Learning to walk before I run

edinburgher

@LadyWithAPlan - I have always been tight when it came to tracking spends (9+ years of budgeting and tracking under my belt). I sure as heck haven't been "tight" in the Scottish stereotype sense, which is why bringing the belt in several notches feels so painful at the moment.

I don't find YNAB to be particularly magical in any way but it is very useful in that it uses a database or databases to track data. I had always used Excel and it is not really designed for use as a database. This gave me difficulties with trend analysis and reporting. Another area where YNAB has come into its own is the fact that it doesn't struggle with my 4-weekly pay because it uses zero-based budgeting. With Excel, I used what I'd describe as "expected budgeting" (i.e. expected salaries and bills plugged in like clockwork but occasionally it didn't work because salaries and bills aren't regular as clockwork). I probably could have tweaked Excel to use a zero-based budgeting approach but I have very much lost my mojo for spreadsheets these days.

Another £5+ out of Prolific today with the next fiver earned. Feeling bored with surveys YNAB now up to 32 days, highest yet.

killerpeaty

Might be painful, but know you're doing the right thing and the best you can. Keep plugging along

edinburgher

£2 bonus on £10 spend at TCB today folks, supermarket voucher time or possibly cinema for the 🎄 break 🤔

edinburgher

£6+ withdrawn from Prolific, next fiver earned.
£2 earned on Y Live
£2.25 earned on TCB

Surviving November achievement unlocked 😓

teapot2

edinburgher said:

£2 bonus on £10 spend at TCB today folks, supermarket voucher time or possibly cinema for the 🎄 break 🤔

Thanks for the reminder Ed, I bought a £10 Cost@ voucher and have the £2 plus 70p cashback showing in my account.  Also got 10p cashback as used Ch@se acct.  It all helps 

edinburgher

@teapot2 - glad to be of some assistance - boring old Morrisons voucher here

£10 cashback withdrawn from Barclays.

Have done the month end figures and S&S have been on a tear, NW up by £7,931.90. Almost all of that was "strict" NW too (i.e. cash/LISA/SIPPs that we'll be able to get our hands on in 18-20 years).

YNAB up to 33 days and I was able to send Mrs E £116 of pocket money that I managed to scrounge up over the course of the month - quite pleased with that

savingholmes

Well done on the walking around £. Hopefully that will lift both your spirits somewhat.

I think a decent EF is an excellent goal.

LadyWithAPlan

edinburgher said:

@teapot2 - glad to be of some assistance - boring old Morrisons voucher here

£10 cashback withdrawn from Barclays.

Have done the month end figures and S&S have been on a tear, NW up by £7,931.90. Almost all of that was "strict" NW too (i.e. cash/LISA/SIPPs that we'll be able to get our hands on in 18-20 years).

YNAB up to 33 days and I was able to send Mrs E £116 of pocket money that I managed to scrounge up over the course of the month - quite pleased with that

You are the straw that broke my YNAB resistance  and I set up YNAB over the last 2 days to be ready for Dec 1st - I am loving it  so far and its given me great clarity on spends - I even didn't get a coffee at college yesterday which I had assigned then changed my mind  as that  £3.75 could go elsewhere eg funding Dec grocery! And I took a sandwich in as well (there for 7 hours so)  I have always budgeted but you are right this database takes the overview to a next level.
Also have set up a payee for free money, CB, SM vouchers etc so I can track that in the next year as well.

YNAB days - I am 0 as waiting to be paid   A new metric to go for
Well done on the scrounging of Mrs E pocket money ) 

I tried the cashback on a giftcard before and didnt get the CB - not sure where I went wrong - you  just opt in via TCB  and click thru to the SM you want and then buy a gift card through them? Is this the process?
 - i just missed the TCB £2  for £10 one - they ran out of codes but I will try again to see if it works

South_coast

LadyWithAPlan said:
I tried the cashback on a giftcard before and didnt get the CB - not sure where I went wrong - you  just opt in via TCB  and click thru to the SM you want and then buy a gift card through them? Is this the process?

No, you opt in, then search for gift card on TopCashBack and buy the gift card from their Top Gift Card shop

edinburgher

@LadyWithAPlan - I must be more persuasive than I allow for - I thought my YNAB praise was fairly lukewarm

South_coast has described the gift card process well (always opt in first)! For absolute clarity re. TopGiftCards, it is TCB's "voucher market". Just opt in and then search for TopGiftCards in the "Search merchant / store name" bar.

I got £90 for my Feed In Tariff payment, far more than I was expecting so bonus pocket money 👍

Other than that no real finance news, took DD2 to the wonderful Kelvingrove art gallery. "Free" but £5 for parking and £4 for a coffee and a biscuit so I could give DD2 her lunch.