YNAB robber needs help to execute the plan

Wanna_Bee_Free

Right, I am going to finally start a diary on here. I am being supported financially by my OH to allow me to help my sister care for my 90 year old father. I have an expensive event in Feb that I need to save for. I have been using YNAB since Feb so I have an accurate record of my spending for 6 months. It's not pretty. I keep robbing Peter to pay Paul so I pay for something fun and then I steal from a boring but necessary YNAB category to fund it. If I am going to pay my annual costs, have money for the big event I need to actually master this budgetting stuff. I am starting August with all my pounds allocated and a realistic amount for everything except personal spends £10. I spent £130.49 last month to get a new to me iphone and really didn't have the money but I want a working phone. When I first started reading the forums in 2007 I was over £25k in debt. I would just have put a new one on credit or signed up to a new handset contract but these days I have a £6 monthly deal and bought an ok second hand iphone from B@ckm@rket. I have a lot to learn still but I'm better than I was. Now I am debt free but OH has interest free cc debts mainly to furnish a place we rented for a year when my Dad was so ill. 

My plan is to keep a journal page of all my many wants and whims, hopefully many of them will disappear by the end of the month. I don't want to steal from my other YNAB categories as they are all there for a reason. 

YNAB July 2 overspent categories £173
Infinite amounts of shuffling around robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

Goals for August
Check YNAB before spending
No robbing Peter to pay Paul
No shuffling to hide my sins. 
Slow down, think, plan ahead
Take sandwich, snacks water etc to stop the risk of spending
Use the library for books
Keep the faith this month. If I can leave the categories intact September will have more wriggle room.

1/8 Balance £10 my spending money £3 on coffee at the free MI5 exhibition at the National Archives with a friend. Feels totally worth it at the moment. He's been ill and I didn't buy lunch, cakes, or something nice from the gift shop.
Monthly phone bill out £6 budgetted and planned. 
2/8 Balance £7 my spending money
Lots of NSDs are needed now - my challenge is to see how long I can go. Wednesday ideally. 

Wanna_Bee_Free

NSD 1 yesterday. Feeling pleased with myself. Two car loads of stuff came back from storeage so next is to sort through and rehome as much as possible. We've taken our home off the market so no longer need to pay to hide away our excess stuff and we both want to streamline a bit more now.

in_need_of_direction

Have you reallocated the storage costs?

Sarahwithlove

Is that £10 for the month? It's not very much and I wonder how realistic it is to expect yourself to manage on it 

Wanna_Bee_Free

Ooh visitors, thanks for stopping by! Managed another NSD and took so many snacks out with me today on the train I have bought almost all of them home again. 

in_need_of_direction the storeage costs are allocated to repay a 0% cc and we will start saving that later this month. Mind you it was a bit of an unbudgeted cost we took on as a result of putting the house on the market.  Not exactly good at this stuff. Sadly I'm the better one of the two of us at it.

Sarahwithlove, yes it's £10 for the month which I believe isn't realistic at all but I need to take the phone hit from last month somewhere so this is basically the problem. I know it would be better to be realistic but a lot of my YNAB overspending is because I spend some unplanned money and then steal it from another sinking fund. If I didn't overspend all the time I wouldn't end up in these situations but I really want to try and reset for a better September. I am hoping a £40 refund is coming back to me although I can't control if/when that is this month. Otherwise I think I may have to say no to some things I want to do if I am going to stick to it. Even if I try and fail it will set me up in a better place for next month than if I don't try.

Wanna_Bee_Free

NSD 2 today so that is good news. No money stuff to report apart from the fact that I have over half a page in my journal of things I've wanted since the start of the month. I wonder how many I will even remember at the start of September when I review them.

loobidoo

Oh, I hear you! I am also an avid YNABer who 'rolls with the punches' a little too easily 😵

Wanna_Bee_Free

loobidoo said:

Oh, I hear you! I am also an avid YNABer who 'rolls with the punches' a little too easily 😵

Hi Loobidoo, any tips for me? My current plan is a scorched Earth August to try and get some leeway again for the Autumn. Although even I think I'm crazy for only having a £10 spending money budget this month and then spending £3 on the first of the month.

I am thinking about ducking out of a social evening on Wednesday. It's drinks and I haven't RSVPd or anything so I'm not committed committed. I guess I will review on the day itself and see. I always enjoy going out when I get there but I have a huge issue before hand with thinking I don't want to go so maybe this time I'll just use that part of the evening to stay in and save some pennies that way.

loobidoo

You can do it. 💪🏻 A scorched earth month is what I need too.

Your night out sounds like an easy one to knock on the head and save a few quid. 👏🏻

Wanna_Bee_Free

Thanks Loobidoo - good luck with your August too!

I'm expecting NSD 3 today but will confirm later. 

Wanna_Bee_Free

Yesterday was not an NSD but it was essential travel spending so I'm happy with that. My £7 is intact. My sister needs my father's car back which I am driving until October, mainly to visit him several times a week. So I am buying train tickets until her car is fixed. Ideally she would have let me know in advance. For some reason she only realised herself on Monday they needed to keep it for a few days. Caring seems to have affected both our brains. 

In another situation I might expect her to pay for my travel but she is skinter than me. What I will expect is lifts to and from the station and some gratitude. Luckily I haven't yet raided my 'other travel' category for fun money like I did last month so the train money is there. 

Today won't be an NSD as I am paying for the dentist. I have decided I can't afford the drinks evening so hopefully will still have £7 this time tomorrow!