Future Proofing my life: Deposit saving then MFW journey in under 13 years

skint_spice

The Brazilian food sounds lovely.  Hopefully being able to see your eating patterns will help you form healthier habits.

PennysIntoPounds

Hope your mum's okay.

You sound like you're having a good mix of saving and enjoying, which is how it should be!

LadyWithAPlan

savingholmes said:

My pensions are happier too. 

Trust your gut on the clients - perhaps apart from the ones with cashflow issues where they've gone on for over a year so at some point.... You need to replace them with more consistent payers to meet your goals.

The sweets were an essential at that moment in time stop beating yourself up.

On the sweets and crisps I am actually glad I am tracking the spend and making myself write it down - it’s not about the cash £7.75 in Dec  or indeed even the bad for my teeth .. but I am seeing clearly it’s about replacing real food when I am running around - so I need to ensure I eat just before I leave the house (often I am rushing) and take healthy snacks 
- the junk is a bad nutrition lacking substitute for proper meals on the go so I aim to plan better - eating plastic haribo I can’t believe is good for my insides ! 
I am not overweight- so not a weight issue -  though I do have the 8 lbs more to be bikini fit - though the chances of me revealing myself in a bikini right now is tiny! 

It’s more I like to be as healthy as possible and this tracking has been useful in revealing habits of mine I want to change rather than a negative issue I am yelling at myself for - but thanks for your concern 

on invoices you are completely right that my current contracts are getting in the way of my goals 

Spending £13.20 round of drinks 
last night fun night out with a friend in some local pubs - not seen him in ages 
he insisted on sitting outside -he was sweating inside - luckily I had a big coat on but I wasn’t really up for drinking much after Thursday and drinking cold drinks outside .. I was super slow so not a mad one and got home at midnight and had a hot date with my heated faux fur throw - so nice to get warm 
my friend is lovely but been struggling with MH and definitely put on huge amounts of weight - I feel sad I can’t help him more - all that weight on his stomach is so bad for his heart and organs (I didn’t mention it) - I will try and drag him out for walks in the new year 

YNAB is showing me my large overseas phone bill cos of £6 a day in US is coming out Monday £51.68 - normally it’s £12 sim only but I do understand lots of people have phone contracts way more than that - I am not travelling as much in Dec so I haven’t upgraded my phone with battery issue  but a £52 phone bill feels ouch which be standard if I got a new contract 
my 12 month sim is done in January so I will look what’s new 


Mse Free money £250.01
 have just redeemed £10 against this months mobile bill thru airtime rewards - ££16 more to come as well)  
do love to see how much I have saved ..
I redeemed £10 last time as well  
I will assign the £10 into house savings and SIPP £8 & £2 rather than just letting it get spent 


big clubbing night out tonight - will have to move cash around in YNAB as I have already blown my entertainment drinks budget for Dec - but liking how YNAB clearly shows me where I am at before I spend - rather than me just putting it on my credit card or paying it out my bank float so I don’t notice the overspend much until I  see the end months cc bill or just not realising the extra £100s spent could have gone to savings … I will have fun tonight but will suggest we start at mine so I will pick up some alcohol for the fridge and mixers 

Also need to pick up stocking fillers - CS books some comestibles . So again YNAB move needed 

Again knowledge of one’s habits is power and the first step  to change them - 
I will apply for the YNAB free student one year and see if it applies outside the states 
But if not I will pay the annual as on 34 day trial at moment .. it suits my nerd brain but also more efficient than dealing with my own often not updated spreadsheets 

beanielou

@LadyWithAPlan. I have cerebral palsy. 

I thought you knew.  

When I exercise it is gentle & usually does not register. 

LadyWithAPlan

@beanielou ah I knew you had an ongoing struggle with a medical condition but hadn’t realised it was that. 
Your focus and upbeat mindset is even more impressive given this. Glad you on here to inspire us all and hope day to day you managing the ups and downs of this ok. 

LadyWithAPlan

Cooking today
Been a busy week so have enjoyed a gentle start to the day - though my pressure cooker would disagree.. he is a bit over all the hard work...
Xmas lights on, doing some MB, 

I stripped the FR chicken and made a stock out of it with some tired looking carrots, half an onion , HG bay leaf etc  - will be away for 10 days probably next week so trying to eat down the fridge

Lunch was I used my rice steamer and put in brown rice, leeks, peas, onions, garlic, with chermoula, tomato paste and spices with some stock - so served that with the remaining fried chicken and some dijon mayo. I added some pak choi into the rice for the last 10 mins as well - warming and easy food ahead of a potential hangover tomorrow...

I have then got a soup ongoing - there was a delicious squash chickpea lime soup recipe I tried from mse - a ww one.. so I am doing a my empty the fridge version.
The FR chicken stock, with leeks, a sweet potato (one of the 2 that came with my HF), garlic, canneloni beans, organic spinach and lemon juice, tin tomatoes, tomato puree, spoon harissa paste and various spices inc a cheeky bit of that Chermoula spice - no squash in but I will buy some more limes as they always useful plus got some coriander as well
I will blend it  and freeze some

HF meals 2 left - still not cooked - I think I have an issue with being told what to do - even by a recipe, these are both 40 min cook times.. The one dish I can cook after xmas ... the other I may try tomorrow - beef mince koftas so easy bit lots of roasting in oven stuff first eg aubergine and the now already used up partly sweet potato... 
i need to make some gf breadcrumbs for one recipe and already bought gf pasta for the 2nd so

Havent been to the gym though I will be dancing tonight - need to pop out and see a friend this afternoon . and grab alcohol for fridge etc 

LadyWithAPlan

Spending - 
Just picked up 2 online gifts £32.98 - Then popped to CS  to drop stuff  off clothes I cant be bothered to sell and look at books
Voluntary spending (much easier now ynab tracking this actually out my bank)

I went to 2 CS to pick up Xmas books for the stockings  ... £10.60
- one shop - the lady in front was waving a student card and she got 10% off so I did the same but will add to my charity giving - already did the xmas stay/Xmas dinner/ hot meals/help with benefits and health for Crisis homeless people and may buy another one next week £30 each 

Got some Xmas stocking books, a cd £1 and one 50p dvd (ugly betty series 1 as think niece will love and wont have seen)
DVDs are so cheap now with all the streaming services... I dont even have a dvd player any more - I have 2 left at my parents .. I could drag one back as I have a large monitor and a projector just no tv ..
Also picked up a super cute cat ornament I may keep for myself  - reminds me of my old cats £2.70 and looks handmade 



Crisis at christmas appeal  £29.73 each.
https://www.crisis.org.uk/get-involved/donate-to-crisis-at-christmas?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAsvWrBhC0ARIsAO4E6f8MPbjZ30gY5quwInkdA7r3hhn72JXyX1o3fZNy6-lqneR8ylPVgvEaAph3EALw_wcB



CC - I know ones credit score is to do with usage of credit  so I have always made sure I have less than 10% -20% of the credit limit outstanding before each bill comes in. What I had not realised it that credit score also look at how much you put on the card even if you pay it off the next day - which I frequently do on such things as flights, abroad hotels and T*my purchases. So my credit score has been going down as even though I never pay interest and always pay in full .. as I have done a lot of expensive travel..
I only got a cc cos of establishing credit! 
So I now need to get back to using my bank debit card daily rather than cc. So things like food and drinks out etc

YNAB
Age of money 7 days (highest woohoo) - I look forward to when I have the next 3 months essential bills all pre-assigned .. thats a goal 1 for me - it will delay house deposit but I think its a good first 2024 priority - should get some payments this week and I will be assigning Jan rent and the main bills immediately

Age of buffering (how long i would survive on current spend rate) 6.7 days 
These stats bit skewed as only just started
Of course then I have had to  move money around in ynab  today as I am over my xmas gift budget and had not had an alcohol at home budget (part of it coming out of bulk this month) - It is really annoying moving money from some categories 

FREE MONEY Bar* Tv survey 
Finally got hold of my Ba*b tv survey rewards account as has been going all year - I have 113k points which buys me about £113 of vouchers or some gifts... Anyone else got these and have any advice?
I may do a £20 tk maxx, a £10 john lewis voucher to help with xmas shopping etc -  rather than buying individula things or am I missing a trick here?


Food spending 
Popped to Mr L to pick up their pretty decent cremant £8.99 (only had one bottle in) and also a rose  wine as they had a spend £25 and get some xmas choc lollies for free 1.49 for the stockings/tree 
Alcohol  for house £15.48
Grocery £8.46   
Bulk - £5.50    brown rice, tonic waters, half the GF burgers
Junk - crisps 6 pack £1.05

In Dec...so far
Junk  £10.05     Grocery £36.74   Bulk   £37.43
Voluntary £630 inc xmas lights   This is much better than Oct and Nov

MG - just collated 3 tops (one given, one bought at CS) I never wore so they have gone to the CS today so 3 /16 so far - not added this total to my 65 in Dec

Cheery_Daff

Excellent work there! 

I've found over the years with YNAB that my set up has got far less complicated.  I very rarely split categories now,  and my 'food & household' category does A LOT of heavy lifting. Everything from food,  booze for home, anything household-y picked up in a supermarket - mugs, teatowels, lightbulbs, socks 🙄😂 mine doesn't slurp in transactions from the bank (I hadn't realised it could do that in the UK now till s someone else mentioned on your thread) so I like to keep it simple.  Means I can't participate in the Grocery Challenge 😂 but works for us for now - which I've found is the most important thing with a budget (when you're not in a desperate emergency at any rate)

Interesting to set you getting to grips with it - you're already discovering new things in not doing with it,  even after using it for years!

savingholmes

Good you are realising you want to prioritise better nutrition.

LadyWithAPlan

@Cheery_Daff yes I definitely didn’t want to have to reconcile etc / I used to have a Qb acct as I had loads of £1 licenses so used one for personal budgeting which was v accurate but those prices went up so dropped that. However I am a budgeter by nature of being self employed and being single and fiscal  whammy I live in London  so to not have a clear handle on my accounts would make life so difficult 

I am enjoying the dashboard of this - I also love the toolkit reports - great video by Nick True on them - some v useful ones as the YNAB reports themselves aren’t great 
also there is this new dashboard that gives another great view on your data 

@savingholmes yes I have always eaten v well and cook even though it’s just me living solo for years now - but a cousin died this year from diabetes complications inc amputation so I have massively upped my kale and dark greens - as in I have a v large plate a day alongside the meat and carbs and other veg - I get through a large mr L  bag every 2-3 days .. 
kale really helps clean and strength the liver - Dr Eric Berg on YT has some interesting videos on it 


last night was fun Went to a friends bar first - My  split of the bill was £40 then off to the club - £4 each on cloakroom Which I paid but music was v heavy … my friend found atmosphere too full on and lots of people off their trolleys so  we didn’t stay that long 
£48 plus the tix £37 plus I got tube so that was cheap and I could walk home - last big night in london before Xmas