Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

GeorgianaCavendish

astrocytic_kitten said:

Brilliant progress, well done! 

I know what you mean about the hair, I need to make an appointment soon (it’s been several months and my curly hair has gone full 80s huge frizzy perm) but the thought of actually using the money earmarked for a haircut and then having to pay out again feels weird. Though I’m desperate to get it back into some kind of shape and don’t plan to ever go this long without a cut again 😂

It had been so long since my last cut, I had gone full Hermoine Granger! I got it cut a bit shorter than I normally would, thinking that I might not go back as often as I would pre-Covid (at least not until life is a bit more settled) - I’d forgotten how easy it is to wash and style myself when it isn’t ridiculously long and bushy! 

GeorgianaCavendish

WinterWarrior said:

Well done. Nearly half way to the deposit target! 

Thank you! It was so good to get the extra boost from LISA bonus this week and to see the 50% approaching 

GeorgianaCavendish

Having a bit of a clear out today, checking through all the bathroom stuff that has moved with us and making sure we’re using up everything. I unearthed our stash of hotel shampoo, soap and shower gel so will get that finished before buying more. 

I’ve got a few stacks of things either for either resale, repair or recycle, which I’ll gradually sort out over the next few weeks. I’m thinking of holding off on some of the resale stuff until after summer when offices start opening up as a lot of it is workwear. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Ugh! I give up with YNAB ... it is great for allocating money to my monthly spending for one month, but it breaks my brain when I try to add in savings or run a budget for multiple months. I need to watch some tutorials. Or maybe accept that I'm fine with my spreadsheets for tracking savings and I only use YNAB to do one month at a time.

In which case .... maybe I should look for an alternative (that is hopefully free, and can import my transactions) 

astrocytic_kitten

I have my savings accounts as off-budget tracking accounts on YNAB. I can see the balances build up and include them in my net worth figure but the money doesn’t show as available for the budget, which works for me. Would be really interested to know if you find alternatives though!

WinterWarrior

I did the trial of YNAB, but abandoned ship within a few days, I just couldn’t get it to work for me so went back to my spreadsheets. Some people really love it though, so it must be possible! 

ChasingSunshine

I think YNAB works best when it is used for current month. They do make a big thing of it can’t be used for predicting future months though using goals you will know you are on track it can fund that months expenses. I have some of my savings categories off budget with label for what they are “premium bonds, house deposit” “regular saver annual travel pass” and so on. Other savings stay on budget in a separate section and over time have come to really hate removing anything from there for rest of budget. Have a look at the articles on wish farm as well for things that are nice to have but can’t justify regularly putting money in from budget. 

Sorry that is very rambling but hope it makes sense. I really like YNAB. Think I have now got to the place where I could do without it if I had to but not ready to give it up just yet. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Thank you for the YNAB tips @ChasingSunshine - I read some articles about the wish farm this evening, love that term! 

I think I need to move away from the idea of tracking all my savings in YNAB (and I do have Money Dashboard to do an overall tally) and concentrate on the monthly budget. To be fair, the monthly budget is where I struggle and I want to curb some of my frivolous spending in groceries and personal care (amazing what I’ve justified as a “personal care” expense over the last couple of months!) 

Just realised I forgot to put my phone bill on this months budget! Doh! 

GeorgianaCavendish

WinterWarrior said:

I did the trial of YNAB, but abandoned ship within a few days, I just couldn’t get it to work for me so went back to my spreadsheets. Some people really love it though, so it must be possible! 

I think this is my 5th or 6th go with YNAB, I’ve done a lot of trials in the past! I wish we had the ability to import transactions to it, that would help me a lot. I’m determined to get use out of it for the rest of the year, but not sure if I will bother renewing. 

GeorgianaCavendish

astrocytic_kitten said:

I have my savings accounts as off-budget tracking accounts on YNAB. I can see the balances build up and include them in my net worth figure but the money doesn’t show as available for the budget, which works for me. Would be really interested to know if you find alternatives though!

Hmm, I need to explore these “off-budget” accounts. I make such a mess when I try to input any incoming money, but this could be because I don’t sit down and watch the tutorials first. The Fresh Start button is my best friend!