*sigh* this may take a while

ohdearhowdidthathappen

mark55man said:

clever + with kids to pick up from school there is zero chance anyone can ask you to stay a bit longer "for the team"

Ha, yes.  The 'must pick kids up' excuse is always a handy one that they can't argue with

savingholmes said:

The £75 pcm is a great win and as Mark says opportunity to get out on time. I too have been feeling flat if it is any consolation - I think the weather and all the uncertainty is really not helping.

Thanks. I agree about the weather and uncertainty.... there are usually events, plans or holidays to look forward to.  At the moment the days/weeks/months seem to be blending into one.  September already!!  Eek.  Next month, I'd usually be starting my Christmas shopping!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

After a month of doing all our banking through Monzo, I've been really impressed. 
It's definitely helped our budgeting, planning and spending.  Because it's an easily accessible app on his phone, OH is much more involved and interested.  When all the DDs went out, he was 'what's x for' and 'what's y for', it was surprising how little he knew about our fixed expenditure.  £3200 goes straight into our 'bills' pot and he thought I was being over generous, he was very surprised when all the DDs started draining it away
Likewise, the pots are very motivational.  Another £900pm go into these and it will be nice seeing them build up and then having the money there to draw on when needed, especially at Christmas and holidays which are usually real pinch points for us.

mark55man

Very glad that Monzo is working for you, I was worried I had put you off - with tales of its demise.

Seems to be working so well for you, I wonder whether I'm missing out.  But I spent most of this year simplifying and consolidating so I think I will continue to swerve.  I did do some similar analysis, and now know much better what my fixed and variable pots need to be 

mark55man

PS - In terms of Xmas shopping we are going with Cash for the kids and home made for the friends to minimise shopping.  Some small stocking fillers / actually having a present type present undoubtedly, but mostly pictures of the queen.  There is a hint at work that there may be a Xmas bonus, so will see how that goes but probably the main spends will be on having 12 adults and young adults round on XMAS day - last time it was our turn (first time everyone over 18) - it was the most alcoholic thing I'd been to in decades.  Boxing day was not fun!!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I think you have a better grip on your outgoings than we did, your monthly round ups are very detailed, whereas we kind of looked back retrospectively without having any major clue where it had all gone
I wouldn't be surprised if we end up doing mainly cash for our eldest 3.  The youngest two are 8 and 5, so still present age, but they're both quite easily pleased.  We just need to rein ourselves in and not be too spendy!!

Sarahwithlove

I'm glad it's working for you and got hubby involved more. You wouldn't believe the amount of people I meet in my job who have no idea of their own finances as their other half used to deal with it all and then suddenly they find themselves being the one that has to take over. Its rather scary. I'm finding YNAB is working well for me at the moment and still in my free year. But when it ends I may choose to try something like monzo. 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Sarahwithlove said:

I'm glad it's working for you and got hubby involved more. You wouldn't believe the amount of people I meet in my job who have no idea of their own finances as their other half used to deal with it all and then suddenly they find themselves being the one that has to take over. Its rather scary. I'm finding YNAB is working well for me at the moment and still in my free year. But when it ends I may choose to try something like monzo. 

Yeah, he knew the basics and I was always chatting to him about it, but I think he was nodding and smiling and letting me get on with it! 
I liked YNAB to start with, but found it very time consuming to keep up to date with!  Monzo kind of does it all for you, so minimal effort. We've got a joint account with them and every single financial transaction comes out of that.... we get a notification with every single thing too, which definitely keeps you accountable!  You can tag items, so if you spend £5 in a shop you can put 'milk, eggs and bread' or whatever and allocate it to your food budget.  That's handy as stops us having to say 'what were you spending on at x,y,z'.
We then each have a personal account with them and allocate £100 to each. We both find that useful as we can spend that on personal 'wants' as we know 'needs' are justified via the joint account.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

mark55man said:

Very glad that Monzo is working for you, I was worried I had put you off - with tales of its demise.

No, I found it useful to know.  We've kept our emergency fund elsewhere and our (currently very small) long term savings account will be too.  I would hope if it did go under, there'd be a swift resolution!

savingholmes

You have made so much progress. You are doing really well. 

enthusiasticsaver

Monzo sounds like it is working well for you. Good your OH getting more involved too and that the savings pots are building up nicely.  So nice to know the money is there to pay for things like Christmas and Holidays rather than a debt hangover afterwards.