Young And Dumb

Mx_Emmin

Welp, that "stuff I forgot to budget for" immediately and entirely became "clothes" for a new pair of work shoes and some undies

Which is technically fulfilling its job but a little disheartening to call on it so quickly

Drawingaline

I budget £70 a month, but we are a family of six! It's also the first category that is wammed from lol!

This month I have had to buy school stuff, trackie bottoms for my teen son, and my daughter and 10yr old son both need new underwear. I desperately need some new trainers. And that will be £70 gone. My daughter now has an allowance so she has to buy any clothes bar uniform and underwear herself. But it still really doesn't stretch very far.

Mx_Emmin

Somethings gone wrong w my YNAB/Bank accounts, the figures aren't matching up

It doesnt help that I pre ordered a book of Amazon and then forgot so that's just come due

But the numbers are all wrong here. I dont understand it.

Mx_Emmin

I went shopping last night at Asda. I spent money off my card. Normally Santander is pretty good at reserving that money immediately and taking it off my "available" balance.

This time, It hasn't.

I checked all my other accounts, and the receipt, but I definitely paid from that card.

Also, as I said, I pre ordered a book from Amazon some months ago. I cant figure out if I paid for it then or if its coming out if my account now, so I'm moving money about in YNAB just in case. I'm looking at this such as teething pains for adjusting to the app.

Mx_Emmin

All the transactions cleared on my card, so that's good. Guess I paid for my shopping after all.

I cant see the Amazon preorder pending on my cards though. Theres no pending transactions and theres no Amazon payments. Maybe I paid for it way back when? I cant remember how preorders work w Amazon. I've set aside money for it anyway in case it turns up on my transaction list next week.

Mx_Emmin

I've decided to change on the budget from 4 "weekly spends" lines to a single "groceries" line

Hopefully it will be simpler to manage

The only thing I havent quite figured out yet is what that looks like with the two current accounts

Before I was sending my weekly spends from the main account over to my weekly spends card every Monday...

- I dont want to send one monthly lump sum to my weekly spends card because I don't get interest on the weekly spends account but I do on the main account. If I move one large lump I'll miss out on interest

- If I send a weekly amount over to the weekly spends card, what was the point of the monthly amount? There could be a lot of to and fro around the Sunday/Monday border as I try to move some money over early, then the standing order goes, then I try move some back...

- Potentially fortnightly could work

- What YNAB would want me to do is stop using the weekly spends account and only spend from the current account. Which be more doable, as an experiment, and I could leave the weekly spends account open for a bit whilst I think about it...

Drawingaline

It took me about a year to take the plunge and go to one main account. But it worked well. I now have two again, mainly for interest and not being bothered to transfer some dd. But having used it for three years I am a bit of an old hand with it now and rarely make an error.

Mx_Emmin

I've caved and bought these cold brew tea bags... have you seen them?

Only herbal tea I've ever liked

£2.50 for 12 tea bags though 🙄 I'm a little bit ashamed of myself for it but gotta buy something nice occasionally

Drawingaline wrote: »

It took me about a year to take the plunge and go to one main account. But it worked well. I now have two again, mainly for interest and not being bothered to transfer some dd. But having used it for three years I am a bit of an old hand with it now and rarely make an error.

I wasn't expecting to be considering the switch so soon. But YNAB suddenly makes my week one spends, week two spends, week three etc method of budgeting impractical. It was five lines (I did five weeks so I didnt top up the week I was using) in the budget versus one line. But then if I'm not transferring weekly, this two account thing doesnt work. Dominoes toppling over.

I think after the end of the month I'll practice with one account. I'll keep the old account open for a bit. If nothing else it can be a back up card if I lose my wallet.

Mx_Emmin

Hey guys

I feel like I'm dying but it's just the flu

Unfortunately this had led to some unexpected spends - £27 on some medicine from the doctor, £6 on some over the counter stuff, and some more on some tummy-friendly food that doesnt take too much effort to cook (all I had in were ingredients for a curry and I cant stand that long to cook right now)

Baileys_Babe

Sorry to have you have flu.

I love your award points system, seems like a great way to motivate yourself to make better financial choices.