DrSpendingLittle's New Home - staying accountable and responsible

DrSpendingLittle

Absolutely, @katsu. Plus I think he was referring to credit cards too. 

Updating manually seems to be going okay for now.

DrSpendingLittle

Quick check in. A few spends this morning on petrol, nappies, coffee (for the house, not takeout) and a yearly subscription. That should be it for today. It's funny - I forgot about the yearly subscription and have had to use my float to cover the cost. The old me would have just stuck it on my CC and batted the problem into next month's budget and probably still spent the float on random stuff throughout the month. But not this time! I've used the float as it was intended and will now have to be mindful for the rest of the month about unanticipated expenses. If something comes up, I will have to shift ££s from other categories (clothing most likely) which is fine as there's enough wiggle room in my budget. It's not scorched earth like it used to be in my debt paying days. 

DrSpendingLittle

Had a fairly low spend day yesterday - a coffee during a meeting and parking at work for a total of £5.60. Took my lunch in. However, we did order a takeaway for dinner in the end, as it was very late by the time we got around to cooking. I had meal planned for one on Friday, so I'll just switch the plan around.

Should be a LSD today but we do need a few fresh ingredients for tonights dinner so I'll probably pick them up on the way back from voting. LO is having a freezer meal. 

DSL

enthusiasticsaver

Looks like you are staying disciplined. Well done.

DrSpendingLittle

First chance I've had to log in here for a while! Had a busy few days both socially and work wise. 

Spends are largely on track. Had a bit of shuffling between line items to cover some opportunistic spends but all within the overall budget. For instance, I repurchased an item of skin care that I had used up but because B00ts had a 25% off sale on the brand I also bought the two other items I use in my routine. Saves quite a bit so it made sense.

The weekly online food shop and meal planning is going great, though we do tend to need a weekend top up shop for fresh F&V and more meat - I avoid having to freeze meat as our freezer tends to burn food quite quickly and we get frost build up on batch-cooked food if it's in there longer than 7- 10 days. Nothing we can really fix now whilst in rental, but a brand new freezer will be my first purchase when we buy a house!

I did make an 'unplanned planned' clothing purchase the other day - it's something I've had my eye on for a few years now but decided to put off whilst I was pregnant / postpartum as it isn't cheap. I would normally have to order online from the brand as they have hardly any brand stores in the UK (it's an international brand). However last week - and this is so serendipitous - I happened to walk past a newly opened brand store in a location I never normally go to after a work event!! Well, even more serendipitously, they had said item in stock in my size in the sale!! Now, I simply couldn't resist the fate of the whole encounter and decided to buy it! I used my clothing budget to cover it, though I had planned to let it build up so the purchase did feel unplanned and I was consequently wracked with guilt! Those feelings reminded me of my debt days when, in similar circumstances and definitely without the budget, I would have let my emotions get the better of me and concocted some elaborate justification in my head as to why buying it now - and more items for that matter because we all know that's how it works!! - was the right thing to do. Those feelings don't go away very easily, even after years of being debt free and now having the budget to cover such purchases. It's a good thing though, as complacency isn't good when it comes to spending!

I've only got three more direct debits left to come out of my bills account this month so that part of my budget is stagnant.

What else? As we've progressed through the month, I've realised I don't have much of a buffer in my spending account, so I've transferred over the £100 bills account buffer. I have £297.15 of yearly spends sat in my bills account that should continue to build up, so that acts as a natural buffer. Plus my bank's upcoming payments feature means I know exactly how much will be coming out of my bills account before payday. 

I was going to buy LO something for an activity he is doing but realised I can repurpose something I already have, so that avoids more washing and clutter, never mind the spends. I have a thing against 'stuff' at the moment, mainly because I don't have as much time as I used to and I want to maximise my free time which means avoiding having to spend endless hours dealing with stuff - cleaning it, tidying it away, organising it, sorting it, recycling it. thinking about it etc etc. The mental load of stuff is my new kryptonite and I've recently re-immersed myself into all things minimalism to indulge my inner stuff warrior. 

Hoping for a few NSD's this week - I last had one on Saturday. Today should be a LSD and hopefully tomorrow and possibly Thursday can be NSD though that depends on where the petrol gauge is at!

DSL  

DrSpendingLittle

Well, it turned out to be a very busy second half of the month, in all parts of life, but mainly work. It's been manic and we've had lots of social events and activities too that have filled my usual weekend / evening down time, which has meant I haven't put any time into keeping things updated on here. The Olympics isn't helping either

However, all's well financially and I am looking forward to the start of a new month tomorrow. It's been very much the middle of the month slump for the past few weeks as all bills have been paid and my only line items with any form of activity over the past week have been groceries and fuel.

YNAB for August is already done via the targets feature so I just need to confirm those amounts once I've finalised my budget in my excel document and then click auto assign!

I'm not sure I'll get the time to update here on my monthly budget plans by tomorrow but hopefully I can carve some time out either over the weekend or early next week once the deadline for this major piece of work I've been focused on over the past two weeks has passed. Hurrah. 

Generally, I've managed finances well, though I have had to take £150 from savings to cover some expenses that I have accrued. They have been reasonable purchases and on my list, nothing spontaneous, but I did bring forward buying some items because they were back in stock / on special offer. In all honesty, I've been battling the Diderot effect that came from a few purchases in the early part of the month. However, it has been a measured and somewhat responsible battle as I have bought things off my list rather than just randomly pointing my credit card at every corner of my favourite shops. It is weakening now, so I think it is passing. The start of a new month and a full and fresh budget will help. The money I have taken out of savings will be replaced tomorrow when my interest is paid, so it's not all bad and I think that has enabled me to spend the money unplanned. 

Right, back to this darn work project - Friday deadline is looming so need to step it up a gear. Looking forward to catching up on diaries and everyone's plans for the new month soon. 

DSL

Andyjflet

The beauty of being debt free is you can look at offers and buy things in bulk, therefore saving even more money. This has reminded me to look at offers at Boots :-)

DrSpendingLittle

@Andyjflet Exactly! It does mess up my budget and savings goals though!  

A quick check in before LO wakes up to say interest has hit my savings account this morning, which has more than covered the ££s I took from savings last month, so I'm feeling back on track.

Spending money moved over to my spending account, savings to my savings account and some bills have left my current account already. 

Nice to see all my line items glowing green in YNAB.

I've been patiently waiting until payday to order some new night moisturiser (not currently on offer at Bo0ts or anywhere else I can find!) so I will look forward to placing that after searching again for offers of course! 

Budget headline figures for August will be:

Income: £3,395.87
Bills £1,719.14 (inc. nursery fees)
Frequent Spending: £1,028.66
Non-Monthly Savings Pots: £95
Personal Savings: £250
House Savings: £303.07

July's spending and savings according to YNAB were as following:

Income: +£3,395.46
Bills -£1,766.84 (inc. nursery fees)
Frequent Spending: -£1,133.80
Non-Monthly Savings Pots: +£87.85
Personal Savings: +£250
House Savings: + £100
Unspent to roll over: +£56.97

My spending account shows that I did spend more than £1,133.80, but I can't figure out the maths to explain it. Essentially, the above figures are what I did with July's salary. I think the additional spending is accounted for by an existing balance in my spending account, interest earned from June, plus moving 'unassigned' money over from my current account (from the bills buffer). 

This month should be more accurate as I bed in the use of YNAB and the split between bills and spending account. Lets see.

I really enjoyed using my spending account in July, though it was a bit nerve wracking yesterday when my balance was down to £56.97. 

LO stirring so I'll leave it there! 

DSL

DrSpendingLittle

Much needed coffee break / procrastination, so I thought I'd pop on and outline some changes to my savings goals / targets. 

I decided last month to use my personal savings to 'pay off' my current house savings target of £2,321.81. This was the goal I had set out to achieve when I first came back to my diary. The reason was that I wanted to streamline my savings goals as it was getting a bit too complicated, given my Ch4se savings account holds most of the equity and some of my personal savings. It was getting a bit complicated following the money etc.

So, now that I consider the house spend savings goal to be achieved, I have created two new personal savings targets:

1. Save £3,000 into my Everyday Emergency Fund: This covers 1 month of comfortable living expenses. My current balance is £1,521.74, sat across 2 accounts (one of which is a 2 year fixed ISA with 9 months left to run that I can't add any more ££s too). I currently send £250 per month to my easy access savings account, which matures in 8 months time, so I should have £3000 by next April, with interest paid in May (5.5%). I can't add any more than £250 per month, so this will carry on as is. This goal should be achieved by April 1st 2025.  

2. Save £9,000 into my 3-6 Months of Expenses Fund:  I currently have £1,300 set aside in my Ch4se savings account for this fund and I intend to add £300 per month. I will also be assigning the interest I accrue in this savings account to this fund.    

I will add these to my signature so I can keep track of them. 

I see interest rates have been cut. Hurrah for a future mortgage application but I'm less enthused re: interest earned from my savings account.

DSL 

Andyjflet

I have tried YNAB multiple times and I cant get it to work for me. I get paid middle of the month too, (19th) and my DD are on the 1st so there is always an overlap when monthly budgeting. Like a month for me is second half of July to first half of August. I know the DD doesnt change but its messy, at least in my head anyway.