Missy’s family of 4, paying off debts, saving for a house and just trying to survive!

Andyjflet

missymoo81 said:

Also trying to desperately book a stay somewhere for the weekend. Me and OH really need a break, especially because of this last week and we don’t have the children at the weekend. We can go on the motorbike, but finding somewhere is proving v expensive, but we absolutely can’t stAy at home as work never leaves us. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

On the bike, south coast, camp site, two man tent, bottle of wine and a £9.99 stove from Aldi, will be awesome fun.

missymoo81

Andyjflet said:

missymoo81 said:

Also trying to desperately book a stay somewhere for the weekend. Me and OH really need a break, especially because of this last week and we don’t have the children at the weekend. We can go on the motorbike, but finding somewhere is proving v expensive, but we absolutely can’t stAy at home as work never leaves us. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

On the bike, south coast, camp site, two man tent, bottle of wine and a £9.99 stove from Aldi, will be awesome fun.

Thanks Andyjflet I really appreciate You feedback. We did think about camping, and we’re hoping to do that maybe in August. But I’m really struggling at the moment with being near people and sharing facilities, toilets etc. Really doesn’t sit well with me at the moment. 

Thanks purple and Clarissa, I’ve got lots to do tonight to get ready and today is my super long day. But I’ve got this! 

Meant to say I made an amazing bolognese yesterday, (if I do say so myself! 😁) had 2 small bags of mince left over from the Gousto orders last month, so I defrosted them, cut up some sad looking carrots, garlic and onions and some 15p celery and just used tins of tomatoes with spices and it was my best ever. I’ve got lazy and just used a sauce in the past but having no option but to use what was in the cupboard has helped me use things up! There’s enough for tonight too! Made smalls tuna pasta as that’s what they asked for and it used up the last of the huge pasta bag I bought at the beginning of lockdown!

Thinking of easy nice meals to make at the weekend. We’re going on the motorbike so I can’t premake anything bar the cookies and bread. Any thoughts? 

Have been having a lovely morning sitting with the children watching a film but also reading cheeydaffs diary on the MF thread and someone else mentioned foxholes diary too, so I’m going to go in search. I love reading like minded fairies and working my way through the pages like a book! I learn so much! 

Right I best get ready I guess. 

joedenise

Someone else mentioned Foxholes diary on another thread I'm reading and I started reading it at the beginning on my holiday about 10 days ago.  I've read a bit most days and think I've got about another 50 pages to get up to date!  She's got a great writing style.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Enjoy your weekend away.  I know what you mean about not wanting to share facilities, which is why years ago we bought a caravan for holidays!  We moved on to a motorhome about 7 or 8 years ago and still love to holiday that way.  We've still got a caravan as well but only use that in the UK.  The motorhome we use when we go to France.  Don't think we'd get away very much if we didn't have them.

missymoo81

Ok almost packed, leaving so much later than I wanted but work always gets in the way! And OH is a major faffer, I’ve had to take myself into the garden as he’s driving me insane! 

Have packed my notepad and a pencil so that I can go through my budgets as I actually find it therapeutic. I have my books too, and I have £35 in cash for any treats or to go towards the shopping for the weekend. I really am loooking forward to going, but I just want to get there already! Or at least be in the way! 

Speak soon 

jwil

Have a good weekend

Queen_of_the_Hive

@missymoo81 have a wonderful break in god's own country! 

missymoo81

thabks guys, place is perfect, bit of a palava to get to though, nearly dropped the motorbike 😳 but all good. Just chilling with a glass of wine. OH is just finishing off last pieces of work that have come in and I have just downloaded YNAB. I have questions if anyone can answer them? I’m just setting up and it’s come up with July and a list of things like mortgage, electric etc and budgeted or available.... I’m not sure what this means. I’ve paid my rent for July so where do I put it, and it’s lumped my emergency fund and bills account all into the same total?! Very confused!

PurpleFairy26

Glad the place is fab! With YN AB only put things in July you haven’t paid yet. It doesn’t really show you the full picture until a new month starts. I’d watch a couple of tutorials as I found them really useful as to start with it’s not as intuitive as I’d have thought it was. Key thing to remember is budget = how much something costs a month or you set aside for it each month (day for an annual payment like car insurance) or how much you set aside for groceries. Then the bank accounts tab is how much you have in each account and this should match the bank. YN AB don’t care if you pay your rent from savings just as long as the money is in there before you pay it. 

I started it part way through Feb and was still tweaking somethings last month so it takes a bit of tweaking round the edges but I’ve found it really useful. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 

Bluegreen143

So only put in what you need to pay/spend before next payday (or next money comes in) and when you get paid at the end of this month you will do the month. But you only budget money you have which is a mindset shift. If you get money 2/3x a month you budget it in as you receive it. You can also easily change your budget and are meant to - if you overspend you take the money you have elsewhere (unless it’s on credit). I find it helpful when I’m creating my categories (I don’t use the ones that come with it but make my own) to name the bill with the date it comes out & amount I’ll need to put in to make budgeting easier on payday. It is a very different way of budgeting, very dynamic and in real time writing a budget out on paper once a month.

It’s basically a virtual envelope system. If you divided all your cash between physical envelopes you could easily move the money about between envelopes to accommodate changes in plans, just as long as you don’t spend more than the total that is in your envelopes (you’d need to use a card to do so). YNAB is very similar.

Agree re watching videos. I don’t want to take over your diary but I’ll stick some screenshots of my YNAB on my diary today which will show you my setup.

missymoo81

Thanks purple and BlueGreen, I really appreciate it. Having something on my phone rather than on a big notepad at home is what I need, I can change things in and out of My bank online but I don’t know how much I NEED to have in there at this point in the month. I’m going to try it for the free month and see how I get on. Thanks so much for your help.