Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Porridgecat

YNAB changed our whole financial outlook and our financial health, we went from permanently in overdraft (I had managed to pay of most of our debts) to having good savings and massively overpaying our mortgage.
At the moment I have savings accounts for long term savings (towards eventual retirement), holidays and emergency fund (although I think I will rename this as immediately available funds as I build it up to £1000 and then move to long term savings. YNAB pots I have are, car maintenance, annual car insurances (2 cars and a motorbike - hobby) home maintenance, computer and phone replacements, camera equipment (MrPorridges other expensive hobby) gifts, special wine purchases, annual subscriptions, car replacement, white goods, health costs (mainly glasses as not free here) and I'm about to start a new kitchen fund.
Its great to find another YNAB fan.

QueenJess

I've never used YNAB, but from your explanation above, I do exactly the same thing but on a spreadsheet.  I'm a bit of a control freak though, so I like to check through everything manually...

I set up a budget (which I regularly review) based on pots/budget categories like car maintenance, mortgage, council tax etc etc and then divide it equally into months.  The total for the joint stuff budget then determines the amount I and DH put into the joint account each month and I do the same for my personal account. It all goes out automatically on 1st of the month and the difference between my income and the budgeted expenses goes straight to savings (ISA's/EF etc).

Then sporadically (at least every month and usually more often) I put my transactions into the spreadsheet for the month and it works out my new balance per pot and in total which usually equals the amount in the bank account/on the CC.  It's a bit manual to put the transactions in (although I automated everything else), but I have so few transactions as I buy so little that it is very quick and easy to do this way for us.

I do have a pot for random house things to save up for (e.g. furniture, lampshades or whatever) and a small amount I can fritter on whatever I want (although generally I don't).  A "new" car fund is part of my EF in a more hassle to access account (so I forget about it).  The only thing I haven't dealt with is a new laptop and phone fund (they are 5.5 and 3.5 years old respectively).  I will use them until they are basically unusable, but I do need to start saving for new ones.  Can't yet decide whether to take it out of my budget.  I was toying with the idea of putting budget savings on pots (sometimes I spend less!), roundups, cashback and any money made on eBay or surveys as towards this as a bit of an incentive.  The jury is out on that for now though... will give it some thought!

QueenJess

Bluegreen143 said:

Thank you for your lovely comments @QueenJess and @astrocytic_kitten!

A great idea re saving bits and bobs for card making - will keep an eye out for packaging etc I can use!

My mum was also having a clear out a number of years ago and I took a whole box of buttons from her.  I was feeling good that I was getting through them by using them on cards, but the recipients (family) tend to recycle the card, take off the buttons and then return them to me when they see me.  Means my stash of buttons will never go down! 

I'm always surprised by the number of things I seem to get with little bows or ribbons on or even nice paper/tissue paper.  They all come in very handy.  I've even used up some free sewing kits (the ones you used to get in hotel rooms) making cards.  The only thing I bought was a pile of coloured cardboard for the main bit of the card and a pack of envelopes, but I've been using these for 10 years!

Bluegreen143

@QueenJess your spreadsheet sounds great! I use YNAB manually too - it doesn’t connect to my bank account (I think you can do this in the US but not here) however I actually like that I have to enter the transactions manually. I feel if it auto entered them I’d end up taking my eye off the budget but doing it manually means I need to really think through transactions. The YNAB book is great for anyone wanting to know more and you can apply the lessons/method in the book to a spreadsheet or budgeting on paper instead, but I do find using the YNAB app makes it much easier as it’s tailored to the method.

Red has found us a second hand cabin bed for Monkey on gumtree and haggled the woman down to £140 from £175 (it’s a fancy one from M&S with an integrated bookcase, cupboard and drawers and was £800 new). I’ve only put £40 in the pot as wasn’t going to buy yet but we decided this is a really good deal so will do some budget reorganisation today.

It’s a good quality, solid wood bed as opposed to getting a new (cheap) one from IKEA which was the first plan, it is a bit cheaper than the IKEA one and much sturdier. I’m thinking this bed will do him now hopefully through his teens! And it should make it much easier to organise his room with all that extra storage. I was going to get a separate bookcase but there’s one integrated in it so that saves some cash. I do want to order one of the wall shelves you get for displaying picture books as well as they drive me mad falling all over the place on normal shelves (we have the proper picture book shelves in Bambi’s room and they look so nice) but I think IKEA do one for £15 or so.

joedenise

The cabin bed will definitely do Monkey through to his teens.  My DD2 had a cabin bed and used it until she was about 15 and then decided she wanted a "normal" double bed now she was grown up!  Her room by then was much bigger as we moved house around that time so it was a convenient time to change.  Trouble was it meant we needed to buy a wardrobe and chest of drawers as well.

Another dedicated YNAB user here too!  I even bought a separate laptop to use it as when my MacBook updated it took it to 64 bit and my old YNAB (I've had it since about 2014) is only 32 bit so needed to buy a cheap Windows laptop!  I have absolutely loads of pots - even one called Things I have forgotten!  Very useful for when something I've forgotten to input comes out in the bank, usually just something like lottery tickets so not a huge amount.

Sarahwithlove

Ynab is great for getting into good habits. I've just about to renew mine for another year. 

Tartan_Mum

Following your thread with interest. I think I am you in 10 years. Living in a similar area, also using YNAB and with two DC who are about 10 years ahead of yours  
Sounds like you’re off to a flying start @Bluegreen143 Cheering you on! 

Bluegreen143

@Tartan_Mum welcome and thanks for dropping by! I love that you’re me in 10 years - I look forward to your posts telling me how delightful it is having teenage children and how I can look forward to them being really helpful and never arguing 😆

Today’s meals 
B - Red made me garlicky mushrooms, spinach and goats cheese on HM sourdough for breakfast in bed 😁 no idea what the kids had but Red only does two breakfasts for them - a banana with either weetabix or peanut butter toast 🤣

L - tuna sandwiches on sourdough (OK, a lot of bread today, but it’s the first loaf I made with my new starter and it turned out so good, check out the picture below!) and the kids had fruit too



D - changed up the meal plan and made a new recipe I saw online - chicken and broccoli in a cheese sauce served with rice - I added cannellini beans too as there wasn’t a lot of chicken and served with raw veg sticks. Was really tasty!

Food prep 
Totally on fire tonight motivation-wise 🙌🏼 Did loads of food prep. I was concerned I’d be too tired to start once the kids were down so I asked Monkey if he’d like to help me in the kitchen for his “special time” (15 minutes he gets each day with one of us once Bambi is in bed and before his bedtime stories). Poor lamb innocently jumped at the chance of an exciting activity not realising I was just wanting to get my to-do list done 🙈 then cos I’d already started it was easier to get back into it once he was in bed.



Made/prepped:

- 2x batches of hummus (one for the fridge and one for the freezer) 
- 8 wholemeal pitta breads
- started a loaf of sourdough, which I’ll bake tomorrow 
- big tub of chopped melon & grapes
- huge tub of mixed salad (lettuce, red cabbage, radishes, spring onions, grated carrot)
- tub of chopped carrot/swede/celery for throwing in tomorrow’s soup 
- tub of carrot/pepper/cucumber sticks

So that’s a good bit of prep for tomorrow’s dinner (lentil & ham soup with a fresh loaf of sourdough) and the next night’s (pittas, hummus and falafel) which should take some of the pressure off next week. 

(PS- loving all the YNAB love! Wish I could get people I know IRL to use it - that makes it sound a bit like a cult, but I do!)

Bluegreen143

Started looking at pensions today.

I’ve got one past pension (as I’ve always consolidated them when moving jobs) with a current value of £13.5k. Also have a lifetime ISA which is currently worth about £200 as it’s just recently opened. 

Despite the fact I was the non working parent for 3.5y, Red has a dismal £6k in total as left it very late to start paying in.

So as we are 32 (me) and 37 (Red) we have a lot of work to do here I think!

I’m paying £50 into the LISA each month and 6% of my gross salary with a 6% employer match. No idea what % Red is paying, must get him to check in case it’s super low...

Red has three old super tiny pensions so spent some time putting in a transfer request for two of them into his current plan and he’s on the phone about the third just now.

To-do list 
- merge my old work pension with my newly opened one 
- get Red to check if he can increase his pension contributions for a bigger employer match 
- research if it’s worth paying to top up my two incomplete NI years for my state pension (keep putting this off as it seems complicated!)

Bluegreen143

HAPPY DAYS!!

I’d found some old paperwork re what I assumed was an old pension of Red’s - that’s what he was sitting on the phone about earlier while I was sorting pension stuff. However it transpires it wasn’t a pension but a very old Prudential savings account his mum opened for him when he was 10, paid in for a few years and they both forgot about. It has £2,200 in it which is coming our way! 🎉🎉🎉

SO glad I eventually got Red to call them today as I’ve been nagging him about it for over a year (they sent us a letter about then asking him to update his details but he’s never bothered til now). I think this may have taught him two valuable lessons about 1) not ignoring financial admin tasks and 2) that his wife should always be listened to 😂

We are going to sit down tonight to negotiate what we will use it for so will report back later 🙂