Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Suffolk_lass

I hope you are feeling more your normal, positive, healthy self this morning, and the symptoms have reduced or gone after your pragmatic approach. Especially as it is big budget day!

At least the GBBO final was good and one of my favourite bakers has secured a job in a Michelin starred restaurant, since the series was filmed. I noticed once again how two of them (and most of the bakers who had left the tent) supported each other when needed, and one did not. Made particularly apparent by some of the footage, I felt. I'm being a bit anonymous in short-term spoiler avoidance!

EssexHebridean

Thank you for no spoilers SL - as usual for us, we will not be watching this evening, and I'm hoping to avoid finding out ahead of that! 

Hope you're feeling better today Mrs F! 

Baileys_Babe

Thank you for avoiding spoilers, we may have the opportunity to watch the GBBO finally this evening otherwise it is likely to be the weekend at the earliest.

I hope you are feeling better today Foxgloves

foxgloves

Thanks all. Yes, am feeling better today from an IBD point of view, although as I slept like a log after 3 nights of poor sleep, I do feel a bit muzzy-headed. I have made good progress on December's budget, however, & managed to catch Mr F (wfh today) between seminars to liaise on a few figures. It's getting that balance between a realistic estimate & a wish, isn't it? While avoiding profligacy, there is no point setting oneself up to fail with figures which look impressively spartan on paper but which quickly crumble when faced with reality. Ooooh, sounds like Mr F is firing up the coffee machine so defo time for me to have a break!
Chat later,
F x

foxgloves

And it's hello from Foxgloves HQ, having finished all my Big Budget Day tasks. I reconciled November's budget - nothing to report there except for a tidsy £3.37 underspend on the grocery budget, but all underspends are welcome, are they not, especially at this time of year. Then I worked on setting December's budget. I got all the main commitments - regular bills/DDs, etc, Personal Spends, grocery budget, etc, written into my trusty Money Book, then played around with the figures for everything else, especially anything requiring a transfer of funds. Wrote up the rest of it when I was satisfied I'd both included everything & also got realistic figures rather than 'wishrithmetic'. 
Haven't been able to pay as much to the savings pots as usual, but I was expecting this because of needing to prioritise other commitments (i.e cattery fees, Christmas grocery budget, fish box & birthday activities) but I was still able to meet our general savings, inc Reg Saver, Car Fund & Premium Bonds, meet December's £50 commitment to the Holiday Pot as per holiday payment schedule & put a little more into the Presents Pot to mop up any presents expenditure which will almost certainly pop up on Mr F's January CC bill. Also allowed a little extra for Christmas to a local cat rescue charity we support & also for a basket of shopping for the local C**p food bank collection point.
Other activities: Did a few surveys - PA Nov earnings now up to £38-57 once everyone has paid me, so my £40 monthly cash-out target suddenly isn't looking too unachievable. Some decent payers on Ips*s too so very nearly at cash-out there again already.
Today's garden pickings = Kale (I must say that this cavolo nero has been so easy to grow - I didn't even buy the seed as it was sent to me from a kind person - & we will defo grow it again next year.
Tonight's planned meal will be a quiche  - I've already made the pastry. This made its way onto the meal plan because I spotted a bit of Trex lurking at the back of the fridge. I usually only make pastry for high days & holidays as it's not something I should eat too frequently, so it will make a nice change.
Black lace section of shawl now frogged & I did not find the error - it was in there somewhere though. I shall commence re-knitting this section later today.
Didn't expect such heavy, prolonged rain this morning. Decided first thing that I'd be a kind meowmy & set up a litter tray. Naturally Soot instantly jumped in & filled it. Oh joy! That boy will just not go out in rain, even if I lob a handful of biscuits out of the door for him to follow - the ONLY time he has ever knowingly refused a biscuit!
Right, time to stop looking at screens for a while. Feels good to have the budget set up for another month. Oh, & re the Christmas grocery budget, Mr F was mentioning stuff we'd want to be buying for New Year, but I reminded him that as our budget cycle is from 27th of the month,  New Year goodies will be part of January's grocery budget, not this one. I'ts harder to judge leftovers this year as we will be elsewhere for the main celebrations.
F x

Makingabobor2

Sounds like another very productive day.  I think anything that involves money, is productive these days.  I have spent some time at the computer today with my book, trying to work out exactly how to distribute funds and try and pay off rest of debts once mortgage paid at end of year.    As you are queen of budgeting @foxgloves, can I ask exactly how you do it?  I have the savings pots and set up transfers etc. But since I started budgeting properly, I have tried several different ways of actually keeping track of it on paper and I can't say as I am really sorted with any of them.  I have a spread sheet set up for each month, showing income coming into the account, DD's going out and the transfers that we currently pay into various savings pots.  But I also like to have the savings pots on paper, so do you think its best to have a page per pot, or use a A4 book and have it in columns....I just can't decide what's easiest. Do you actually keep records in your book of what is in each pot, or just use it to work out how much to transfer etc?    I'm thinking of trying a different way next year, but need to decide what's best.   

foxgloves

@Makingabobor2 - My monthly budgets are written up longhand in my A4 Money Book. That includes allocations to all our commitments for the month & I work it right through, giving all that month's income 'a job' until I get to the final £200 - £250 which I leave each month as a buffer zone.
I also have 3 Excel spreadsheets:
1. Household bills/regular DDs
2. Savings Pots 
3. Personal Spends
The money for the Savings Pots lives in an interest bearing savings account which is part of our Co-op Bank current account. So, I think you are asking me how my budget system deals with Savings Pots spends? The spreadsheet which monitors amounts in our Savings Pots does only that & has 3 columns. Column 1 = Name of Pot,
Column 2 = Amount of money in each pot, Column 3 = Maximum target for money to save into that pot.
Right....so let's say I have gone out & bought a new frying pan at a cost of £37. That money would come from our House & Garden Pot, so I'd make a note ('H&G') on the receipt & when I do my next session of budget updates, I'd transfer the £37 into our current account & pay it across to my credit card (which is generally used for such purchases so as to maximise loyalty vouchers). Then the £37 would be deducted from the amount in the House & Garden Pot on Spreadsheet 2. It might sound complicated, but I've run this system for a while now & can fairly zip through it. As long as the 'Total' figure for all the pots combined always tallies with the balance of our Savings Pots account, then all is correct. 
Nowhere in my system is there a handwritten log of what has been bought from each pot as that doesn't really fulfil any budgeting need that I have. The Savings Pot spreadsheet is just there to monitor the maths. We set target amounts for each pot every January when we have our Annual Money Summit.
Hope this is a bit helpful.
F x

Blackcats

Sorry you missed your night out.  Glad you are feeling a bit better today.

Blackcats

Ps - I reckon that back in the day, you and me and a few other reformed characters on these boards would have got A Grades in "wishrithmetic"

Sun_Addict

I have a massive spreadsheet with several tabs which has been a long process in the making but it works for me perfectly. I check the finances almost daily so I’m always on top of it. It was amazing how once Mr SA was taken out of the equation the finances improved massively 😐 I honestly believe we’re better off since he became unable to work, despite losing his income, just because he’s no longer out there spending. 

I’m glad you’re feeling a bit better today.