Time to act like an adult...

RisingPhoenix1

I feel like I haven't stopped today!

Woke up, had a FaceTime call with my mum, went and gave blood, picked up some packaging for a parcel to send off for an eBay sale, got petrol, went and picked up something for a family member they'd bought on FB as it was right near where I live, dropped that at theirs, posted my parcel then finally stopped for a little bit and had a diet coke with my dad at his local. 

Now finally home for the day and have a lentil dahl simmering away that I hope tastes as good as it smells! I'm not veggie by any means but came across the recipe and it sounded really nice. It'll be cheap to do again in the future now that I've got all of the spices sorted, too. I have a yellow chopping board and wooden spoon now though from fresh turmeric oh well, I know it's been washed up. 

Phoned my gym today, I haven't been in ages as it's further from home now than when I first joined (I've moved, not the gym obviously haha) they've also cut down their opening hours whilst putting the price up. I expected to be grilled about why I was cancelling but they didn't even ask, they did say it's past the cut off for them to tell their head office to cancel the DD their side so just told me to go online and cancel it myself. Will join one nearer to where I live which is 24 hours so works better around my shift work and it's a lot bigger. 

Will have £8 coming my way from an eBay sale and around £10 pending in Prolific, this will all go towards a bit more fuel to see me through until payday when it clears. I underestimate how much fuel I use going and back and forth to see my family and run errands! 

Not a NSD today but should get at least one over the weekend

RisingPhoenix1

Happy Monday

2 NSD's over the weekend and yet it was quite social. Friends were happy to get me a couple of soft drinks and I did a few lifts home to balance it out so it was nice to catch up with people. Did bump into and now back in contact with someone on Saturday I was involved with a bit a couple of months ago, not sure how I feel about that, keeping it at arms length at the moment and not getting my hopes up on anything. Was nice to have a little catch up and I have no issues with it staying at that. 

Water company have fixed everything their side, new bill has been set up for DD to start on 01/12 so have a little more wiggle room in the budget for next month. I've decided not to make any overpayments at the start of this month so I can see how I get on with my budget and where it may need to be adjusted if anything else comes up rather than throwing money straight at stuff and then panicking if anything comes up. 

NSD again today so I've hit my target on the NSD challenge thread of 15 for the month. 

Back to work tomorrow so just chilling out today and will need to do some ironing this evening. 

Something that made me smile today - I showed one of my siblings my spreadsheets and YNAB (it did mean they are the first person in my family that I've told I've got a lot of debt but they were cool about it) and they have asked if I can sit down with them at some point and look at their finances. They have no debt but want to look at how much they can afford to save etc I don't feel like such a loser now. 

I have also now lost half a stone since making conscious efforts to lose a bit of weight

RisingPhoenix1

Checking in but not much to report, just counting down the days until payday and being able to set up my first YNAB budget. From what I can work out I'll need to split some bits up into October (e.g petrol and food I'll spend before November) and then the rest for November so that my transactions will be right. 

My overtime didn't go onto my payslip but the backpay balances it out to pretty much what I'd estimated it to be this month overall so the budget still works. I emailed payroll today to query why it didn't go on as it was submitted before the cutoff but it's only around £40 extra after tax and will be a little extra for next month as long as it gets paid. 

Not slept very well for work the last 2 days ended up spending a few pounds to get something to eat on my break at Lidl, think my grand total spent over the last 2 days is under £4 including 4 pints of milk today as I woke up this morning realising I'd run out, so probably only about £2.50 for not essential spends. Mostly as I don't get my next food shop until Saturday so just running on what is in the cupboards which is not a lot  

Looking forward to my debt payments going out in November and my total debt figure starting with an 8, not a 9!

warby68

Looks like you've made a great start to your new financial life - I love that you're getting the unexpected bonus of welcome weight loss.

Good luck with your first full month on the new plan.

You might want to look at an instant access savings account for your 2025 pots when you get going. Unlike most of your adulthood so far, interest rates make it worthwhile again

I'd also go with a new microwave given the small difference in cost.

RisingPhoenix1

warby68 said:

Looks like you've made a great start to your new financial life - I love that you're getting the unexpected bonus of welcome weight loss.

Good luck with your first full month on the new plan.

You might want to look at an instant access savings account for your 2025 pots when you get going. Unlike most of your adulthood so far, interest rates make it worthwhile again

I'd also go with a new microwave given the small difference in cost.

Thank you  

I have most of the pots all set up and ready to go with Zopa where you get a slightly better interest rate if you give varying amounts of notice. Christmas is 90 days notice, the others are a mix of 7 and 31 days notice, just to make sure I can't touch the money! My EF will get put into my Nationwide savings account which looks like its 5%

RisingPhoenix1

I've got the notification on Monzo for how much my wages will be and the option to get them today, so I have sat down and put everything from my spreadsheet onto YNAB I'm working later and too excited to get it all set up. I think one of my bills might be a little cheaper so I've put the difference in the "stuff I forgot to budget for" group as I'm sure I'll have forgotten something despite my best efforts  

Had a £7ish cashout from Prolific, so rather than wondering what I can buy with that I just popped in into my squirrel fund pot. Small but positive mindset changes! Have another £10 pending on there - I used to only jump on there when I was skint hoping to scrape together some money but actually if I just plod on with it, it'll help build up a little buffer and not have that panic in the first place (which I shouldn't anyway as my budget should be good now)

Need to start getting ready for work soon and cook up some rice to go with the chilli I'm taking for my dinner  

WinterWarrior

Next month will be my first proper month on ynab too…i share your excitement, but have to wait for the 31st 😖

RisingPhoenix1

WinterWarrior said:

Next month will be my first proper month on ynab too…i share your excitement, but have to wait for the 31st 😖

We can compare notes on our first month  

RisingPhoenix1

Couldn't sleep when I got in from work this morning, so did the money shuffle with things over to their right pots and moving it all around on YNAB. It's weirdly satisfying checking my various bank accounts and the numbers match up to what is on screen. 

Got some fuel on the way home from work, out of my Fuel pot on Monzo. 
Click and collect order picked up today - paid out of my Groceries pot. 
Picked up a decent casserole pan with a lid that had been on my planned spends, straight out of the Pocket Money pot. So much easier. (I managed to resist a late night payday Maccie's last night on the drive home, conscious that its money out of my pocket money that could be much better spent elsewhere)

I had an email back from payroll about my overtime saying it's paid in arrears, which I knew, but it seems to be very in arrears e.g. I did the overtime before what they advertise as the cutoff and got it approved before, but that's the cut off to get paid at the end of Nov apparently. I'll probably not factor overtime payments into my monthly budget until I get my online payslips and know for definite which months they are getting paid in our BH payments get paid at the end of the same month if it's before the cutoff date so that's probably where I'm getting myself a bit mixed up. I keep a list of the overtime shifts I'm doing/I've done so I'll be able to cross them off as and when they are paid and chase them up if needed. 

6 days to go until my debt direct debits start to come out and I can amend my signature! 

£12 currently pending on Prolific, £4 available so when one or two of them get approved I can shift a little more over to my squirrel fund which has a whopping £7 in it currently  

Sarahwithlove

Ours always gets paid in the following months payslip. So October would be paid end of November. Could you survive without overtime in your budget and put that towards debts and savings?