Young And Dumb

BabyStepper

Just ducking in to say hi, I love your diary, you're doing so well!

I had a thought about your inheritance. I understand your concerns about using your Nan's money to fix your mistakes - me and my OH got an inheritance last Christmas and used it to pay off the interest bearing part of our debt.

Using inheritance money to pay off debt has benefits that you can only know about when it's done. I think your Nan would be proud you were being so sensible with it, rather than buying a 'thing'. Using windfalls to improve your overall financial position has long term benefits, much more than buying more stuff. Go for it, get it paid off, feel amazing and also grateful to your Nan for help that will last a lifetime.

Merry Christmas when it comes - have a good one!

Ooh, also while I'm here, just wondered about the cost of your divorce, should it not be quite cheap if you are both in agreement and there are no children/property/big stashes of cash involved? Sorry if I'm being presumptious, just wanted to check.

Mx_Emmin

BabyStepper wrote: »

Just ducking in to say hi, I love your diary, you're doing so well!

I had a thought about your inheritance. I understand your concerns about using your Nan's money to fix your mistakes - me and my OH got an inheritance last Christmas and used it to pay off the interest bearing part of our debt.

Using inheritance money to pay off debt has benefits that you can only know about when it's done. I think your Nan would be proud you were being so sensible with it, rather than buying a 'thing'. Using windfalls to improve your overall financial position has long term benefits, much more than buying more stuff. Go for it, get it paid off, feel amazing and also grateful to your Nan for help that will last a lifetime.

Merry Christmas when it comes - have a good one!

Thanks for stepping in I've been talking to irl friends and what I think I'm going to do is spend half of it on paying off a chunk of debt. It wont pay off all of it but itll significantly reduce it, perhaps by as much as 2/3. Secondly, I'm going to spend a little over £400 on canal boat lessons so one day I can take the dog on holiday. Thirdly - I was planning on saving up over the course of the next [x] months for a particular bottle of very nice whiskey for being debt free. By moving up the timescale, I need to get the whiskey sooner. So I'm going to buy one material object, to open when I can celebrate being debt free.

BabyStepper wrote: »

Ooh, also while I'm here, just wondered about the cost of your divorce, should it not be quite cheap if you are both in agreement and there are no children/property/big stashes of cash involved? Sorry if I'm being presumptious, just wanted to check.

Eh, we have no children, properly or cash... but hes an !!!!!!. Last we talked (admittedly several months ago now) he was still threatening to take me to court over the dog unless I gave him £500. Also, even if he calms down on that front, I doubt hes saving up money for the court fees so itll be up to me to pay them.

Worse case scenario, I use leftover money for a divorce party. My goal is to have £1000 by the two year separation mark but idk if I'll hit that goal, I've been leeching money from the divorce fund over Christmas and my contributions will be dropping until I pay off my debt. (...which will be less time than I thought!)


~*~

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a good one!

Mx_Emmin

This month I sent £102.21 to my credit cards, which included a random £4 payment when I realised I was a whisker away from hitting 100% on a challenge goal on the YNAB website

I started my debt free journey in February when I ended up leaving my husband and moving city unexpectedly. I still keep an Excel spreadsheet in order to track progress and this is what my debt payoffs have looked like (graph below). On my Excel Spreadsheet I am 46% of my way to my overall debt payoff.



I still have a little under £900 debt remaining, and my original plan was to pay £100 a month until September. Obviously I had that bittersweet news, my nan has left me money in her will. Technically its enough to pay it all off, but I'm going to split it 50/50, pay a large chunk of debt off, then spend the rest on learning to manage a canal boat. So I'll be paying off my remaining debt in March or April.

Unexpectedly, my family managed to save up enough money together for the entire laptop for me. This obviously helps immediatly in the New Year. I'd budgeted £50 per month for the laptop. At some point soon I need to begin putting money aside for the next computer after this (I won't be using this when I'm 80, after all) but I think I can wait until March. Why March, I hear you ask? Well, I want to try do a last Brexit stockpile shop before the end of January. Also, I want to buy that fancy laptop bag/satchel from Amazon. It's actually gone down in price I've noticed which is tempting but the Brexit shop takes priority as it's time sensitive. So I set aside £50 in December, I'll get £50 in January, that makes £100 for the Brexit shop, February I buy the bag, March I start saving for the next computer. I think £30 a month will be plenty. In 3 years I'll have a little over £1000, in five years I'll have £1800, at that point I'll probably stop saving (if not sooner). I'm hoping next time to upgrade to a desktop computer again, but I literally need to buy everything, not just the tower unit. If I splash out on a good tower unit I will want to splash out on a good screen. Ok, desk, keyboard, mouse, less important. I can get a smartprice computer mouse and upgrade to a pretty one later on. You can get good speakers cheap enough - nice speakers would be nice, but theyre a lower priority. A good chair would be important though.

Mx_Emmin

Two posts in one day! Why not, if I have more to say?

So I reckon I'll finish the year/start the next year with roughly about £500 in my bank account. A year ago, I had -£868.09 on the 1st Jan '19.

This is amazing to me.

On the flip side of that, I have about £45 in my groceries category, which is less than I'd like to last until the 19th. That's just December for you I guess. As always, the money that is in my account has jobs. £55 is for a bus pass, £100 is for my Dad's birthday present, £174.51 is for the divorce, £50 is for Pride, and so on, and so forth. Next year I will have more saved for Christmas and things will be less tight.

Side note: is it possible to make tables on this forum? Thinking about how to format my New Year post without making the world's longest list...

Edit (because I remembered what I wanted to talk about):

When I pay off my debt and have more money to plug into my budget,obviously firstly I need to increase the amount I'm putting into my Emergency savings. Right now it's just pitiful, I'm getting nowhere. But if I wanted to increase my quality of life, the two categories I'd put regular money into are Take Out and Online Shopping. Because. Even though I don't put regular money into those categories, I still do those things. And every time i do, i have to whack-a-mole from other categories, leaving those categories short. Often groceries feels the brunt of this. If I could get money into those categories to start with, even just £15 would help. £15 wouldn't cover an entire takeout, but it would do most of it (for one person).

I want to avoid spending money Monday and Tuesday if I can help it. It would really helpful if I could create my budget in the New Year without any pending transactions.

Mx_Emmin

My 2020 Budget

Remember I get paid on the 19th of the month so this is partway through my pay-month, most of my bills have been paid at this point in the month and I'm just ticking over until my next paycheck

Weekly Spends
Groceries - Goal: £150 per month - Current: £46.89 - This is less than I'd like at this stage of the month, bit anxious about having this last until the 19th. I was borrowing money from this category through December for Christmas things.
Household - Goal: £25 per month - Current: £16
Social Spends - Goal: £80 per month - Current: £19.76 - Same explanation as Groceries
Clothes - Goal: £15 - Current: £0
"Human Groom" - Goal: £15 - Current £0 - I had my hair cut right before Christmas
Takeout - Goal: £0 - Current: £0 - Currently I don't put money in here every month, I move money from other categories when I get takeout. I'd love to put money in here reguarly when I can. Maybe when I'm debt free later this year(!)
Online shopping - Goal: £0 - Current: £0 - Same explanation as takeout
Birthday of the month - Goal:£25 - Current: £0
Stuff I forgot to budget for - Goal: £25 - Current £0
Work Misc - Goal £5 - Current £5

Credit Card Payments
Black Card - Goal: £100 per month

Immediate Obligations
Tram card - Goal: £55 - Current: £55 - I buy this tomorrow
Rent (1st) - Goal: £395 - Current: £395 - This normally goes out on the first, so it'll leave my bank tomorrow
Onedrive (20th) - This doesn't consistently go out of my account so I've made a category just in case but I'm not budgeting for it right now. It's only £1.99 when it did go out, but I think my plan expired. Confused.
Amazon Prime (25th) - Goal: £7.99 - Current - £0
02 (28th) - Goal: £47.47 - Current: £0 - When (when) I get spare money I'm going to save up to buy my next phone outright and not pay this much
HP Instant Ink (31st) - Goal: £1.99 - Current: £0

Dog
Food and Treats - Goal: £10 - Current: £5
Dog Groom - Goal: £25 - Current: £20
Vet Flea & Worm Plan (14th) - Goal: £14 - Current: £14
Insurance - Goal: £30.13 - Current £0

Savings Pots
Holding Category - Goal: N/A - Current: £50 - This is just some money I need to keep seperate and not spend for a few weeks. This is is half of the money for my Brexit shop, the other half will be in my next paycheck, I just don't want to accidentally spend it without realising. If I intentionally dip into it, thats the way it goes, I just don't want to accidentally spend it so I'm keeping it seperate. I'll delete this category afterwards.
Pride Savings - Goal: £10 per month - Current: £50
YNAB - Goal: £90 by 1st November - Current: £8.19
Christmas Gifts Family - Goal: £10 per month - Current: £10
Christmas Gifts Friends - Goal: £5 per month - Current: £5
Christmas Misc - Goal: £5 per month - Current: £5 - Then hopefully next year I won't be quite so short in January! Fingers crossed...
Subscription - Goal: £50 by Jan '21 - Current: £3.85
Dad's Birthday - Goal: £25 per month - Current: £100 - I was also hoping to have £150 by 1st Feb but I don't think that's happening now. It's not the end of world, I only promised to have £100 by Feb
New Laptop - Goal: N/A - Current: £0 - No goal currently, but will start contributing to this on a regular basis in March or April
FA Diploma - Goal: £25 per month - Current: £25 - I want this goal to be higher when I can
Divorce - Goal: £55 per month - Current: £174.51 - There's a secondary goal of £1000 by Feb '21 but right now I cant contribute enough to guarentee that will happen
H2B ISA (20th) - Goal: £25 per month - Current: £499.81
Emergency Savings - Goal: £25 per month - Current: £1063.61 - This is a much lower goal than I'd like, once I get debt free I'll contribute more

Totals
Average Salary - £1,279.94 (not including things like keyholder pay)
Total Debits - £1,277.75
Difference - £2.19

~*~

Today my one remaining credit card balance is £878.56
The various savings pots I have across my current account, H2B ISA, and seperate Emergency Savings, add up to £1944.97 according to my spreadsheet, a difference of a little over a grand!

This would have been incomprehensible to me a year ago

I'm not sure I comprehend it now

How the F---- did I manage this?? :eek:

Mx_Emmin

I've also realised after doing my budget calculations that even once I'm debt free - hell, even once my Emergency Savings is fully funded - I still just dont have enough money to go around.

Not many of the categories I've got now are going anywhere, and there are still categories I want to add. And I'm not talking about saving up for a diamond watch or whatever - I mean for things like fully funding my H2B ISA, saving up to buy my next phone outright, saving up for a modest holiday at some point. On a smaller level: I want Microsoft Office, not the free OpenOffice I've been using. I want to save for a special shapeshifters binder. And so on.

Obviously I should be getting rid of my CC payment soon. The Divorce categories and Dad's birthday categories are time-related so will eventually leave but not soon. One day I'll have enough in my Emergency Savings. My goal for that is at least 3k, preferably 4k.

That wont free up enough to do everything I want.

Mx_Emmin

I've also started on my temperature blanket for 2020. As a reminder, you assign a colour to a temperature, then each day do a row in the average temperature for that day. Do that for a year and you end up with an asymmetrical gradient that's so pretty. I'm doing it all in shades of blue/purple, starting out with white for below 0, then going up to navy and purple for 30 degrees in steps of 5 degrees. I obviously didn't buy 30 degree yarn for January, I bought for below 0 through to plus 10. It's surprisingly warm though, so I need to get the next wool up just in case. We won't get up to 15 degrees any time soon, but we seem to be hitting 11 degrees every few days. I've done four rows so far, and 3 of them have been in the same colour.

I look to being able to, at the end of the year, look at the blanket and go "look... that's 2020"

But the rows are taking longer than I'd like so a bit worried about the pride blanket progres this year

Mx_Emmin

Hi all

Sorry I havent update in a few days, havent had much to say

Everything's just sort of ticking over quietly

I havent got much left in my grocery budget at all, but I'm making it work. The other night I need a very nice cauliflower (lacto free) cheese with slow cooked chicken and leeks.

My temperature blanket is going well, except the fact that temperatures are remaining pretty steady. My colours are I'm blocks of 5° and except for the 1st, the average every day has been between 5° and 9.9° so I've just had the same colour. A few days the high was 13° but the low was low enough to pull the average below 10°

My manager has asked me to put the FA Diploma stuff on my 2020 plan because hes getting measured on succession planning

Pro: Now I get (a little) time at work to study that isnt my lunch break
Con: Now my manager keeps asking me if I've done any homework haha

Mx_Emmin

Realised I never posted this on here, so it's a bit late, but:

2019 achievements

- fled an abusive relationship
- moved city
- moved house once more after that
- came out as trans/non-binary
- got a promotion at work
- paid off my overdraft
- paid off two credit cards (one remaining)
- crocheted a total of four baby blankets for various friends
- installed a learn-to-play-guitar app on my phone
- rediscovered my voice
- rediscovered happiness

It's been a helluva year, guys ��

This has been great for character building but if 2020 could chill, just a little, I wouldnt mind haha

Mx_Emmin

Payday! And just in the knick of time, some of my categories had literal pennies in. YNAB is often about creating a feling of artifical scarcity - so even though my bank balance is as high as its ever been, I'm feeling the pinch as my category balances run down. But pay day arrived and I have money again.

There was a whole £40 I hadn't spent left in my budget - I'll admit, I immediatly took it to Amazon and bought some stuff that's been sitting in my basket for weeks. That possibly wasn't the smartest choice but it is what it is.

They annouced at work that we're getting a 2.2% pay rise this year. That's... not nothing, and I don't want to be ungrateful, but after tax it's not translating into much per month. I'm thinking once I know how it affects my monthly take home I might try inch up my pension contributions another 1%. We'll see.

I haven't had that cheque from my nan's will yet, but that doesn't hugely surprise me. I thought my dad was being a little overoptimistic with the timing.

I've putting some money aside this month for a final Brexit shop before the big day. I have £100. I need to go and buy it in the next few days.

My temperature blanket is about the width of a scarf at the mid point of the month, it's going well. The weather has been pretty steady though - although we've had some highs above 10*, each time the lows have been low enough to pull the average down into the 5* to 9* range.