Young And Dumb

Mx_Emmin

Payday! 

You know it's the darndest thing. In previous months I putting £50 in my take out category and still WAMing for more. This last month I set a goal/cap and put £25 in there... and I still had some left the night before payday!  🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

The only category I havent been able to contribute into is rebuilding my E-Fund, but I've got three potential ways of refilling it (Pet Insurance Refund, Bank Account Switcher Cash Back, Excess Next Month Income when I get a month ahead) they just will take a few months to actualize. 

I havent put anything into wish farm items this months, but I've boosted a couple of regular categories beyond their usual goals. Things like; there's a work night out, so I put an extra £20 in my social category. I've noticed that the dog's grooms dont exactly line up with my pay cycle over the next few months, so I've deliberately overfilled that category to smooth that out. 

I suppose I did purchase a tea advent calendar, an advent calendar with tea bags each day. I'm not sure if that counts as a wish farm as I hope to repeat it next year. Is that a true expense then? Nah, I cant call a tea advent calendar a "true" expense... a sinking fund? Something.

I am looking forward to, Friday or Saturday, the autumnal chai and pumpkin spice blends of teas hit the shop so I'm going to go fill my boots. 

Mx_Emmin

Grumble Grumble - trying to figure out how to get the dogs new healthier food regularly and I've had to set up a subscription/delivery, but the subscription is slightly more expensive than the £10 I usually budget for that category, its £10.70 

I've raised the category goal to £13 to account for buying any treats or what nots but still

Grumble Grumble ungrateful dog doesn't appreciate what I do for him

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like an expensive month with the dog and the exams.  I have a fitbit charge 2 but it is still going strong after 5 years although needs charging more often now so maybe you have been unlucky.  I would say that I bought replacement straps from amazon (not fitbit) at a fraction of the price of the official ones and they are actually nicer. 

Good that you are thinking about your pension at this age.  The younger the better.  Maybe up by a percentage each year so you get used to not having it in your pay.  Also bear in mind the tax advantages of saving in one. 

Mx_Emmin

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sounds like an expensive month with the dog and the exams.  I have a fitbit charge 2 but it is still going strong after 5 years although needs charging more often now so maybe you have been unlucky.  I would say that I bought replacement straps from amazon (not fitbit) at a fraction of the price of the official ones and they are actually nicer. 

Good that you are thinking about your pension at this age.  The younger the better.  Maybe up by a percentage each year so you get used to not having it in your pay.  Also bear in mind the tax advantages of saving in one. 

It certainly has been! But the good news is I had an Emergency fund and been saving up for me exams in advance    not a fun time but at least its budgeted for 

I think I'm going to replace this Fitbit as it's free under warranty but when it comes time to buy I need to strongly think about whether its worth it
 
I do buy cheaper straps off Amazon, unfortunately it's the actual device unit giving me issues 

Mx_Emmin

I'm having one of those bittersweet weeks were an unexpected expense comes up and, thanks to YNAB, I can absolutely handle it, I just need to put some savings goals on hold.

I need to get back into therapy. I probably needed to get back into therapy 2 months ago.

I found a place thats close to me, when they restart physical sessions its within easy travel time. Their rates are based on a sliding scale based on household income, and for me its very reasonable. They're open about their costs and it only just covers that. I couldn't get therapy that cheap privately (I think this is a charity? or partially govt funded)
 
The only issue is, all over the website it says all sessions are weekly. At £36 a week, thats £144-£180 pm (depending on if its a 4 or 5 week month)... or basically exactly the money I'm setting aside to get a month ahead. I'm trying to talk them into letting me have fortnightly sessions. We'll see. 

Mx_Emmin

So. Payday. Payday payday payday. 

I did end up cancelling that dog food subscription. The first delivery was so much faff, delays and redeliveries and then slightly the wrong food (the wrong food part was my fault, but when I tried to switch it for the next month, the food I wanted was out of stock for over a week and I couldn't switch it back), so in the end I gave up and cancelled the subscription. In the New Year I'll sort something out, but for now I just do the 20 minute walk to the one shop that stocks this brand. 

I have managed to negotiate the price of therapy down a little. Only by £8 a session, but... eh. Take your wins where you can, I'll be saving £32-£40 per month more than I would have otherwise.  I've done the assessment with them, now I'm waiting to be matched to a counsellor. (Apparently in the UK the terms therapist and counsellor are pretty much interchangeable)

I've decided how I'm going to handle it budget-wise is that each month I'll refill my therapy category back up to £200. Whatever is left after that will go into my Next Month Income category.

If I can get that category over £1k by January, it might be worth trying to get a month ahead anyway in the New Year. A lot of categories wont be 100% empty yet as I will have only just filled them 12-15 days prior (depending on where payday lands around the weekend) so it might be worth giving it a shot.

For context, my goal for the NMI category is £1312. My rent is £350. So, on the 18th Dec I get paid £1312, I assign £350 to the rent category, I assign £ to the NMI category, making it £1k exactly, I assign £ to everything else on my budget, filling them as normal. Rent is not paid until 2nd Jan. On the 1st Jan I take that £1k and start assigning £ to all the categories, HOWEVER, my rent category already has £350 in it, so I do not assign more £ to the rent category, as I will not need more rent £ until February. So, not including the rent category, £1k should be enough to cover every category. Every category should be full. On the 18th Jan I get paid again. I put this money straight into the NMI category and leave it, as my categories should have enough money in to last the month. On 1st Feb I assign money to all my categories, this time including rent. 

That works, right? My logic is sound? Its only going to be difficult for one month, then after that things get much easier as the goals in the app will start to work correctly for me.

NMI currently has £945.76 in, so if I can get £54.24 together over the next two paychecks... right around Christmas though 😬😬😬

The goal of replenishing my e-Fund to £3k has been pushed back to March '22, it is just not my priority now. It has £2899.88 in, if something happens in the next two months I'll start cannibalising other categories if need be. 

One thing I am getting slightly frustrated about (which makes me think that it needs to be my next priority, if I'm feeling frustrated) is the lack of progress on a house deposit. I'm sure I've said similar before, but; my next worth is currently over £10k, five years ago I'd have thought "oh, thats house deposit money!"

I'd have been wrong, because 10k will NOT get you a house anymore, but of that 10k (technically just over 11k, because I've just been paid), only 1k is assigned to the House Deposit category. One of my friends suggested moving money from other categories into the House Deposit category, which is a valid suggestion, but then what if (for example) my laptop breaks? I have to move the money back where it was before. There aren't many single categories I could raid that would move the needle much. Most of my categories have less than £200 in. Of the ones that do have more than £200 - do I take the Divorce Fund? The Laptop Replacement? The FA Diploma money? Of the smaller categories - maybe a few of them bundled together would add up to something substantial, but even then I'm still a long way off. If I was less than a year from completing my house deposit, maybe I could cancel Pride, the tea subscription, the tattoo, the new year whiskey even - but I'm easily 5 years away from having a house deposit, its a marathon not a sprint.

So yeah I think that the fact that it's bugging me so much tells me that, once I'm a month ahead, house deposit needs to be my next priority. 

And then, finally, the thing we've all been excited about... YNABSwag. I did not know what to expect as I did not participate at all last year, but I was able to WAM a little and get myself a lil something-something this time 💛 Free shipping, even to the UK, was a pleasant surprise. Kind of guessing at the sizes but fingers crossed it'll be ok. 

In all this cost me about £51 so far (there may be some customs fees to pay when it arrives, we'll see). I'd set aside £30 specifically for YNAB merch, and was able to WAM the rest from clothing. Two of the things I bought were genuinely clothing anyway, so it all works out. 

capuchin

I'm older than you, yet young and dumb seems to describe myself perfectly!

Have you looked into a LISA? It looks to be a good thing for you.

Mx_Emmin

I managed to get a H2B ISA before they closed down  

capuchin

nice work I believe you can have both simultaneously!

Mx_Emmin

You can HAVE both, but because they are both cash ISAs you can only PAY INTO one per tax year
 
(I **think** stocks and shares LISAs exist, which would be an exception to that - but then I also already have a stocks and shares ISA elsewhere haha)