Sunken's attempt to float...

Sunkencosts

Right, goal this morning - spend at least one hour sorting out and listing some stuff to sell! My daughter has a little friend coming over so I can do that whilst they are destroying the house together

Sunkencosts

Have stuck posh shoes on recommended fb site and also some stuff on my local fb site. Just can't seem to bear ebay now with all the fees - think I'd rather do a car boot sale or something.

Sunkencosts

Still debating about budget software - I think YNAB looks the best, and I did like it when I tried it, but I hated having to pay (and also extra because my bank charged about 1.50 for paying in dollars to the site).

Sunkencosts

Right gone for 60 day trial and I'm currently sitting and swearing at it. Fun fun fun on a Saturday

Sunkencosts

Been a spendy couple of days - nothing too major though. OH has bought a second hand wii mini set up. We used to have a wii around a decade ago (didn't everyone?) but then that got sold off in one of our various moves, but kids are of an age to find it fun now - was only £30 and if it helps to entertain them during half term as we have no trips planned then I'm fine with it.

Had people over for lunch on Sunday, so spent a little extra on a joint of meat etc - but we're both really conscious of keeping costs down at the moment.

Re the theatre trip, a family member has kindly said she will take the kids overnight so we can still go together. OH was all set to look for a cheap hotel room, but I've said that we can come home and then have a takeaway pizza as a treat and that seems to have worked! I probably won't have the pizza as I'm hoping to still be eating healthily, so realistically he can't spend much more than £20 on his own can he?!?

Still not drinking any alcohol, and I think the diet is going well. I don't weigh myself but have lost 2 inches around my waist and clothes are fitting a bit better. Just want to keep this up so when we go camping I can fit into the many pairs of cropped jeans in my wardrobe rather than needing to buy anything new.

We were toying with the idea of OH 'buying' additional annual leave - but today they have told him it will work out at £72 per month over the year for 5 days. That works out at about £150 a day - so considerably more than we would spend on childcare if we had to cover it during the holidays so it's a no brainer really. Apart from the odd camping weekend we haven't got any large blocks of time we both need to be off, so I'm hopeful we can cover the school holidays between us - just need to see it as another symptom of our debt and the sooner we get out of debt the sooner we can enjoy much more time off together.

Youngest is poorly today - high temperature and aches etc, so we wouldn't be going far today even if we were millionaires. Luckily her brother is more than happy to slop around in his onesie eating cereal and playing on his computer.

Sunkencosts

I think YNAB will work for us. I haven't got to grips with most of its tricks etc yet, but simply to have a record of all spends from all accounts with a memo attached detailing what they were all for is a great thing to have. At some point I will sit down and learnt to use it properly.

Sunkencosts

Grrr at bank account shenanigans. Everytime I log in to check it against YNAB there has been some random change. Today a transaction that should have cleared has disappeared completely! I know it will be back so I shall leave YNAB unchanged but they're making me look a fool!

I dream of the day that YNAB's version of my current account and my bank's version of my current account match, Sadly my a/c is one that won't automatically download transactions....Perhaps that's why YNAB will help us to save - because it's such a hassle recording transactions and whether they're cleared or not that we'll be tempted not to spend in the first place!

Walaboobah

Sunkencosts wrote: »

Going through noddle today found my OH had a credit card and current account with LLoyds from 2008 - at an old address - who knew?!
Phoned to get those closed, which was entertaining as we had absolutely no info about them. Credit card had a balance of nearly £3. Cash back!!

Any PPI on it? Got to be worth a try...

Sunkencosts

Hurray, it's the end of the month! And I've gone back to YNAB to see if I can make it match in anyway my bank account activity. Short answer no. Between bank accounts opening and closing and tranferring and things I'm in a right old pickle - so I did my best and then made adjustments and now all accounts are reconciled.

I admit we lost our way a bit towards the end of the month - the credit card came out - mainly because a Very account that I had completely forgotten we owed came payable, a casual email from them asking for the full amount before the BNPL interest was added in a couple of days. Damn me and my signing up for things without paper statements. I knew in the back of my mind we'd bought that hoover, but there was no paperwork so I conveniently decided we must have paid it off - doh!

Anyway it's paid off now, and I have also managed to clear OH's overdraft (only 160 at the moment) but it means we're moving into a new month with all accounts in credit and all debts accounted for (if still 4 years from being settled!).

We also had fun in London and spent a bit (not crazy amounts or anything, but probably a good £100 over transport, eating, parking etc)
However, OH is getting a bonus in tomorrow's pay packet so we can pay the spending on the cc straight off AND make our planned payment so we'll still be on track.

This month's goal is to try and YNAB every night if possible, to keep a track of our spending. Towards the end of this month I got back into that mindset of 'don't look at the balance and that means there'll still be money available' which is so dangerous.

Also going to use this month's council tax money to boost the emergency fund - although having written that I've just remembered we're having loft insulation put in - so that's where that will go straight away! Oh well, should be warmer at least...... and onwards....

Sunkencosts

Just updated signature and am pleased with progress. It's a shame I don't really know where we are with the loans, hopefully an annual statement will be sent for them in a couple of months (except my mum's - wish I'd kept track more of them -they seem to be lasting longer and longer!!)

Also pleased to be out of OH's overdraft. It wasn't a particularly expensive one, but still annoying to pay money for basically nothing.

Am trying hard with YNAB, and it's quite reassuring to have it tell me what I can afford - I keep worrying that I've forgotten stuff but I've checked and checked again and it's all there - so let's see how this month goes.

I'm feeling lucky that with my new job it's telephone based so I have been able to work from home in the Snow. Previously with my work as a carer I would have had to cancel shifts (most were in rural areas) and that would have severely impacted our budget. This has actually helped it as I haven't had to pay afterschool care or for petrol.
End of last month as the money came in but I didn't have time to get a 'big' shop we did spend in local co op - which irritated me greatly, just so expensive compared to Lidl etc - so I compensated by doing a massive Lidl shop on Thursday. £120 - which is a lot to spend in there but I feel we are well stocked for food and household supplies for a while now.

I find there is a tendency as the savings grow to feel a little more relaxed about money - but I recognise that's a dangerous path. I want to keep the intensity of feeling I had at the beginning of the year. Will spend more time on this forum to help with that.