It's the final countdown...£10k to go

enthusiasticsaver

I would second the suggestion to remove your early December pay from your current account and transfer it to savings then repay it back on your normal payday.  It makes January that much more bearable if you do not anticipate the December salary. 

t2rry

Legs21 said:

Well done on getting a grip on your spending, saving and budgeting. You’re going great guns. 

I normally get paid on 25th of every month but will be paid on 21st December this year, so that will be shoved over to a savings account and brought back over on 25th so there’s no temptation to spend any of it on Xmas, otherwise January will be a very long month. 

Thank you @Legs21 ! That’s a great idea with December pay, keeping it separate. I always wonder how many people must run out a week early in Januaries!!! 

t2rry

Sarahwithlove said:

Could you maybe split it half and half so some comes in this year's savings and some to kick start next year? 

So this is definitely a probably @Sarahwithlove. As it happens, I don’t count the year totals as anything other than what I’ve paid off debt. So whatever stays in the banked funds won’t be counted until they’re paid off debt anyway, which means whatever I ‘save’ in December will most likely be a small amount paid off debt, then the bulk will remain in banked funds. Which means it’ll be counted in 2021 anyway. So this is essentially what will happen anyway, even with me making all the moves in December rather than January 👌🏻

t2rry

enthusiasticsaver said:

I would second the suggestion to remove your early December pay from your current account and transfer it to savings then repay it back on your normal payday.  It makes January that much more bearable if you do not anticipate the December salary. 

So I genuinely think this is a good idea. However I won’t be doing it. For reasons really unknown to me, January is always our best month. Maybe it’s the excesses of Christmas in terms of money and effort that we never do anything or spend anything in January, but whatever it is we always save really well. What I will be doing is as soon as the salaries hit, is to transfer out the budget savings, so we won’t be able to touch anything other than budgeted spends anyway. I really don’t worry about us overspending anymore, it’s a nice benefit of having been careful for so long now, it’s really second nature. I just want to get all the xmas spends done and out of the way before it hits, which really should be the case because I cannot be leaving gift buying until Christmas Eve!! 😂

t2rry

Famous last words, huh?  "Don't worry about us overspending"!?
I mean we haven't really but I think our usual food budget it just totally unrealistic this month, I really don't want to touch the xmas 2020 savings, nor have to adjust the budget before payday, and it's not quite adding up as it currently stands.

SO - I've cashed out in my cashback site and also my bank account cashback, doesn't come to much but something to help us stay in the black.  I've chased people that owe us funds (2 lots) plus I'm waiting on 1 return refund to go through, that totals circa £150.

It's also now crucial that I don't overspend on my remaining gift budgets.  This is the point at which I usually start to go a bit mental because naturally only the difficult people are left to buy for.  One I've seen something for and it's the perfect gift and I know they'd love it, but it's £10 over the budget I arbitrarily set. SO....I'm not getting it.  I'll bank the idea for a future gift, and re-think.  

I also must admit to a singular panic overspend on one gift item ... I am considering returning it and getting something else within the budget, because it was a moment of weakness - I know what happened, it's for a person who always makes me feel somewhat inferior and like I can never get anything right, so I went with something I realised the person would freaking love, and be really surprised by, but it's excessive.  I could justify the excess in a few ways but I really do know that the only reason I went for it is because I want to get on the good side of this person, which is really the opposite of what I should be doing.  In an ideal world I'd go above and beyond for the people that add only positivity into my life, but the ugly little want to have everyone like me the most, I have done it for the one person with whom I don't feel secure that I'm enough.  

There's a decent chunk of self reflection for a Tuesday morning.

t2rry

Just to add to the above - this person has also contributed indirectly to my budgets this month by poo-poo'ing gifts we already bought for other members of his family.  It means I have 2 gifts bought properly out of the xmas budget that cannot be gifted as intended, so I've had to buy alternative gifts for those people and whilst I could return the original gifts, it would cost me both time and money to do so.  What I can do, and have decided to do, it re-gift as appropriate, which means they turn into birthday gifts for people who will appreciate them in 2021, which is fine, long term it balances out, but in the short term I've paid out of December's budget for things that should have fallen into future month's budgets.  

I could just 'borrow' from banked funds to replenish this month, then return the borrowed amount when the relevant months hit, but I just don't want to touch any of it now it's there, so instead I need to find other ways to make up the difference.  In addition to what I've already outlined, I need to find something else to boost the balance.  I will have to find things to sell on marketsplice, that's the fix I think, doesn't need to be much, just enough to cover a week of frugal food money-ish!!!

Sarahwithlove

It's so frustrating when people put others down for no reason. I can understand not wanting to use future banked money. I hope you manage to find a way to increase your funds. How much do you think you need to try and find? 

t2rry

Sarahwithlove said:

It's so frustrating when people put others down for no reason. I can understand not wanting to use future banked money. I hope you manage to find a way to increase your funds. How much do you think you need to try and find? 

.Maybe more frustrating that I've let it get to me, rather than accept that it's actually not all on me.  Anyway, it's almost exactly those 3 'overspends' that add up to the amount I'm short for the budget, I need to find £70 plus maybe a little more to top up the food budget and give myself a little breathing space on that.  I have listed a couple of bits for sale, hopefully I'll get a bit on those but need to find a bit more too.  This evening's job I think.

Sarahwithlove

What about surveys do you do any of them? Have you looked in freezer and cupboards to see if there's any way you can save on the food budget? Do you have any old electronics you could trade in? 

t2rry

Sarahwithlove said:

What about surveys do you do any of them? Have you looked in freezer and cupboards to see if there's any way you can save on the food budget? Do you have any old electronics you could trade in? 

Definitely true for food, although it's really the xmas day stuff I can't manage without, everything else is fine as it's only daily consumables we'll need to top up.  Surveys is also a sound idea, I'm going to login to much much ignored swagbucks account and see if I'm close to anything there.  Electronics is also another good idea as I'm sure a sweep of the house would present a number of old phones & pads, realistically though I don't see us doing anything with them this year, time being in short supply and nowhere local we could just take them in person for a quick transaction.  I will look into this though.  

My CC bill has hit today, I think I might 'save' my budgeted £50 minimum payment for the benefit of current months budget in favour of paying off a decent chunk from my banked funds.  I know it's a roundabout way of letting the deficit eat into savings, but it doesn't feel as bad as having to transfer the xmas savings across for day to day spends.  That £50 covers the best part of what I'm short, and I was always going to pay a chunk off the CC this month anyway because I've been using it for the CC protection on spends, thereby removing some of the balance from the 0%