Follow the Yellow Brick Road 2023

savingholmes

Glad you are doing art more.

I have my house grid in £100 blocks. Well done on the extra Op. 

My holiday is amazing.  Really don't want to go home 

SandyShores

KajiKita said:

I’m glad the pre-shopping helped - standing in front of cupboards makes such a difference to visualising what it is that you need. 😊

Well done for having a ‘nice to dos’ list - the only thing on mine atm is knitting …. 😉
I like the idea of using the credit card as a cash card and laying it off as you go through the month rather than at the end, but doesn’t that create a lot of daily admin?

KK

It was amazingly easy KajiKita, sometimes the simplest tips are the best Thank you x

With the credit card payments, I'm trying to make the payments immediately after I make the purchase, or when I get home if I'm in store.  I've been keeping a record in my spreadsheet anyway and just use a formula in the cell to note all the spends, then in the outgoings column the opposite cell has a formula equal to spends cell minus any payments I make.  So if I forget to make a payment or note it down,  I just need to make sure the two cells match and equal zero - you could do it every few days I guess.  Sounds like a faff, but for me it will take away the faff of dealing with it at the month end.  Plus like South_coast says it means I can see at a glance how much I've spent this month (and hopefully don't end up paying it off from next month's spends).  Seems to be working at the moment.

@savingholmes so glad you are enjoying your hols.  I wish I were back by that lovely pool on our hols earlier in the year, and can't wait to go again.  Played with the paints again today, I'd got an idea from a birthday card I'd bought and I was really pleased that I was able to sit down and just paint.  I also saw another idea on fb that I'd like to have a go at.  It made me realise that not knowing where to start is my sticking point, so I'm going to gather ideas together and just have a go at them.  Always remembering that its the process I'm enjoying and that's all that matters.  I like your idea of £100 per square with the house equity, I'm using 1% squares at the moment so may rethink that.

SandyShores

Woohoo PBs £100 win for September.  That will definitely be another OP.

LadyWithAPlan

well done on the PB win! Yes my £500 squares are too big, so £100 sound much more doable. I do like to do a silly dance when I colour the squares in

I used to work that method with my pots on my cc, however I find ynab annoyingly brilliant  for this as it does the pot thing brilliantly and also gives reports without any effort. I do now understand why people rave over it

redofromstart

I did my squares from £25 upwards, £25 was a takeaway that we didn't have etc but it really helped with focus. 

savingholmes

I like your £25 thought Redo - I can see that would be more motivating still

SandyShores

Thank you all, I'm currently working on 1%, which is about £4k a square - not very motivating, so I've re-done it for £250 a square - much better, thanks for the tip.  I did think about £25 but it wouldn't fit on my laptop screen and still be readable. 

I did try YNAB a few years ago when I was on the debt-free journey, but I couldn't get on with it.  So I use Excel and a couple of spreadsheets.  My aim now is not to spend so hopefully that will keep it as simple as possible  

savingholmes

I use Excel too as I didn't get on with YNAB

SandyShores

'Not buying stuff' isn't going so great:

• Purchased make up and sports clothing (and maybe a 2nd hand jacket/trousers from v1nted).
• Had a mini-declutter, there is NO MORE room for anymore clothes now.
• Mr Shores also had a mini-declutter
• More items uploaded to v1nted and fleabay.
• I must source/buy a couple of large baskets to store our summer (or winter) clothes in

I am keeping the credit card balances at zero, which feels good and definitely helps control spending.  

savingholmes

Could you keep your out of season clothes in a suitcase?