YNAB...ing my way to freedom!

Eyebright

Sounds like you've had a productive day Frank! Well done on prepping your meals for work to stop yourself buying lunch. That's a great habit to get into, and will save you so much money over the course of the year.

I'm taking soup to work tomorrow too, with a wholemeal pitta for dipping, yum yum! Today was a NSD for me and aiming to make tomorrow one too.

SuperFrank88

Eyebright wrote: »

Sounds like you've had a productive day Frank! Well done on prepping your meals for work to stop yourself buying lunch. That's a great habit to get into, and will save you so much money over the course of the year.

I'm taking soup to work tomorrow too, with a wholemeal pitta for dipping, yum yum! Today was a NSD for me and aiming to make tomorrow one too.

Hi Eyebright :wave:

Hope you’ve had a great weekend I have a confession, I thought I’d subscribed to your thread but I hadn’t :eek: done now though so will be keeping an eye on your journey too

Lights out for me now, 10pm is the new rule for me so I’m getting a full 8hrs so easy to scroll all night on these forums then I’m shattered the next day!

pidge04

I just saw my typo... 'you sounds so...' how embarrassing!

Absolutely loving your positive outlook.

I wish I had become debt free by 33. Keep moving forward Super Frank.

Poppy1984

Hi Frank
just catching up on your diary sounds like you're doing great. All those NSD's and meal prepping taking your lunches to work will really help you get along to debt freedom quicker.


I have brought the most boring lunch to work today because I haven't done a meal plan/ big shop yet. So I have a wholemeal roll with some grated cheese in it hey ho at least I wont be spending any money but dull as dishwater. I will be better for the rest of the week. I'm another huge fan of the slow cooker I love to prep a meal in the evening fill the slow cooker pop it in the fridge over night then all I have to do in the morning is pop the pot into the base and switch it on. Feels like a real treat coming home to the house smelling of food.


I like the idea of prepping your eggs as snacks, how long do they stay fresh for in the fridge once you have boiled them? I might start doing the same, I always struggle for snack ideas for work, that are filling healthy and cheap!

SuperFrank88

pidge04 wrote: »

I just saw my typo... 'you sounds so...' how embarrassing!

Absolutely loving your positive outlook.

I wish I had become debt free by 33. Keep moving forward Super Frank.

:rotfl: being from the Welsh valleys it sounded perfectly alright to me

Thank you, it's easy when its new and exciting. Let's hope I am still this positive when I am 18 months into it! With the help of you lot I am sure I will get there.

SuperFrank88

Poppy1984 wrote: »

Hi Frank
just catching up on your diary sounds like you're doing great. All those NSD's and meal prepping taking your lunches to work will really help you get along to debt freedom quicker.


I have brought the most boring lunch to work today because I haven't done a meal plan/ big shop yet. So I have a wholemeal roll with some grated cheese in it hey ho at least I wont be spending any money but dull as dishwater. I will be better for the rest of the week. I'm another huge fan of the slow cooker I love to prep a meal in the evening fill the slow cooker pop it in the fridge over night then all I have to do in the morning is pop the pot into the base and switch it on. Feels like a real treat coming home to the house smelling of food.


I like the idea of prepping your eggs as snacks, how long do they stay fresh for in the fridge once you have boiled them? I might start doing the same, I always struggle for snack ideas for work, that are filling healthy and cheap!

Hi Poppy,

Great to hear from you oh gosh how did that cheese roll go down?:rotfl: Yes the eggs stay fine in the fridge (I leave the shell on) for 3 days. That's all I make enough to last because they are so easy to make in the egg maker. Great cheap source of protein too so they keep me feeling full until lunch time which keeps me away from the biscuits at mid morning coffee break

SuperFrank88

Evening MSE

So today was productive got lots done in work and the stress levels were kept to a minimum!

Also cashed out a £25 Paypal gift card using my Swagbucks. So that will be going into my EF.

Payday today. Normally I wouldn't even check my bank because I knew what was going in and would just bury my head when all the debt repayments went out which inevitably left me back in my overdraft with about a week to go before payday, then I would start the cycle all over again the next month!

This month is different though because I have cancelled all my non priority DD's so I am now left with a good chunk in my account. The anxious feeling I am getting though is about how much to put away. I know how much I am left with after ALL my bills have gone out so should I just put it all into my EF? What I don't want to get in the habit of while I am saving my EF fund is to get too excited and put as much as I can away and then realize that I haven't remembered about something or something crops up and I end up dipping into it. I suppose this is where the budgeting comes into play!

I am not used to having money left over so it will take me a while to get used to it.

Eyebright

I have to wait until Friday, I can't wait to get paid so I can put my budget to the test!:rotfl: This will be the first month in I don't know how long where I've not finished the month in my O/D. I currently have £5.19 in my bank account and a fiver plus some shrapnel in my purse, so I've got to continue to be frugal until Friday!

I've created an "unexpected spends" category in my new budget to hopefully anticipate and cover the inevitable something I've forgotten about. I think budgets are a constant work in progress as we tweak and finetune it.

Glad you've had a productive day!

enthusiasticsaver

Savings pots are the way to go to help with budgeting. These should be separate to your EF. You should only dip into the EF for an actual emergency. Some have lots of saving pots and others merge them. Personally we have 4. One for the house including home improvements, repairs, replacement white goods, buildings and contents insurance, boiler service etc. One for gifts and donations. That includes Christmas and birthdays. Our third is for cars and bikes including car insurance, repairs, mot etc. The fourth is holidays and travel. These are not savings really for us as they are earmarked.

SuperFrank88

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Savings pots are the way to go to help with budgeting. These should be separate to your EF. You should only dip into the EF for an actual emergency. Some have lots of saving pots and others merge them. Personally we have 4. One for the house including home improvements, repairs, replacement white goods, buildings and contents insurance, boiler service etc. One for gifts and donations. That includes Christmas and birthdays. Our third is for cars and bikes including car insurance, repairs, mot etc. The fourth is holidays and travel. These are not savings really for us as they are earmarked.

Evening Enthusiasticsaver

So by saving pots do you mean physical pots that you put cash into or have you got 4 separate savings accounts? I have heard a lot about Monzo. Have you had any experience with them?

I currently have 1 current account which my salary goes into and bills come out of, and 1 credit union account where my EF is. I like the idea of keeping it simple rather than having lots of different accounts. But if that’s what I need to do then I am willing to do it.

Thanks for your help