I hope I can do this

ftbwannabe

Hurry up, payday.
Spent money this month, it was hard not to knowing I had that PPI money. Nothing awful, but either interesting or boring to see the same culprits eating up my money - books, Sainsburys, & the allotment. Good to know so I can super-charge my willpower against them in the future. And so my eventual, no-debt, long-term budget can put some money aside for them.
Although, I think I'll always overspend on those areas so maybe I'll always limit those bits of my budget while secretly keeping a buffer for if I do slip? Not sure, need to find a way to trick myself.
One thing that's really worked over the last few months is planning in advance when i'm doing something sociable (drinks, coffee, etc) & how much I want to spend. That's meant I spend a bit less when I do go out, but still have money aside for times (like today!) when something's happening in the last week of the month. Off to London tomorrow & have just-enough left to cover some beers in the evening. I would usually invariably have to stay in for the last 2 weeks of the month because I'd spent everything in week one.
No mortgage news. The waiting is grating...

efes_shareholder

We all have our guilty pleasures - I've found ebay a great place to pick my books up
Just spent the weekend reading professor Green Lucky

I hope you get some news on the property soon - I must say things seem to move much slower than they used to with conveyacing

Just remember every happens for a reason

PS pay day can't come soon enough

ftbwannabe

Today 2 of my cc payments came out a day earlier than expected (I'd forgotten to amend the standing orders after last month ended on the 30th). NB the perils of standing orders vs dds. And also NB how much less attention I've been paying vs months when I watch my cc payment dates like a hawk.
But - and this is the miraculous bit - I had money in my account to cover them. It's the money I've saved towards house costs, including the PPI money.
I'm writing about this because I was initially quite dismissive. 'It's house money.' And 'it's not real savings because it's PPI payout.'
But, wait a second, it's still money I saved, that I made an effort not to spend. Same with the PPI extra, there's no way me 6 months ago wouldn't have already spent that, probably on a holiday or new laptop. What's more, the stash in my emergency fund would have covered it even without if that house money hadn't been there.
I am allowed to be proud of this (even though it was an accident).

efes_shareholder

The temptation to just dip in must be over whelming at times

Well done , reverse back several months and I think it would have been a slightly different scenerio

This is all about the small wins

jwil

Great that you managed the payments.

Can you join the library? It's quite fun 'shopping' for books from there. You can also borrow e-books and e-magazines from mine.

ftbwannabe

jwil wrote: »

Great that you managed the payments.

Can you join the library? It's quite fun 'shopping' for books from there. You can also borrow e-books and e-magazines from mine.

Thanks, jwil. Yes, I love the library, & enjoy supporting them because they're so important. Mine's brilliant for ebooks, too, + audiobooks. I'm just not good at restricting myself only to what they have. I need to ban myself from Amazon deals :-)

ftbwannabe

Money update: the payments for this month have gone out, bar 1 student loan. Will update my signature in a sec.
Still no mortgage/house news. I think we should get a decision from the lender this week. Apart from the longterm 'will I/can I get a house' question, I really want to start planning Xmas, will I be up a ladder scraping off wallpaper, or packing boxes to move, or scrolling through rightmove again?
My spending's not been brilliant, but YNAB IS brilliant & has let me readjust my categories so I'm confident about the rest of the month, so long as I do no frittering. Blimmin love YNAB.

efes_shareholder

No news is good news
Fingers crossed the outcome is a positive one for you

jwil

There's nothing quite like a nice new book!

Hope you get some mortgage news soon.

pidge04

Hope you’re ok x