early 40s and not fabulous at all

Plush

@glass_half_full: thanks for the suggestions. I will consider all of them except pension contributions and the gym pass.

Pension - I have 2 long term objectives, for old age: pay off my mortgage well before retirement age and contribute to pension without fail every single month, for as long as I have a job. My company also puts in a percentage of salary. On the mortgage ideally I want to pay it off sooner, so if I don't make good progress by then I'm open to move home once my child leaves for uni (or gets a job).

Gym pass - I stopped going to yoga in April or so, with disastrous consequences on my mood, mental health, and my weight. I have recently gone back to it (in Nov) and it's helping me stay afloat. I'm going to our local community council gym - and it's a monthly contract, not annual, and it's free until end of Jan. It's cheaper than paying for individual yoga courses, which are £12-£13 in my area. Also, my company gives a £150 yearly allowance to spend on well-being and health related courses (not work-related). So effectively I will only start paying on the 1st of May, because I can claim Feb, March, and April under the yearly allowance.

glass_half_full

Plush wrote: »

@glass_half_full: thanks for the suggestions. I will consider all of them except pension contributions and the gym pass.

Pension - I have 2 long term objectives, for old age: pay off my mortgage well before retirement age and contribute to pension without fail every single month, for as long as I have a job. My company also puts in a percentage of salary. On the mortgage ideally I want to pay it off sooner, so if I don't make good progress by then I'm open to move home once my child leaves for uni (or gets a job).

Gym pass - I stopped going to yoga in April or so, with disastrous consequences on my mood, mental health, and my weight. I have recently gone back to it (in Nov) and it's helping me stay afloat. I'm going to our local community council gym - and it's a monthly contract, not annual, and it's free until end of Jan. It's cheaper than paying for individual yoga courses, which are £12-£13 in my area. Also, my company gives a £150 yearly allowance to spend on well-being and health related courses (not work-related). So effectively I will only start paying on the 1st of May, because I can claim Feb, March, and April under the yearly allowance.

I agree with you about the pension. You mention University. One thing I wish I had done was to save for my DS, he is in his first year at Uni now. Luckily for us his grandparents have stepped in to help. You are far enough away that you could still save towards that. I don't mean the tuition fees, but the maintenance. The yoga looks like very good value and as you say is beneficial in so many other ways.

Plush

@glass_half_full: that's why I've started saving into a child account, for that purpose. I believe that saving a small amount every month is better than saving more nearer to uni age.

Just logging in to say I managed to sell an old digital keyboard on eBay, to my surprise. It sold very quickly, I must have listed it too low or I got lucky with a local buyer. And it was picked up an hour ago and paid for... not bad.

Off to yoga now. Have a great evening everyone.

Plush

I'm fuming. My boss' boss has just told us that a big chunk of our bonuses won't be paid because of the company's overall results - and we should be happy that we're still employed, considering recent layoffs - what a jerk to say that. This is really odd as up until now we were told they would be paid in full. So basically that's shaving at least 1K of the bonus. I now have the final gross figure. Can't budget it though as I never know how that converts into net.

Apart from this fabulous news, not much to report - yoga and running going well - and although I'm not really losing weight, I'm feeling great, quite full of energy and able to fight my feelings of loneliness and despair

Dating life still non-existent but at least I'm not feeling that miserable about it. I've deleted my OKC profile and trying Bumble instead. It's an interesting app, it works like Tinder with mutual matches, but only women can initiate contact, once a mutual match happens. That filters out a bit of the creepiness of the online dating world.

Plush

Finally Friday! I'm again travelling to central London to meet a client, it's freezing! need comfort food.

Checked my bank accounts this morning and it's not looking too bad: £217 left for the next 2 weeks in my Halifax spending account. The Barclays bill acct is almost empty - but all bills and childcare are already paid - I only set aside money for DD's athletics club for next term, as it needs to be paid on the 18th this month. Most of the Christmas presents are purchased, I only need to get some wine or chocolates for the childminder, contribute a small amount to teacher's gift, and get some stamps. I haven't yet purchased my own Christmas treat, but I'll do that after Boxing Day (I hate boxing day).

Can't believe 2017 is almost over. It has been a hard year on me - and not for objective reasons.. just emotionally. I felt really down for most of the year and unable to enjoy life. I really hope I will manage to overcome my own demons and enjoy 2018 more, I don't have any reasons not to!

EssexHebridean

Oh that's brutally unfair about the bonuses - not telling you until so late in the day and then phrasing it like that as well - totally unnecessary to talk to people like that IMO.

On the bright side though it looks like all the spending and stuff is properly under control! Well done! :T

Now that you've got to grips with your financial stuff and identified some of the things that help support your emotional needs as well I can't see any reason for 2018 not to be "onwards and upwards" for you!

Drawingaline

Sounds like you are ending the year on a positive

Plush

Thanks, yes - it's not that bad.

My Barclays bills account is in green - as always. The Halifax one has £86 left in it until the 22nd, and that's supposed to cover one round of groceries plus spending money. No more cards and gifts left to purchase, apart from my own treat = but that comes off my bonus. I'm still not sure what it will be, I don't need anything in particular and I'm not in the mood for clothes. I might treat myself to an extended visit to a beauty salon for nails and massage OR buy a concert ticket. The ticket is for next June, but I will need that - as concert and theatre tickets are one of my big cuts in my effort to pay off the CC debt. That, and holidays and eating out.

Weight-wise I'm stable. Yoga going well, dating life still absent, although a guy from work has asked me out, which is a bit odd - it sounded like a date - but I said no, as I don't really like his personality (he's hot though LOL) and I think it's a bad idea to see anyone from my workplace anyway...

I'll be increasing frequency of yoga over the hols as my parents have decided to come over and visit, and I will have childcare. My dad has already booked DD to take her ice skating and to an adventure park - just the two of them. They both are very sweet, DD loves them a lot. I wish they lived closer.

Plush

Aargh, I broke my cafetiere this morning! It's almost ruining my December financial zen :-) I need to start that emergency fund pronto.

I've listed some stuff on eBay to make some extra money, hopefully it will be enough to cover my cafetiere costs

Plush

So... I spent enough time looking at YNAB and statements over the last 3 month or so... and I know what my problems are 1. with mindless spending and 2. cards usage. Here's my grand 2018 plan to fix my life.

1. Spend less than £140* per week - all in cash, save the rest in a savings account. This is for food and daily spending only, AFTER bills and regular expenses paid.
2. Pay £400 each month towards CCs debt. Do NOT use credit cards and overdrafts.
3. Find a great remortgage deal (look in Mar-Apr for deal to start end of July)**.
4. Limit eating & drinking out to occasions only. This includes coffee breaks.
5. Packed work lunches most days.
6. Less screen time on mobile and computers.
7. Be more active - at least 3x per week - yoga, 5k runs, long country walks, park walks, cycling.
8. More reading & hobby time.
9. Low carb diet during weekdays. Carbs and sugar as normal on weekends.
10. Declutter more: wardrobes and all storage cupboards.
11. Get professional certification and/or change jobs (nb. job change only after remortgage completed).
12. No holiday purchasing until annual bonus time Dec 2018. This one is the hardest out of all...

*Now, on the spending money... here's the monthly budget. Bills and regular include absolutely everything that's committed (not only housing and transport but all childcare, clubs, my gym membership, school lunches, child savings, etc).

My plan is simple, right after pay day every month:

Keep in Barclays acct bills & regular £2,050
Pay CCs Sainsbury's & Barclaycard1 £400
Leave in Halifax for food & spending £613

Each week, take out in cash £140 from Halifax and don't exceed it no matter what - it should cover groceries and all spending. At the end of the week, whatever is left in cash, save in an envelope. Repeat each week until the next pay date.

The day before pay day each month, all money from the cash envelope, plus money left in Barclays and Halifax - if any (there should be!) - deposit to an "Emergency Savings" account. Emergency savings can only be used if anything in the house breaks down and needs repairing or - touch wood - for any medical problems.

I really hope I manage to stick to this plan for as long as I can. I do realise that £400 per month for CCs isn't enough - even though it's more than minimum payments - and this way it will take me over 2 years to pay off the debt, even if I use annual bonuses to reduce it.

**Which brings me to the next big decision - whether I should add the CC debt to the mortgage at the time of remortgage. I'm really not convinced I should do that, even though on paper it looks fine. As I've said before, the next 6 months or so are decisive. If I manage to stay on the above plan, I will probably do it - I will borrow more on the mortgage to extend the lease and consolidate remaining CC debt. If not... well then I will need to look at selling the flat and buy in a cheaper area.

So there. Here's to a realistic 2018 Fingers crossed.

PS. And a little celebratory note: I haven't used credit cards and overdraft since the end of Sep '17, when I paid the £65 Barclaycard2 balance. This used to be my main spending card. I haven't cancelled it, but I'm not carrying it with me, and I removed it from all online accounts.