Young And Dumb

Mx_Emmin

In regards to the bag, I think I'll buy it in the New Year

I asked my family for laptop money for Christmas, but because I dont know how much I'm going to get, when drawing up practice budgets for 2020 I've been acting as if I won't get any, to be safe and leave myself a margin of error

Maybe I can take £55 of that laptop money and turn it into bag money

I've already budgeted as if I'll pay the laptop off myself anyway

vampirotoothus

Hi, with regards to the broken bag, do you still like it? If yes, take it to the shoemenders and see if they can fix it. If you don't then look on Ebay for the make you are now looking for and maybe you'll pick up a bargain either now, or after Christmas. £55 is quite a lot, but I appreciate that a bag can be essential. Check out your local charity shops and FBook too. Good luck on your journey.

Mx_Emmin

vampirotoothus wrote: »

Hi, with regards to the broken bag, do you still like it? If yes, take it to the shoemenders and see if they can fix it. If you don't then look on Ebay for the make you are now looking for and maybe you'll pick up a bargain either now, or after Christmas. £55 is quite a lot, but I appreciate that a bag can be essential. Check out your local charity shops and FBook too. Good luck on your journey.

Haha it's a pretty cheap bag and already repaired once

He's dead, Jim

Good idea for the future though, once I spend money on a decent bag

Mx_Emmin

Voting day!

Mx_Emmin

We're not going to discuss the election. I am upset.

I'm having to Whac-a-mole between categories this month, looks like I didnt save enough for Christmas. It was basically impossible for me to look back at previous years, I just did not keep good enough records. I'll save more next year.

Its disappointing that I'm having to W.A.M. from long term categories (mostly the Divorce fund) but it's not too bad so far. And I get paid next week.

Drawingaline

I keep increasing my Xmas savings! But I love to give and we don't go big on birthdays. And the kids are just getting more expensive as they get older. I am a fan of getting experiences as gifts, but these are not cheap.

Mx_Emmin

Drawingaline wrote: »

I keep increasing my Xmas savings! But I love to give and we don't go big on birthdays. And the kids are just getting more expensive as they get older. I am a fan of getting experiences as gifts, but these are not cheap.

I can imagine! When they're very young you can just get them a shiny, primary coloured car or something, but at a certain point they start wanting iPhones... (there might be an inbetween stage, I'm not sure)

Its occured to me that I get paid on the 19th, but I was planning on doing an entirely new budget on the 1st. Do I budget twice this pay-month? Or do I start the January budget on the 19th? I'm not sure. Practically, I need to budget some of it on the 19th. For groceries and the like. I just dont know whether to do a whole complete budget that only lives for a week and a half...

Mx_Emmin

The day before payday this month I had over £300 in my account, and in December no less. Again, it all had jobs, so it wasn't spare or leftover money, but compared to December 2018 I had -£1,100 on the day before payday, so definite improvement!

My last DD for the red card should go out before the New Year, paying that off entirely.

I've ordered the yarn for my temperature blanket, hopefully that'll arive by New Year.

I found out today that I'm going to get £1000 from my Nan's will in the New Year. I think I'll put it into my H2B ISA, but it's a difficult choice. If it were money from premium bonds or lottery or similar then the best way to immediatly improce my quality of life would to pay off all my debt immediatly - but it doesn't feel right to use inheritance money for that.

I'm struggling a bit with the old mental health, but it's mostly manifesting as fatigue.

jonesMUFCforever

Mx_Emmin wrote: »

The day before payday this month I had over £300 in my account, and in December no less. Again, it all had jobs, so it wasn't spare or leftover money, but compared to December 2018 I had -£1,100 on the day before payday, so definite improvement!

My last DD for the red card should go out before the New Year, paying that off entirely.

I've ordered the yarn for my temperature blanket, hopefully that'll arive by New Year.

I found out today that I'm going to get £1000 from my Nan's will in the New Year. I think I'll put it into my H2B ISA, but it's a difficult choice. If it were money from premium bonds or lottery or similar then the best way to immediatly improce my quality of life would to pay off all my debt immediatly - but it doesn't feel right to use inheritance money for that.

I'm struggling a bit with the old mental health, but it's mostly manifesting as fatigue.

You won't be able to put all of the money into the H2B ISA as you can only put in a maximum of £200 per month by standing order after the initial 30/60 days.
Now if you do decide to pay off your debts (surely the best thing to do as you are paying a lot more in interest than you would earn) you then could divert monies that were going towards your debts to savings.

Mx_Emmin

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

You won't be able to put all of the money into the H2B ISA as you can only put in a maximum of £200 per month by standing order after the initial 30/60 days.

Excellent point. Surprised I didn't remember that, considering how many of the damn things I've opened at work the few months...

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Now if you do decide to pay off your debts (surely the best thing to do as you are paying a lot more in interest than you would earn) you then could divert monies that were going towards your debts to savings.

All my remaining debt is actually on 0% credit cards, so it wouldnt save me money in that regard, what it would do is immediately free up money in my budget that had been going to debt payoff. The only reason I'm undecided is for emotional/moral reasons. It feels like inheritance money should be used for something good and constructive and lasting, not to fix my mistakes. If I'd acquired the money through pure chance - premium bonds or scratch cards or lottery - then I'd feel better about using it for debt payoff.

Edit:
Plan B: compromise
50/50 split between paying off debt and canal boat lessons
Paying off a chunk of debt and reducing the amount of payments I need to make by 2/3 will improve my quality of life
Canal boat lessons is fun but also learning a skill that (fingers crossed) I use for years to come