Young And Dumb

Mx_Emmin

Hi enthusiastic

My Red Santander card was expiring in January - I'm not sure when the Black Santander card is expiring. Because I was going to transfer them together I just picked the shortest date. I'll have the red card paid off by then though.

I'm not officially using YNAB, just trying to absorb some of thier advice and lessons. I am thinking about getting it, but I dont know if I want to spend a monthly fee when I seem to be doing ok so far alone. I also wonder if it's a bit like when you go to weight watchers and all they do is teach you how to buy weight watchers products, they dont teach you any techniques to manage it alone.

I'm close to being debt neutral but some of my savings I couldn't use/don't want to use to pay off debts - for example my H2B ISA.

Mx_Emmin

I havent forgotten about this! Dogs been I'll, will do a real update later

Mx_Emmin

So been a little while since I updated... not had much to tell in all fairness. Just been ticking along. Made some payments off the credit cards, though not as much as I'd like (when is it ever).

The main thing is that my dog got ill, so I've been focused on that. He's fine now, but I obviously had to spend money on medicine, and it's just crept in under my policy excess. It wasn't much, but it makes the month tight without dipping into Emergency Funds.

Actually it was kind of a learning experience because the first time I wasn't too worried about the cost. Yes, I have pet insurance, but I still have to pay the bill first then get reimbursed afterwards, and in the past paying the bill would have destroyed me and my bank account. This time it was just kind of like “well, it's not great, but I can handle it”. Turned out the idiot had just eaten something at the park and given himself food poisoning, but at one point the vet was like “I would have expected him to be better by now, bring him in tomorrow for tests” and the dog had miraculous overnight recovery, sigh. So I spent £50 on a probiotic bacteria and clay paste I had to get him in a headlock to eat.

But it was good that I wasn't worried about the cost, if we had needed to do more. It was the first time I've felt that security.

It looks like my amended direct debits for the credit cards doesn't go into effect until next month, it didn't take the large amounts from my account this month. Which is fine and useful this month because of the dog thing but also somewhat confusing... if I budgeted £100 to go to the Red Card and the Red Card didn't take it, why isn't the £100 still left in my account? I'm assuming I got my sums wrong at the start of the pay period and paid too much off my cards manually, but I've checked my online banking and the DD dates for both cards are the 28th so if they haven't gone by now they're not going to.

I also realised that nowhere in my budget do I account for birthdays, and I have at least one friend or family birthday per month. Need to see if I can figure something out for that.

Right now I'm on track to come in under budget but it's going to be another photo finish. I could let myself dip into the Emergency Funds to the tune of £50 to cover what the dog cost me but I'd rather avoid it if possible. I was planning on buying something on Amazon this month but I'll have to put it off. My only monthly payments left to pay are the dog's vet plan of £20, a D&G insurance for £2.39, and two weekly spends of £60 each for a total of £142.39.... I have £160.17 left in my account. I'm going to try get that weekly spends down to £55 in the hope of still buying my Amazon prize after all, but we'll see.

Mx_Emmin

I've decided to cut my weekly spends from £60 to £55 going forward, or at least try to. This will allow for one £20 - £25 birthday present a month (there was £5 unassigned also).

It worries me a bit because I keep cutting and cutting my weekly spends but usually it's just to separate out stuff that's been going through my weekly spends but really shouldn't have. I don't birthday presents should come off my groceries where possible; at worst they're a social spend. Most of my family and friends birthday's are fairly spread out so it should work.

I read a thing in one YNAB blog article that I cant find now (or I'd quote it directly), but it basically said “Figure out what is important to you, and assign money to it. As long as you have enough money to go around, it's up to you what is important.” I always feel guilty about spending what seems to be a lot on food but I think I have to be realistic that food is important. Even being a single person, even cutting massively back on takeout, even bulk cooking, I just like to buy food. I like to buy fresh veg. I like be able to occasionally nip in and grab something different, or to “splash out” on store-brand tagliatelle rather than smartprice/value spaghetti. If I can't do that, I tend to get upset to the point where I make really bad spending choices. If I feel like I give myself little treats, a small loaf cake once a week, the extra special seeded bread rather than the 30p cardboard bread, I just do better overall. The only reason I'm currently trimming the groceries category is because I had too much non-groceries in the groceries category.

I'm struggling with the No Spend Days a little, but I'm hoping that'll improve. Sometimes the one thing that ruins my NSD is my 02 Cafe Nero, the coffee itself is free but they charge me 40p for coconut milk. Last week because of the dog being ill my spends were all over the place – I was taking longer lunches to go home and check on him but that meant I didn't have to eat a real meal so I was grabbing snacks, and then when I took him to the vets we were out late because they had an emergency and overran so I was too tired to cook, and then I had to buy extra tummy friendly food for the dog... so whilst I didn't spend a lot in money terms, I basically had no NSD.

Still, so far in September I've had 1 NSD and overall I'm up to 2700 points on my points chart, which I've been doing since mid July. That's two “levels”. I've been doing the same for exercise for the same amount of time and I'm up to like level 5 there, partly because I can't lose points, and partly I was just more generous with the points there. I might need to rebalance the exercise one. The thing is you can overspend financially but there's not really an equivalent for exercise (other than order a takeout but I don't want to bring food/calories into it). With finances if I don't spend on groceries then I'll spend more on takeout as a result, but with exercise if I don't exercise then nothing else happens.

I'm starting to find myself wishing I did have YNAB, but not enough that I'll pay a yearly fee for it (...yet). If there was a one-off price then I might be more inclined to. The idea of it counting down how much is left in each category without juggling 20 different bank accounts is tempting.

I wish I could find room for an “Amazon” category on my budget where I let myself buy one Amazon thing a month, but I can't find the spare pennies for that right now. If I want something that bad I'm just going to have to find the spare cash on a weekly basis and set it aside. Spend less on social. Something.

The Barclays card I was going to get when my card deal runs out was discontinued, which bothers me. I've got between 3 and 6 months left on my current deal (will check precisely in the new year) but I was looking at Barclays because I already bank with them. I legally changed my name in June and whilst they SAY it won't affect your credit score I've heard too many horror stories and I would rather go with someone who knew me under my old name. But I need a card with a good length on purchase (for the laptop) as well as balance transfers. I think I'll have to balance transfer twice before I pay it all off once you factor in the laptop. We'll have to see in the new year I guess.

Mx_Emmin

For Friday/Saturday/Sunday I have £25 left of my weekly spends, which is really good considering I have enough food in for those days

For the month I have £47 left in my social spends account, that's for until the 22nd-ish and a random £20 note that I withdrew but didnt use

I'm off work until Tuesday. I'm going to Derby Pride on Saturday... usually Pride is really expensive but I'm hoping not this time. Partly because I'm going with family, including my teenage cousin, so I wont be DRINKING-drinking, and partly because I've already been to Nottingham Pride this year so I have all the generic pride merch I need. It'll only be food (which will probably be extortionate) and maybe if I see something truly unique but I do want to try resist

I've made up a recipe for caramelized onions and roast cherry tomatoes soup, which I look forward to trying tomorrow. I've no idea if I genuinely made it up, or am half remembering it from somewhere. Or both. We'll see how it goes!

I've read to the end of Speky Square Head's "It's not much but it's enough" thread, so I'm all up to date on that now. Been at it since mid August!

Mx_Emmin

So I had a day off work yesterday, as I mentioned. I spent a lot of it obsessively reading YNAB blog posts. I think the day before my next pay check hits I'll check out the free trial, then by the time it's time to pay I'll have paid off at least one of my cards. Can anyone tell me: is it possible to pay for it on a monthly basis, or is annually the only option? If annually is the only option I'd have to pay for it with my credit card, which feels like defeating the purpose.

The other option is to buy Excel and improv a YNAB spreadsheet of my own...

I noticed something interesting on my (openoffice) spreadsheet the other day: At the end of August my savings were only 2p less my debts! Of course, some of those savings are NOT for dipping into... but it's nice to see.

I decided to have a play with my direct debits for the credit cards. I'm taking the direct debit for the larger card right down to the minimum (about £13, previously I was putting £40pm onto it) and putting the extra on the red card. When this month's direct debit didn't adjust in time I realised I might not pay off the direct debit before the end of 2019, which is my goal. I also need to think about what I'm doing with any leftover cash I may or may not have at the end of the month. On the one hand I really want £25 to buy something from Amazon... on the other hand it's going to be really tight to pay off before the end of 2019. Which is more important? Hard to decide. It might depend how much I have left in my social spends.

Derby Pride today! Getting picked up in an hour...

Mx_Emmin

I'm really proud of myself for managing to save £25 of my weekly spends at the end of the week, even after cutting my weekly spends from £60 to £55

I just need to decide if I'm buying that online purchase or putting it on my CC at the end of the month. I know what the MSE thing to do is but at the same time you gotta live a little... I think it partially depends if I can save any more on top of that £25. If I can pay some off the CC as well as buy online that's be a weight off my mind.

Mx_Emmin

Starting the YNAB free trial early due to shenanigans

I created an account on thier website to ask some questions on the forums there about subscription options. Turns out that accidentally activated my free trial (accidental on my part anyway). So I spoke to them and explained I didn't mean to activate it this soon and they've extended my trial by a month.

It's still not ideal as I'm not sure I'll have £80 by 9th November - but I suppose that's what the app is all about. Everyone's always claiming it saves them hundreds of pounds in the first year: it has two months to find me £80 haha!

(In all fairness, the first thing it did was point out I could pay less off my red CC each month and still achieve my goal of paying it off before the end of 2019...)

I'm still a bit sceptical of it because all I can find are overwhelmingly positive reviews. Seems too good to be true. I even put a post on MSE going "anyone had a bad experience?" and people were just like "no... it's awesome."

Well I'm on the free trial now.

I'm still on track to pay off my red CC by the end of the year, but I've changed the DD for it so many times I have no idea what's going out of my account for it next month. For now, all the little bits of spare change that would have been paid onto the CC as an extra payment are going to YNAB so I have £80 by November.

Mx_Emmin

Just discovered that the 0% period on my black (largest) card actually ends in 2021, not 2020

This means I dont have to go card shopping in the new year, and I've got more flexibility on when, exactly, I buy my laptop... I was planning on buying it right after I switched cards to take full advantage of the 0% deal but if I can drag my current laptop out until March 2020 maybe I can scrape together enough christmas and birthday and work bonus money and pay off a chunk of the laptop immediately after I put it on the card (I dont think I can get £1000 together from those sources but one can dream)

Once I buy my laptop the balance of that card will be too high by pay off by Apr 2021

Mx_Emmin

A small success: it's the week before payday, and I still have £120 in my account

Now, I do have plans for that money, it's not spare or leftover. But it's still in my account, I'm still in the positive. Six months, a year ago....