"Starting Fresh" sounds better than "whoops"

About Me:

For those of you I haven't 'met' yet - I'm 28, single(ish), have a mortgage and I work for a university in one of their professional service departments (read: student services). I also sort of look after a 16 year old via an anti-homelessness charity, for which I get paid. Basically, it's very light-touch foster care.

I'm 2/3 through completing a PgDip which I need to do as a standard for my job, and recently my stepmother passed away so I'm currently doing a lot of running about making sure my dad is ok. He isn't though, hence the running around.

I don't have heaps and heaps of debt but I do have a weird relationship with money and even though I'm earning pretty well (certainly better than I ever have before), I'm living paycheck to paycheck and sitting regularly in my overdraft. Plus, I'm ambitious about where I want to live in the future and what I want to do to my house now, all of which mean I need to crack this finance thing!

Debts
- Sainsbury's credit card: £1,490 (0% but not for long)
- Barclayloan from roof repair £5,500-ish (fluctuating with the 4% interest)
- Mortgage £86,500-ish (also fluctuating with 3.99% interest, fixed until Sept 2020)

Goals
- Clear Sainsbury's card before the end of this year
- Pay off my Barclayloan by the end of June 2019
- Start making overpayments of £200 per month on my mortgage to lower the amount left before my fix runs out
- Save an emergency fund of 3 months of my salary (so, about £5,000)
- Start saving towards a dream holiday for my 30th birthday (I'd love £5,000 there too!!)
- 'Age' my money so that I'm not living in my overdraft as standard at certain times in the month.

I don't think any of the above is ridiculous, is it? So... why have I found it so hard?? :eek:

Part of the reason I'm back now, after a few months of just giving up/despairing of ever not 'feeling' poor (I'm definitely not poor, not by the standards of 17 year old me), is that I signed up for the 34 day free trial with YNAB.

I've seen a few people talking about it over the months on these diaries, and although I am very wary about paying a significant chunk of money on software that is supposed to help me SAVE money, I wanted to give it a shot to see if it would have a similar kind of lightbulb effect on me I've seen it have on other people... [sidenote: is there an emoticon character for Lightbulb Moments? If not, I think MSE is missing a trick!]

Aaaaaaand... oh my gosh I'm so annoyed at myself for having to even type this it's so obvious.

I've become too used to earning the money I do, so I'm clearly frittering it away on silly little things throughout the month. Additionally, I've become too used to the idea that I'll probably be in my overdraft for a little while each month between my salary and payment from the charity, but it's ok because the next payment always covers it.

Having put in all my details into YNAB and budgeted a pretty generous budget for myself for June I was really pleased with myself. And then... I input the upcoming transaction, based on knowing when all my bills are due. That's when I realised how ridiculous my situation is...

I earn nearly £1700 a month. I budgeted for £1500, which included all my debt repayments and a pretty generous allowance for 'just having a nice time' - BUT, looking at how much is in my account now, and looking at when my next lot of bills are due, I will be £137.76 overdrawn for a week until I get the money from the charity on 8th June. In that week I will incur bank charges. So it's costing me money to live in my overdraft (so obvious, I know), and when you consider what I actually earn, there is NO REASON for me to be living so close to the edge between payments.

Plus, once I'm in my overdraft I'm always tempted to keep spending up until the next big milestone (e.g. I'd spend until £150 if I'm at £137). Looking back at all my statements confirms it. Putting it all into YNAB made it smack me in the face.

So I think I might have to pay for YNAB once my free trial runs out, so I can hold myself accountable.

Chrystal wrote: »

Great that you're back and having a 'real' lightbulb moment

YNAB does sound great from what I've read, and if £3 (?) a month helps to sort out your thinking around your finances I think that's money VERY well spent... look on it as a charitable donation to yourself. :A

It must be difficult trying to fit everything in ( hope your Dad starts to get sorted soon - it's hard) but your life has to come first . You can't really help anyone else when you're in a situation that is causing you worry/depression so getting your finances sorted will benefit everyone in the long run.

Subscribing XX

Thank you Chrystal! You're absolutely right, and I had this awful night a few weeks ago where I felt like I could barely breathe because I was so stressed and felt so pulled in so many directions... if I got better at looking after myself I'll be less stressed long term and therefore in a better place to look after other people!

-JW xx

Hello everyone!

Thank you for your lovely comments!

Savetosave - if you look up DePaul Nightstop that!!!8217;s the umbrella charity that looks after all the smaller regional charities. Some of them are Barnardo!!!8217;s and some of them are Centrepoint, and then a bunch of them are local charities who have signed up with Nightstop. There!!!8217;s a map on the DePaul website so you should be able to find contact details for where you are in the country