Young And Dumb

Dottles1

Hello, just dropping in to say how well you are doing and that I too am impressed with your points system. As for budgeting pots, I have a pre pay card that I load up my grocery budget onto each month and only use that for buying food. I can also see the balance at a glance using the phone app. I also use a Monzo card which allows me to open and name different pots for saving e.g. Xmas, holiday fund etc. Might be useful.
Keep doing what you're doing, you are on the right track.

Mx_Emmin

Thanks for your encouragement

Alicia, feel free to pinch the idea

Denise, does that work for you? I'm reading through the YNAB site and a few of the team blog posts think multiple accounts are too confusing

Dottles, how do you find Monzo? I havent looked into those challenger banks or whatever they're called yet

Dottles1

Morning. I saw that my daughter had a Monzo account and said it was useful for spending abroad. I then discovered I could add pots and name them which helps me to keep track of my spending. You can google it

UncannyScot

Morning
I have a MONZO account and it is WAY ahead of any other bank.
As has been said already, you can set up different pots within the account.
What I love about it is it is so quick with it's updates, notifies you of each transaction as it is made.
I just don't get on with YNAB, at all

joedenise

As I said I use the old system which definitely works for me.

Does the current system have live sessions online that you can watch? I found those very useful to start with. I've been using it for 5 or 6 years now.

Denise

Mx_Emmin

Friday (today) was payday and it's my day off so I'm spending today doing admin and tweaking all of my standing orders and direct debits. I've also got some good news later in the post but first some build up:

I'm paying off debts each month but it irritates me that I don't seem to be able to stick to an already fairly generous budget. I was allowing myself £80 per week for all my groceries, social and miscellaneous purchases - think post office, pharmacy, shoelaces, Amazon, that sort of thing - yet consistently I'm spending £85 to £90 ish per week. Some weeks I do manage to stay in budget, but when I go over it tends to be by £20 to £30 so it evens out. (I wrote down all my monthly spends for my grocery, misc & social account since June and divided by 4 to get a rough idea of what I spend weekly). It tends to be the social stuff that takes me over, as one week I'll barely go out, and next week I'll party all night - which is why I'm trialing separating my social budget out and handling that on a monthly basis instead. I'm allowing myself £60 pw for groceries & misc and about £100 pm for social. For example: this week I only spent £5.40 on social. At the end of August though I'm going on a night out so that could get expensive.

Still, I'm a single adult with no kids (one dog) and only energy for one social activity a week... I should not be spending this much!

I'm thinking part of it might be that I keep buying fresh veg every week rather than frozen. But the frozen stuff isn't as good! And maybe every meal doesn't need to have 6 types of veg in. Moving to tinned tomatoes and frozen veg would probably save a lot, especially when those items aren't the focus of the meal.

I'm looking through what I bought on Tuesday and I honestly cant see anywhere I could cut back, other than switch out fresh veg for frozen. I didn't buy any crisps or sweets or snacks apart from those cereal bars which stop me shopping hungry. The most expensive thing I got was chicken, but I got the cheapest brand and I'm cooking for several days and even then it was £3-and-change. The second most expensive things I got were Conditioner and Coffee Syrup, which were £2.95/£2.98... ok so the coffee syrup is a luxury, but its under £3 and lasts weeks. I've written a date on this bottle to track exactly how long it lasts but p sure its roughly a month. Basically everything else except my dumb dairy free margarine was under £1, I spent £18 for roughly 3 days of food. I buy the cheapest brands, or at most the step above, but usually it's all smartprice. I'm just a hungry hungry person.

I've also set up a new standing order - £10 a month to save up for Pride. It comes every year, so why dont I save up for it? Every year I over spend at Pride and I'm just like "oh well, that's Pride" but I knew I was going months back. Might as well give it a shot. Hopefully I won't need the whole £120 for Pride, but then again if I go to two events I might do.

Still: Wednesday was a No Spend Day, my first since starting this diary! I've had NSD's before, obviously, but I'm tracking them for the first time. Maybe that should be a points category on my sticker chart? I'll have to investigate that. But in an amazing lack of foresight I managed to book a dog groom for Friday, when I wasn't sure if payday was Friday or Monday...

Thursday was not a NSD, I met my gaming group in the evening, but I only spent £5.40. We meet in a board game cafe and we need to pay for table time. Unfortunately they have a minimum card payment of £5 and I never carry physical cash anymore (it's not a rule or anything, just unnecessary, I only have this problem in this one cafe). I've got into the habit of buying a coffee and a lemonade at the same time as paying for the table, it just clips over £5 so I can pay by card. And we're there for hours, so two drinks isnt unreasonable.

I made more curry than I realised, Wednesday's dinner plus a further 6 portions for packed lunches and dinner. So I only need to buy for about 2 more meals, which I'll do after the dog groom when I know how much is left in my weekly spends (although I got paid, it doesn't hit my weekly spends account until Monday).

I think my priorities might shift in the new year - if they havent already. I'm feeling more relaxed about the cc debt now I've read up and realise it's not costing me in my 0% period. So should my priority be the Emergency Savings then? I think I should be able to pay off my smaller Santander card and my Argos card by Christmas. This is for a few reasons: partly for some easy wins, partly because it'll be easier to do a balance transfer from one card instead of 3, and partly the largest card actually has the longest 0% period left on it. I don't know exactly when it is, but if it's the only balance remaining then I might be able to wait until March or so to do a balance transfer, which will extend the life of my 0% period on the next card.

In January (or whenever) it'll move to a new card and my 0% period will reset. When I do that I'll buy a laptop immediately, so I have the most amount of time to pay it off before it charges. I really want that laptop to be my last ever cc purchase, but my current laptop wont last long enough to pay off debts and save up to buy outright. I had a brief glance at Barclays and their longest 0% period on balance transfers and purchases was 28 months.

If we took today's debt figure (£1500ish, though should be less by January) plus a new laptop (£1000) then divide by 24 months (so theres a buffer) that's about £105pm. Doable, but hopefully it'll be lower as I'll have paid off some by January. In my the direct debits for August haven't gone out yet – because my contract says I get paid on the 19th most of my DD and SO are set up fpr the 22nd - 25th ish. Work is in the habit of paying 2-3 days early though, which is why I got paid today.

Also, every month recently I've put £75 to one side. I wait until the end of the month then, if I haven't used it, pay that £75 onto a credit card. Its separate enough I cant accidentally spend it but it's there if I truly need it. However, I've readjusted my budget now in light of this month's Good News (more on that in a moment) so that won't be happening now. I'm aiming for a budget a bit closer to YNAB's vision, where every pound is assigned a role and if I make a mistake some of them get reassigned.

So I suppose it's time for that Good News?

:beer: I'M OFFICALLY OUT OF MY OVERDRAFT! :beer:

I managed by more than I thought I would as well. I thought my overdraft was at £150, so when my bank said Account Balance £75 Available £175 I thought I had £50 pending transactions and only £25 real money left. Turns out my overdraft was only £100 so I genuinely had £75 left.

This is actually about 4 or 5 months earlier than planned. I planned to reduce my overdraft by £50pm but last month I reduced it by £150 and this month I got out entirely. Obviously this now frees up some money in my budget as I no longer have to set aside money for overdraft fees and reducing the overdraft. I cancelled the overdraft on my account entirely so I can't go back into it.

So I've spent a few hours pouring over my spreadsheets this morning, changing standing orders and direct debits. Among other things I've actually also increased my pension contributions from 3% to 5% - although that comes straight from my paycheck so that wont kick in until next month. I read a good rule of thumb is to divide the age you start saving by half and save that – so for me, 13%. But that 13% includes employer contribution and if I save 5% work puts in 8% so it's all good.

I've also changed my mobile phone tariff to get more data. I keep buying extra data add ons and the amount I'm spending on add ons is less than the amount it costs to go up a tier so I just bit the bullet and did that. I now have way too much data but at least I can't run up more charges on that.

I did have to make a couple of phone calls today. In particular, my Argos card. When I legally changed my name in June, right after they changed it on my Argos card they mixed me up with a deceased customer and took some debt off my account. They noticed it before I did and put the debt back on (boo) but I didn't realise until yesterday that the debt they took off was on a buy now pay later plan expiring in February but the debt they put back on was on a normal credit plan (grr). So I called them up and they'll fix it within a week. However about half an hour/an hour later I decided to take that £75 I was above the overdraft and pay it directly onto my Argos card, so I don't know if I threw a spanner in the works doing that. The other phonecall I had to make was for the larger CC. Through work I'm supposed to get the fee for that card refunded, but the last time that happened was March. They've logged a request to get that sorted too, so I should get 5 months of £3 refunded and the fee should be refunded automatically every month after that like it used to.

I've decided to start saving into my Emergency Savings again. I'm a bit nervous about how things are going with my housemate, I'm not sure if we're getting on (she's not about much). £700 is technically enough for a new rental deposit, but she never asked for a deposit for here so I won't get anything back for here and it never hurts to have some extra set aside. I mentioned earlier that I put £75 aside each month? At the end of the pay-month just gone I had two lots of £75, the one I put aside at the start of the month and the one left in my account at the end. I paid the one left in my account directly onto my Argos card. Of the £75 I put aside, I put £50 into my Emergency Savings and £25 onto a different credit card, so now I have £750 of Emergency Savings.

As I said, I want my new budget to be a bit closer to the spirit of YNAB, so the new budget shows only £8 without a job – and to be honest if that is left at the end of the month it's going onto a CC so it's not really jobless. It makes me really nervous to have it that low, I prefer to have a buffer. But I'm overpaying into my social spends – I'm actually putting £120 a month into that account when I don't think I'll need that much – and I've started savings £100pm into my Emergency Savings again, which can be adjusted if need be. I've also upped my Christmas Savings from £10pm to £15pm and my H2B ISA from £5pm to £25pm. And there's the new Pride Savings of £10pm. All exciting stuff!

As of today, my debts are:
Argos Card £134.94
Red Santander Card: £359.01
Black Santander Card: £978.47
Total: £1472.42
But the payment I sent today wont' have processed yet and the DD will go next week (although the DD for the Red Card wont be £100 until next month, I'll have to do that manually).

I'm treating myself tonight to a take out... my friend showed me this app called Too Good To Go, which sells off spare food from restaurants for rock bottom prices. It cost me £4 and I collect it later tonight. Only issue is that it's a surprise what I get, so people with allergies may struggle. But it's a treat for me!

DebtFreeMonkey

Congrats on being out of your overdraft!

Seems like you're so well planned, you're spurring me on! Hope you have a nice Sunday and this next week is a good one for you

Mx_Emmin

So I realise the out of overdraft post came round rather quickly - I should have started this diary six months ago, when I first moved here, but I didn't know they existed. I'll have some easy wins before December paying off those two smaller cards, but then after that it'll be a longer slog to pay off the next one. Especially if/when I get my laptop

I was actually talking to mum about it and she mentioned buying me a laptop for Christmas, but I'm concerned she doesn't understand the kind of laptop I want - I'll warn my brother (the designated computer guy of the family) that she may ask questions. If she can afford a gaming laptop I'll gladly accept it but I don't want her spending money on a laptop that isn't suitable. Also, both my parents are currently unemployed, so I don't really want them spending that much money at all if they can avoid it - but hopefully one or both will find work by Christmas

I dream of the day I can afford my own home. I can't afford to rent my own place and pay off debt. I can't even afford to rent my own place and save up to buy. To be honest, I'm not sure I could afford to rent my own place. Especially as I have a dog, Landlords are so picky. So I'm restricted to house share situations for the time being.

So right now my living situation is dependent on keeping another human being happy. And I'm prone to anxiety and depression and catastrophising due to my history of mental illness. I wont feel secure until I own my own property and know I cant be kicked out.

I currently have less than £400 in my H2B ISA... it's going to be a long wait. I'm not really sure how much I need to be honest, but I reckon any figure I look up now will change by the time I save it up. When I have 5k I'll check it out more. I don't think 5k will be enough but will all the incoming upheaval in the country who knows

I'm also trying to do that % trick I read about. For Emergency Savings I set a goal of £3000 (my original goal was £2000, but I read that 3 months salary is a good goal, which is closer to £4000, so I split the difference for now). 1% of £3000 is £30, so at this point I'm 25% of the way to my savings goal. For debt I used the figure of debt I had on 12/08/18 which was £1650 so 1% is £16.50... which means for debt I'm 9% of the way to paying off the debt. But I've been saving since last October and only counting the debt since last week.

So Friday was not a NSD... I took the dog's to the groomers, £15, then the food, £3.99, then because I saw the portion size I snuck into the shops on the way home and bought some biscuits £1.36. I have £10 left to last Saturday and Sunday.

I treated myself to that Too Good To Go app. It was cheap – I checked out the prices at the place I collected food from and I probably did get £11 worth of food for £4. Still, the flip side of that is there wasn't a full meal's worth of food. I'd probably have to get two portions next time, £8. Also I didn't get to pick what I got. Still, I'd go there if I had the money to pay for regular prices (probably the restaurant's plan all along).

I realised after my last post that my new budget hadn't accounted for new pension contributions... not a problem this month as the new pension hasn't gone out yet but made slight adjustments for next months. It's only £25 extra a month, I took that mostly from my over packed social fund (down from £120 to £100 which I still think is over generous for me but time will tell) and slightly from a fund that is for Dog Groom OR Haircut OR nice whiskey (in that order of priority) (down from £40 to £35 but the new dog groomers is cheaper and I plan to start using barbershop rather than hair salons and I'm trying not to have alcohol in the house)

I'm determined to stick to the £60pw budget for groceries and miscellaneous. It really shouldn't be too difficult, I'm only shaving off £5-£10. I'm a bit nervous about this new budget to be honest – although I can see the money is still in my accounts in various places, I usually have some of it spare and without a task/job. It feels weird to see it all accounted for and it makes me nervous that I won't have any wriggle room.

Good News: When I came into work today my manager said resourcing had changed and now I no longer have to reinterview for my job in a year: they've just shifted me onto a permanent contract!

Alicia, glad I could inspire you! I wish I'd started this diary months ago so there'd be more dramatic progress.

Mx_Emmin

Hi all

Quiet few days, although only one NSD

I've confused myself a little with a spare £15 I had, moving it round accounts too many times before all my standinf order filtered through and I've lost track of it - tempted to just leave it as is at this point

It was spare in my account at the end of last week. I didnt put it onto a credit card immediately because my new "social spends" standing order hadnt processed yet. Then I used it, and then some. So now I'm like, do I take money from my social to put into the weekly spends to cover what I spent? Or do I just ignore it and take the extra £15? I already put plenty onto my CC. But every little helps...

According to my little colour chart I'm 15% of the way to paying off my debts (debt figure as of 12/08/19)

I'm a bit concerned about MSE latest email newsletter saying credit card 0% periods are dropping. My plan was to pay off two cards then in the new year balance transfer, but the email suggested that's it better to transfer sooner... I dont know what to make of that.

As of 23/08/19 my debts are:
Red Card £359.01
Black Card £981.47 (the direct debit for it hasn't processed yet this month)
Argos Card £59.94
Total £1400.42

As of 23/08/19 my savings are:
H2B ISA £399.81
Emergency Savings £750
Xmas Savings £80
Total £1229.81

enthusiasticsaver

You seem to be doing really well. Great news on the overdraft going and I would keep the emergency savings. I would not worry too much about balance transfers given any shortage of deals will take a while to take affect and your debt is small. I think it more likely it will go to shorter deals initially and maybe lower limits so in your situation it makes little sense to pay balance transfer fees when you are almost debt neutral now. Do the Santander cards deals expire in January?

Sounds like you are getting to grips with YNAB. I could not get on with it so kudos to you.