Young And Dumb

Mx_Emmin

Some good news! I've been having this long drawn out battle with a pension company - it's for a pension scheme I was enrolled in for a previous employer when I still worked for a supermarket. I was trying to combine it into my current pension. I've been trying to do this for about 9 months now but Pension Company 1 has been absolutely useless and insists Pension Company 2 (current pension scheme) hasnt been contacting them, despite Pension Company 2 copying me in on thier emails. 
 
In the end I had to access my inner Karen (if you recognise the meme) and filed a complaint, using all the trigger words and phrases that I know would make my own work sit up and listen. And it was solved within a week. 
  
They're also sending me £100 for my trouble. 
   
Which is actually about 1/2 of what Pension Fund 1 was worth, I really didnt earn much when I worked for that supermarket, but Pension Company 1 just !!!!!! me off at this point. I didnt want loads of little pensions here there and everywhere so I wanted to combine the two pensions I had. 
  
So that £100 I saved for the credit card, then had to reserve for the FitBit... looks like I can still put £100 on the credit card! Might be next month instead of this month though, based on postage times. 
  
~*~
   
My work has announced a one off payment to colleagues because Corona but I'm not sure if I qualify. I dont know if I'm allowed to copy and paste from the email but they say it's for people who are interacting with customers daily, either in branch or from home - and I haven't been able to get my laptop working so I haven't been able to talk to customers. There are some other criteria but its mostly about when you were employed by them. Watch this space I guess.

Mx_Emmin

So I got the £100 cheque from the complaint
   
I was going to try hang onto it and use it to pay off my credit card at the end of month (I'm still unclear if I get the work bonus)
  
Unfortunately I've realised that when (whenever) I go back to work I'll need more face masks in order to wash them properly so I've spent £45 on more masks. Mostly just a multi pack of simple black and white ones but I did treat myself to two Pride ones...

Mx_Emmin

Payday! 
Unfortuantly I did not get the Covid bonus from my work, sigh, I guess I wasn't eligible. The rules around who was and wasn't eligible were very confusing and listed differently in different places. So, not debt free this month.
It was really bizzarre when I got paid today to look at my budget and see my net worth was just £5 off from £5000 across all my accounts. I mean, in 2017 I think I was about £2000 in debt across both. I then immediatly bought a Fitbit which brought the numbers back down, but still. For the first time in my life, I feel a small amount of stability.
I know, realistically, that if I lost my job I would have maaaaaaaybe 3 months savings here (and after about 1.5 months I run of Emergency Savings and start to raid things I've been savings up for - but Groceries and Rent trumps Pride) and it would not take much to knock a serious hole in these. But still. I feel like that I can relax a bit and as long as I'm sensible I no longer have to choose between hanging out with friends and eating dinner.
Pay day puts me in such a good mood these days.  
~*~
Spending Cateogories
I'm aiming to get my groceries spending back under control, its kind of run away with me in lockdown. And take out spending too, definitely takeout spending had got out of hand (although I did promise myself one on payday...  )
I'm trying to slip money back into my social spends as well, though at this point I'm not 100% sure what's for. I can reassign it if need be. It's only £30 so far, most of my previous Social spends are in that new category Charity/Artists, because its all livestreams and whatnot these days. Or if not that category, then into my new Therapy category, to help me get through the rest of lockdown. 
I'm still putting money into the Birthday Of The Month category even though the next birthday I'm aware of is August - if nothing else it can be a secondary Stuff I Forgot To Budget For, but chances are it's SOMEONE'S birthday and I forgot.
I've paid my last Amazon Prime subscription now.
Because I filled up the Tram Card category last month but then didn't go back to work, so didn't buy a monthly tram card, the category was still mostly full. I had dipped into it twice for single journeys. This meant I only needed to throw £8 at it to get it full again and could use the rest fo the money for Therapy/Credit Card shenanigans.
~*~
Debt Cateogories
I've changed my credit card direct debit to £103 which sounds odd but the monthly fee is £3 and I want to pay off a clean £100 each month.Once the direct debit goes - I'm not sure if I changed it in time to affect this month's payment - I'll pay off enough to round it down to an even number. I also bought that Fitbit this month, as I had the money set aside. I paid through the credit card to take advantage of the extra protection, and set a new goal on the Fitbit category for two years time.
I didn't quite manage to hang onto ALL of that £100 cheque, some went to face masks (and £18 went to a Sims expansion pack, ssh), but I hung onto enough that with this paycheck I've scraped together enough money to pay off an extra months worth early this month. I've got the extra money to pay off the extra month of credit card waiting in my "Holding Cateogry" right now - £109.56. The amount I need to pay off the credit card to round it to an even number is £96.56, and I want to add an extra month's payment to the Debt Free Whiskey at the same time, and then an extra £3 beause honestly between my regular payment, the money for the Fitbit, and the extra payment, I've sort of lost track of if the monthly fee is getting paid. So I threw an extra £3 into the pile.
The goal of all of this is that by the start of July I should only have £100 remaining on the credit card. Right now the balance of the credit card stands at £426.55 (including the Fitbit) and I have £342.55 set aside to pay it off.
~*~
Savings Cateogories
I created the new Fitbit Category, as I said above, and set a savings goal for £130 in two years time. That's how long they're meant to last. It may not quuuuite be enough by then - I noticed this time there was a special edition one that was £10 more than I'd saved, and the prices will increase over time, but I'm sure in two years time I can sort that out if need be. Maybe I'll review it in 12 and 18 months idk. 
I've got another temporary category set up on my budget for a program called "Scrivener". It'll be a one time purchase, so I'm just using the category to remember what I'm saving up for. When it comes time to actually pay for the program I'll put it through my "Online Puchases" category and delete the Scrivener category. In YNAB if you put transactions through a category and then delete the category you have to reassign the purchases to a new category, which is just fussy. 
I mentioned last month that I had adjust my Pride savings category to save up for next year's Pride instead of this years so I'm paying vastly less into that for the time being. In fact a lot of the figures I was talking about last month - like savings less for my Dad's birthday holiday idea now I've hit the goal and more towards my Divorce - have kicked in now. 

Mx_Emmin

As a side note, when I pay off this particular credit card I'll be shutting it down immediatly as it's costing me £3 a month. As you probably know, in the UK you get extra protections if you run large purchases through a credit card, so I'm wondering if I should get out a different (free) credit card in case I have large purchases in future?
I'd still be saving up for things - a laptop or whatever - so I'd have the money to pay off the card immediatly, but running the purchase through a credit card would give me extra protection.
I'm just wondering if I should get a card out in advance when I have no plans for purchases anytime soon or if I should wait until I actually intend to make a purchase. Food for thought.
I guess I'm probably still a little bit wedded to the idea of a CC as a backup when I don't really need that anymore.

Mx_Emmin

I only have £100 left on my credit card! (once the payments clear)
​​​​​​​Not including the Fitbit - which I just flat out had the money for, I just routed the payment throught the CC - I paid off £196.56  this month. That's so close to £200 I'm tempted to just... just a little bit... 
But whether I do or don't, it'll be paid off in full next month and I'll be debt free! 
~*~
One thing I've been struggling with this month is, what is my moral responsibility to help others - in terms of things like donating to charity, or more specifically, to personal GoFundMe's of friends that are struggling really really badly.
Some days I feel like I have so much money these days compared to what I used to - and one person saw my budgeting sheet about 6 months back and was like "oh my god you have so much money" - so I want to help people, I want to help them when they literally can't pay thier bills or have enough to eat.
But I'm not exactly living the high life here. I'm living in a shared house with a second hand laptop and I know that one bad month could ruin all my progres - maybe two if I'm lucky or smart. I'm not saving up for golden plated laptops, I'm saving up an Emergency Fund. The most frivulous things I'm saving up for are (next year's) Pride, my next Fitbit in two years, and my debt free celebration whiskey. Everything else I would argue is either a neccesity or one step removed from it. 
But I'm no longer struggling to pay my bills, and they are, and I've been there, and I want to help. 
But to give them the kind of help they need - they need more than £20 - I would have to take from my Emergency Fund. Which. Agh. 
**bangs head on wall**
~*~
Focus on the good stuff. Almost debt free!

Mx_Emmin

Now I'll start this post by acknowledging that it's a bit of a 180° turnaround from my previous post. Last time I was worried about my moral responsibility to help others. This time I'm going to be ranting excitedly about something I've been saving up for. I do hold both of these opinions simultaneously  -  hence the confusion and dilemma.
~*~ 
I've been saving up since January for a celebratory Debt Free Whiskey, that'll I'll get to buy and enjoy next month. And I am so looking forward to this whiskey. Partly because debt free - but also because it tastes soooooo good it's such a good tasting one and I've been saving up 6 months for it!
   
I cant often afford the savouring kind of alcohol (as I said, I've literally been saving 6 months for it) and this is for savouring and enjoying!
  
I'm hoping I might be able to start a tradition of savings up for a bottle of New Years Whiskey for myself, literally take 12 months to save up for it and toast the New Year. I don't know if I'll have time to save for Jan '21, but I might not need to - I intend to treat this bottle of debt free whiskey with respect. There might be some left come New Year.
   
That being said it does feel ridiculously decadent to be spending £65 to £70 on Whiskey...  but I feel I've earned it, both through working to pay off my debt, and taking the time to save up for it. I'm not buying it on a whim and throwing it on the credit card anymore. 

Bizzywizard

Congratulations on becoming debt free! Whoop Whoop!!!!!!
Regarding donations and charity, this should begin at home with yourself. Charity bosses earn BIG money. The only charity that does not is the Salvation Army boss who earns around £25k last time I looked. What I am trying to say is hold onto your money, the next few years are going to be tough for everybody....you never know when YOU will need YOUR extra savings. Might be worth thinking about an ISA or a regular savings account (even though they are not great rates at the moment). Have a look on Martins main page, to see whats coming up trumps.
I'm really chuffed you are debt free....I cannot wait to be in the same position in 6 months time!
Bizzy

Mx_Emmin

Thank you  😊  Its July I'll offically become debt free but theres only £100 left right now
  
I do have a H2B ISA earning 0.75% and a savings account earning I think 0.1% and a staff bank account, which earns about 1% interest with no fee (specifically because I'm a member of bank staff) (but I think that 1% is about to drop to 0.6%) 
  
There are probably better accounts out there but because I'm still relatively new to budgeting I'm going for simplicity right now and I dont want 8 different accounts I have to juggle about every 6 months. On top of that - I dont have so much money that switching accounts is suddenly going to unlock vast amounts of interest for me. Even at the current 1% I'm earning less than £2 of interest per month, and I don't think theres anywhere offering significantly above 1% right now.

Mx_Emmin

My parents mentioned last night that there might finally be movement on that money from my nan's will, which they were originally talking about in January 

   

Which is kind of funny because I was planning on using the money to pay off debt
   
Right now I'm hoping I'll be able to split it £500 for canal boat training, £400 for the H2B ISA and £100 for some creature comforts (namely a shapeshifter binder and some wireless headphones)

I seem to remember that earlier in the year I was planning £500 for canal boat training but I'm not sure if that's right - I've emailed the local Marina to double check course prices.

Mx_Emmin

I found out recently that my phone's device plan is almost paid off, but the backward compatibility issues arent too bad yet, so I'm going to try hold off for a year, put aside the money I was previously paying for this phone, and in a year's time walk into the store with a nice chunky deposit to bring the monthly costs down
 
Next month is the last payment apparently...   Maybe technically this month because of the way the direct Debit dates fall
  
I'm currently paying £31 pm for the phone alone (I like my shinies...) so in a years time I would have £372 as a deposit, assuming it all went smoothly (famous last words)
  
Apparently this phone cost me £744 when I signed up so that's over 50% deposit if I buy in the same price range again
   
I don't want the money to slip into my regular budget because I'll need it back in a year and I need to remember I cant commit that money long term