Positive Balance: Focused on Budgeting

Homegrown0

Hi PB, I have just caught up with your diary and impressed with your tenacity in rejigging your budgets to suit what needs done.

Well done on getting your balance so low before New Year and hope you manage to get through January without any hiccups.

PositiveBalance

Homegrown0 wrote: »

Hi PB, I have just caught up with your diary and impressed with your tenacity in rejigging your budgets to suit what needs done.

Well done on getting your balance so low before New Year and hope you manage to get through January without any hiccups.

Hi Homegrown,

Thanks - you are very kind! I wouldn't say I'm the world's best budgeter but I'm working on it and I'm looking at it as a process of getting a bit better each month. Hopefully.

I think it helps that I'm looking at at it Dave Ramsey way and treating each month as a fresh budget plus using pots for annual expenses. Previously, I was trying to make a general budget each month which didn't work very well, especially as my income fluctuates each month due to overtime. Now I have each month's expenses nailed down it makes life easier.

Having said that, I have realised that I meant to have a 'guest' pot added to my budget after last year's shenanigans so I will have to add it from February. (What's nice is that instead of flapping about how I have made a mistake and thinking that my budget is RUINED as I might have done in the past, I'll just incorporate it moving forward. :A)

PositiveBalance

I meant to do my weekly food shop on the way home but forgot my shopping list, grr!

I did spend £2.00 on 2 boxes of peppermint tea, which was on offer and on my list, so that's probably me sorted for the rest of the year for mint tea.

Smashing! :beer:


Dinner eaten, kitchen tidied and mopped (this morning) so it looks more like a normal person lives there and bedddington is calling.


Take care everyone. Sleep tight. x

PositiveBalance

So, yesterday resulted in a £22.45 food shop for the week and £1.60 on a tram ticket.

Today resulted in a £2.00 tram tickets, £8.00 for martial arts and £3.50 for a chippy tea afterwards as I was the idiot who forgot to take something out of the freezer for tea! :mad:

I realised that my CC min payment of £27.59 was not taken from my account as the large payment I made earlier in the month more than covered it, so I transferred it over anyway as it had been budgeted for, bringing my CC balance down to £2454.77. :T

I didn't have to pay into the works lottery this month for complicated reasons, but that's another £10 I wasn't expecting and I've put it in the 'pots' fund along with anything else that hasn't been spent in its allocated category e.g. the exercise class I couldn't make this week.

It looks like I'm going to have to socialise unexpectedly a bit over the next week as some relatives are coming to town.

Is it bad that I've run an as-near-as-I-can-get budget for next month, already, at this early stage of the month?! (I'm not obsessed, I just help them out when they are busy! :rotfl:)

WannabeFree

I budget for months in advance hoping to squeeze as much as I can out of it :rotfl:

Xx

PositiveBalance

Hello!

Lots to update...I think.

Mostly I think I'm overspending a bit on food due to lack of organisation but I have yet to run the figures to be sure.

I've deffo taken the tram a bit more than expected and I *think* that my monthly pass may go up a bit the next time I buy it.

In other news...I've started to think a bit more about what Brexit might mean for me in the short-tern given the newspaper stories an people discussing it on here. Namely, should I stockpile some food/medicines?

Part of me just wants to go hell for leather paying off the CC and part of me urges caution and a small but considered stockpile, just in case.

Did I mention that I've destroyed one CC and frozen the other as I can't destroy it before bringing it as proof of purchase to a concert I booked on it later in the year? Effectively, this makes me CC free!

Still listening to lots of Dave Ramsey which is keeping me on a Debt Is Dumb crusade.

Hope you are well. x

PositiveBalance

WannabeFree wrote: »

I budget for months in advance hoping to squeeze as much as I can out of it :rotfl:

Xx

Just seen this...I don't blame you. It can help.

Did I ever tell you what an absolute marvel you are, Wannabe?

Just putting it out there...:D

PositiveBalance

Hello everyone!

So...I get my payslip from work tomorrow and I just got my phone bill this month so I've updated my February spreadsheet (what a geek! :rotfl:)

My bus pass has gone up to £68.00pcm from £65.00pcm as suspected. Ho hum. There will be union and council tax increases to come shortly, for sure. Thankfully, it's CT free for me for the next two months, which will leave me £88pcm better off.

My plan for this month was to throw all the money at my credit card but the wind has been absolutely horrendous last night and has blown my large back fence into a worse state of disrepair than it was already in. It's not 100% critical yet, and getting a new back and front fence was high on my list of priorities this year, but I was trying to leave it until after the CC was paid off (and weather was better for fitting it) so it may have to be moved higher up the list of priorities that it was. I have someone coming to look at it for me to see what will need to be done.


I was also thinking of 'treating' myself to a tuble dryer as my 'well done on paying off your CC' treat. It's semi-necessary. I'm just trying to figure out exactly *how* necessary.


I'm currently doing the ironing and need to do food planning and shopping. (I have been terrible this past few weeks - particularly at forgetting to take something out of the freezer when I have already got stuff in to eat. :mad:)

I had a go through my toiletries yesterday. I seriously doubt I will need to buy anything all year, except perhaps some shampoo/conditioner, I have so much. It's mesmerizing. Particularly the body moisturizers. I swear they are breeding in there!

I'll be back with more news shortly, no doubt.

I hope you are all well.

Mindfulness

Well done on all you’ve achieved so far. Read the diary from start and must say I’m impressed with how you stay focused.
Wanting to subscribe to your diary, so I can keep on the journey with you. I’m new I’m not sure if this is possible, to subscribe

WannabeFree

Hope you've had a good day PB

Bus fares have gone up here too. Must the time for it I think it always surprises me though

x