Young And Dumb

Mx_Emmin

Guys I'm so happy, I was literally crying last night from all the feels. 
So the other days whilst doing some maths on my hands I realised that, if my rough calculations for how much my bonus would be post-deductions was correct, I might be able to hit my goal for my Emergency Fund. And I did!
I now have a 3k Emergency Fund. 
~*~
I was beyond myself with excitement and impatience waiting for my salary to drop so I could find out if my maths would correct or not, but when I saw how much arrived I immediately pretty much knew - but the way my budget is set up, my Emergency Fund is last on the list so last to get funded. Especially this month, because it was bonus money I was putting in there, I needed to fill other categories first to make sure I had enough bonus money left.
But when I changed that goal from "monthly contribution" to "target balance" and saw that I had enough to fill it to the max... my dog had to come give me a little cuddle, I don't think he understands happy tears!
~*~
3k isn't quite 3 months salary for me, but YNAB says my average monthly spend (from Jan 2020 to now) is £1018. Obviously if I lost my job (the logic behind having 3 months of money set aside) then I would cut some of my expenses almost immediately. Some of my other savings categories are also very much raidable if I become unemployed. 
I never thought I'd be here, guys. This is a massive achievement for me. It's also crazy that this morning my net worth is £9222 - like, hello? That's not real. That's monopoly money. But that's a different post. My point is I feel I can now de-prioritse my Emergency Fund for a bit and stop contributing to it, and focus on other savings goals.  
~*~
Even after I filled out my Emergency Fund, I had £195.63 left over. This is on top of the fact that many of my categories were already overfunded because it's my birthday month. For example I put £50 in takeout because I intend to get takeout twice this weekend. I put £40 instead of £10 in my sims category. I wanted to make a charity donation this month so I put £50 in there. 
But because I had this £195 extra left over, I decided to sprinkle a little more - £55 - across 6 categories. I put an extra £10 in Groceries, Hobbies, Charity, Easter Eggs and Sims, and an extra £5 in my tea subscription because there's a particular one I want to try. This is on top of the overfunding I mentioned a moment ago.
I was then able to put £140.63 into my Next Move category.
~*~
I see people talk on the forum a lot about debt snowballs, but I feel like I've almost had a savings snowball effect. As I've filled out various one-off categories and got my true expenses to where they need to be, I've then been able to apply that money to other savings categories.
I said earlier I'm going to stop contributing to my Emergency fund for a bit so I can focus on other goals, the Next Move category is my next goal. I want to fill that up to £1000, so that I have a deposit up front and I can hire a van if ever family members cant help me out. That category is currently at £465.80, and from next month I'm going to be able to contribute £240 per month to it. When that's full (in 3 months, most likely) I'll start work on getting a month ahead by YNAB's definition - so that I can budget on the 1st of the month. Hopefully by the end of '21 I can be one month ahead. 
I intend to do the method where I put my salary into a category and wait until the 1st of the month to release it into all the other categories.
After I'm a month ahead I'm divided on where to go next. At some point I want to turn my Emergency Fund into three months INCOME instead of three months SPENDING, but also I want to start saving for a house deposit? But seeing as getting a month ahead will take me all of 2021, I have time to think about it.
~*~
Finally, I've given in to the idea of a YNAB wish farm, although I'm still doing my own modified version of it. Basically I had this problem where every time I had an idea of what to save up for, I was throwing it straight into YNAB. I had too many savings goals. I did have a wishlist on Excel that I was meant to maintain, but YNAB is more accessible on my phone.
So now I have a "Wish List" category on my YNAB. Any savings idea or goal that I intend to fulfil at some point, just not yet, goes there. Those ideas are essentially waiting to be used. When I'm ready to start working on that goal I'll move it up to my "Savings Pots" category. 
 
Items on my wish list are:
Next Months Income/Month Ahead (£1312)
Swimming Costume (no goal amount set yet)
Dr Martens Work Shoes (£200) (Right now I keep buying rubbish £20 Primark shoes that fall apart every other month) (Vimes Boots Theory Of Wealth, anyone?)
Weighted Blanket (£200)
A Particular Etsy Shop Artwork (Custom Piece, so no goal amount set yet)
 
Hopefully if I put all my savings goals down here and release them only one at a time, I can be more disciplined about what to do with any "spare" money each month.
I've also decided to put a big, emotional, savings goal on my budget. Whilst I do want to buy a house, I don't always connect to that idea emotionally. It's a large amount to save up, and my parents never owned a house when I was a kid, always rented, so the idea seems a little abstract to me. Again, hopefully by putting a big emotional goal (sorry, I don't want to share what that goal is just yet) on there, I can can be more disciplined with spare money. I don't know exactly how much it'll cost but it'll be similar to a house purchase and is several years away. I haven't set up a regular contribution yet, I'm hoping just having the category there will be reminder enough.
~*~
So many emotions, y'all. 

Mx_Emmin

Payday!

Not a very exciting month for me.

I changed my current wish list goal as I didn't seem to be making progress on the period panties, and my current work bag, whilst adorable, just isn't very practical. I'm currently using a messenger style one shoulder satchel. Which is terrible for my back. And also leaves weird black marks on my white work shirts? I think its the leather? I was able to protect my shirts with heavy winter coats, but as it warms up that becomes less practical... so I moved the period panties back to the wishlist and the "new work bag" category got promoted. I have a shortlist of bags - this one is very cute but kind of looks like I'm about to go on a camping holiday, this one has good reviews but isn't what I want aesthetically, and this one seems like a nice compromise on both bags - and I was hoping to buy this month, but 'twas not to be, because... 
 
I think I discovered a new true expense guys: glasses. I'm going to have an eye test for the first time since pre-pandemic. Now I'm not sure if this counts as True Expense, because work will reimburse me if I need a new prescription... but also I kind of need the money upfront because I don't think they'll reimburse me until next pay check? So I'm not buying a new work bag JUST yet but it's April I'll still be wearing some sort of jacket for a little while yet, my shirts are safe. If I don't need new glasses, I can redirect the money instantly and buy the new work bag this month.
 
Should I have a new glasses fund? In case I need new glasses in a hurry, like if I break my current ones? Or just so I don't have to dip into other categories whilst waiting for work to refund me? I feel like I should. 
 
Other than that, there isn't much happening in my budget this month. It's all just tick, ticking away. I'm going to start eating through that Brexit stockpile I made, so hopefully my grocery spends will decrease slightly. I'll still be buying fresh stuff, but any tins or sauces should be from the cupboard now. 
 
I am having a debate with myself over fancy tea (again). I want to buy some particular fancy tea, the issue being I want to buy a LOT of it. About £42 worth, not including P&P. So I'm trying to talk myself out of it. There are two seasonal teas I want, those I'm not mad about I'll probably get those whichever side of me wins this debate, because they're limited edition. Then there are two blends I want to buy in actual tea bag form, most of their tea is sold in loose leaf so I have to prep little tea bags for work, so I want to buy two particular blends in actual pre made tea bags for work and save the loose leaf for home. Then there is one blend which unfortunately is not sold in tea bags but I want to buy loose leaf anyway because it's mint choc roobois and oooooooooooooh its good. So. I am looking myself in the mirror and saying "do you want this tea more than a new work bag? do you want this tea more than you want a house deposit?" and apparently the answer is "I want both" which is super not helpful. So then I'm trying to talk myself into only the seasonal ones and coming back for the rest. And so on. No particular side has won yet. And I can only wait so long because the seasonal ones are, well, seasonal. If I haven't talked myself out of it by Monday I'll go to their physical store and see if I can at least save P&P. Although they also have free uk delivery over £35 so if I got everything I wouldn't pay P&P.... 
 
I know it's ok to say "I just want X more than I want Y" and as long as "Y" isn't "food for my children" you're allowed to do that, but sometimes X is a short term pleasure/luxury and Y is a long term goal, and I feel like one of those children in that marshmallow experiment. 

Mx_Emmin

 I did get the tea in the end - I know from experience that if I try go completely frugal/minimalist/spartan then I end up bouncing back twice as hard in the other direction 

Mx_Emmin

**blink blink** when did THAT happen?
Right after I inputted my latest salary my net worth was very, very, briefly over £10k!
I mean, it was by 37p, so one transaction took me back under... but it wont be long before I get back over that permanently.
It's so weird because for ages I've had it in my head that £10k is house deposit money. But less than a grand of what I've got is currently assigned to my house deposit category, it's all various sinking and Emergency Funds. 
Speaking of, I've very nearly finished my "Next Move" fund, literally £25 short, so from June Payday I can officially start work on my "Next Month's Income" category - i.e. getting a month ahead, by YNAB's measure. 
Once I've done that... well that's 5-7 months away so I got time to figure out what comes next. My attention is divided after that.

I know I didn't post much (at all) in the last month but I had some life stuff, non-financial, going on and it felt like a tight/dull month in terms of finances. Everything was kind of just ticking over smoothly, but also I was feeling the pinch a little. 
I assumed it was because of the glasses tbh but I recently found out that I overbudgeted my rent category by £65. Which is annoying because I wanted to buy a new work bag, and was delaying it because I didn't have money. I only interact with the rent category twice a month, on payday and on rent day, so I didn't notice until two days ago. At that point I just waited to get paid.
That would have been helpful earlier in the month.

Anyway so I bought my new bag this morning, my old work bag was cute but impractical, then I walked downstairs and picked up my bag... to find it had suddenly BROKEN, apparently out of SPITE at being semi-retired. I would have used it as a laptop bag! Anyway now I'm using a horrible plastic sports bag until Sunday when my new bag arrives. 
I also bought a handheld vaccuum cleaner and an NHS prescription prepayment certificate (3 months) but it's hard to make those sound exciting. 

Having ticked "work bag" and "handheld vaccuum cleaner" off my wish list, and having set aside enough money to get some dungarees in the next few weeks (those are way more expensive than I thought they were, but I should have enough money now), my next YNAB wish list goals are for the 12 month NHS prescription prepayment certificate (£110) and some more gender affirming swimming costumes (£60, a rough guess). There's also Doc Martens work shoes (£200, again a rough guess) but that's probably going to be a few months off. 
 
Anyway that's my update. Stuff is slowly starting to open back in the UK - debate continues on if this is a good thing - so I'm curious to see how my social spending will change.
Hopefully I'll be more active this month! Or at least have one interesting thing to say :P 

Sarahwithlove

I pay my ppc by DD then it auto renews every year so I don't forget 

Mx_Emmin

Sarahwithlove said:

I pay my ppc by DD then it auto renews every year so I don't forget 

I'll probably work my way up to that eventually, I just got a three month one to start with to give me time to save up, plus I don't know how regularly my new meds will need renewing right now

I found this novelty phone in a charity shop and I don't have a phone line at this point in time and I'm not even sure if its functional but I saw it and knew I needed it in my life. 

One day I will have my own home and I will set up the phone and use it to order pizza

Or, you know, find out its non-functional... in which case it was only £5

Mx_Emmin

Payday yeyday! My big thing this month is I completed my "next move" goal and am starting on getting a month ahead. I set up a "needed for spending" goal (just because I can select specific days with that goal) and set the date to December 31st. The amount needed this month was £187 (and change). I was actually hoping to contribute £240 this month, but some minor life stuff has come up so I've budgeted £198 (and change). Hopefully in future month I'll be able to put in £240 per month and get a month ahead sooner than December. I had an interesting Expense this month in that our landlord has redone our bathroom. Thankfully the work is complete now, but whilst it was underway our only shower was out of action and we had to pay to use a local hostel shower (that money coming off the next rent though, dont worry) I had a heavy Expenses month, but it was all budgeted for. Finally sent off that money for Dad's long delayed birthday vacation. We were going to buy him a trip to see the Northern lights but then the world shut down. But it seems theyve finally booked it for next Feb so I can stop contributing to that category (I was setting more aside in case the pandemic inflated travel prices but they didnt mention anything). But from a net worth perspective I spent more or less exactly what I earned last pay cycle. Ho hum. Sims has announced two different packs I want, and one of them has early access content, so I'm going to try save up enough to buy a bundle (3 packs) before September. I was already putting aside £10pm for Sims so it's only an extra £5 ish to save... exactly the amount I'd previously been setting aside for Dad's birthday holiday. Balance. I got my first dose covid vaccination last week (Pfizer). I felt a bit sorry for the clinical staff because I have a needle phobia, so I basically sat down and immediately burst out crying before she could even say hi. They probably deal with that a lot though, and I figured in advance that might happen so I wrote down all my info (not pregnant, no allergies, etc) for them to read. I've set aside some money to buy myself a new trans friendly swimming outfit. I've already been invited out wild swimming once or twice and my local trans group has been talking about starting group swimming sessions again since our final restrictions lift. I cant really imagine going Pride this year, even if it might technically be allowed, so I'm debating spending (some of) my Pride savings on a manicure in trans flag colours and some Pride shirts.

Mx_Emmin

This one's going to be a long one....

So I've been having a bit of a rough time of it. I was planning to sit one of my financial advisor exams on Wed 7th July. This is a very very important exam, especially as I think there may be a vacancy soon, in my company, in the city I currently live in. I didn't mention it on here partly because I didn't want to jinx it and partly because I was a keyed up ball of stress and couldn't think stress. I wanted to just come on here be like "Surprise! I passed!"... or you know, not.

 
But then, in the space of 7 days:

- On Tues 6th July my colleague tested positive and I had to self isolate the day before this very very important exam

- I last minute rebooked my very very important exam to September... only to realise I'd accidentally rebooked to a day after the syllabus changes so I had to rebook a second time to August. This is now an at-home/remote invigilated exam, which is frankly extremely inconvenient as I need to borrow my housemate's office to take the exam in. I don't have an office myself.

- I had a housemate move in, stay 48 hours, then left with all their possessions & escorted by the police

- And then my housemate has tested positive and my isolation period reset

- Also, the other day across the street I saw a police car, then a few hours later I looked again and the police officers were still outside, but now there was a van saying [company name] funeral directors ambulance... I don't think they were ok 😳😬

 

Because it's been happening on a week by week basis, work didn't know in advance that I'd be off this long, but it takes like 3-4 days to set up from home working and they'd need to send me a laptop, I've basically just been paid to sit at home and play sims. Which is a very privileged position to be in, I know. I haven't been able to get myself to use the time to study. I was so focused on making it to exam day and I knew I was going to crash after. Exam day came, even if the exam didn't, so now I've crashed/am crashing and I'm only just starting to put myself back together.
 
But moving on. This is a budgeting diary, not a life diary. 

~*~

Payday! I was really tempted to use the shiny new auto-assign feature but I looked at the numbers it was giving me and I suspect it's going to have similar issues to the goals if you try to assign money midmonth. I essentially can't tell it "This is my payday, I'm not a month ahead yet, ignore any money spent between the 1st of the month and today". It takes into account any money spent this calendar month (but last pay-month).

Ah well, I'm on track to be a month ahead by the end of the year. 

I don't think I've updated in my categories in a while so here's where my savings are at:

 Current Wish List Goals

Laptop Cooling Fan - £30 - a recent addition to my wish list but I think it's needed pretty quickly. or maybe it's just because I've had time off and been playing games all day, it's not used to that. I usually only use it for a couple hours at a time. But regardless - if you any recommendations, let me know  

Good Quality Work Shoes - £20 budgeted out of £200 goal, no date assigned - this is actually listed as "Dr Marten Work Shoes but I'll shop about a little before I buy

Whiskey Glass - £4.60 out of £23 goal by this Christmas - it's just a small Christmas present to myself

Minecraft - £30 - a group I'm in is planning to set up a Minecraft server. They've been planning to for 2 or 3 months now, so I haven't actually gone and bought the game yet.

Regular Savings Goals

Prescription Prepayment Certificate - £61.67 budgeted out of £110 goal needed by September - In the UK you can buy this prepayment certificates to cover all your prescriptions. I currently I the 3 month one, it runs out in September, but by then I'm intending to have enough money set aside to cover an entire year's prepayment certificate

Sims - £48 out of £62 goal needed by September - There's a particular pack I want to buy by September to get some early access items, but as I have time to save up I wanted to buy a bundle and get 3 packs at once

Tattoo - £65, contributing £5pm - I have lots of ideas, but I don't feel the virus situation is stable enough to make this a priority 

Name Update Documents - £59.73, contributing £10pm - vague goal of getting £90 by the end of the year to update my passport, but not a priority 

Microsoft Office - £27.51, contributing £5.50pm

Fitbit - £70.01 out of £130 goal by July 2022 - I'm really not sure why, on that first month, it asked me to put an extra penny in. But if I take the penny out I'm underfunded. Every other month it's been £5pm

New Year Whiskey - £59.25 out of £90 goal by Dec - the new update seemed to shift this and the subscription category from target balance to needed for spending for some reason, but it only took a moment to shift them back. Odd.

Glasses - £70, goal achieved. I don't know when I'll next need them but this seems like one of those true expenses thingys. 

FA Diploma - £464.89, contributing £30pm

Subscription - £20.56 out of £50 goal needed by Feb 2022

New Phone - £372, contributing £31pm - I think I'm just coming up to a year since my contract ended and I'm just now starting to get irritated by some limitations of my phone, Storage space mostly. Hopefully I can stick it out a bit longer. The longer I can wait, the bigger deposit I can put down on my next phone. If I wanted to buy my next phone outright, I'd probably need to wait another 12-18 months ish, but we'll see how much patience I have. I want to try do the same thing with my phone as I do with laptops/computers: over buy and get a really really good top of the range phone, then use it for longer and replace less frequently. Kind of like what I'm trying to do with work shoes as well. Vimes Theory Of Boots strikes again. 

New Laptop - £510, contributing £30pm - If this laptop last another year I'll have £870, if it last two years I'll have £1230, if it last three years I'll have £1950... hopefully this cooling fan will help with that.

Pride Savings - £117.78, contributing £5pm - I used bits of this for a few things, but I guess Pride 2022 will be a blowout year for me haha

Dad's Vacation Money - £107.06, goal achieved - I've sent off the money for the tickets. I need to decide what to do with the rest. Still pondering giving it to them as extra spending money before they go. Or maybe I'll spend it on myself. Haven't decided. 

YNAB subscription - £72.54 out of £90 goal by November - because of currency fluctuations, I oversave for this one. It hasn't actually been £90 yet. 

Divorce - £1000, goal achieved - I was going to get on this and nudge the guy after my exam. Just got too much to think about right now.

Christmas Misc - £60, contributing £7.40pm 

Christmas Friends - £40, contributing £5pm 

Christmas Family - £102.41, contributing £12.50pm

Therapy - £200, goal achieved - not currently going, but the money is here if I need to suddenly

House Deposit - £992.11, contributing £25pm 

Next Move - £1000, goal achieved

Emergency Savings - £3000, initial goal achieved - at some point I need to boost this, but also realistically if I lost my job tomorrow things like "Pride Savings" and "New Year Whiskey" would be reallocated real fast

Next Months Income - £396 out £1312 goal - that was last year's average salary so that's what I've used as a target. Apparently I'm 30% of the way there! And on track to finish by the end of 2021. 

Canal Boat Course - £500, goal achieved - one day...

~*~

My Wish List category is ever growing. Which I suppose is fairly realistic. I've been able to put rough goals on all but two categories. This list is in no particular order. The newest at the top and the oldest are at the bottom, but in the middle I sometimes shuffle things about as I change my priorities.

Fitbit Band - £25 - My current one is cracking, a little, but I think it has another month in it. 

Laptop Blue Screen Filter - £30 - one of those stick on ones that make the light gentler on your eyes

Tea Infuser - £20 - I want a good quality cute novelty one. Right now I have very cheap boring metal ones.

Teapot with built in Infuser - £40

Cold Brew Bottle - £35 - I have a cheap amazon one currently, I'm thinking of one of the specialised ones from the fancy tea shop

Reusable Travel Mug - £25 - This one is actually intended for coffee, not tea

Cologne - £100 - I want a masculine scent, but they're all so expensive

Whiskey Decanter - £80 - There are some really cute ones out there, but this might be a Christmas 2022 present to myself, if I start saving in January

Alexhynerart.com - £100 - Specifically I want some kind of print of Nine Nights and Twenty Skies

Headphones - no goal set - I want some chunky bluetooth headphones for around the house/walking music. My current in-ear headphones are great for running, but they can hurt after a little while. I want some with the cups on the side that cover your entire ear, then I could alternate between headphones for the task at hand.

Etsy Calligrapher - £100

Extra House deposit contribution - £150 - I should be putting more away for this

Extra Investment Lump sum - £100 - see above

Kindle - £150 - my current one is starting to show it's age. I don't use it much though, only for one task... but I don't have another device that would any good at that specific task...

Period Panties - £150 - this has dropped WAY down on my priority list tbh as the reusable pads are really working for me. It would be nice, one day, but it's not as urgent as it was before. 

Weighted Blanket - £200

Pride Knight Merch - no goal set - when I added this to the list there was more in their store, I hope they're not winding down. 

When I started this list I was thinking, "hmm, maybe I could spend some of that pride savings fund on Pride Knight Merch" but I guess not with only one design available maybe a new tea infuser though? I'm sure pride tea infusers exist... I'm VERY confident rainbow fitbit charge 4 bands exist. I don't want to use my whole Pride fund, but it'd be nice to get myself a little something 
~*~
I'm getting a lot of that nagging feeling lately that I'm not spending enough money on the  important things, and too much money on frivolous things. Trying to figure out if this a genuine problem or some sort of weird budgeting FOMO. It's just really really hard to prioritise goals of £10k+ (in the example of house deposits) that will take years to achieve over goals of £30. Delayed gratification is a skill I have yet to master. But also I genuinely don't think I can go full rice-and-beans (as Dave Ramsey would say) for more than a month. I just don't have it in me. I'm making good progress on my goals, I don't think I've ever(...?) missed a goal, and a lot of goals I hit sooner than originally expected, but sometimes I wonder if I could be doing even more. 

But maybe that feeling never goes away. Maybe that's just a life thing, similar to feeling you're not truly an adult yet. Let me know! haha 😂 

Mx_Emmin

Well looks like I need to dip into my Emergency Fund for the second time since starting YNAB because SOMEONE **glares at dog** had the AUDACITY to have teeth! 

 

He needs a scale and polish, and once they get in there they'll decide if he needs an extraction. If he needs an extraction, pet insurance will pay for it, but they wont pay for scale and polish. I also need to buy some teeth cleaning apparatus of some kind but even the vet admitted he probably wouldn't let me brush his teeth. He wriggles. 
  
This is kind of one of those where I wish I had a separate pet E-Fund but I have lots of things to save up for, I'll get there eventually.
  
That and my housemate/lead tenant has been saying at some point in the next few months he'll need to raise my rent, I'm hoping to still a month ahead by the end of 2021, but maybe not by the end of November. And I probably need to dial back on the tea a little bit going forward. All things in moderation.

Mx_Emmin

I posted 2 months ago a milestone about how, immediately after being paid, my net worth was briefly over £10k. And then I bought one thing and my net worth dipped below again. Well now I have a new milestone - on the 31st of the month, my bet worth was still over £10k! And then I paid rent on the 1st and it dipped below again. Hopefully in a few more months I'll be above 10k the day before payday.

 

The dog is booked in for his dental treatments for late August. I have a rough idea of the cost, but not an exact idea because they need to get in to see what it's like. Ah well.

I've been thinking about it, and I think my spending has been deviating from my priorities slightly. As much as that's likely to be a lifelong feeling, some of my fun money categories have been creeping higher and higher. 

 

So I think I'm going to do something a little counter intuitive: I'm going to put goals on categories I dont want to spend from.

 

Essentially what's happening now it's some categories eg takeout dont have a goal on. The idea being I just put the leftover money in those once I'm done budgeting. But if I have a month where I have £50 left over, then suddenly I have a £50 takeout budget. And once it's in that category you know its getting spent.

 

Maybe if I put a £25 goal on that category, I'll be less inclined to put more than £25 in there? Idk. I think it's worth a shot.

 

I put a £25 goal on takeout, £20 on hobbies, and £20 (in addition to the subscription) on my fancy tea category.