DrSpendingLittle's New Home - staying accountable and responsible

DrSpendingLittle

Good point @MFWannabe - I think it's just so we equalise everyday spends like groceries etc. Because I am more organised, I do tend to take the lead on food shopping etc and probably do spend more in the round. But I think we can probably work out a system to overcome that.  

enthusiasticsaver

As you have a child together and are engaged and buying a house having some sort of joint account sounds sensible but it does not work for everyone.  

We have a joint current account and joint savings and each of us have personal spending and savings accounts.  We have always done this with all income going into the joint account and we each get the same in personal spends regardless of income.  How much we get has varied over the years according to our budget. That enables us both to have our own money to do what we want with and as I am the saver and my husband the spender it means I do not have to police his spends. 

DrSpendingLittle

Thanks for your reflections @enthusiasticsaver - I remember we spoke about this whilst I was paying off my debt! I think ultimately we will get one when we have settled into a new home and new mortgage costs etc. That allows me to exercise my personal budgeting and savings urge unit then at least!

Our take home pay is not as far apart as it used to be now I've paid off my debt, student loan and no longer have my own car; and we split the big costs proportionate to our salaries, so generally we are even-steven. It's just monthly spends that we need to make sure are equal, which a joint account would help, plus joint savings as you mention too. 

DrSpendingLittle

Yesterday turned into a NSD as we decided to eat from the store cupboard / freezer for dinner and save the takeaway for tonight.

I need to get a few things from the supermarket later on - some different nappies (pull up), bread, milk, fruit, flowers, cauliflower, cheese - to get us through the weekend. I've booked a food delivery for Monday that I need to meal plan for and I'll also add in some heavy store cupboard items / household items so I don't need to carry them in with a heavy toddler in the other arm! I think that will be my new routine from now on, though it means I'll have to WFH, but I can use the slow cookers to batch cook if I get an early delivery slot. It will also help us to develop a more routinised ££ budget for groceries and add a bit more intentionality, as it is the place where we do indeed splurge and unfortunately like others, waste food as we don't always have a meal plan. 

Yesterday I also transferred all my savings - house equity and personal - into my Ch4se Saver, given the excellent interest rate. It will mean I end up paying higher rate tax on the interest soon though, so I need to keep an eye out for changes to my Tax Code. I have as much ££s as I can in an ISA for this tax year. Unfortunately we were only two months into the tax year when we sold our house so have missed out on 10 months of tax free savings for the other ££s. Still, taxed interest is better than nothing, so I am not complaining! 

I also decided yesterday that I will use my Ch4se Current Account for my everyday spending and keep my existing current account for bills / salary / monthly direct debits. I'll also store my gifts and yearly car maintenance / insurance savings in there too, so the Ch4se card is just for monthly spends. I'm looking forward to getting started. 

Tomorrow should probably be a LSD. I'm not sure on the plan really, but we don't have any expensive day out big plans. Just a local walk and park visit perhaps.  

DSL 

DrSpendingLittle

A quick round up of June savings before I post my July budget. I didn't use YNAB the full month so I won't list spends etc. But I am ending it with £87.89 left in my frequent expenses budget and £42.15 in my yearly expenses. I will let those pots roll over to next month since they are in their requisite accounts (spending and bills). 

I saved £250 into my personal monthly saver - this is the maximum I can deposit per month. If I continue to do the same over the following 10 months, I will secure 5.5% interest when it matures next May.  

I also saved £300 into House Savings and have updated my signature to reflect this.

All other spends were reasonable and as expected. No emergencies or life getting in the way thankfully. 

Yesterday I only spent £1.80 in the supermarket on what we needed for LO's dinner, plus the budgeted takeaway, so it was lower spend than anticipated. I think today will be LSD too - we'll head out for a walk later once LO wakes up from his nap. We have everything we need for dinner in the store cupboard. Everything else we thought we needed yesterday can go into the online food shop arriving tomorrow. 

DrSpendingLittle

July Budget Intentions

Below are my spending and savings intentions for July. These are organised into 3 core categories. Immediate obligations are my bills and will come out of my current account. Frequent expenses are my intended monthly spends; I'll use my Ch4se spending account for those and I have already transferred over the £1,006.27. Non-monthly expenses sit in my current account, acting as a natural buffer to a £0 balance and are my share. I have also decided to add an extra £100 buffer into my current account just in case I've messed up my maths. This all means I have £250 assigned to personal monthly savings and £300 assigned to house savings - I've already transferred that £300 into my Ch4se saver and have committed to that amount going forward, thus budgeting around both those savings figures.

I've removed my CC as the default payment for my Apple / iCloud subscriptions and my Amazon account. This is so I can keep tighter control on my spends. It will also remove temptation to use it for unplanned purchases. I have also changed my CC direct debit to pay off the balance in full every month, rather than pay the statement balance, again to avoid the temptation to spend on it. I only have one CC. 

All unspent ££s in my frequent expenses will roll over into the next month's categories rather than tilly tidying them into savings. If I have a build up, I'll then make an ad hoc savings transfer or readjust ££s in my budget the next month. This works easier both for YNAB and the split in spending / bills accounts. I also want to show consistent £'s savings and £'s spendings transfers between my bank accounts for a mortgage application to show stability. 

I have an 'unassigned float' category in my frequent expenses to add a bit of flexibility into the YNAB budget as it can get tiring having to shift between categories when something unexpected happens. It also acts as a ££s buffer in my spending account and should prevent me from dipping into savings for small unforeseen spends.    

Nursery fees are different every month and depend on the amount of week days and the government deposit for tax free childcare. This month is relatively low costs as we've just entered a new tax free phase - we get £500 every 3 months and this mostly comes in the first of those 3 months. Next month will be more expensive so I will have to think where I reduce ££s in August's budget (£100 from the bills account buffer to start, as that is just a one off). £660 is the most I've ever spent in one month; it averages around £489 for my monthly pro-rata contribution. 

Any interest I make on savings will stay out of the monthly budget as it simply stays in the Ch4se savings account. I won't use it to get to my current savings target any faster. My app keeps a track of how much it is so I can think about how I assign it going forward. 

So, my budget breakdown is as follows. 

Monthly Income: £3,395.46 (net of 7.1% pension, tax & NI)

Immediate Obligations: £1,644.19 as follows:
Netflix: £4.99
Broadband: £52.26
TV Licence: £13.25
Water: £69.00
Medical: £31.67
Council Tax: £168.00
Gas: £90.06
Electricity: £87.31
Contents & Tenants Insurance: £23.12
Broadband2: £57.99 (empty family property we use; will cancel in Sept)
Storage: £200.00
Car Payment: £309.03 (bank loan @ 2.68% for a further 10 months)
Car Tax: £16.62
Mobile: £9.86
YouTube Premium: £16.99
Dentist: £18.50
iCloud Storage: £2.99
Rent: £34.06 (my net contribution as I pay all the bills)
Nursery: £438.49 (my pro-rata contribution; changes every month)

Frequent Expenses: £1,006.27, as follows:
Unassigned Float: £136.27
Groceries: £400.00
Petrol: £80.00
Parking: £20.00
Work Lunches: £30.00 (random for now, I will not spend this much!)
Eating Out: £60.00
Child-Related Expenses: £50.00
Entertainment: £40.00
Misc. Household: £80.00
Toiletries Hair, Medical: £40.00 (this also covers eye / glasses and will build up)
Clothes: £70.00 (random for now so I don't feel constrained and thus rebellious; will build up)

Non-Monthly Expenses: £95.00 as follows:
Car Maintenance: £25.00
Car Insurance: £30.00
Gifts: £40.00

Bills Account Buffer: £100
Personal Monthly Saver: £250
House Savings: £300

DSL

DrSpendingLittle

Happy fresh budget day! 

A quick check in whilst having a coffee break. I had a NSD yesterday in the end. Today we've had the online food delivery. I remembered to update the basket last night before cut off after having meal planned. We have all meals planned up to Saturday, which is a relief and a lightening of the mental load. I've got the slow cooker on batch cooking a chilli for the LO. I don't like to freeze food too far in advance as the freezer is not great and ice crystals build up - the seal probably needs looking at.  Also lightening the mental load is knowing that we have another online delivery booked for the same time next week, so we can manage the store cupboard / fridge accordingly. I wish I had done this years ago. 

I'm already enjoying having a separate spending account, even after just one day! Just knowing that the balance will remain static unless I intentionally spend money is very motivating, as is knowing that no random direct debits, forgotten standing orders or forgotten annual subscription renewals are going to surreptitiously eat away at the balance. I've already used my unassigned float for a small donation to a colleague's charity event that we heard about recently but forgot to budget for, so I'm glad I have that line item in my YNAB. The only drawback with using a Ch4se spending account is that it doesn't link to YNAB, so I have to manually enter spends. Thankfully my bills account links which is good as I have 18 direct debits and one manual transfer throughout the month. The Ch4se spending account does however do 1% cashback, which is a nice little extra, but I can't help think of an epic Dave Ramsey rant I listened to years ago that lambasted people who thought they were 'winning financially' and playing the banks by getting cashback. If you know, you know! 

Enjoy starting as you mean to go on with your new monthly budget. I like seeing all my YNAB line items green rather than grey, even for one day! 

DSL

enthusiasticsaver

It sounds like you have a realistic budget plan for the next month and I admire your discipline in using YNAB.  

I don't really like using my credit card either.  When I do I move the money to pay it into a savings space on our starling account and the credit card repayments come from that pot. It is set up to pay in full but it only ever takes the statement balance not  the actual balance on the date of payment. 

Good luck with your monthly budget.  How is the house hunting coming along? 

katsu

I think Dave Ramsay is focused on his debt clearing message and the nature of the situations where people ask him for help. 
 
If using the chase account gets you cash back every month and you just have to manually update YNAB, you can decide if the cashback is worth the time it takes. 

DrSpendingLittle

Funny you should ask @enthusiasticsaver - I had a quick peak on Rightmove last night! I first need to call a mortgage broker and discuss mortgage length, LTV, monthly repayments, how long to fix etc etc before we start looking seriously. We still need to decide how much we want to borrow and for how long vis-a-vis retirement plans, life plans etc. So quite a few factors at play but we know the general parameters of how much we could borrow and where we want to be based, so I've been scanning the market to get a sense of what is available. We don't want to be off the ladder too long.