Taking it slowly, but doing it well.

wishingthemortgaheaway · 16 July 2017 at 11:15PM

So today has been a NSD. Woop woop de woop! A couple of times I nearly caved on an unnecessary purchase, but the power of the nsd kept me on track.
Looking through my purse this morning I found out that I didn't need to take the cash out yesterday to pay for market goods, I could have done it with the money already in my purse.

Today is actually a very boring MFW day for us, but no dramas
Means no spending.

I wonder what tomorrow holds....

wishingthemortgaheaway · 17 July 2017 at 10:44PM

2 updates from me tonight - you'll see why and MAN DO I NEED TOUR HELP!!!

So today's update...

I've been a bit spendy
£22 split between the supermarket and the butchers

£5 on the toddler group entry & tea & toast and snack for Pickle (which he didn't really eat- grrrr)

£8 on family afternoon drinks and cake

£18 on friend's little boy's birthday present (I'll get half back from another friend as we go in together for such things )

Definitely some fat to trim there.

Aim for tomorrow - only spend on in afternoon drinks with friend

And all this is from our special 'we're away on hubby'S job' budget so, does it really count?

wishingthemortgaheaway · 17 July 2017 at 11:03PM

Ok, lightbulb moment from me this evening. - I'm warning you all now, this could be a long post.

Way back in the dim and distant past hubby got made redundant from his well paid, corporate av job. He decided to go freelance/self employed (with the back up of redundancy pay, owed holiday and overtime pay and his last two months basic pay squirrelled away to cover costs should work be slow)

When that happened I took on responsibility for all the household bills, hubby only being required to put £300 a month into the joint account so we could eat foods other than beans on toast.

As my salary increased (to that of a senior classroom teacher with other responsibility payments) I continued to pay all the bills and the extra pay became mortgage overpayments. Hubby'S business did well most months, he upped his contribution slightly, but the 'roof over our heads' bills were all mine. (He pays for all the luxuries, holidays meals out etc)

Some months I was clearing £1k capital on the mortgage just from my salary.

When I found out I was pregnant I stopped overpaying the mortgage, and diverted the funds to my isa.

This money, plus statutory maternity pay, a £5k inheritance & £5k gift from my parents has meant I've been able to 'pay' myself my previous wage (minus what I would have op'd on the mortgage or was saving for mat leave) for 15.75 months.
Hubby did not up his contribution in this time, knowing that once the money was gone, he'd have to contribute 100% of the required budget from that point.

We've reached that point.

Tonight I sat down to work out (with ynab'S help) how much money he needs to put in each account.

All is good with the monthly bills & the money we put aside each month's to pay the annual bills.

But I was shocked at the amount we spend on food/entertainment/ household goods/coffee shops and all the other wants -£700 a month!!!

This needs to come down. That's awful. I didn't realise it was that high.

Help me please?

What should I be aiming for for a household of 3 (2 adults and a 1 year old?)

I can definitely reduce the supermarket bill by avoiding buying high salt/sugar/starch foods that want. (It will also help me lose weight which is much needed)

The groups I go to with Pickle don't cost a huge amount, the most expensive is swimming at £51 for 10 lessons - which is actually a bargain as it's council run, not one of these private baby swim sessions.

Arghhhhhh

Help please

shangaijimmy · 18 July 2017 at 7:05AM

Mrs SJ technique to rain herself in a few years ago was to stop using cards completely. We set an appropriate bugbet and then each month she withdrew cash and separated in multiple envelopes (petrol, food, personal spends) for each week. She felt she then had control.

wishingthemortgaheaway · 18 July 2017 at 11:08PM

Thanks for the suggestion SJ, but I'm not sure it will work for me. As far as I'm concerned money, in cash form can just be spent, I'm actually better leaving money in the bank.

Haven't used my cards today so that's good, just a couple of drinks as the day has been so hot.

I did however make an error yesterday, I paid cash in the butchers, so my £22 grocery shop yesterday, drops to the £11 card spend) as far as YNAB is concerned.

Exhausted tonight.
Sleep well everyone.

Wish.

wishingthemortgaheaway · 19 July 2017 at 9:12PM

Another boring day as far as being mf is concerned - sorry I wish I was more interesting.

We took Pickle swimming this morning (hubby paid from his account) and then he took us out for brunch on expenses.

I splashed out on a cold drink this afternoon, but paid cash so, although not a nsd, I haven't used my cards.

I've spent this evening reconnecting with survey sites:

Valued opinion: reconnected updated profile £10 in account (will probably use for Amazon vouchers when enough money) no surveys available.

You gov: reconnected 500 points no surveys available

Prolific- signed up, took 2 surveys hopefully £5 in the account soon

One poll : attempting to sign up, waiting for confirmation email.

Any more I should have a go at? Preferably tablet/phone friendly ones for when I'm cuddling Pickle in the middle of the night so he goes back to sleep?

Any vouchers I get will go towards gifts for Christmas/birthdays.

Any cash will go into a separate little YNAB category to (hopefully) fund my knitting.

That's all from me for tonight, going to have a read up of other diaries shortly, but a G&at is calling me.

Night all

Wish.

DeterminedSingleMummy · 20 July 2017 at 12:58AM

Hi

I was a bit like you and didn't realise how much I actually spent until I wrote it all down and saw everything! Now I know where I was spending money where I shouldn't have been and I am super prepared everywhere I go! I meal prep healthy snacks and lunch for my DD. And she only drinks water. We find free events to go to to keep costs down. Soft play can add up to quite a lot especially when u add food and coffee on top of the entrance fee. For her swimming lessons I don't budget for, I sell things on ebae and have sold enough things since March to pay for all of 2017s lessons. These are £60 per half term. Do you keep your supermarket reciepts? Maybe highlight a few items that you don't really need in red. Highlight some items that you can find a cheaper alternative e.g. supermarket brand in yellow and items which you def want in green. That might lower your supermarket bill a little.

Good luck with it

I will be subscribing x

wishingthemortgaheaway · 20 July 2017 at 7:54AM

Thank you for stopping by, reading, commenting & subscribing.

I love the idea of highlighting the supermarket receipts, they usually get ditched once I've entered them on YNAB.
I'll start doing it while I'm here (just to get me into the habit) and make a proper effort when I get home.

Little Pickle's activities don't cost much (apart from swimming which I still see as a bargain)
A group of friends and I have a fb group where we post the cheap and free things we find to do. We keep it secret though, as one friend said, 'it's just a list of when I'm out of the house'

We soft play or trampoline a maximum of once a week, less than that normally and nEver in school holidays. And we either go first thing in a morning and be home for lunch or after lunch and be home for tea, so no extra spending.
The trampoline place has a fab off peak toddler deal: £5 for as much bounce as you like and a toddler meal (sandwich or spaghetti hoops on toast and a drink) I had to buy socks for me on the first trip, but keep them in the car now along with a pair of pickle'S socks that have grip on the bottom, just so we are prepared.

He only drinks water too.

Just had a thought. Hubby can claim tax relief on food purchased when working away from home overnight, he's here for a month. Could we claim the tax relief on a proportion of the supermarket delivery we had sent here? Obviously we'd take out any food that was specifically Pickle's then claim a third of the rest of the bill.
Anybody know?
Won't work out much but as they say 'every little helps'

Not sure what today holds in store for us, weather is back to normal for here, need to Consult my list of tea ideas for tea tonight and get that going for us (then plan out more specifically the rest of the week)

Have a good day everyone, I'll be back later with a financial update.

wishingthemortgaheaway · 20 July 2017 at 8:54PM

So today I have:

Created a signature with my goals:

Mortgage: overpay £75 per month this is the amount of interest we are charged each month, so I'm aiming to overpay by that amount.
Surveys: £20 a month in cash or vouchers not sure how possible this is, but in two days on one survey site I have £6.70 pending we'll see.
Temperature blanket: End of May by End of July this is a craft project I'm doing, you have a set of colours to knit a blanket, each colour represents a range of temperatures, you knit one row a day, the highest temperature of the day determines the colour of wool you use for that day. I'm a bit behind though, so need to catch up.
Keep a cash spending diary spent some pennies today on a diary (academic so no dates wasted) So I can keep track of my cash spending. I usually just record what I take out of the bank as cash, assigned on ynab to whichever category I'm most likely to use it for. By recording my cash spending hopefully I'll have an even better idea where my money goes and I can cut down on my £700 a month spending pot.

So today I have been a little cash spendy. Haven't got the diary in front of me, but I've spent about £19 on the diary, a treat breakfast, bread and meat (bread and meat from the market so a bit more expensive than a supermarket, but I'm supporting local business.)

Tomorrow is the last day of our first week away, I'd save £600 for the three weeks. That seems like a huge amount of money, but, as I seem to spend £700 a month normally, it's not actually that far out of my usual spending amounts..

After this first week and with some big spends to set us up here supermarket delivery etc, I've got
£278.74 left for the next two weeks or:
£139.37 a week
Or: £18.58 a day (including tomorrow) so...

Let's say £15 a day and see if we can have some nsd as well, tomorrow should be a nsd.

Bring on the challenge.

wishingthemortgaheaway · 20 July 2017 at 9:31PM

Me again, 3 posts I need a day sorry, but

Squeeeeeeeel..

I've jut had a proper look at ynab and my bank accounts.

I've made my ynab budget categories, the ynab bank balances and the actual bank balances all sync up. And, as a result of doing this tonight: I have £107.52 more in 'cash' than ynab says I should.

Now, I haven't used my cards in days, and there are no pending direct debits or anything, so I can only assume I've recorded some things twice on ynab when I've got behind on my recording.

At least I've found £100 and not lost it.

I'm so happy, just need to make it work for me now.

So £49.28 has gone to the mortgage making it a nice, round £36,800. (Not enough to register a difference on the overpayment calculator, but every little helps.
And I've got £58.24 towards this month's £75 new standard overpayment only £16.76 to find now.
I can do this!

If I have a nsd day tomorrow, I'll have £15 of that amount in a flash.

Ooh new money saving excitement.

Taking it slowly, but doing it well.

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