The Last Leg; 6 years later, debt free in 2021

Sarahwithlove

It takes some getting used to working out CC's on ynab especially if you're overspending in areas as it should be coming out of the pot it's supposed to be from to cover it. Although the points are nice I just find it easier not to use a CC or to pay it off straight away and process it like a usual payment on ynab as if I had paid with my debit card. 

greensalad

I'd love to be able to automate it, so if I make a card payment then it would deduct that instantly from my Monzo. It's the sort of thing that should be possible but they just haven't sorted out their APIs yet.

So for now I think just doing deliberate big purchases should work. I'm always on the computer for things like doing the Ocado order so it shouldn't be hard to just shuffle the money over. It's the things when I'm out (even though that's rare!) where I just forget. 

Sarahwithlove

I make it a habit to check my bank or card statements every day and get receipts for everything so it's easier to keep track of it. It's just about getting into habits. Do you have the newer ynab with their app? 

greensalad

Sarahwithlove said:

I make it a habit to check my bank or card statements every day and get receipts for everything so it's easier to keep track of it. It's just about getting into habits. Do you have the newer ynab with their app? 

Yeah I do. I just end up forgetting (or choosing to forget sometimes!) but at least now I have CC transactions auto-populating into YNAB which has helped a lot.

Sarahwithlove

Oooo interesting have you managed to link them then? I do it all manually at the moment. I quite like doing it myself as it holds me more accountable. 

greensalad

Sarahwithlove said:

Oooo interesting have you managed to link them then? I do it all manually at the moment. I quite like doing it myself as it holds me more accountable. 

Yes so our credit card is with Virgin Atlantic. Their API is now open so we use Sync for YNAB which is a £3.99 per month fee but basically gives you the same options the Americans get to link bank accounts to YNAB! They have quite a lot of banks available. I link Virgin CC and my personal Monzo but I still have to do Monzo Joint manually.

I've done both full manual and full automated over the years of having YNAB. The main advantage of the Virgin CC link one is that as it's my boyfriend's card it will only let me set it up on one app, which he's got. So I don't have access to see transactions. Now they just pop up on YNAB and that's the first I know!

Sarahwithlove

That's handy to know. Might have to consider it in future if get too fed up with it lol but for now manual on the app is going OK as have all the DDs on repeat anyway and it's easy enough to transfer between accounts on it too for my sinking funds 

greensalad

My first seedlings are up! Well, I can just see their tiny greens poking through the soil. I think I'll get 100% germination which is FAB. These are Serrano chillis... Mexican type of chilli which is perfect for us as we eat Mexican a lot. Crazy we used to spend £1 a week at least on fresh chillies as we use them a lot in cooking. Haven't bought any since last summer! Just keep them in the freezer.

Not really money-saving as with the seedling trays, heat mat to propagate them, the lamp I use in the kitchen for my windowsill ones and all of that I've probably spend way more than a year's worth of chilli buying but a) it's a hobby and brings me joy and b) it'll only get "cheaper" the longer they carry on producing.

I might try and sell some of the resultant plants from this batch on Facebook Marketplace. Come springtime I reckon a lot of people would be interested. I got this amazing zero-waste "pot maker" for Christmas. It's a tool to help make and press pots out of newspaper. Well, first I need to acquire some newspaper because we don't get any. I should be able to pick a free one up somewhere or see how it fares with junk mail instead (most of it isn't soft like newspaper though... maybe the local *insert political party* will bestow us one of their propaganda rags they like to stuff through the door).

I wonder how much I could sell plants for? I'd probably need to shift them when they're quite young and less exciting looking. Maybe £1 or £2 each? Shame I don't have a picture of one of my own thriving.

greensalad

My chilli seedlings have all come up and they look so good! I'm so excited. Hopefully I can sell a few off too.

We went out to the garden centre on Wednesday and ended up spending a small amount from our groceries budget on some foodie bits. They have an American section there so we got some sweets and sauces and also I bought some frozen pastries (chocolate twists and ham & cheese croissants for OH) which are a perfect treat for weekend mornings and only 79p each.  So a bit of an "unexpected" spend but puts out groceries budget for the week down to a still-reasonable level, plus when we add in we won't need to buy any breakfast bits it all works out. I cracked open a jar of my homemade cranberry that had been preserved since Christmas to have in brie sandwiches (my favourite) and we froze two bagels for next weekend. Freezer is full of big bits like pies and soya mince so we should definitely be able to reduce our budget over the next month.

Annoyingly we've found out that OH's student loan will continue to be taken out of his paycheque until at least March because that's the only point at which SLC updates HMRC to stop deducting, ugh! Such a stupid thing. They're quick to take it off you but not quick to return it! We'll get it back in full of course but it royally pisses me off. So our saving budget will be down for a few months but we should then get a lump sum.

Emailing the mortgage broker today as they didn't get back to my friend after he referred us so maybe I need to make first contact.

greensalad

Ocado order done for the week. £64 but included £16 of dishwasher tablets (100 pack! on offer half price) and two bottles of wine, plus the 3 for £10 freezer items which we use to buy expensive fish as it saves over a fiver in costs. So hopefully come end of Feb we can just spend £30-£40. 

Wrote out my budget plan for gardening bits I want over the next few months. I want to buy some new tomato grow towers and a new bed from B&Q to go out front. 

Paid off CC as the statement came through. Since I put us on amnesty we've had some accidental spends (basically didn't realise things were saved with the CC card) but it's only £37. Should only need to get through to 5th March when the next statement gets drawn up and will be able to zero it out completely and I can start tracking it in YNAB but much better. The problem we always had was that if we forgot to set aside for something when purchasing, it would end up getting all out of sync when the bill came because I could never tell if we were waiting on a pending transaction or not. So a nice zero out and clean slate will make it much easier to manage. Plus reducing what we spend on it. Just things like groceries and car maintenance etc rather than lots of little spends.