It's not a lot, but it's enough

It's payday!!

Spend a lot of time this morning going through my finances. I downloaded and excel spreadsheet of my March spend to analyse where my money went and where I can afford to take from. In doing so I found out where the issues came from in saying I didn’t have money to spend whilst having no pending transactions and it appeared I did indeed have some pending transactions, petrol!! Below is a monthly breakdown of my expenditure I’ll keep going to keep track of how I’m getting on;

Petrol - £183.00
I’ve had my current car for going on 3 years now and at the start I kept a track of my monthly spend on petrol and for the life of me I can’t remember my average spend. So let this be a benchmark for an average month.

Debt - £270.06
A mixture of minimum payment direct debits plus a lump sum of £150.00 on the day when I had decided enough was enough.

Cash - £230.00
I withdrew a total of £230 from cash machines throughout the month. Which is terribly frustrating as it then becomes difficult to track on what it’s spent on!! My aim is to bring this down dramatically. In saying that, my granddad always said “you need to have cash in you wallet, at all times”, he didn’t mean lots, but £20 or so for the occasion when I can only pay by cash and not to be stuck!

Avoidable - £327.40
Avoidable, to a certain extent. £40 for Mother’s day, £70 for dinner in a nice restaurant, £25 for new earphones and the rest on avoidable impulse shops.


In March I spent a few days in Amsterdam and so that was £350 converted in Euros, so I took £350 from my April pay and put that straight onto my Tesco CC!!! What a feeling. As I mentioned before, I’ve signed up for the NST Challenge for this month – 20 No Spend Days!! Coupled with a huge spring clear out and I’ll hopefully make some money with eBay selling.

Today I have the usual routine, work > gym > home. I usually see my pals on Thursdays but tonight I’ll spend time with the GF as I’m off to Liverpool tomorrow with work until Sunday.

Have a good day! :money:

It’s Monday and I’m determined to embrace it and make the most of it. Positive vibes.

The weekend was very enjoyable and survived the zipline! Managed to spend under £50 which was my budget for the weekend. So pleased with that. I arrived back yesterday around 4pm, just in time for my webinar with YNAB. The 20 minute, interactive webinar was a great help and I now feel I’ve got a much better understanding of it and it could really work for me. I’m going to sign up to a few more to make sure I’m making the most of it.

It’s my cousins wife’s 30th on Friday and she’s having a 1920’s theme, so I bought a bowler hat (£3 from eBay) and a fake moustache (£1 from eBay) to go with my suit. I’ll need to buy her a gift and a card at some point, but despite this I’m aiming for 5 NSD’s this week, not necessarily in order.

Yesterday I bought a new tub of Herbalife plus protein bars for £30. That’ll do me for all my work lunches and possibly my breakfast too if I don’t have time to make something. So in the long run, I’ll lose a bit of puppy fat while also saving cash.

Exciting news; I’ve got an interview tonight at 6.30. It’s with a car dealership as a salesman, it’s as much as them interview me and as me understanding if it’s the direction I want to take my career. The manager and person interviewing me is a relative of a close family friend, so I’m already on the front foot. Keep you posted.

You wait for a bus and 2 come at once.

My ex-boss who now lives in NZ has emailed me to notify me of a job that she thinks I’d be suited for (which pays £5k more than what I earn currently) and she also knows some important people in the company so she’ll put a good word in for me. Sent across my CV this morning, so fingers crossed.

Taking part in the NST challenge on here has made me extra determined to have as many NSD’s as possible, enjoying the challenge and the rewards it reaps.

I’m keeping up to date with my YNAB too, so I’m always able to keep track of where I’m sitting and what I’ve spent.

My gran has offered to give me £200 per month as long as I put it straight in a HTB ISA so I’ll get the ball rolling with that this weekend and get in touch with Santander given its recommendation from this website. Touched and privileged to have such a kind and generous family, and it’s something I’d really appreciated lately.

Littlebirdie wrote: »

Hey,

I'm too 25 and am too in debt! I also want to start paying into the Help to Buy ISA once my debt is cleared. So lovely about your Gran! How sweet I've subscribed as its nice to find someone my age!

Thanks for reading and posting.

The good thing for both us of is that we're making changes now before it snowballs. I've a friend who just took a loan for £12k, who is also 25 and that just gives me the fear.

Well done on setting yourself a target and working to get there. We can do this!!!:beer: