YNAB - 1 year of budgeting, I can see why I'm in debt now

getmore4less

Sharon87 wrote: »

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I actually came home after drinks today and whilst fast food was tempting I did have last night's dinner leftovers to eat. I just need to get back into the habit of cooking more for leftovers.

A good indicator of getting the purchases and meal planning right is reduced waste.

I try to remind myself every time I throw something out it was something that did not need buying.

Sharon87

getmore4less wrote: »

A good indicator of getting the purchases and meal planning right is reduced waste.

I try to remind myself every time I throw something out it was something that did not need buying.

Downside of being single. I cook for myself, buy the bag of spinach or bread or mushrooms. It doesn't always get used before it goes off. I waste bread a lot, I buy the small or half loaves but even then I rarely eat the entire loaf before it goes off! I have frozen it in the past, but defrosting it takes ages and I'm not always in the mood for toasting it!

I do batch cook sometimes, but not all the time.

getmore4less

Seconds to defrost bread in a microwave.

Or just take out a few slices each day as you use up the fresh stuff.

Veg needs a bit of planning or a soup pot in the freezer.

Many just make sandwiches freeze them and use them for lunches.
(keep the messy ingredients to add at work like tomato).


if you have food waste look for solutions to use up the products if you still need to buy it.
Back to planning.

determined_new_ms

when I get bread slices out to defrost for a sandwich I stand them up in a /\ and it takes 5 mins for them to defrost

Red-Squirrel_2

Sharon87 wrote: »

Downside of being single. I cook for myself, buy the bag of spinach or bread or mushrooms. It doesn't always get used before it goes off. I waste bread a lot, I buy the small or half loaves but even then I rarely eat the entire loaf before it goes off! I have frozen it in the past, but defrosting it takes ages and I'm not always in the mood for toasting it!

I do batch cook sometimes, but not all the time.

Bread lasts a lot longer in the fridge, and you can get big bags of frozen spinach and take what you need, you can cook from frozen. Or spinach goes with most things if you chop it small and just chuck it in and its great for you!

KxMx

I freeze my bread in bags of 3 slices. I usually get a bag out the night before I need it. If I forget then I separate the slices to defrost quickly.

Then I've got either got a days bread (breakfast and lunch) or three breakfasts if I already have rolls.

I also do this with sandwich meat. I buy a large pack and 4 slices go into each bag, then in the freezer. Once defrosted I've fillings for 2 days.

Most veg can be gotten frozen. If not then it's a false economy to buy the cheaper bag then throw some away. Better value to get a little loose that you need for planned meals.

Sharon87

Almost halfway through the year. I've reduced my spending a bit, not as much as I should have, but I've reduced my spend to £80 a month at the moment.

£400 in total for 5 months
£37.94 of my spend this year is takeaways - I've bought 2 takeaways this year!
£167 on eating out
The rest is work lunches and fast food and food when travelling.

My debt has gone down to less than 12k now and I have almost 1k in my help to buy ISA.

Sharon87

So it's near the end of the year. 11 months in. My 'net worth' for my 'off budget accounts' (my credit cards, HTB ISA and fixer term savings) is less than -£9700. It's the first time since I've started using YNAB it's been this low. the highest it's ever been was -15.5k in November 2017. So in 2 years I've paid off/saved almost £6000.

By the end of December my debt will have gone down by £2675 this year and my savings have gone up by £1000.

My aim for next year is to pay off £400 a month off of my credit cards.(£4800 in the year). I currently pay around £300 a month off, give or take.

I've started shopping in Aldi now there's loads of them popping up in London! This is helping to reduce my food spend. I'm still eating out more than I would like, but I have reduced the amount I'm spending. I find it's spent on lunches and drunken takeaways - luckily I don't drink as often as I used to, so the drunken takeaways should go down! I've barely had a takeaway this year, I think I've had 4 or 5 in total!

I'm also having a clear out and plan on buying less everything. In just over 2 years I plan on going travelling for 3 months around Europe, so I'm starting to save for that as well. Also getting rid of stuff means having to put less stuff in storage! My plan is to pay off all my debt before I go and save up for it! It's going to cost between 6 and 7k to do this - depending how frugal I live during that time! This is my biggest motivator to pay off my cards and save.

I'm not going on any big holidays in 2020 only Ibiza for the annual rock festival (very cheap as I won 2 free nights and flight were £75!) and a weekend in Amsterdam (£39 each way on the train!). I have some ebookers bonus and free hotels.com nights to use, so that'll bring the cost down! 2021 is going to be no holidays! It's all going to save for the big trip!

Other things I've reduced this year:
Phone contract now: £13 - saved £5 a month
bank fee - £10 - cancelled this
netflix - £8.99 - cancelled this. may resubscribe for a couple months next year
Sky - got a new contract and got a good deal, £12 a month for TV for 18 months! (and £13.50 for my share of fibre broadband)
Gym - £79 a month (yes I know!) - cancelled as I've stopped using it. May do a pay as you go one instead. Estimating £20-£30 a month usage at most.

TO CONCLUDE
It's been the best year so far in terms of paying down my debt, but I still have a way to go. I've got rid of bad habits (take-aways), but I'm still spending more than I'd like on work lunches, but it is improving.

Here's a breakdown of my debt/savings:
DEBT (all on 0% deals)
Barclaycard: £6711.34
HSBC CC: £1658.63
Halifax CC: £1395.61
MBNA CC: £1569.64

SAVINGS:
HTB ISA: £1345.51
5% fixed savings: £300 (2022 Europe travelling)

Net worth: -£9689.41

getmore4less

Great progress

to be picky I think this is the first time the phone has been mentioned.
£156py I think there is another £60 to be saved on that

The phone should be under £10, loads of good data/mins/text deals out there around £8.
If you can manage your data down by using wifi a lot(should be easy in London) you could get down quite low there are decent £5 deals about..

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5551685/best-sim-only-deals-guide-discussion
https://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/sim-only

Having had a good go at the big ones might be time to do a full SOA and pick away at the little bits around the edges

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

Sharon87

getmore4less wrote: »

Great progress

to be picky I think this is the first time the phone has been mentioned.
£156py I think there is another £60 to be saved on that

The phone should be under £10, loads of good data/mins/text deals out there around £8.
If you can manage your data down by using wifi a lot(should be easy in London) you could get down quite low there are decent £5 deals about..

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5551685/best-sim-only-deals-guide-discussion
https://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/sim-only

Having had a good go at the big ones might be time to do a full SOA and pick away at the little bits around the edges

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

I have got it the minimum based on my usage. I am in contract for 12Gb, unlimited texts and minutes on Three. If I reduced it to 12Gb it'd be around £10 a month, but I will max out the data quite quickly! I've maxed my data a couple of times on 12Gb - luckily it was only a day or two before my next month. I was paying £18 for the same deal a couple of months ago. So a £5 saving for the same amount of data is good. I'm also in a 24 month sim only plan, so can't change for another 22 months! I used to have 30Gb, so reducing it to 12Gb was a change. I use wifi a lot more now, but sometimes in my house/at work the wifi doesn't reach certain areas, so I use my data.

I also have Go Roam and Go Binge on my plan - ideal for holidays, on some cheaper deals it's not available.

I did consider reducing the data, but maxing out my data I can't afford to do. I use my phone a lot for work, so not being able to google something/check emails when out and about because I've run out of data is not going to be good!