Making a big decision and staying out of debt

Mumoffourkids

Honeysucklelou2 said:

Good to see you back again 🙂. 

Thank you. I have been reading lots of diaries just not posting. One of the diaries I have been following is yours.

I have been thinking about how I budget my money. I currently use spreadsheets and YNAB but the YNAB subscription is going up and I’m not sure I really need it. I also seem to be spending more money than I would like on food and other general bits as I currently have a monthly budget and tend to go a bit mad at the beginning of the month and then top up my budget at the end of the month especially if it is a five week month. I think I actually budgeted better for food when I was doing a weekly budget. I still get tax credits and child benefit weekly so I’m considering using that money weekly for food and general spending and then the leftover goes towards monthly bills. I probably need to do a spreadsheet and see if I can use that instead of YNAB. That will be tomorrow’s job. 

Today I did clear out a bit of the under stairs cupboard. I filled a bin bag up of rubbish, old shoes past their best and broken bags and found a bag of old football boots which I’m going to donate to the girls rugby club. It still looks as though I haven’t sorted the cupboard at all though! Tomorrow I’m going to go through the shoes that are in the cupboard and see if they fit anyone and if anyone wants them. Any that aren’t wanted will either go to charity or I’ll try to sell them.

Mumoffourkids

I made a big decision, I offered on a house up north and it has been accepted!! So now the next step is to get the mortgage agreement in principle. That is underway and I’m hoping to hear it has gone through soon. Next steps will be to get quotes for solicitors and then start decluttering the house.

I have been thinking about my budget and have decided to keep YNAB and have set up weekly spending categories and will fund these when my next money comes in. It means that I am funded a month ahead for all my bills and two weeks ahead for spending money. So all bills for May are being paid out of April’s money. And the first two weeks of May’s spending money will also come out of April’s money. I tried to set up a spreadsheet but although I did, it just didn’t feel as good as using YNAB. I still have my spreadsheet for forecasting for each month as to how much can go into savings.

I’ve also started on prolific again last night. I used to use it a lot when debt busting and now I’ve decided it’s probably a good habit to get back into again. I will also be looking for things to sell from around the house to help with savings pots.

Mumoffourkids

Today’s plans went out the window the minute I woke up. I have felt sick all day long and just haven’t been able to get out of bed. DD2 hid some eggs I had bought for the younger kids and they had great fun trying to find them round the house. Then between her and DD3, they cooked a roast dinner. I managed about four mouthfuls before feeling sick again. Hopefully I am feeling better tomorrow as I need to get the kids sorted out ready to go back to school on Tuesday. I think I also need to do a list of things I need to do if we are going to move in the summer including finding new school places.

In money saving news, I managed to cash out £5.25 on prolific today which is great. And also for some reason my tax credits keeps doing an update, so instead of getting two more payments this month, I am now getting four more payments. I think it’s because every time they do an update, you get an extra payment. For some reason, they have done two updates in the last week so resulting in two extra payments. 

I had hoped to get lots of washing done today and sort out some stuff to take to the tip but that didn’t happen. I did manage to get a load of yellow sticker bargains Saturday evening at work which means that I still don’t need to do a big shop. I probably need to pick up a few bits Tuesday or Wednesday but should be able to hold off on doing a big shop until Friday. I still haven’t done a meal plan but we have enough food in the freezer to live on for the next few days. In fact I probably need to do a freezer list to work out what food we actually have. 

Mumoffourkids

I had work last night so today has been mostly spent sleeping, although the kids went back to school today so it was good to have some peace and quiet. I did go work this evening and picked up a few reduced bits for lunches for the rest of the week and some bits for dinner along with some other bits. I only spent £12.96 and that was for two full carrier bags so I don’t think I did too badly. I work in a food shop so I do get a discount which definitely helps. 

We had a lovely dinner tonight which was made up of reduced items and that just seems to make it taste that much better. I still haven’t done a meal plan for the next few days but after my shop today, I should only need bread and milk on maybe Thursday and then might do a big shop Friday or Saturday.

In other money saving news, I have cashed out another £5.94 from prolific this evening and have another £5.13 pending. I do like this survey site as the surveys are usually more interesting. I have also bought myself a budget book which I am going to use along with my spreadsheet instead of paying for YNAB. My YNAB subscription has been cancelled and I will use the money I had saved for that towards something else. Not sure what yet though. I need to take a printout of my categories on YNAB I think before my subscription ends and use that going forward in my spreadsheet. 

No buyers yet on the items I listed but I found something else to list today so will do that tomorrow. 

I was also talking to DD2 and she was saying she wanted some clothes for our holiday this year. She then showed me what clothes she wanted and it was items I could easily make and I already have the fabric. So she has chosen fabric and showed me what she wants me to make. I might also try and make myself a couple of tops for holiday as I have found some fabric I bought but haven’t used yet.

WinterWarrior

That was a bargain food shop, well done. 

I like prolific too.

Mumoffourkids

WinterWarrior said:

That was a bargain food shop, well done. 

I like prolific too.

Thank you for stopping by. I’m currently in the middle of reading your diary from the start. I do love a good long diary to get stuck into and read how they get on over a period of time.

Mumoffourkids

Although I did a bargain shop last night, I still went to the shop this morning as I had run out of strawberry jam. I can’t eat a croissant without strawberry jam and we had run out completely. This was then promptly eaten on my reduced croissants along with a cup of tea for breakfast this morning. Yummy treat as I usually just have weetabix or shreddies for breakfast.

I have also managed to sort out my balances going forward. I am switching from using YNAB to using a budget book and last night I spent ages trying to work out to record things in my budget book. I love the idea of a zero based budget and was trying to work out how to do this on paper. I currently have all my bills money for may bills already saved up along with the first weeks spending money for may saved up. I also have pots for everything. I think last night as I was tired I just couldn’t make it balance but this morning I have managed it. I have the figures ready to go from today and then that should only require a little bit of updating at the end of the month. Then I’m all set just to use my budget book from the start of next month. I think using YNAB has made it too easy for me to spend and then cover from other categories. I want to cut spending down and I think having to write it down and it not be easy to cover overspends will help me to reduce spending and therefore save more money.

WinterWarrior

Mmm, I want croissants now! 

I tried and failed to get on with YNAB. I love a good spreadsheet though 😁

Mumoffourkids

Croissants were very enjoyable. I’m sort of sad that they aren’t my every day breakfast though.

I cashed out another £8.69 from prolific yesterday and also have one bid on one of my items on eb*y so at least one item will sell. I also sold a gold necklace. It was more that I thought it was going to be which is amazing and the money hit my bank account today. I have added some to the house deposit fund and a little bit to treat myself. It was a necklace I was given but as I very rarely wear jewellery, I thought it was better off being sold to help me fund the house purchase rather than just sit in a drawer.

I am looking forward to the start of may as I can then get my budget book going. I have all the figures mostly ready to go and can’t wait to see if that will work for me. If it does, it will be a lot cheaper than using YNAB. 

Nothing else happening, I am still waiting for my mortgage in principle to go through but I think the broker was off this week so I didn’t expect much to happen. I am also still looking at houses but I can’t see any that beat the one I have already seen, so that is good news.

Mumoffourkids

Ok so mortgage in principle isn’t looking good although I don’t believe the broker has explored all the options. Apparently because I have lots of different income that needs to be taken into account, I need a high street lender, but they don’t like me because I have one default on my account which actually drops off in June this year. I might ring another broker and see what they say and see if I can get around it somehow.

In positive news, I cashed out another £5.66 from prolific and two items sold on eb*y and they have been posted already. I relisted some items but will try and sell a couple on FB instead. I also have some more bits I want to list so I need to get photographing tonight and listing tonight.

House savings are going well though as for some reason tax credits have recalculated twice this month and so I have had two extra payments and my usual weekly payment has reduced slightly. I am still just about within budget for April but I can’t wait to start my budget planner in may. I am also still waiting on a tax repayment and it is still saying my account is in credit, despite me requesting the payment twice already this month. I might need to phone them to hurry them up.