Dear Diary

MeenaM

Hi ETA !

I def think Aldi has made a big difference, when i shopped at ASDA for example i never got the weekly shop below £100 and it was mostly over it , i also cook a lot more stuff from scratch now too

MeenaM

well so far so good this month with sticking to my budget! I have more money left at this stage of the month than i usually do, and it feels good to be "in control" !

I sold an item on ebay so had an extra £7 and that has been used for a christmas present for DD , I get paid earlier this month on the 20th

I am wondering whether to put any left over money at the end of the month into saving or to pay off some of the AA card, there is no interest on the next payment due but the following month there will be so i do want to pay this off asap

i really need to get an emergency fund together as atm i have £65 in a isa savings account and £10 in an instant savings account

i have enough food still until monday when i will do the weekly shop

have looked at ynab but dont want to pay a monthly fee and so far i think i am doing ok with the spending tracker app so i will carry on with that

trying to get DH to control his spending too but its a struggle as he gets a bit snappy when i ask how much he has spent each day to add it to the budget planner

have a good Friday all and stay warm

MeenaM

oh i forgot to add , I will have £250 coming , hopefully next month from switching bank accounts, I am unsure whether to apply that to my debts or save it , i was planning on paying off debt ,

what does everyone else think i should do? thanks

MeenaM

i've had an email with an offer of 2 months free for the ynab , am considering it

i keep working and re working my budget , can't seem to leave it alone for a day atm , its becoming a bit of an obsession!

EscapingTheAlarm

Well done for having more money at the moment than you would usually! Especially in December! If most of your debt is 0% then maybe you could save the £250 for a while as it might stop you from having to go into more debt if something unexpected comes up...
ETA x

Vegainer

Hope all is well Meena! If all your debt is 0% then I can't see a problem saving it - but as soon as there's interest on something I'd use it to towards something

MeenaM

thanks for the advice , i think i will save it for my emergency fund x

MeenaM

Managed to get to Aldi today through the snow and ice , so spent £86 and that will cover lunches and dinners for 7 days , so according to my budget i have £259.83 left this month until pay day on the 20th and that is after paying off the extra on my debts , i think i may pay half of anything that is left over to my AA card and the rest to my emergency fund

EscapingTheAlarm

Wow! That's a great amount to have left over! You are building your emergency fund really quickly!
ETA x

MeenaM

yes ! it just shows you when you record everything you spend and budget you can really save rather than it just being spent on goodness knows what like it usually would ! i keep checking and re checking my bank account and the budget as i cant quite believe i've managed this well so far!!