Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

wishingthemortgaheaway

Great news on all fronts - (Apart from still not having moved...)

I'd Relook at the YNAB subscription though. My ynab has a funding goal of £60 to cover it next April. Although - if it is that cheap bring it on....

DrSpendLittle

Wish, I'm grandfathered under the old scheme so my YNAB subs are only $50 a year, which is approx £44 depending on $-£ exchange rate. Funnily enough my payment comes out tomorrow! Best investment I've ever made!

DrSpendLittle

YNAB came out overnight - £40.13. Its a bit less than expected so I've tilly tidied the rest into savings.

I've received a refund of £79 from a retailer instead of £20 They've refunded me for an item I recently bought online (new wool jumper for the winter season) rather than a faulty product I retuned to them. I've emailed to alert them. I'm not sure if they can stop the refund being processed as I've already received notification that it will be arriving in my account. If they can't do anything, I think I'll just respend the net £59 in the retailer. I can't be dealing with any bad karma right now :rotfl:

Did a big ocad0 shop last night which is arriving later today. DF is cooking us a big piece of braising steak this afternoon (whilst watching the rugby ) which will last us a couple of days and a couple of dinners. We've meal prepped for the week, so I'm hoping we don't need a top up shop but I must go out to aldee later to do a veg and fruit shop. I've also got packed lunches for work planned for the week and I'll probably do a few things in my slow cooker at some point as alternatives to sandwiches if I can fit it in (I don't like having it on when I'm out of the house or sleeping).

I recently changed the bird feed in my garden and I'm now overrun with blue tits :rotfl: Its lovely. We've had a lovely little robin for years (I think there is a nest in the hedgerow) and the occasional wren. I hope they all learn to get on well together :rotfl:

DrSpendLittle

A successful day of taking lunch into work. And a no spend day too!

Will need fuel tomorrow so not a nsd and I might grab a coffee between meetings as I'll be at a loose end in town for an hour and its always difficult to find somewhere to sit and chill between work meetings that isn't a nice coffee shop filled with caffeine and sugar

Tonights meal is left overs from yesterday and I need to speak to DF about tomorrows dinner so I can get meat out of the freezer in advance.

The £79 has cleared in my bank account from the retailer and they haven't replied to my email, so I've gone ahead and donated £16.50 to charity (just so happened that a friend was taking part in a charity event) and I think it'll re-spend the money in the retailer to compensate them for accidentally giving me £59 :rotfl: I can't just keep it, doesn't sit well with me.

I must input my meter readings at some point this week so the next energy bill is accurate. We've been using the dehumidifier more than normal to dry clothes indoors rather than outside and I think it will have had an effect on our leccy bill. We've had the heating on recently, only for half an hour to take the chill off before bed, but we're trying not to use it too much as its still quite mild for this time of year.

DSL

DrSpendLittle

Well, I bought lunch today and felt really really guilty about it! Ha! We ran out of cheese last night (DF is SUCH a cheese thief!) and with only having a rushed half hour for lunch between one-to-one meetings today, I didn't want to make tuna sandwiches

Tomorrow and Friday are less meeting-oriented so I will be able to make my intended salads and take them in. I always feel I need more time to eat a salad (i.e. some sort of grain, avocado or feta, olives etc etc) than a sandwich, which can be scoffed anywhere and in transit if need be. I feel more constrained by the salad.

The retailer whom overpaid me my refund hasn't responded to my pleading email to rectify the situation so I am assuming that means they are carefully ignoring it as it will be too much hassle to sort it out. So, I get to order something nice :T:T

I forgot about the transaction and conversion charges we pay when paying YNAB in dollars. My bank have charged me about £3 in fees for processing the $ transaction, which explains why I budgeted £44 instead of £40. Doh. Need to replenish that line item and un tilly tidy.

DSL

Starmummy

Hi DrS

I've just spent a few moments re-reading the past few months of your diary.
You are at such an exciting point in life with the house move and being debt free. You have certainly given me a bit of a kick to get my head down and keep pushing for my debt free date.

Good luck with the house move and thanks for all the support on my diary.

Take care
SM

enthusiasticsaver

DrSpendLittle wrote: »

Well, I bought lunch today and felt really really guilty about it! Ha! We ran out of cheese last night (DF is SUCH a cheese thief!) and with only having a rushed half hour for lunch between one-to-one meetings today, I didn't want to make tuna sandwiches

Tomorrow and Friday are less meeting-oriented so I will be able to make my intended salads and take them in. I always feel I need more time to eat a salad (i.e. some sort of grain, avocado or feta, olives etc etc) than a sandwich, which can be scoffed anywhere and in transit if need be. I feel more constrained by the salad.

The retailer whom overpaid me my refund hasn't responded to my pleading email to rectify the situation so I am assuming that means they are carefully ignoring it as it will be too much hassle to sort it out. So, I get to order something nice :T:T

I forgot about the transaction and conversion charges we pay when paying YNAB in dollars. My bank have charged me about £3 in fees for processing the $ transaction, which explains why I budgeted £44 instead of £40. Doh. Need to replenish that line item and un tilly tidy.

DSL

Do you find YNAB is worth the £44 annually?

I am too mean to pay for money management software so use the free version of clear checkbook. I use monthly budgets for food, diesel/travel, living expenses, entertainment, eating out and direct debits and spending envelopes for car replacements and running costs, holidays, gifts, house, long term savings and emergency savings. Works really well and if one budget is overspent in the month I can transfer from another. The envelopes roll over from month to month. Can pull up reports on all categories too although the premium (paid for) version offers more flexibility on that.

In my understanding YNAB does little more than that but you have to pay?

DrSpendLittle

Starmummy wrote: »

Hi DrS

I've just spent a few moments re-reading the past few months of your diary.
You are at such an exciting point in life with the house move and being debt free. You have certainly given me a bit of a kick to get my head down and keep pushing for my debt free date.

Good luck with the house move and thanks for all the support on my diary.

Take care
SM

Thanks Starmummy! Its nice to be in this position and I am grateful for the '26 month ago me' for recognising the need to change spending habits and actually following through with the plan, albeit with a few stalls and coasting! Its funny though - I still feel the same need to be frugal now, even though I am solvent and have ££s in the bank. I don't think that ever goes away. In fact, I've become way more possessive of my ££s since I was debt free as they are actually mine now and I am fully responsible for them :rotfl: Very odd. Keep on keeping one, you'll get there - you have a big enough reason to drive yourself forward. You've done so well to get this far already! I know how hard it is living with someone who has a much more stable financial status and doesn't really 'get' the individual, daily sacrifices we make (like not buying the expensive ingredients or treats when we do the weekly shop). But, it'll be worth it, I promise! x

DrSpendLittle

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Do you find YNAB is worth the £44 annually?

I am too mean to pay for money management software so use the free version of clear checkbook. I use monthly budgets for food, diesel/travel, living expenses, entertainment, eating out and direct debits and spending envelopes for car replacements and running costs, holidays, gifts, house, long term savings and emergency savings. Works really well and if one budget is overspent in the month I can transfer from another. The envelopes roll over from month to month. Can pull up reports on all categories too although the premium (paid for) version offers more flexibility on that.

In my understanding YNAB does little more than that but you have to pay?

Yes, definitely. It gives me routine, structure and I can show DF where spends are going and what I have achieved. I guess I could get a free one, like yours, but I'm settled with YNAB now and for the sake of £3.70 per month, I'm happy staying with it as if I leave, I lose my old sub and will get put on the newer more expensive sub if I decide to return. I can link one of my bank accounts, though I havent tried to do it yet, so it automatically imports transactions. When we move and join finances, we will open an account that can be linked to YNAB so the transactions are automatically imported as there will be twice as many with DF spending too!

DrSpendLittle

Still here, still haven't moved house yet :rotfl:

The only saving grace is that we're managing to save money whilst we wait to exchange. Our new buyers are lovely but their solicitor is a bit incompetent so we're going to have to push the sale through a bit. There have been a couple of weeks of no progress which isn't good enough when our sellers have been waiting nearly 6 months to exchange. Our Estate Agents are now as desperate to get us over the line as we are :rotfl:

Anyway, signature updated and savings now over £7K. I'm fairly pleased with this as we have had a few long weekends away and some unexpected car expenses to account for in October. Food seems to have been better this past month. We're doing well with meal plans but I seem to be frittering on C00p shops and work lunches.

I haven't been running savings pots in my budget as we haven't really known when we were moving. I've just taken money out of savings to cover things like hairdressers, birthday presents etc. However, this month I do have £150 in my gifts pot and £150 in my car maintenance / insurance pot (taking my savings technically up to £7,658.16) as these are 'known knowns' that are coming up. Of course, most of my savings will be obliterated as soon as we move to pay for moving expenses and upfront annual costs like house insurance etc. Then we will combine finances and have our EF, Big Savings and Little Savings pots, all of which currently sit in DF's bank accounts.

Busy day in the office so I better go and get caffeinated. I treated myself to an egg custard tart for breakfast this morning so I'm going to devour that now and await the onslaught.

DSL