Put away your purse & become debt-averse

[Deleted User]

Your parents would be so proud that you put their money to good use. I am sure they are cheering for you up there, where ever they are xxx

HairyHandofDartmoor

Deleted_User wrote: »

Your parents would be so proud that you put their money to good use. I am sure they are cheering for you up there, where ever they are xxx

I agree that they would be delighed that their money has been able to help you in this way .

HairyHandofDartmoor

foxgloves wrote: »

Kantankrus - I am flattered to be considered your 'favourite diary-writer'. I hope I can live up to this special title! If, over the next year, I fill all my posts with rants about builders' quotes, heating upgrades, People Who Never Bother To Get Back To Me About Bloody Asbestos & gardens which are too soggy to get out & cultivate :-( ..........I shall understand if you decide to award this title to somebody else!
F x

I'm looking forward to another year of your posts already :rotfl:.

foxgloves

Awww, well it's really kind of you all to be happy for me. What a lovely bunch of people x
I still haven't done December's budget! I spent so long sorting out all yesterday's paperwork, moved a lot of money around, set up a new standing order, cancelled a couple of DDs & set up a new Emergency Fund which is absolutely only to be used for dire happenstances such as redundancy or meteor strike. There were so many jobs of this nature that by the time I'd paid both 'Just for points' credit cards in full in readiness for beginning December's budget, my eyes were spinning, my head was starting to bang & I decided to call it a day...... which I have, apart from making Malaysian prawn curry later & maybe doing a bit of one of my current knitting projects.
So tomorrow will involve more time at my desk number crunching, but I'll be sure to do other jobs too, including putting a colour on my yukky roots as they are so awful at the moment that I'm. avoiding mirrors!
F x

Toni'sfriend

I am so, so pleased for you. What a wonderful start to 2020.

I hope you're going to keep writing your diary. I so love reading it.

maryb

Popping in to say hooray for being mortgage free. It’s the best feeling EVER!

Onebrokelady

🎉🎉🎉🎉many congratulations on being mortgage free 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉:beer: what a lovely end to the year :j x

foxgloves

Thank-you Mary, Toni's friend & OBL.
And yes, Toni's friend, I will continue writing my dfw diary next year. We need a lot of work doing on our house, which is going to require very careful money management.because having set up various savings accounts to help with our future security, I'd be really disappointed if we had to dip into those for paying builders & electricians. I also intend to look at ways our lifestyle can become a little greener, so our frugal ways are not likely to change much any time soon. We have been sensible with money for a good few years now, but we were both Very Spendy for a much longer period than we've been sensible, so I shall still need to hold myself accountable for continued good behaviour & leaving smaller footprints on the planet.
F x

foxgloves

Oh my goodness, I am just about swivel-eyed from studiously working on December's budget. I set the budget as usual, with a few tweaks following recent developments re mortgage, then as the little grey cells still seemed to be up for it, I decided it to give our 'Savings Piggies' system a major revamp. Our Savings Piggies were basically an envelope system. I settled on these at my third attempt at budgeting following the LBM, & they were also a good early example of shopping from home. Initially, I'd intended to purchase some A5 plastic envelope style wallets, but it seemed to defeat the object when it was all about careful budgeting, so I used 6 ordinary A5 envelopes from my writing stash & gussied them up by cutting chubby little pig shapes out of a piece of recycled stripy pink metallic gift wrap. I glued a shiny little piggy onto each envelope, added curly tails & labelled them. We had 6 categories: Car maintenance, Clothing, Holidays, Household, Presents & Leisure/entertainment. Each month, when I set the budget, I distributed money between them to cover spending in those categories. This put right the glitch on which my previous two attempts at budgeting had stalled - we had the actual cash, so could easily see if there was sufficient to buy something we'd seen which would make an ace present or enough compost for my Spring seed sowing or something new to wear, etc, etc. A peep into the Car Piggy would also help stop me worrying about imminent big car services too, because I could easily see at once if we had a nice wodge of cashola for the bill.
So today was the end of an era, as I have binned the old Savings Piggies & have set up Version 2. It's pretty much the same thing, but I think our budgeting skills have now sufficiently evolved for us to have virtual pots. I've increased the number of them to 10. We'll be keeping all the above, but changing Household to 'House & garden' & introducing 'Dentist & optician', 'Meow Fund', 'Appliances replacement' & 'Tech replacement'. I have put a starter amount into each 'pot' this morning & also added the usual monthly contribution which will continue to be paid on each Budget Day. All I'll need to do is update a 'Savings Pots' spreadsheet each month & remember to alter the figures when any money is spent from these categories. There shouldn't need to be any adding up, as all I'll need to do is check that the total spreadsheet figure matches the one in the savings section of our regular current account.
The cash piggies really worked well for us, but I feel I can trust myself fully now to maintain an electronic version, & I'm hoping that the extra categories will prevent unhelpful 'dips' into the savings which are intended for our future, & when the time comes, vehicle replacement.
So I feel a bit swivelly-eyed from what has now been 3 days of number crunching, but I feel in control, & that is a really important thing for me. I know it sounds ridiculous, but chucking my shiny pink paper piggies into the bin felt a tiny bit sad! Oh, for heaven's sake, woman!! I have had them all lined up on my desk for several years every budget day, working out how much they were going to have added to them that month & have frequently popped upstairs to Foxgloves HQ to get one or other of them out of my desk drawer to see if we had sufficient funds for some gig tickets or whatever purchase we were contemplating. But they did the job. I've moved on where the ability & importantly, THE WILL to budget is concerned, so it is time for my new system to get up & running.
Am I going to nobble Mr F when he gets in tonight to design me a new spreadsheet? I am. I think he will go for it when he sees I've kicked another £30 into the 'Tech Replacement' Pot. There's a lot of shonky old tech in this house & he is busy researching viable options for upgrading a few things.
OK, nice talking to you, m'dears. I'm going to do today's German lesson, make a cup of tea & then I think I will have a glorious soak in the bath..............why do I always say 'in the bath'.....I mean, it's not going to be in the pond, is it?
Very much colder here today - cars were crystalline-white with ice this morning.
Stay cosy,
F x

Toni'sfriend

Oh, I love the 'Meow Fund' and the Savings Piggies,