DD's accountability thread

DD265

I've sat down to write this update several times but it feels a bit massive so I've gone off to do other things

We had a great time away and stayed well within the holiday budget; the remaining money has been re-purposed. I ate too much though and rather a lot of chocolate so on the basis that I can't afford to replace all my jeans, I need to find my mojo and start behaving again.

While we were away Skipton offered our mortgage for exactly what we needed so I've engaged a surveyor. I think things are ticking along nicely but it's difficult to know. I still need to look at life insurance etc and simply haven't found the time.

This weekend I've done the food shopping including the butchers, we bought some bits for our friends who are having a baby, picked up some parcels and collected a footstool from FB which matches our sofa. Cost us £70, but they're £240 new! The cats love it. :rotfl:

On the subject of the cats, I have been looking at pet insurance tonight as theirs is up for renewal. We took them in for jabs yesterday and the vets no longer deal directly with our current insurance company, plus the level of cover we have isn't going to be sufficient when we have the costs of home ownership too. I'm pretty sure we'll go with PetPlan at £30 a month - we currently pay half that. The cats are also F.A.T. I've been working out kittie macronutrients based on the feeding guidelines on their wet food and biscuits so they're about to get a shock when they get less food.

I've run out of steam on the update so I'll finish by saying that it's back to work tomorrow and I don't want to go!

beanielou

Good news on the mortgage offer :j

DD265

Thanks Beanielou!

It has been a bit of a mad week so far; I've been visiting a customer to take part in training they were being given. I wasn't delivering the training but still mentally very draining. I have an internal 3 hour training session tomorrow morning then I can finally catch up with what I missed when I was on holiday. I keep tabs on my emails so only the ones that need action are still in my inbox and the rest have been filed away or deleted.

I have one very unimpressed cat tonight and one that could be happier but he's coping OK. I bought them some 'Indoor Hunting Feeders' which are basically toy mice that you fill with biscuits and hide. The cats have to a) find them and b) play with them to get the biscuits out. Not only is this more challenging than the puzzle tray that they are used to, but it actually requires more effort for fewer biscuits as we're rationing them heavily. The biscuit-lover has at least attempted to stuff his face, whereas the other cat is settling for being a bit of an idiot, but we won't cave.

I sorted out their insurance so we switch to PetPlan next week. Went through Quidco for £70 cashback so hopefully it tracks and pays out in 3 months or so. Unfortunately didn't have the funds to pay up front given the house purchase, but there's no interest on the monthly installments so we've gone down that route.

Put a reasonable expenses claim in today but I'll be surprised if it pays out before pay day. Annoyingly, I put £15 worth of fuel in yesterday, only to have the fuel light come on again this morning! The customer is only 30 miles away so I was really unimpressed. It must be a combination of the high price of diesel right now plus the shape of the fuel tank. I also had a bulb go yesterday which cost £8.50 for bulb and fitting at Halfords. Normally I'd do it myself, but I'd have needed to look up how (not needed to change one for the Golf before) and been stood out in the cold for ages. Planning to get myself a bulb kit and make sure I have the appropriate tools in the car too for next time. :money:

No news on the house front, I can feel myself starting to get impatient. :rotfl:

DD265

It's been a mixed few days money wise. I bought a couple of bits in the BF sales (now unsubscribing from a few mailing lists to avoid further temptation!) and also did some Christmas shopping. But OH paid for the meal yesterday. I was also able to plan our food so that I could do all the shopping at Sainsburys, meaning it was all done from the reloadable card balance. I think I'm going to get an M&S reloadable card too if there is one, as we quite like some of their food.

This coming weekend we're out on Saturday night, then on Sunday I'm off to a spa with Mom. Got it 50% off through Vitality, so for one night with meals included it's very reasonable! I haven't (and don't plan to) booked any treatments as that's where the cost adds up. I think on the way back from the spa we'll call off at a shopping centre and I might be able to finish my Christmas shopping. On Saturday I'm hoping to do a charity shop run in town and find the remaining presents for my sister.

December can be quite a tricky one for me financially as there are always lots of meals out (the cost of travel and drinks sometimes adding up, though I'm not a big drinker) plus many shopping trips for presents. Once I start on the unhealthy eating bandwagon, or the shopping spree wagon, I can go a bit overboard.

I do need to get better at is being a little slower to move money between categories. For example, if I know I'm going out next weekend, rather than taking money from the socialising fund I should just not buy what I want and get it later. I think a good way for me to achieve that is to aim for No Spend Days (NSDs) as I get quite motivated by seeing those build up. I might also go back to withdrawing a bit of cash at the start of a week for spending money (which doesn't affect the NSDs) and then I'm less likely to reach for my card.

DD265

Inspired by XSpender, I am writing a 19 things to do before 2019 list.

1) Catch up on filing (scanning and shredding)
2) Take out life insurance
3) Finish knitting Cushion No.4
4) Declutter kitchen
5) List horsey stuff for sale or donate/throw it
6) List pony stuff for sale or donate/throw it
7) List wedding stuff for sale or donate/throw it
8) List misc stuff for sale or donate/throw it
9) Finish reading 'A Discovery of Witches' trilogy
10) Get/make how-to guide for rebuilding cat tree when we move
11) Lose 4kg
12) Do the hand washing
13) Take cat vaccination cards to vets for update
14) Get blackout linings put in spare room curtains
15) Manage 19 NSDs
16) Declutter bedrooms
17) Declutter living room
18) Pack away seasonal clothes
19) Cash in Premium Bonds account (after next draw)

Chrystal

Now that sounds like a great list!
Are you going to mark them off as you do them?

Mine would be.... get up off your !!!!! .. rinse and repeat ad infinitum! :rotfl:

DD265

Chrystal wrote: »

Now that sounds like a great list!
Are you going to mark them off as you do them?

Mine would be.... get up off your !!!!! .. rinse and repeat ad infinitum! :rotfl:

Haha there are definitely some things on there that I'd rather do than others

But yeah I'll cross them off as I go and hopefully stay motivated

GlendaSugarbean

We are with Petplan and they are great to deal with. Not the cheapest but I have never had to quibble about a payout. They also cover my geriatric cat Who has dodgy kidneys, an overactive thyroid, runny eyes and no teeth ��.

DD265

GlendaSugarbean wrote: »

We are with Petplan and they are great to deal with. Not the cheapest but I have never had to quibble about a payout. They also cover my geriatric cat Who has dodgy kidneys, an overactive thyroid, runny eyes and no teeth ��.

That's good to know thank you! Once I realised that the level of cover we had was too low, they weren't actually too bad price wise.

DD265 wrote: »

My 19 things to do before 2019 list.

1) Catch up on filing (scanning and shredding)
2) Take out life insurance
3) Finish knitting Cushion No.4
4) Declutter kitchen - WIP
5) List horsey stuff for sale or donate/throw it
6) List pony stuff for sale or donate/throw it
7) List wedding stuff for sale or donate/throw it
8) List misc stuff for sale or donate/throw it
9) Finish reading 'A Discovery of Witches' trilogy
[STRIKE]10) Get/make how-to guide for rebuilding cat tree when we move[/STRIKE]
11) Lose 4kg - 1kg down
12) Do the hand washing
13) Take cat vaccination cards to vets for update
14) Get blackout linings put in spare room curtains
15) Manage 19 NSDs - 1/19
16) Declutter bedrooms
17) Declutter living room
18) Pack away seasonal clothes
[STRIKE]19) Cash in Premium Bonds account (after next draw)[/STRIKE] - scheduled

I've made a start on decluttering the kitchen and our bedroom. I've been itching to get rid of some mugs for a while so they're ready to go to the charity shop. I'm going to try and take a big bag full this weekend; we have no plans on Friday evening so I'm hoping to get a big chunk done.

Managed a NSD today, and also had a little money in so I topped up my savings account to a round £1500. I'm not sure whether I'll be using £1000 or £500 of that towards the house, but whatever's leftover is the emergency fund which I want up at £1k. After that, I need to save another £200 for our weekend away in the spring, plus a bit of spending money. Then the savings will be reduced a bit and we'll shift focus on paying the credit cards off again.

One thing I'm not looking forward to is having a few months where I'm not sure what our expenses will be. I'm going to look at doing a 'fresh start' in YNAB because our current average spends won't necessarily be helpful to us going forwards. I'll definitely make a note of it all first though as things like clothing and the supermarket shop are unlikely to change unless we can't afford to sustain what we pay now. Still not decided what to do about our bank accounts though, that's one for another day.

DD265

Been paid, hurrah!

In YNAB whilst the income has been added with today's date, I skipped forward to tomorrow (i.e. December) to allocate the funds to my categories. This means my goals for December are met, but it also makes me feel like I'm less desperate for my salary to be paid in, which is also true. I've decided that whilst I don't think I can do TTs on a daily/weekly basis, at the end of each month before I budget my latest income, I'll move what's left in my discretionary categories (spending money, socialising, food, clothing) to a savings category. This month I've opted for the gifts and parties one, but as of next month it'll probably be the house for a while.

As I'm not anticipating needing to cover any big bills this month (having already been saving towards Christmas) I currently have a £200 surplus without scrimping. I'm very tempted to make an extra credit card payment but I will hang on to it as there will be things we need to pay for when we move. I have a 'buffer' subcategory in the 'House Purchase' category so I've put it in there for now.

Finally decided on life insurance. I'm not sure I'm 100% convinced but we went for the cheaper policy - adequate although less comprehensive cover. We can always add to it later.

DD265 wrote: »

My 19 things to do before 2019 list.

1) Catch up on filing (scanning and shredding)
[STRIKE]2) Take out life insurance[/STRIKE]
3) Finish knitting Cushion No.4 - On to the last ball of wool
4) Declutter kitchen
5) List horsey stuff for sale or donate/throw it
6) List pony stuff for sale or donate/throw it
7) List wedding stuff for sale or donate/throw it
8) List misc stuff for sale or donate/throw it
[STRIKE]9) Finish reading 'A Discovery of Witches' trilogy[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]10) Get/make how-to guide for rebuilding cat tree when we move[/STRIKE]
11) Lose 4kg - 1.8kg down
12) Do the hand washing
13) Take cat vaccination cards to vets for update
14) Get blackout linings put in spare room curtains
15) Manage 19 NSDs - 2/19
16) Declutter bedrooms
17) Declutter living room
18) Pack away seasonal clothes
[STRIKE]19) Cash in Premium Bonds account (after next draw)[/STRIKE]