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

rtandon27

I've seen the word YNAB three times in those posts! - Can I venture a guess that you still love it?

If it helps any - a little story for you - OH and I now sit down twice a month to discuss finances in front of the computer screen and look at the YNAB pots - he does not touch the budgeting but respects the fact that I do it and we are now more aligned in our thoughts about money than we have ever been.  It's a forced habit & he grumbles a lot, but at least he's now less adverse to the technology! - Men can be lazy🤣

Cheery_Daff

Thank you for sharing that! Similar to our house, except most of the time there's no looking... 

Ha, I'm still using it for now, trying to keep on top of it! Feeling a bit fretty about all the spending that's going on at the minute - reading back old diaries I was far less worried with far less money (although this was all when we didn't have a mortgage in the old house, so times do change...)

I've been having a play with the YNAB alternative - it's good, but I don't think it's going to catch on with me. One of the things I love about YNAB is being able to see all your budget categories at once, and just move money in and out to suit. Can't do that with the other spreadsheet, far too much of a faff. 

Also been playing with the one I'm creating myself, but really, that's just to track what's in and what's being spent from savings pots. I tried putting account balances in there, but it doesn't really tell me anything, because there's no place to track regular spending. Maybe it just needs another sheet for regular spending... 

Anyway, going to attempt to get ONE alternative system up and running, and run them simultaneously in September. Not absolutely against keeping YNAB if it'll keep us on track. But I might do a completely fresh start and wipe a lot of my categories and payees, it's all got a bit faffy. 

Right, speaking of frittering, I'm frittering my solo holiday doing the budget! Off for adventures instead

rtandon27

Enjoy your adventure!

scandimore

We have a world peace cafe very close to me..hope you're enjoying yourself!

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon all 😊

Well, I am home now, and the (virtual) prizes this week go to @badmemory and @JGB1955 as I have indeed been in Haworth 😊

Hostel was a lovely building, and surprisingly empty, just 3 or 4 others staying each night - they've become a 'partner' hostel, not entirely sure what that means except they're only renting whole rooms/whole place, and no longer doing food or drink (despite what the website says - good job I wasn't expecting meals there!)

I went to the Bronte museum, of course, and then tried to do the Earth & Sky soundscape thing, where an app tracks your location and plays music at various points while you stride over the wily windy moors 😂 a lovely idea, and while it worked it was great, but the app kept crashing every few minutes, leading to much frustration, and the equipment from the museum was only available to hire at weekends 🙄

Hey ho. Spent yesterday in Skipton, and a lovely tea with my friend on the way home 😊

Got home to find another of Mr Cheery's friends has died 😕 She'd been ill for a while, but it got rather worse quite quickly. Fortunately he did get to see her on Tuesday, and spent some time sitting with her in the hospital. All very sad though. That's another one of his friends gone in their early 60s. Makes life feel very precarious 😕

So today is a gentle one, but the party at the weekend is going ahead so there needs to be some buying and preparing of food, washing of bedding, and possibly rooting in the loft for a tent. Still not sure where everyone is going to park 😬

themadvix

Sorry to hear about Mr C's friend - that is very young.

Partner hostels are ones that are privately owned now, but you still get YHA membership discount, I think. I think it's such a pity that so few offer a bed in a shared dorm now (or even a private room - a lot of the YHA ones are exclusive use only). It really limits the options for getting away. I guess the proliferation of cheap hotels reduces the appeal, and society has definitely changed - far fewer people are inclined to sociability or doing any cooking while away these days, which is such a pity.

Cheery_Daff

I can't complain really - I got a private room for 2 nights for a total of £52!

Jellytotts

I did look at YNAB when it first came out but it wasn’t for me. The evolution of bank accounts with “pots” has been the game changer for us.

We have a standard joint account where everything comes in to and everything that’s needed for the next months DD’s stays there, the rest gets spread around.  An off shoot of that account is our grocery/petfood/postage/parking account with a set amount each month - when it’s gone it’s gone.

the rest goes into a joint Monzo account and is separated into pots, longer term saving, diy, insurance, vets, gifts blah blah blah.  We have a personal account each linked to the account too and have £50 a month pocket money/personal spends in.  Again, once it’s gone it’s gone.  We use that for hobbies/subscriptions/clothes (underwear and shoes come from a “pot” but general clothes are our own doing.  

I follow this up with a big A4 pad with a double spread for each month, what’s coming in and what’s going out and the amount that needs to hit each pot to keep it rolling over.  

I find it so handy to be able to look at the “pots” and see where I’m up to, if it was just one account and a paper record of what should be there I’d get to overwhelmed.  

It all played out perfectly last month when house insurance, pet finances and 2 membership accounts all needed paying.

all hail “pots”

Cheery_Daff

All hail pots indeed @Jellytotts 😂 and thank you for sharing your detailed process, very useful indeed as I work out what to do 😊

Having a palaver with the We Buy Books parcel. Arranged collection, but quickly realised the printer isn't good enough for a bar code, and I wasn't going to be there to provide a QR code, so cancelled it in favour of taking to a collection point. Postie turned up for it anyway, while I was away (and it only just occurred to me that I could have sent a picture of the QR code to Mr C, who WAS in at the time). Tried to take to a collection point in the past office today but there was one person serving and 8 people in the queue, so I gave up 😬 Will try the late shopper place one evening!

beanielou

Sorry about Mr C's friend.