Life After Lockdown

V8D

£125 spent on dog food today. 😱

My golden retriever has food from Akela - really worth looking at if you are a dog owner but not cheap. However, it rates 5* on all about dog food. 

V8D

No spend day today, just had my £43.25 water rates taken by direct debit. 

V8D

Still keeping up with the spending tracker on excel. Not a lot to report as all I've bought is some food for the coming weeks. April spends on food (and everything else) are looking very low. 

There are a few things I'm looking to buy but just (online!) window shopping at the moment and will make a decision on them next week depending on the deals I can get. Mainly clothes and also considering an Apple Watch but might leave that until the next one comes out in the autumn or not bother at all as I don't feel its something essential and I do wonder if its something you can start to get obsessive about with the activity tracker / sleep / heart rate monitors. Also want to get an iPad Pro but that is more a work expense as I would like to start using less paper, being more efficient and have all the things I usually do on paper backed up in electronic format. 

Hettyhound

Hi V8D, just been reading your new diary and welcome.  Before the current situation I used cash as that really focuses your mind; if it’s not in your purse you can’t spend it.  I’m now writing everything down, yes even that pint of milk.  I have a system with a current account, a bills account, a savings account and my mortgage.  In the bills account in addition to the normal bills I also add money for various things such as days out, pets, haircuts, clothes, birthday presents etc and I track these in a book so I know if I’m in credit or debit.  Obviously I end up borrowing from one pot to pay out another at times but over the year they balance out (days out is very much in credit at the moment!).  I very rarely spend things on a whim (unless it’s in a charity shop) and will think about whether I need it or just want it.  My mortgage journey will be long but not as long as if I wasn’t overpaying and my focus is on the end goal; a home no one can take off me and the extra money to travel to exciting places with my son.  By the time I get it all paid off, which is now looking like Christmas 2025 hopefully things will be back to normal 😂 Also you should pay into your savings/debit/ overpayment as though it were a bill, not an after thought when you see how much is left at the end of the month.

V8D

Hi Hetty,

Good to hear from you, will check out your diary. 🙂

I used to be a cash spender years ago but now use my phone were I can. I have started to realise I can use this to my advantage to help me track. However, I have seen the other side with cash.

Re new purchases, I’ve started to write down what I want and a reminder in my phone to review it a week later. 

Savings: at the moment, I’m trying to work out the amount I’ve got coming in and out and we are not in normal times at the moment, so I don’t really see how I can transfer at the start of the month rather than see what’s left over? 

Hettyhound

I see your point re savings!  I tend to transfer a bit early on and then clear out my account to the savings or mortgage the day before payday; we’ll I normally keep a tenner in my current account 😉

South_coast

I've got 29p in mine at the moment 😮!

South_coast

V8D, what if you were to transfer what you'd like to pay to the mortgage at the start of the month into a separate account that you can still access if you need it? Then if you find yourself running low on the money you've allocated to spend during the month you can easily access it, but you'll know that's at the expense of paying it to the mortgage? Would that help? I know I've set myself an impossible grocery budget next month, but that's only because I'd like to maintain the same level of "OP's" despite a pay cut (going into savings at the moment). If I'm thinking about over-spending on groceries, I'll know that the trade-off will be less to the mortgage and I'll need to make a grown-up decision about it

savingholmes

I think it is also worth setting a small OP as a principle. It is really easy to overpay on Barclays - you just use your banking account and go to your mortgage account and either set up a recurring or one off OP. If you are on a fixed rate then you have limits on what you can OP - if you aren't fixed you are probably free to OP what you like (we are).

V8D

Thanks, all. Lots to think about there for how I approach next month. 🙂 I'm going to have a think and update later.

I've not been on here for a while and lost motivation a bit after the extended lockdown was announced, if I'm honest. It feels difficult to be on an enforced reduced income. I suppose I have derived a lot of my self worth through the amount of money I earn. I know that's quite shameful really. Still been exercising which I'm really enjoying and feeling there is some progress on that front. Didn't buy any of the new trainers / clothes / iPad which on reflection I'm pleased about. I decided against making any overpayments, even tiny ones as I thought it was better to work out where I was at the end of the month.

My final bills have gone out and I've updated my spreadsheet. With all food, bills, petrol etc. I'm ending the month running at a surplus of £1,425. 😀 So pleased with that as despite having a much smaller income I've not spent more than I've earned and am leaving the month with a surplus. It's not as high a surplus as appears because before I paid my income into our personal account. The account was £1,005 overdrawn at the end of last month, so we leave the month having paid the overdraft and £425 in the black. I didn't mention the overdraft in my post after I checked the account after paying in my income because I felt so ashamed I'd let it happen and hadn't been keeping track of my account so didn't realise until I mentioned making a larger payment to the credit cards. I now have £420 left over and am considering just leaving it in my current account to try to build a bit of a buffer that isn't using my bank's overdraft facility.