

Forward_thinking

Well that was a fun evening!!! Somehow, I managed to erase all my data in YNAB. I have no idea how it happened - I have been terrified of going anywhere near the 'fresh start' button. I was fiddling around on the right hand side and it just wiped the lot. So two hours later, everything is back in there - pretty much the same as it was. The great news is I can't believe how quick I am now at logging into all six accounts and checking them. Two weeks ago I had no idea what accounts we had let alone what was in there. I had very little knowledge of our direct debits and payments, what we paid for everything. I really feel like a different person and can't believe how ridiculous and naive I was letting someone else do it all for me. Heaven forbid, anything happened to OH - I would have not known where to start. I didn't have a clue.

pelirocco

Forward_thinking wrote: »

Well that was a fun evening!!! Somehow, I managed to erase all my data in YNAB. I have no idea how it happened - I have been terrified of going anywhere near the 'fresh start' button. I was fiddling around on the right hand side and it just wiped the lot. So two hours later, everything is back in there - pretty much the same as it was. The great news is I can't believe how quick I am now at logging into all six accounts and checking them. Two weeks ago I had no idea what accounts we had let alone what was in there. I had very little knowledge of our direct debits and payments, what we paid for everything. I really feel like a different person and can't believe how ridiculous and naive I was letting someone else do it all for me. Heaven forbid, anything happened to OH - I would have not known where to start. I didn't have a clue.

Do you have access to company bank account

getmore4less

That seemed a bit to easy to distroy everything no recovery/undo options?

Sometimes a clean sheet after going through the initial learning curve can be usefull, just make sure the first thing you learn next before you start reloading is how to back up and recover.

Since YNAB seems to be quite month centric maybe look to start again 1 March.

Once in control it is surprising how little time this stuff can take as long as you keep on top of the tracking, the use of cards can make this easier as you get a papertrail, cash can be handy to give visible control but you have to rememer what it was spent on.


I thought I posted this question already( I do start posts and never finish sometimes)

Hubby says he was in control and never went over.

The key measure of this is have the personal debt been going up, I think you said he has been in this job for over 2 years so lets say the first year is to settle down after the gap that should mean that since around say Jan 2015 the debts should have not gone up.

Management by just looking at balances only has a chance of working if there is a surplus.

I also think these days with so little interest on deposits delaying things like just paying tax just makes it look like there is more money around and there is the risk you end up behind rather than ahead.

I think a really good goal(between now and April 5) would be to be able to predict based on a normal working year(on current daily rate) how much money you can extract from the company and do a full years plan based on that.

If you can get that year to balance(on paper) anything you bring or rate rises hubby gets will be a bonus to sort out the rest of the tax issues, debt and some extra discretionary spends.

Forward_thinking

Morning!!!! Great advice get more - I totally agree with all you say. I have reloaded YNAB again but have contacted them to ask what I may have done wrong. It doesn't seem logical that it would be so easy to clear. I do feel that having one regular payment per month makes far more sense. For anyone reading this who uses YNAB, do you find that your wage needs to go in at the beginning of the month to make it work; otherwise you will be in the negative throughout the month until you get paid.

Pelirocco - yes, I have access to the company accounts but suspect it wouldn't make much sense until OH has done the paperwork for April. Perhaps I'll take a look today now that I don't seem to have much more to do on the budget front apart from try and get spending down and monitor our transactions.

Kids are off for half term so any work will have to wait until tonight. In-laws have been wonderful and given us £120 to cover us for the children having fun this week which helps so much. I have put it in a pot and anything we do will be taken from there until it runs out. We don't have to pay for clubs or school dinners either this week (obviously) which also helps.