Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

An early evening check-in from me, as I need to go & decide what we're going to eat with the chilli I've made today. It's been simmering away in the slow cooker since 10 a.m -  real use-it-up, zero food waste effort. I'd normally use a bit of chipotle paste, but we just haven't been able to get any lately......what an odd thing to disappear in an orgy of panic-buying.....anyway, not at all essential, as I used 2 of last year's home-grown jalapeno chillies from the freezer, a teaspoon of dried ancho chilli flakes & swapped the paprika for smoked paprika to recover a bit of a smoky vibe. The meat in it is a container of leftover chunks I cut up & froze last time we had a roast pork joint, the red pepper was one of those I prepped & froze recently when I did a triage of the fridge & realised there was a surplus & I used up a stick of rather limp looking celery. Was pleased I only needed one onion because it was such a big one. Everything else was just store cupboard ingredients. I think I might serve it with white basmati rice as there is a bit left in a packet which could do with using up, so that will really feel like a frugal meal.
So.....other activities: Skyped my sister for our morning coffee break, watered all my seedlings, gave the back courtyard a really thorough sweep, including beating both doormats which are finally dry after that prolonged period of rain we had, wrote a letter to a very elderly relative so she has something nice in the post during this difficult time, tidied up & went for a walk with Mr F. We didn't go all that far, but my fitbit pinged quite a while ago to say I'd done my 7000 daily steps target, so that goes to show how every little bit of activity does add up. Tonight, I just intend to watch TV & knit or read my book. I feel ridiculously pleased that Mr F managed to get bread flour.........it kind of shows what's important, doesn't it, when we have to live in a different, restricted way?
I hope everyone has managed to have as decent a day as possible, It is difficult not to think about all the individuals, families & key workers who are experiencing this crisis in a very much more intense way than I am - especially the NHS staff who STILL don't have adequate protective clothing & equipment, so I am determined not to sink into any kind of moany staying-in torpor.......actually, I think the only thing that will cause that is if I were to sit around watching box sets all day, which I'm unlikely to do,as I find it hard to watch TV in the daytime, even if it's something good. My brain is too active then & I like to be 'doing'.
Take care all, follow the rules & try to stay as safe as possible,
Love F xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

I'm with you on the daytime tv Foxgloves, I can't settle to it and would rather be up and doing in the daytime. 

Those of us safely at home are certainly lucky compared to some people!

foxgloves

The 27th. My Big Budget Day. I may be some time..........
F (& her trusty freebie trade union calculator) x

foxgloves

I think I may possibly still be doing this budget in March 2028. Discovered some sort of compound error from a while back, almost certainly connected to current need for double accounting. Then needed 4 attempts at how to show some figures accurately. Hard to explain, as they worked correctly on paper but as soon as I inserted them into my budget calculations, it resulted in an error. Ah well.....
just heading back upstairs to try & get it finished.........
F x

Chrystal

That doesn't sound like fun F.  Hope you manage to get it sorted without tearing your hair out.  X

foxgloves

Ohhhhhh, at last the wretched budget is finished. I feel as though I've been staring at a screen or columns of figures all day.......which is because I have. I did do some 'nice screen' too, as I skyped my sister over morning coffee & enjoyed a chat. It was funny hearing my nephew getting 'done' in the background for not being where he should be, doing his school work.
This was the worst budget day for a while.....not because we are horribly tight financially, as we're not & I am beyond grateful for that at the moment. The issue was that as we all know, an up-to-date accurate figure is required in order to commence the distributive budgetary procedure & I just couldn't decide what that figure was. I had 4 attempts, each working the problem area in a slightly different way & the 4th set of sums was the correct one. Things got tricky because I'm sort of running two separate budgets at the moment, but both amounts of money are in the same current account. I thought it'd be easier that way, so that I wouldn't have to keep transferring amounts across from elsewhere to pay workmen, builders, tree fellers, etc, for the work we have started on our house this year. And so far, this has just meant me being ultra careful with logging amounts spent from the ring-fenced home improvements money & it's all worked fine. Today there was a discrepancy, because if I accepted that the 4th method of showing the figures was the correct one, which it was, then I also had to accept that I was £200 down & not in an '"Oh there it is, it's in the wrong column" sort of a way but in a "I absolutely have no record of where that money has gone" way & hated that feeling that I'd wasted or lost it. I couldn't see any error in March's budget & all our payments went out correctly, so I decided I'd just have to suck it up & went & made some lunch.
Maybe my blood sugar was a tad higher in the afternoon I started properly writing the new April budget into my trusty Money Book, when I found myself writing against 'April's Personal Spends' - "2 x £100 -Total £200 - no change to balance as already have £200 cash available". Eh? EH???? £200 cash? The exact amount that was missing in action? I did feel like a numpty, I'd been stressing & groaning over the missing money ON PAPER & all the time, that £200 had been sitting neatly under my treble clef paperweight under the very sheets of sums I'd been churning out! So what was it? Well, I know exactly what it was. Last week, I withdrew £200 cash to pay the plasterer - you see we were having the work done on Wednesday & he was coming on Thursday to finish off. But of course with the national emergency & isolation rules, the work was postponed on Tuesday until the company is able to work again. So because I hadn't paid the plasterer that £200 & popped the receipt in my 'Building work' file, it didn't get accounted for with the same rigour that it would usually have done & I completely forgot about it. The cashpoint receipt was under the cash, ready for dealing with, so I didn't even see that as a reminder. Grrrrr........well, my budget is now straight, I'm pleased to say I HAVEN'T lost £200, which is a lot of money & it has been properly reassigned & accounted for. 
I have managed to pay £400 to the savings pots from April's budgets, but not all of them have had something. I have prioritised clothes (because I have no summer footwear - forgot I chucked my ancient sandals in the bin last year), holidays (because I don't want to take my eye off this while it is out of sight, out of mind & we can't go anywhere), Meow Fund.......I don't know, I've just got a feeling I need to keep slowly increasing this as there's no such thing as a small vet's bill, except claw cutting, House & garden got a small amount because after all the work, we are going to need a few things like curtains, paint, etc, & we all know how much that sort of stuff can add up. Finally presents, which means there is £500 towards Christmas (I'm hoping I'll still be able to buy useful bits to put away all year but this is not an option if we have to stay at home which we absolutely must atm). I didn't pay anything into the other pots. I dithered over 'Car Maintenance' as that's another pot which can empty in a twinkling of an eye, isn't it, but had a quick conflab with Mr F & he says the service will be longer away now that he is only driving into work for safety/security checks once a week & we've recently had 2 new tyres, so I haven't prioritised that pot this time.
Honestly, only on here could I have this kind of conversation about budgeting nitty-gritty. It's taken absolutely ages today, but d'you know what? It kind of beats my old pre-LBM method of looking at my bank statement through half closed eyes, telling myself it'd be ok as it was ppay-day pretty much next week (it never was!) before lobbing it into a drawer.
Sure, that method was a lot quicker, but I think one would be hard pushed to describe it as an actual budget.
Well, I shall sign off & go & have a few brisk laps of the garden as I haven't even had a whiff of fresh air today.
Take care all - I can barely watch the news. I could cry when I see those scenes in hospitals - all those dedicated workers putting themselves at risk without even decent protective gear. What a terrible shame that the UK government wasted 2 weeks on woffling about when they could have been spent on hardcore preparation. It's heartbreaking.
Must get the last few rays of sun.
Love F xx

Baileys_Babe

It is so frustrating when you can't get the spreadsheet to cooperate.

At the moment my main 1 is showing a figure £100 higher than when I do the calculations in my head, on paper or with a calculator. I've decided to walk away for a few days and look at it anew then.

foxgloves

It really is, BaileysBabe & I was even crosser when I realised the key to the mystery.....as in the actual cash, for heaven's sake, had been sitting under a pile of stuff on the very desk I was working all along! I'd never withdraw that amount of cash without accounting for it in my Money Book, but on this occasion, I intended to pay the plasterer, then write up that line of expenditure against the home improvements budget. But with lockdown stopping the work, then moving into this emergency mode of living ourselves, I just completely forgot about the cash I'd got ready.
I hope you manage to solve your spreadsheet problem. The fact that it is £100 does point to it being either a maths or funds transfer error. I bet it's annoying you, whatever it is.
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

I'm glad you found the missing £200 Foxgloves, that sounds like something I would do 😂 . I hope your walk around the garden was peaceful .

I do feel sorry for anyone in hospital at the moment, whether it be patients, doctors, nurses, HCAs, porters, or cleaners. It must be so stressful and scary for them . Maybe after this social pressure will force the government to give the NHS more money.

Baileys_Babe

I so hope that one of the silver linings to come out of this is serious long term investment in the NHS.