Learning to budget and taking control of my life.

Baileys_Babe

Good to hear you have thought about

I understand what you are saying about being in rented accommodation I am just very cautious after a family member lost virtually everything in a fire a few years ago. The only clothes they had they were either wearing or were on the washing line!

Disney_Princess85

Oh wow that's awful. Yeah I'm definitely working on getting it higher but for now it gives me a little bit of cushioning if anything does go wrong. Fingers crossed it doesn't!

Disney_Princess85

Today I get maintenence from my ex, which means I get to rejig some cash into different pots.
As tomorrow is the beginning of a new month in have to wait til then to pay in the next £50 into my help to save account, I also have my Stepchange payment going out as well as a couple of other DD's. 

I use one main account where I get paid into and all my direct debits come out of, I then have an account for fuel and car stuff and one for food. It helps me to have them in separate accounts as I feel I have a better grip of where I am financially. I also have several saving pots attached to the accounts so I can save for different things, clothes, dentist etc. I then know where I am and its reassuring that I have money if i need to buy DD new shoes or something.

Of to social distance with my parents in the garden later on, hopefully the rain stays away!

Baileys_Babe

Have a lovely time and I hope you stay dry @Disney_Princess85

Disney_Princess85

Baileys_Babe said:

Have a lovely time and I hope you stay dry @Disney_Princess85

We did thankfully.

Disney_Princess85

So it would appear that I am rubbish at keeping up with my diary. But rest assured I am still keeping up with my debt busting.

I have now paid off my parents for my car so it is now 100% mine! I also managed to get a full and final settlement on my first direct overdraft which was part of my DMP which, along with paying my regular monthly payments means I now owe less that £9000. So everything is ticking along nicely.

Disney_Princess85

Applied for the warm home discount today as Bulb had opened their applications. I got it last year so hopefully i'll get it again this year which will help out massively over the winter, with my fuel bills.

I've also got to take the cats to the vets today, the older one for her yearly jabs and the kitten needs to be weighed before he gets castrated next week. I pay for the care plan monthly through the vet so hopefully shouldn't cos me any more today thankfully. I'm not looking forward to trying to get my cat in the basket as she is a real madam and hates going to the vet. 

Disney_Princess85

Pay day today so I've allocated all my money for the month into my various pots. I'll get maintenance on Friday and then my UC in a few weeks so will pay off a bit more to my debts when I get that.

I like payday as I feel really in control of my cash, I just need to remember that feeling and not waste it later in the month!

I've added the left over from the end of last month and this months payment to my emergency fund, so that now stands at £226.24. 

Disney_Princess85

I got my maintenence form ex today so have rejigged my pots again. I know I could set it all up automatically but there's something about doing it manually that makes it seen more real to me and I am definitely more aware of what I do and don't have.

I also set up a yolt account and have started to add in budgets for food and petrol to help keep me on track. I joined up for the November grocery challenge this month as well as I had a bit of a fit when I realised I'd spent over £500 on food and eating out last month! Which is shocking behaviour and I know its the one area I really need to keep a track of. Yolt wouldn't let me add my tsb account this morning so I'll have a try again later to see if I can get it added. There's something quite nice about visually seeing all my accounts in one place.

Does anyone else use yolt? Any tips or words of wisdom?

Disney_Princess85

Had fun playing round with yolt earlier and finally managed to get my TSB account linked to it. I set up some targets for spends over then month so hopefully will manage to stuck to them.
Got a couple of Xmas presents today and already have a few that I got last week. Got my mum's birthday this month too so need to get that sorted.  I definitely need to set up a better budget for Xmas presents as it always feels a bit tight this end of the year. I save a bit each month for presents but think I need to up the amount. Definitely something to look into from January.