Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

KajiKita

Ooh that’s a good one @themadvix, I could do that within my spreadsheets so I can see what I have left to spend in a month - the thing I have missing is a ££value countdown (apart from the tracker I use for our groceries account - I have no idea why that is so special! 😂).

This is such a useful discussion, it’s making me review how I could refine and improve what I’m already doing … 🤔

KK

Tescodealqueen

I’ve been with the Coop since 1977 , their website is pretty antiquated so no pots or anything but I have their first packaged bank account which includes car breakdown , mobile phone insurance and travel insurance til age 80 so sticking with it for those benefits . So although I have said several times I’m not renewing I am sticking with YNAB although I resented it when they changed to subscription I have recently renewed and with the 10% (offered for changing to subscription years ago) and I think a change in exchange rate the 95 dollars equated to £73.21 last month.
i might look to switch another account to one that offers budgeting in time for next year as that would be a double win if that’s possible

Cheery_Daff

KajiKita said:

I’ve read the YNAB book (a few times) and it sounds good, but I struggle with software anyway (a glitch in *my* head I think! 😉) and I just couldn’t bring myself to spend on a subscription when I was trying to bring my spends under control and down (at the time every penny counted). 

So I set up my own YNAB spreadsheet. It has broad categories such as car, self care, subscriptions etc with specific details of every cost within it. So my duol1ngo annual subs are in there divided by 12 and get added to by that value every month. If I get something I miss (cost of the chimney sweep last year!) I add a line and then divide it by the number of months remaining before it is likely to be due again. Once it’s reached a target value I stop filling that pot and restart when that fund is spent, so the chimney sweep might be a month later than last year - gets paused, spent when the bill comes in and restarts when the funds have gone. 

Shared costs (such as mortgage, utilities, breakdown subs) are under another tab, simply because we have our income divvied up into shared costs and personal and our accounts reflect that. I appreciate this is not wholly logical but it makes sense to me having evolved over time. I have another sheet that maps mine and Mr KK’s monthly income (his averaged over the year as being self employed he gets no holiday pay) and the proportions of our income we move to joint accounts (I earn more so contribute more). On that same sheet I have a list of all my outgoings with the joint costs as a big SO (as it’s broken down elsewhere). This I then map to my take home pay and make sure there is some slack! 😉 I’ve highlighted what in this are essentials (transfers to joint accounts, car insurance etc.) and what isn’t (personal pocket money, some subs) so if the sticky stuff hits the twirly thing, I already know where to cut my spending, what to cancel (it’s one less thing to think about in the panic of losing your job - happened too many times to me) so that my emergency fund v. minimum outgoings will stretch as I expect them to ... 

I suspect I’m not getting the full YNAB software experience but it’s very easy for me to see where I am over spending v. my intended budget … Just not so easy to stop! 😉 What I have started doing, is when I have overspent in a category (gardening for example … ahem! 😂) I limit what I can put in that pot for the new month I set up when I get paid, until that ‘debt’ is cleared. It highlights to me very quickly where the ‘leaks’ are (important for me) and if I really want to keep that pot full for spending in that category, I have to move it from somewhere else, such as our 2nd honeymoon fund ….

Does this help at all? I’m happy to share more details of the categories but they are so personal and specific to each of us, I suspect you have a good handle on what yours need to be already 😊

KK

Thank you! Yes, this is very helpful (and I'm always happy to hear more details if you can be bothered - I often find something useful even if situations aren't exactly the same!)

Really good idea to highlight what's expendable if your situation is liable to change 😊

Cheery_Daff

themadvix said:

Having tried YNAB at the beginning of the year Cheery, I decided to stick with and expand the pots I have (with Starling, although ‘main’ account is nationwide). Everything (with very few exceptions) gets paid for by credit card and then once a week I transfer from the relevant pot to the holding pot for the appropriate credit card - so that amount matches the pending amount owed to the credit card. It’s worked well for me, although it is only me using it, so I remember what the transactions are and don’t double transfer things (I do tend to do them as separate transfers from pots so I can match the amounts, which could be fiddly).

Aha, thank you! Yes I was wondering how I was going to deal with the credit card. I didn't have one way back in my proper budgeting days. Now it gets paid off every month - easy to deal with through YNAB but needs a bit of thought with a spreadsheet so thank you!

Cheery_Daff

Tescodealqueen said:

I’ve been with the Coop since 1977 , their website is pretty antiquated so no pots or anything but I have their first packaged bank account which includes car breakdown , mobile phone insurance and travel insurance til age 80 so sticking with it for those benefits . So although I have said several times I’m not renewing I am sticking with YNAB although I resented it when they changed to subscription I have recently renewed and with the 10% (offered for changing to subscription years ago) and I think a change in exchange rate the 95 dollars equated to £73.21 last month.
i might look to switch another account to one that offers budgeting in time for next year as that would be a double win if that’s possible

Ooh, that packaged account does sound worth having! You're right that the co op doesn't have pots, very pesky. Much pondering going on here though...

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all for your input - lots of food for thought! Will continue pondering. 

Been skimming back, onto third iteration of old diaries now! 😱 Things changed a lot! Initially I had £10 a week personal spends, then as I worked more it got upped to £20 a week plus an additional £50 for the month (so £150 in total) then later when I'd been working full time for a while and we'd merged finances, we had £200 a month each! I don't think we spend that now, but we do have more of a hefty joint treats fund now. 

Anyway, will continue pondering while I'm away this week and report back...

Cheery_Daff

Just checked payslip - the whole scale has gone up a bit so it seems I have a pay increase of £40.42 a month 😊 Should go up an increment next month too, so that'll be a bit extra as well. 

And now I really must get out of bed - we had plans to make an early start on tip/charity shop runs! I assume Mr C slept in the spare room - no sign that he's up yet either...

Cheery_Daff

OK. More waffling. Books parcelled up - some for the charity shop, and some scanned into We Buy Books - I'll wrap and register those later, and see if I can add more from home. 

Also been pondering the budget while sat in a cafe 😂 And I *think* I have a simplified plan. I think 😂 

So. Joint income (after my pay rise) = £3785 (this doesn't count Mr C's cash income, which is VERY variable and often cash)

Out of this,we will allocate: 

£1450 - monthly DDs (mortgage, council tax, electric etc)
£260 - saving for annual bills (LPG, house insurance, TV licence etc)
£250 - saving for annual car expenses (insurance, breakdown, MOTs, maintenance)

That leaves £1825.

Out of that, we have monthly spends, and looking at the averages of the last few months, for now we will allocate

£350 - food & household
£300 - diesel & parking
£200 - joint spends (cafes, tickets to things, eating out)
£300 - personal spends (£150 each)

That leaves £675 a month for topping up the other pots, which for now will be allocated as: 

* Car replacement (currently at £2000, so will leave this for now)
* Dentist & medical - aim for £600 over the year
* appliance/tech replacement - aim for £500 total (we mostly replace second hand)
* holidays! Might aim for an extravagant £2000 over the year here - one big holiday plus four weekends
* Presents - not properly worked out yet, maybe £750 over the year?
* home & garden maintenance & improvements - everything from septic tank emptying to decorating
* general emergencies - going to plonk £1000 in here for now

Ditching the 'income replacement' pot for now I think - there isn't a circumstance in which I'd be leaving work with less than 3 or 4 months income at a minimum (unless sacked for gross misdemeanor i suppose 😬)

Going to have a play around with spreadsheets and books later, see how it feels...

Cheery_Daff

Extra income will be allocated to savings pots - except for anything I earn from Prolific Academic, which will be added to my personal spends (claiming that as a privilege of being the one sorting the budget- although I'll tell Mr C he's free to do PA too, he does have an account!)

Cheery_Daff

Right (are you bored yet? I very nearly am!)  

I decided on my categories, and set up a spreadsheet of my own - although, as Ed mentioned above, I was slightly concerned about losing something as I hadn't got an overall balance that reduced as I added things to categories. 

But... I have found what basically amounts to a free version of YNAB to experiment with. It's in a google sheet, and is NOT as intuitive (as you would imagine, for free) - but for those of us used to the way of working, and willing to put in some leg work understanding things upfront, it looks like it might just work. 

It's a bit more of a faff - but that quite suits my pared down categories. 

I'm going to give it a go for a week or so, and then see how it feels. Might run the two parallel in September and make a decision. 

And now I have remembered that I have failed to hang out the washing I did this morning, wasting several excellent drying hours, and risking not having dry jeans to take on my solo trip away tomorrow!! Gah!!