£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

boxofpaws

PurpleFairy26 wrote: »

:T:T:T:T Yeah! It felt like watching that giraffe waiting to give birth that keeps appearing on facb00k :rotfl: Its finally happened

:rotfl::rotfl: Purps!:rotfl::rotfl:

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Kids' parties went really well today. Manic, but good. All the effort feels worthwhile when it goes well! DC3's actual birthday is tomorrow, then DC2 next week. All presents bought, so there shouldn't be any more expenses attached.

Well done on this! You knew you could do it, and do it well

Can wait to see what the bag gets

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 7: Day 2

Morning! Well I've been very absent this weekend. It was nice to spend 48 hours not thinking about money. I know that once I balance the budgets today we're going to be over for the month, but I don't think it's going to be by a horrific amount. Certainly nothing close to the kind of shortfall we used to experience in birthday months. Not perfect, but an awful lot better than before, and given that our 'birthday pot' only had 6 weeks to build up between LBM and the birthday's, I'm not too upset. Hopefully the next child's birthday (not until September) will easily be covered by the savings pot, and we can use all the MS lessons we picked up during this March.

I'll be back later with a proper list for today, just wanted to get myself back in the MSE headspace to start the day!

JoJoC

Sounds like a great weekend all round! Glad the birthday parties went well too - a weight off your mind?

Looking forward to seeing your list and seeing what you get for the bag!

Treadingonplaymobil

Ugh, have developed some kind of horrible labyrinthitis type thing, presumably linked to the ear infection I had last week. Burning the candle at both ends is emphatically not agreeing with me! Once the hospital appointment is over tomorrow, assuming everything is fine, I've got a quieter few weeks ahead, albeit in charge of the DCs once they break up from school on Friday!

This week is about making it to the end of the month with budgets as intact as possible, and planning out next month's working time and budgets

To do today:
1. Eat healthily and walk 10,000 steps (NEED to do this today - feeling so grotty after a weekend of party food!)
2. YNAB catch up and attempt to balance budgets to get to the end of the month with minimal shortfall
3. Speak to my mum about eb@ying the chair (she's staying for the week).
4. Email client re potential booking for weds and get confirmation one way or the other.
5. Make flapjacks for snacks. Already done!
6. Plan out April's work time (because of working around DH, I have to make sure I slot in enough hours in between his working hours, always a bit of a juggle, especially with Easter hols!).
7. Put food shopping list into MySupermarket and attempt to get this week's food shopping as low as humanly possible.

To do this week:
1. List old nursing chair on eb@y too, unless my mum wants it back (we 'borrowed' it 9 years ago, she had said before we can sell it when we no longer need it, but I will double check).
2. Make candles. Annoyed that this keeps falling off my priority list - I need my essential oil hit!
3. Finish my socks and knit my dad's birthday socks - again, I really really need to do this. My dad is visiting over his birthday weekend so I need to have them ready to give.
4. Plan April's budget in YNAB.
5. On 1st April do all the money transferring from business account and into savings, setting up our accounts for the month.

Treadingonplaymobil

Well, having balanced the budgets, we're not doing totally amazingly, but not a complete and utter disaster. Birthday kitty is only £7.50 over budget (although I did add to this kitty at various points in the month by juggling money) - we spent £195 on our two DC's presents and all the party stuff (we have crepe paper streamers and balloons leftover, but I have stored them in a 'party box' for future use rather than binning them), plus another £30 on two children's gifts for close family. Not as good as I'd hoped, but a hell of a lot better than previous birthdays. Under £100 per child including party is unheard of for us. Adding it up, I reckon we spent £350 on just DC1's party and presents last year (outdoor adventure activities type party was £150 of that).

Less good, we are miles over on our entertainment kitty this month - £45 already, and there are some transactions still to clear the bank account from the weekend, which I'm sure will add to it. Again, it's vast reduction on where we would have been a couple of months ago, but it's really not great.

I know that the main 'reasons' (read: excuses) for this overspending are twofold:
(1) my inability to stop spending once I know I've gone over budget. I just stop adding things to YNAB and abandon budgeting. We have spent £15 in cash this weekend (which I have assigned to that family kitty overspend) and I have literally NO IDEA what it was spent on. Not a clue.
(2) DH's inability to equate small spends with going over-budget. I know he spent c.£20 on nice things for Mother's Day breakfast - croissants, greek yoghurt (which we already had!), blueberries, strawberries, smoothies etc - which is all lovely, but means that we are already over the food budget for the month. I'm fairly sure there will be other spends like this once all the weekend's transactions have cleared.

This month has really shown me that despite a strong start, it's really easy for the budget to get derailed. To be honest, it's left me feeling quite down and stressed, as by the end of the month we're likely to be a good £200 over budget in total (possibly more), and that's with a higher income at the start of the month and being really super careful with all the present buying and party planning. Just shows (a) how insanely we were spending before that this feels like a huge cutback and is still over budget and (b) how far we still have to go. Big sigh.

angelpye

Hi ToP, I think you did really well. Two birthdays so close to LBM and budget overhaul is tough. I so know that feeling of being over budget and just letting it fly...the fact that we recognise it and pull it back quickly shows we are on the right road.
No, it wasn't perfect but its a learning curve and its in the right direction. This time next year you will have a clear and realistic expectation of what you need and the money in the budget as this is surely your most expensive time other than xmas?
Post spending blues will go and once YNAB and bank are fully reconciled you will feel better. Your post has made me realise that perhaps I need to run some kind of tally on what I spend throughout the year on gifts and special occasions - I can't really say what last year was. DD1 turned 18 so I just did what I what I did and DD2 must have cost me £200+ with paying half on her party and expensive lego plus little bits. Its so easily out of control. Could have been £300. Xmas could easily have been £600. This year I intend to spend no more than £100 on each child for birthdays plus meal out (£60?) for DD1 and half party costs for DD2 (£75?), £100 for xmas plus £20 on stocking each - thats £575. Sounds a lot but will be about a third of what I spent last year. As you have demonstrated planning is key!

Well done for getting back on it, its just a blip and as I said I think you did really well given the circumstances. Have a good week

armchairexpert

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

This month has really shown me that despite a strong start, it's really easy for the budget to get derailed. To be honest, it's left me feeling quite down and stressed, as by the end of the month we're likely to be a good £200 over budget in total (possibly more), and that's with a higher income at the start of the month and being really super careful with all the present buying and party planning. Just shows (a) how insanely we were spending before that this feels like a huge cutback and is still over budget and (b) how far we still have to go. Big sigh.

I could have written all of this, having started at exactly the same time! I feel like we've been Being Careful just constantly, and then I realise that we're still spending on ridiculous things, going to cafes, I 'treated' myself to 2 books this month, so am I actually doing serious cut backs or just spending and telling myself that it's budgeting because of YNAB?

I don't know, but I think that money saving is a habit that becomes easier. We're using different mental muscles right now, as it were, so we're hyper conscious of every chance in our habits and it feels like hard constant work. In time, meal planning or comparison shopping or recording spends will just be part of what we do. This is what I tell myself anyway!

Treadingonplaymobil

angelpye wrote: »

Hi ToP, I think you did really well. Two birthdays so close to LBM and budget overhaul is tough. I so know that feeling of being over budget and just letting it fly...the fact that we recognise it and pull it back quickly shows we are on the right road.
No, it wasn't perfect but its a learning curve and its in the right direction. This time next year you will have a clear and realistic expectation of what you need and the money in the budget as this is surely your most expensive time other than xmas?
Post spending blues will go and once YNAB and bank are fully reconciled you will feel better. Your post has made me realise that perhaps I need to run some kind of tally on what I spend throughout the year on gifts and special occasions - I can't really say what last year was. DD1 turned 18 so I just did what I what I did and DD2 must have cost me £200+ with paying half on her party and expensive lego plus little bits. Its so easily out of control. Could have been £300. Xmas could easily have been £600. This year I intend to spend no more than £100 on each child for birthdays plus meal out (£60?) for DD1 and half party costs for DD2 (£75?), £100 for xmas plus £20 on stocking each - thats £575. Sounds a lot but will be about a third of what I spent last year. As you have demonstrated planning is key!

Well done for getting back on it, its just a blip and as I said I think you did really well given the circumstances. Have a good week

Yes, adding up the gifts (we did the same at Christmas, although weren't as tight as we were this month, as although we were budgeting, we were still a bit in denial about the size of the lake we had to empty and the size of our teaspoon) has been absolutely shocking for me - I can't believe how much we were spending before. We didn't feel super extravagant, because we bought 'nice' gifts rather than piles of crap, but actually we were still spending a fortune.

armchairexpert wrote: »

I could have written all of this, having started at exactly the same time! I feel like we've been Being Careful just constantly, and then I realise that we're still spending on ridiculous things, going to cafes, I 'treated' myself to 2 books this month, so am I actually doing serious cut backs or just spending and telling myself that it's budgeting because of YNAB?

I don't know, but I think that money saving is a habit that becomes easier. We're using different mental muscles right now, as it were, so we're hyper conscious of every chance in our habits and it feels like hard constant work. In time, meal planning or comparison shopping or recording spends will just be part of what we do. This is what I tell myself anyway!

I do hope it becomes easier! I feel like it's a constant mental exercise still - every time I go to spend money and have to remind myself that we can't.

mfmaybe

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

I only pay the accountant to check my book keeping through and do my tax return. She also does the maths on my use of certain spaces in my house for the business, and a couple of other deductions. I'm sure I could do it all. I think I'll keep her on for next year, but see how this four-times-a-year reporting looks like shaping up for sole traders and make a decision next year. It would be a big extra chunk of money in, but also a working day lost checking everything through and submitting the return. Hmmm.

Sorry I haven't had a chance to reply before now. If the type of spend you have is fairly steady (ie, lots of repeating of the same expense) then the risk of getting it wrong is pretty low. Although I don't work in practice any more, I do books for family members, and with the right spreadsheet, it's a breeze, especially as I can download the banking information directly to excel. But I do use as much automation as possible (eg data validation fields, and a pivot table rather than an old fashioned extended cash book). TBH if you only earn £120/mth, £35/mth for accounting seems rather excessive. Also the tax return can be done on a single figure entry (for expenses) so again shouldn't be too onerous. BUT I know that's easy for me to say as it's bread and butter stuff for me; you sound pretty savvy on this stuff though.

Anyway, more importantly I hope the appointment goes well tomorrow. Scary times but better to get checked and I'm sure it will be nothing at all

motivated

Good luck for your appointment tomorrow TOPM. Sending you lots of positive vibes and fingers crossed it will be nothing to worry about
M