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Do you prefer the extended summer thread format? This poll is closed. |
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126 | 44.21% |
| No |
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39 | 13.68% |
| I'm Scottish |
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120 | 42.11% |
| Total: | 285 votes | ||
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Bobby Deluxe posted:I am hoping to get to the cinema for DUNC since Villeneuve seems determined that's the only way people should see it. I hadn't heard of Dunc so I googled and it said 'do you mean Dune' LOL. Don't know if that will make it to our local cinema. It's the kind of cinema where you get one film a week (or even fortnight) and run by volunteers. I keep thinking I should re-read the book having lived on the edge of a desert for 8 years! Ed Epiphone ES-339 Pro, Cherry  Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Aug 22, 2021 |
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Aug 22, 2021 23:14
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BigHandsVince posted:That link is just leading to really sketchy fake BBC/Mirror investment ads for me. Is the link wrong? Yeah I used the old address. It's vancedapp.com now. I'll edit the old post.
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Aug 22, 2021 23:15
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:I keep thinking I should re-read the book having lived on the edge of a desert for 8 years!
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Aug 22, 2021 23:20
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Guavanaut posted:Film wise you might enjoy Zerzura, a découpé/acid western take on some of the Arabic folklore of that desert. Not heard of that, looks interesting. The synopsis sounds a bit like Arabian Nights (the 2600 page non-expurgated version which I read last year!)
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Aug 22, 2021 23:24
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This is funny A covid compliance officer (who is also apparently anti-vax, anti-mask) thought Simon Harris was Tommmeeeee . So she apologizes and says she was thinking of Michael Barrymore?!? :whatface:?  (Simon Harris is doing one of his fundraisers). Some of the comments on the fundraiser page are great. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-are-own-first Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Aug 22, 2021 |
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Aug 22, 2021 23:45
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Bobby Deluxe posted:I am hoping to get to the cinema for DUNC since Villeneuve seems determined that's the only way people should see it. Seriously, though. "I'm going to make another film version of Dune. Mine will be longer than the David Lynch version but only cover half the story, with the second half being dependent on the box-office success of the first. But it's not as if there'll be some global emergency that could affect cinema attendance, right? I mean, ha, what are the odds of that?"
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Aug 22, 2021 23:46
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Couldn't care less about the profitability of Dune, I just want to see it in the cinema because at the very least it will be beautiful to look at.
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Aug 23, 2021 00:13
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Hey Jaeluni, you've mentioned a few times you've done a lot of personal finance tracking and have some pretty nifty spreadsheet skills. Wonder if you've got any tips? (or anyone else reading for that matter!) I've just spent a couple hours setting up a budget sheet for my wife and myself. I mostly do economy numbers in video games. Looking at £570 of random amazon bullshit purchased in a month is humbling and terrifying! Essentially just put all recurring outgoings in there, net income, future things we know we need to save for with dates, then did breakdown of expenditures this month by type and set a 'goal' for 'Amazon poo poo & Food' for the next 6 months of £x monthly. I then forecast our savings if we can stick to that until all the bills/debts are paid off in the next 6 months. Basically each 'end of month' I'll take the bank statements (which nicely export as CSV files these days) drop it into the sheet to run a comparison with how well we did so hopefully we can see where we screwed up and bought £300 of gummi bears or virtual mounts in an MMO. I set up a couple of saving DD's and added those as 'recurring bills' but not sure what else I can honestly do other than make the sheet expect a number each month and start blaring at me in red if it doesn't line up.
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Aug 23, 2021 00:25
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In my admittedly very limited experience, saving is a matter of discipline and knowing what you are spending money on. So yes if you are blowing half a thousand a month on crap from amazon that is... well more than I would probably spend in a year on purely discretionary stuff so I would probably think you can make some savings there. I guess it depends on how you view stuff, paying stuff off as soon as I can comes before anything else for me (possibly also because I am a vidya game minmaxer and I absolutely hate paying more for things than I have to) and I know how my income can fluctuate so I try as hard as I can to keep a healthy float in case I have a lean time or something big comes up. Some people though can see the option to defer payment for something and see that as an opportunity, personally I just view it as I'm paying more and also buying extra stress included in the price which seems crap. If you are just having trouble knowing where the money goes then just trying to keep track of it is already a good first step. But after that yes you do just have to say "no I do not need another sixteen inch dragon dildo that spunks when you squeeze the balls" when you see it online. Which I know can be difficult if buying things is a thing that you instinctively find easy and enjoyable to do. Thinking about your shameful spreadsheet is probably a good way to help make it less appealing though. And also the sooner you pay off anything with interest the more money you will have for dragon dicks later. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Aug 23, 2021 |
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Aug 23, 2021 00:49
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Mebh posted:Hey Jaeluni, you've mentioned a few times you've done a lot of personal finance tracking and have some pretty nifty spreadsheet skills. My job now involves megatons of spreadsheets and Xero so I'm a happy work bunny now  If I tell you that back in the 1980s 'before computers' I had two 32-column cash books to analyse my spending in you'll get an idea! I would spend hours tracking a missing £1 out of the bank for example and friends would always go 'it's only £1' but my argument (back then before contactless and all that) was noone writes a cheque for £1 so it could mean something much bigger has gone astray. Every bit of expenditure gets written down. I always collect my receipts and if for some reason one isn't available, then I make a note in a notebook in my handbag or worst case a 'draft' text on my (non-smart) mobile. (My mantra is 'don't complain to me you're skint if you don't take your receipts and write down what you spend somewhere'. It might not stop you being skint, but at least you know where you MIGHT be able to cut down) I analyse things in many different categories and pivot tables R Us dot com. I'll spoiler the rest because it will be mind-blowingly tedious to most! Financial journal workbook: columns with date, where, what, £, various categories of expenditure, (I do this in several different ways - type of item eg Food (with numerous sub categories), Supplies (again sub categories), type of expenditure eg operating expenditure or capital expenditure further whether it is for health eg my £1600 on the dentist last month or business I can offset on my tax form ), I was writing it out for you but it is mind-numbing to the uninitiated. Numerous pivot tables. Monthly 'in and out' sheet: and then I look at the results and compare say if I exclude CAPEX how much did I spend - I include holidays as CAPEX - and that is the only time I don't specify every penny, it will be 'holiday food £50' not 'litre milk, jar coffee, pack of biscuits' type listing. Also compare against the previous year or so to see if I'm doing better or worse. Money workbook: This is the various bank accounts. I have a monthly sheet with the fixed outgoings, DDs and SOs, and amounts. I have a planning sheet which has my desired balances at the start of each month, then the summary of known in and outs from the accounts and check that every day or two. Since covid almost all my operating expenditure has been on a debit card so I keep track of the total from the pivot table in the financial journal workbook. I have a set target for the start of each month for each account plus what I call a sucking up account. This is where I put money that makes my numbers not round - yes I'm weird. My target month start for a particular account might be £500 - if it's £503, I move the £3 to the sucking up account and if it's £497 I'll top it to £500 from the sucking up account. Basically, this is being anally retentive. I can only bear to have 1 'messy number' account. I could go on but you're probably going to use this to go to sleep now..... My main secrets are - Write Down Every Penny (in a notebook or on a spreadsheet or in an app) - Hunt Down Every Missing Penny (ie check your balances - if you are cash person and you start the day with £20 in your purse, your receipts come to £9 you should have £11 - but you only have £10 - where did that £1 go? Oh I put it in a busker's hat - no receipt. Or I should have £11 but I have £12 where did that £1 come from? Oh I found it in the bottom of the washing machine (we have communal washers where I live not individual ones). - Do some summaries by category eg food cost £X which is 2x last month why is that? Ok I binged on icecream this month. Pivot tables rule  - Have a schedule somewhere of infrequent expenditure eg annual insurance, tri-annual webhosting (which is a killer when it lands if you're not expecting it!) - Look ahead each month for birthdays, weddings, and other things which might mean you spend more than usual. - Contingency fund (eg I had to spend £1600 on the dentist last month which was a killer plus electric blow out cost £45 - if I were on benefits I would have been hopelessly screwed and probably had to go loan shark.) I have a very good credit rating and high credit card allowances so that's how I covered the dentist and for the first time in about 4 years will be paying cc interest - on a 3.9% balance transfer deal for 36 months which worked out cheaper than the 4% fee up front no interest for 20 months deal because I can pay more than the minimum each month but I don't have to if something else crops up.
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Aug 23, 2021 01:11
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https://www.moneydashboard.com/ may be a useful website to help if you prefer a less hands on approach. Link it to your accounts and it'll keep track of what went in and out and categorise things for you.
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Aug 23, 2021 06:41
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Sad Panda posted:https://www.moneydashboard.com/ may be a useful website to help if you prefer a less hands on approach. Link it to your accounts and it'll keep track of what went in and out and categorise things for you. I used that for a bit but could never get comfortable with the idea granting consent for a third-party app having access to my online banking login (they say it's apparently 'read-only' but that raised an eyebrow as it had the full login details which gives access to do everything). Now I just get my statement as a .csv file every month and drop it into excel.
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Aug 23, 2021 06:50
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keep punching joe posted:I used that for a bit but could never get comfortable with the idea granting consent for a third-party app having access to my online banking login (they say it's apparently 'read-only' but that raised an eyebrow as it had the full login details which gives access to do everything). Completely understandable. I'm assuming that the API only let's them receive transaction details. They can't actually log in to your bank as you don't give them your password. I think it's like when you use Single Sign On to access websites via Google/Facebook/Microsoft accounts. A key is granted and stored that lets them perform specific and limited functions.
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Aug 23, 2021 07:50
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Seconding money dashboard, once you set it up it's really good Just being able to see at a glance how much I'll have left at the end of the month is great
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Aug 23, 2021 07:55
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Starling Bank's app actually has some decent cash tracking features so you can follow your spending easier. Biggest benefit I could see with Money Dashboard was being able to add in multiple accounts/ISAs etc. from different banks all into one place which is nice if you're lazy. But then again thats only a five minute job every week/month to do it manually on spreadsheet.
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Aug 23, 2021 08:04
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The one thing I used to sort out my finances was to have two account; one for regular spending (I.e. Direct Debits, standing orders, and subscribed services), and one for personal spending. I know exactly what is coming out of the former every month and I can transfer out the excess and always see exactly how much I have left for the rest of the month. Maybe try and keep money for food shopping separate too, we put money on an Asda gift card at the start of the month since we use a reward gateway that gives 5% off
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Aug 23, 2021 08:27
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keep punching joe posted:Starling Bank's app actually has some decent cash tracking features so you can follow your spending easier. I was amazed it existed last year when I found it. I learnt Python 3 years ago and the first thing I did was write a program to logon to each of my ~10 accounts (artefact of taking advantage of countless switching bonuses and the like) to scrape them and keep track of my balances.
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Aug 23, 2021 08:28
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I used to do a spreadsheet but banking apps are mostly good enough these days that I can work out which drain my money's going down pretty easily (and so rarely use cash that I remember every instance where I have). Usually it's Steam, Amazon and the ol' booze.
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Aug 23, 2021 08:43
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Here's a nice story for the morning to get your piss boiling. Partner who is a midwife has had a recent patient on the ward who is a covid denier and decided to not tell them she's meant to be isolating. So now they know they have had to isolate her and the other patients she was warded with. This means 3 of those patients who's new borns were in a separate special care unit can't see their babies for 10 days now.
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Aug 23, 2021 08:59
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They should isolate the denier in a quiet corner of the carpark.
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Aug 23, 2021 09:44
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Re budgeting, I use YNAB (You Need A Budget). https://www.youneedabudget.com/ I have no idea how I did anything before YNAB, I absolutely love it. All money in your account(s) is assigned to categories, so it's very clear that if I want to assign more money to eg "gigs / tickets", it has to come from somewhere else. I like to be able to label each line with what it actually is, to later know not just "£5, Amazon" but I can make a note "Kindle book whatever". Probably the most like a spreadsheet budget system since it's very granular. It is expensive though. £60/year. Plus extra for 3rd-party Open Banking account syncing. They say that the cost is justified by the savings made by having a good budget. But if you have a fancy spreadsheet like Jaeluni, and enjoy using it, then no need for any apps.
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Aug 23, 2021 09:49
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I record everything on payday in different sections on an Excel worksheet; I used to record every transaction, but I've learned to be pretty good with my money (and have online banking, so I can see what I'm doing anyway), so now I just record everything on payday and get a feel for what I have to work with from that, and it works just fine. YMMV.
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Aug 23, 2021 10:03
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killerwhat posted:Re budgeting, I use YNAB (You Need A Budget). https://www.youneedabudget.com/ I got YNAB back when it was a one-time purchase on Steam, carried on when they went to a browser/app-based constant update cycle, and am slowly realising that I can't really afford the subscription fee and should probably just replicate their system in a spreadsheet. It definitely has been helpful for keeping an eye on what I'm spending, I'm a lot more budget-conscious now than I used to be.
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Aug 23, 2021 10:24
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Before the banks got their act together with open banking, money dashboard did include a fair bit of trusting them with your passwords.
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Aug 23, 2021 10:25
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Dead Goon posted:They should isolate the denier in a quiet corner of the carpark. One of the patients is thinking of suing her.
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Aug 23, 2021 10:31
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How do they work with regards to things like one time codes or card readers? Do they just get a separate api for access or do you need to provide them ways of getting that info?
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Aug 23, 2021 10:32
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Overminty posted:How do they work with regards to things like one time codes or card readers? Do they just get a separate api for access or do you need to provide them ways of getting that info? It doesnt use passwords or anything, there's a new(ish) API that allows them all to talk to your bank You have to re authorise it every so often
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Aug 23, 2021 10:35
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From that Kier starmer interview, this was the amazing bit:quote:For Labour, what I was struck by was that people wanted to talk and wanted to engage. They were open to us. Now I’m not suggesting for a minute that people who voted Tory at the last election are already beginning to switch, but they’re open to that discussion It is nearly half way through the parliament term and he want to make clear that he has convinced absolutely none of his target group to vote for him. Pretty much confirmation that they aren't trying to win the next election.
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Aug 23, 2021 10:35
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Julio Cruz posted:Rory Stewart was some sort of king poo poo in Afghanistan so no surprise he wants us to stay in so he might get that job back now he's hosed up everything else His wikipedia-article basically screams "I'm an MI6 officer" lmao
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Aug 23, 2021 10:37
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Goldskull posted:Make sure those fuckers stick to the 24hr notice rule. Was in the same situation a few years back where 3 of us were living and they gave us 2 months notice as the owner decided to sell up. Cue them telling us that on the Friday, then endless doorbell ringing/knocking at 9am the next morning to some prick estate agent and a grinning family of 4 stood there all 'Hi, we're going to show this family round the house as prospective buyers'. can you or someone point me to the 24 rule in something official or is it maybe buried in my lease? i’d love to respond to the latest emails with it specifically
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Aug 23, 2021 10:40
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Rory Stewart's story about being so swarthy after travelling around the region that he was arrested crossing the border into India because they thought he was a member of the Taliban is pretty loving funny, given what a pasty white motherfucker he is. I can buy Indian border control thinking that his "har fnar" way of speaking is someone putting on an accent, though, because it's bordering on pastiche.
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Aug 23, 2021 10:41
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Rory Stewart sneaking across the Indian border in brownface with a red bindi and a turban and wondering why the guards don't like him.
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Aug 23, 2021 10:55
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bump_fn posted:can you or someone point me to the 24 rule in something official or is it maybe buried in my lease? i’d love to respond to the latest emails with it specifically It is likely to be a legally-mandated clause in your lease (with exceptions for 'the landlord happens to walk by and the house is on fire' mind you).
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Aug 23, 2021 10:56
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Guavanaut posted:Rory Stewart sneaking across the Indian border in brownface with a red bindi and a turban and wondering why the guards don't like him. 
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Aug 23, 2021 11:01
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My recommendation to people worried about budgeting is just have so little money that you only barely cover your meagre outgoings every month. Problem solved.
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Aug 23, 2021 11:07
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I used the Emma phone app for budgeting stuff for a while which was good, but once I'd benefited from seeing everything laid out it was another subscription I could cut.
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Aug 23, 2021 11:07
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/aug/23/uk-food-firms-beg-ministers-to-let-them-use-prisoners-to-ease-labour-shortages Oh good, I knew we were missing something in our nosedive to the bottom against America.
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Aug 23, 2021 11:14
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bump_fn posted:can you or someone point me to the 24 rule in something official or is it maybe buried in my lease? i’d love to respond to the latest emails with it specifically The Landlord and Tenant act 1985 Section 11, paragraph 6. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/70 Edit: Also section 9A - Paragraph 8(b) Tsietisin fucked around with this message at 11:24 on Aug 23, 2021 |
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Aug 23, 2021 11:19
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/aug/23/uk-food-firms-beg-ministers-to-let-them-use-prisoners-to-ease-labour-shortages The article doesn't make it clear - are they actually paid a proper wage for it or is it like America where it works out to something ridiculous like 10p an hour?
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Aug 23, 2021 11:20
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We pay the ridiculous amount as well. Well, it's a slightly higher pittance than the US.
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Aug 23, 2021 11:21
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