Geeking out with YNAB

Jigglebiz

It's been a good weekend, mainly been cleaning and tidying for family visit next weekend, and buying a few bits for the little one.
Had an £18 budget at Primarni but near doubled that as the little one spotted lots of things and to be fair, basics like knickers and vests have been running low for some time. Pleased with the re-stock and shouldn't need anything new for a while now.
Also found a couple of very cheap household bits and a reduced fleece dressing gown which have been needed for some time, so happy with what we got.
Caught a movie in the morning for £2.50 as part of a family deal - little one loved that. Wanted popcorn etc but of course I brought a bag full of homemade sandwiches and snacks :rotfl:
Spent today giving the upstairs a deep clean, vacuum seems so much lighter now that the bag has been changed. Seriously, the bag must have been in there for a year at least. Grim
We've bother with our tenanted flat. Moral of the story is it needs selling as soon as we are out of contract as I am ready to be free of the stress of being an accidental landlord. And the cost :eek:
Pleased with a few moneysaving DIY jobs this weekend - upholstered a stool with leftover fabric and wadding and a staple gun to use at my dressing table. Also dyed a pair of Boden jeans bought for £1 at a charity shop, and an old Tesco cashmere jumper in a shade of beige to a nice mid-grey. Proud!
Budget-wise, YNAB is working well. Had to borrow £65 from the road tax category - bill is due in March - but plan to re-stock this when child benefit comes in later this month. The shortfall was due to overspending on kids clothes and extra £30 towards groceries due to said family visit. Planned cheap meals but will need to do at least one pricier (meat) dish and buy a bottle of wine. Coop seems the best and cheapest supermarket wine I can find. Used to be a regular part of our weekly shop but now it's strictly for treats.

Drawingaline

Glad YNAB is working well. All my categories are low and I am only left with the ones I can't really move money from. I haven't been paid yet as the clients haven't paid my boss yet, which is so frustrating. Luckily the mortgage isn't due until the 25th, but I do need to fill a few other categories.

Jigglebiz

That!!!8217;s tough about waiting for payment as there is a delay even for your boss to be paid... what are your essential categories looking like (food etc)?

I recommend the YNAB webinar called Budgeting when Money!!!8217;s Tight- really useful. As are those on managing a variable income. For me, though, using YNAB with a low and variable income made me realise how much I resent the present situation and that I need something more stable and better paid ASAP! Budgeting carefully helps in the meantime, as I!!!8217;m doing this job as a step to something else.

Hoping your client pulls their finger out and pays up!

Drawingaline

My budget is odd in that I get money 5 times a month. So my wages cover the mortgage, loan payment and my spends,. DH sends the bulk of his wages for the bills, 'true expenses' (Xmas, clothing car maintenance etc) and debt overpayment, tax credits are for my petrol, child benefit pays the council tax, milk bill and kids hobbies and I receive DLA for my 9yr old which covers our food bill! It's all quite complicated, but I never have a five week month with food and petrol (as benefits are paid four weekly). But I can't wait to get our loan paid off as then I can start saving for other things. It's just been a long hard month since Xmas I think. Things seem a bit better this week.

And the clients paid after a stern email from my boss lol!

savingholmes

Just popped along to wish you good luck on your journey

Jigglebiz

Drawingaline Glad the clients coughed up! I suppose irregular or variable payments are where YNAB comes into its own. I admire your allocating of each income stream to different bills, that's a good way to look at things. Because we don't have much spare 'fun' money right now, when we sell bits and pieces on Ebay I tend to put the income towards nice treats rather than the debt snowball. Definitely need motivation to keep going. For instance, we sold some old dunagrees online this weekend so had £15 to spend at the pub on Saturday night. Lovely !:beer: <this is a rare treat for us>

We have actually made £45.23 from selling old kids clothes this month which is pretty good :T

savingholmes Thanks for popping by! Need all the luck we can get :rotfl:

Right now I'm between interviews and finding out the outcome will be take at least a month more. To distract myself, I'm working additional days (increasing monthly income by £600!), doing extra freelance work (c.£250) and on days off and weekends will be getting started on the gardening for the year. Got to stay out of garden centres and do everything on the cheap. I bought a couple of large pots from the BandQ site as they all seem to be going around half price. We have a good garden here but as it's a rental I will not be investing my hard earned cash in anything that isn't coming with us when we move

So its pots and cheap seeds for us this year (always is, to be honest...). I need to do all the drudge work of cleaning up all the dead stuff and brown leaves all over the front and back gardens. This costs nothing but always makes it look loads better. I prefer looking at pretty flowers but must stop myself.

As for the budget, things are pretty much on track. My other half has sold an old phone for £45 :j and specified this was going straight into the holiday fund. He's not as interested in paying off the debt.

I notice from writing all this out that any of our extra income this month has gone towards fun stuff .. so the plan for Feb pay is to put the following towards debts:

£167 to family loan (reducing it to £666)
£204 to student overdraft (reducing it to £612.13)

savingholmes

Jigglebiz wrote: »

[ We have a good garden here but as it's a rental I will not be investing my hard earned cash in anything that isn't coming with us when we move

I did that for years even when we were in "owned" homes - as I wanted to take my best stuff with me. Even now I have about 10 large pots and we've lived in this house over 10 years.

Jigglebiz wrote: »

[ I notice from writing all this out that any of our extra income this month has gone towards fun stuff .. so the plan for Feb pay is to put the following towards debts:

£167 to family loan (reducing it to £666)
£204 to student overdraft (reducing it to £612.13)

Congrats on all the extra income and work. When I first joined MSE I set out to earn £10 a day extra which I then used to fund hobbies, eating out and various other treats - even extra clothes. It's a good way of creating some guilt free spends so don't beat yourself up.

At the same time - it is good if you can repay debt quicker and get it off your plate - so as you are already trying to do - just find a balance.

Drawingaline

It's definitely about balance. I found I had £14 extra in a hobby category, I could have paid it towards the loan, but my spends were looking low after a heavy week so I transferred them there.

Jigglebiz

savingholmes I love the idea of an extra £10 a day ! I feel like I have to work with my motivation... I’m far more likely to photograph and list a bunch of old kids clothes on eBay if I know the proceeds will be spent on family days out. Right now paying off the debt feels pretty abstract and I guess I’m procrastinating on it a bit.

Drawlingaline for sure, I am constantly doing this. I don’t find myself moving any extra towards the debt during the month though now. I’m going to try and put as much as I can towards the debt when I’m paid and then rely on extra income for luxuries.

Although this month my income should be up a little on last month, I’ve calculated I can take a ‘base’ salary of £940 and the rest should go to a variable income fund. That way I know that I won’t be short over Uni vacation periods (is semester time only). Even so, I’ve now got the following additional income on the horizon:

1 extra day per week at main job = £150 per week extra - March to May
2 freelance jobs = £200-400 (need to negotiate details still) - March
Additional project = £250 - March and then ongoing but variable amounts

Pretty pleased with that! :j

Jigglebiz

Updates on my plans for the month:


- Been saving up pennies and a couple of foreign coins I've found Done, have - - added at least £5 of loose change over the month
- lowered the price of my eBay BIN prices in an attempt to shift them ASAP Done, and it worked! Need to list more
- been walking to or from work every day, only saves £1 each time but it means I get a bit more exercise in and improves my mood Less than once a day, plus have been buying weekly bus pass as it does save me a little
- Go to the computer place and get them to wipe the data on my old (broken) laptop. They said they'd do this for free. I have scheduled to do this early next month due to time restrictions with preparing for interviews this month
- List said laptop on eBay - should fetch £150ish just for parts.
- Stick a couple of other items online Will be early March
- Allocate £60 I've earned through business insurance with Quidco towards the student O/D This has been delayed but is earmarked for debt
- NOT book the hotel I was tempted to book the night before my 2nd important interview coming up. I've already booked a 7am train that day and while staying in a hotel might mean I arrive a little fresher, the £60 for the room plus dinner and breakfast feels a bit of a luxury right now TBH Didn’t book it, and was glad of it

Progress made, but still some way to go