Wandering on

Thanks Chrystal - the wait is awful isn't it.. Nothing seems to happen quickly and we keep getting the same old questions from the solicitor (which makes me think they are not doing very much!) ..this is the second time for us as first time the sale fell through as we were about to exchange...the house sold first in August, and has been empty for over a year!!

Oh well - we have had the contract come through to sign (but not date) and have a final query to respond to about TV aerial - so I will be doing all of that and getting it in the post this afternoon.

Some other positive news.
My DH and I argue a lot about £££ as he takes no interest in it (I think almost as an anti-reaction to the fact that I think about it alot!!), and is a bit laissez-faire with it all - or head in the sand when it is all going t*ts up....so I basically organise everything to do with money including his tax returns, insurance you name it. Now I 'enjoy' doing it, so I don't mind and it helps me feel in control of what's going on. For his side though he always feels like I am nagging him / telling him what he can't / can spend. It's a bit of a vicious circle - and we return to this argument again and again.

So today we had a discussion about how we will manage things going forward with a new approach - which will hopefully give him the feeling of more control, as well as give me the comfort I need to feel that everythings OK. As we will be on a much surer footing with money anyway we will be in a situation of surplus rather than scrimping, but I want to make sure our household budget is robust enough for saving for everything we will need.

So here;s the plan. We both control our own money, but we have to make a payment to the household account to pay bills & savings for bills. (At the moment we don't have a household account we just have our 2 current accounts and it's a really messy system of putting money in the right place at the right time to pay bills - and if you overspend, it messes up the budget for other stuff). So we'll need to organise 1 account just for this (and essentially not have the cards for it in our wallets so we only dip into it if we have to (e.g to use the EF.)
We'll use the prepaid credit card to load for our food budget - so it's really easy to see what's left to spend on the mobile phone app .

In our own accounts, we pay our car expenses & any other more personal expenses, and any leftover we are free to decide how to spend it. For him, he will be running his business and the developing farm business out of his account.
As I earn more than him, my contribution the house expenses will be greater (so in some way, I am subsiding the development of the farm business which is fine as I benefit from that too)

Depending on how much he earns he will earn more or less of a surplus which he can decide how to use (and if for whatever reason he earns a lot less - the surplus on my account will be big enough to cover this shortfall anyway (it just means I won't be saving as much as planned)

Probably sounds confusing but I'm feeling like it might work. This will only kick into action in April when the house is sold, and free childcare is in place.
So just got to survive with current messy system until then.

If anyone has any genius input about how best to manage joint finances - please share - we've been together 10 years and look where our current systems have got us!

Thanks for posting Chrystal. We signed (but didn't date!) the contract and posted it yesterday with copies of requested bills (why oh why did they need that???!), just an email query to respond to (about TV aerial which we've had wired but never bothered to attach an aerial too as used internet for TV....lets hope that's not dropping a clanger for the new buyers!!)

Good point about DH, he will need 2 bank accounts. We use YNAB to track ins and outs for business and freebie quickfile for invoice and P&L reporting but will be much clearer if only used for business and any profit swept away to somewhere else. Will speak to DH later. We're going to need proper tax advice this year as no idea how to combine farm and his business together.

So - I haven't set any goals yet for the month (which was one of my goals :eek:) and have been reading some other folks diaries so feeling INSPIRED....thank you all.

Am back to work today (My working week starts on a Sunday) but have decided to work from home today so using the time saved on driving to get organised and get ahead for the week.

So here's my list of goals for the immediate future

• Email solicitor about aerial query
• Tidy drawer stack in lounge
• file the filing drawer which is overflowing
• Re-budget the month to take into account the NI payment and figure out a plan.
• Keep checking YNAB on a weekly basis as a minimum
• Investigate a 'YNAB Wish Farm' - more later!
• Sort out a new electricity deal (current one ends March)
• Meal plan for this week - and try to do at least 3 meat free meals, starting from today
• Washing washing washing washing and more washing.

Drawingaline wrote: »

You sound very organised. Me and my husband are similar to you with our financial set up. We have a joint account for bills, food etc, he transfers money across when he is paid (the amount I tell him!) And he keeps the rest of his wages for his train fares and spends. I get my wages and benefits paid into my own account and transfer what is needed to the joint account and then use the rest to build a buffer/save/true expenses etc. It works for us, he has no interest in saving and I hate not being in charge of it all so we both get what we want. Over the past two years he has been showing more interest, especially since I have been using YNAB and I can give him the Amazon prime fee in one go, or say 'thats fine' to a family trip.

Good luck with the house sale, it always seems to go on forever and then there is a mad rush and it all needs to be done 'right now'!

Thanks Drawing - I am hopeful this will unlock things for us too - also looking forward to the odd guilt free treat (or even necessity!) which this will hopefully allow. MUST NOT FRITTER though - I want every £££ to be used usefully.

Progress update:

Email solicitor about aerial query
Tidy drawer stack in lounge
file the filing drawer which is overflowing
Re-budget the month to take into account the NI payment and figure out a plan.
Keep checking YNAB on a weekly basis as a minimum
Investigate a 'YNAB Wish Farm' - more later!
Sort out a new electricity deal (current one ends March)
Meal plan for this week - and try to do at least 3 meat free meals, starting from today
Washing washing washing washing and more washing.
New bank account opened for DH