A Ditherer's Diary (again)

Naomim

Thanks everyone. I've just had a long chat with a friend. She's given some good advice re 16yo and I'm going to go to her house one day to work just for a change of scenery.  I would go to the office but they've moved and no one can get in there yet.

Lookafterthepennies2020

Sorry to hear about your leak and 16yo and hope things improve on both fronts soon well done on the transfer and I agree a change of scenery is always nice  

Naomim

I spent some time updating my YNAB. Only managed to get through September bank statement and had to put a category in with "no idea!" Next to it. Full of small transactions from local shops £1.50 etc. Still need to get through October.  Have talked to MrM and the kids to say we really have to steady the ship and stop the silly spending.

 I'm still re-evaluating the budget so have set all the credit card payments to just over the minimums for now.

16yo is is sorted. Long chat with him about rules and boundaries etc. Its hard at that age as they are young adults and want treating more grown up but still need plenty of guidance. I think I was a bit lax on parenting so I didn't rock the boat. Had a reminder I'm parent not friend and my job is to keep him on a straight line. 

All in all a more positive me and two days off work next week 👍

WinterWarrior

On my spreadsheets I frequently have to add a figure with ‘tidy up’ as the reason…no idea either! 😁
Well done with your 16yo sorting ⭐️

Naomim

It's getting back in the habit of keeping a spending diary. I need to be accountable like when I had my original LBM. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Sorry to hear about the leak, I hope it isn’t too expensive to fix. 

It might be a bit obsessive but I reconcile my accounts every couple of days to make sure that I’m keeping an eye on my spending. I do my day-to-day spends on a 0% purchase card, every day or two I transfer the equivalent of each spend into a Monzo pot labelled Credit Card and pay it all off each pay day. 

The NSD challenges have been good for me in this respect too, when I first heard about them I felt quite panicked at the idea and thought it would be impossible to even commit to one day but it has actually been good for me and helps me feel more in control. 

I know this approach doesn’t work for everyone and I’m also aware it might not be the healthiest approach either. But I feel like I’m still in recovery from a spending addiction and I need the accountability. 

EssexHebridean

I’m currently going through a “getting back on track” phase - being DF means we don’t *need* to pay as close a level of attention to things as we used to, but equally the last 18 months have wreaked havoc on budgets really - and things like meal planning. When I was here all day and no commute it was easy to just nip to the shop if I realised we had nothing for tea, but now, getting home at 7pm and suddenly discovering a I have no idea what to cook is more of an issue again. Equally we’ve slipped a bit into the habit of working a month behind ourselves with food spends etc on the day to day CC - which was never really the plan. We still clear it every month absolutely without question, and the money is there, but ai’d like it to be there BEFORE we’ve spent it. Sorry - but of a ramble but basically what I’m trying to say is that losing track of things does genuinely happen to everyone - the key is to recognise it and then take steps to rein it back in, and it sounds like you’re doing that. 

Well done for getting to the bottom of what was going on with 16 YO too. 

Naomim

@GeorgianaCavendish @EssexHebridean When I started my LBM and for a long time after I was obsessively checking the account, it just slipped. Life took over.

Last week I meal planned for the first time in a while and I much prefer knowing what I'm cooking. I'm not strict on what we eat which day but at least I know as we have ended up wasting lots of food recently and had more takeaways than we should!

Today I gave my 3 months notice on my gym membership. I've not been for months and kidding myself that I'm going to go back.  I planned to go back in my lunch hours when 11yo started high school but that never panned out, she's been there half a term already and I need to accept I'm throwing money away.

I paid another £6.83 off my Barclaycard that was in my rounding pot and prolific is upto £4.83 from last week but nothing on there at the moment. 

Work is still mad busy but I have Thursday and Friday off this week and Thursday, Friday next week too.  I did speak to my line manager to say I was struggling a bit with the volume of work plus last week with the personal stuff like the roof and 16yo.

This Thursday is 11yo's birthday. We are going to Chessington World of Adventures with our passes.  I do have money put by for if she wants to do a day out with friends, she's just got to make her mind up if she wants to go swimming or to a trampoline park.

House is still a mess but I'm going to try and do a bit every lunch break. Today I plan to do some ironing and get it put away whilst catching up on Married At First Sight Australia 😊

EssexHebridean

Cancelling the gym is sensible if you're not using it - you can always rejoin later if you decide you fancy giving it another go. something that is worth a look is the "Hussle" site - basically gym passes for various places, you can get one-off single days, monthly passes to a set gym (which also gives you access to lots of others as well as access to a couple of online things) and various other single-gym options - for someone who uses a gym occasionally but doesn't want to commit to an ongoing membership it can work out more cost effective.

I've had a lovely little flurry from Prolific - I suddenly seem to be in the right demographic for a lot of their stuff for some reason! It's OnePoll that has gone quiet for me. 

Naomim

ooh I've never heard of Hussle. I'll keep it in mind.  

I've just done 40 minutes of ironing in my break. Not put away but at least in piles so it can be done easily.  Hopefully I'll have another little flurry tonight - there's a lot of it!