Preparing for adult life ..

And so the emotional cycle returns of being up and then down again. I always end up having a few days a month where I worry about money and feel like it's going to be a never ending cycle. Always a combination of worrying about money and whether I will have a job come September ...

We had to buy the new dishwasher as ours was completely done. I got it for around £270 on finance which should take us around 2 years to pay off and adds £15 to our monthly outgoings.

We have had our pay day for this month and I have done the usual piggy banking into various different accounts. My projections for this month after doing this look ok - I should have the OD down to somewhere near the £1100 mark at the end of the month.

I had to pay off the rest of my cousin's hen which was £154. Luckily I had saved a bit for this since February but didn't expect it to be due so soon beforehand! So that means another £60 or so needed to come out of my personal budget for the month which isn't too bad all things considered. I have turned down a lot of fun plans this month because I know I can't afford to go over my budgets with the hen/wedding approaching in the summer. It's this part which I think makes me feel bad. I work pretty long and tough hours and feel like all I do outside of work is worry about money! I know it's not a great deal of debt compared to some people but it feels a lot to me... I guess I just need to keep focused on all of the spare money I will have once I do eventually pay it off but I guess it feels like I am really missing out on opportunities at the moment. As is life I suppose!

We have been doing pretty well in the joint budget but could be doing better. We had a NSD yesterday which is the first for a while so I'm quite pleased with that. Today should be another one. I'm becoming more confident with knowing what sorts of meals to cook at night so that there is (relatively healthy) leftovers to take to work the next day. I'll need to make a list of the best ones for meal planning.

I think the exact figure for my overdraft at the end of the month is going to be £1123 ... so I think I will try this month to see if there is anything I can do to bring in the £123 to take it down to the £1k mark. I think that would make me feel a lot better. I have an old ipad which I never use that I could sell, and may have a go with ebay but not sure how successful it is? Every time I've used it before it's been a bit of a fail. I'm also expecting some cashback soon from insurance stuff I bought when I bought the flat and Scotrail have just let us know that for next month's season pass they will be refunding us all a week to say thanks for putting up with the delays to the trains! So that should be around £40 back too. And they're also giving everyone a free anytime day-return for the trains to anywhere in Scotland. Maybe i'll need to use that as an excuse to get a long weekend with the OH some time!

I feel a bit better having typed it all out again - as usual! Just need to motivate myself a bit more

Thank you! Yeah we are lucky in Scotland that half of our Diploma fees (equivalent of LPC) can be rolled into your student loans but we have to pay the other half (which I did through my salary during diploma). I (perhaps naively) am not counting the student loans just now as the contributions just come out my salary before I get paid!

Yes very glad to almost be done - although nervous about securing a qualified post! Can't even begin to imagine the monetary stress involved with not having a job come September :eek:

Guess we need to take it just one step at a time!

Yeah and a bit of a long conversion process!

I (once again on a Monday) feel a little wobbly in terms of money. I am not drastically doing anything but I feel like even the most minor of set-backs feels like a real kick in the teeth. My jumpers/cardigans for work were all ruined and I needed to get some new ones. £40 in Zara later and I feel like I have failed somehow! I still had £12 left of my big bingo win so I put that towards it and the other £28 I will pay off with my personal budget before pay day.

I think it's almost like I have it in my head that every single penny should be completely justifiable. Almost like I was mad at myself for not just going to Primark, but then I know these will last me much longer. I guess I just need to take it as a positive that I am thinking about things like this whereas before I would have just spent that £40 (or more) and not even thought 2 ways about it.

I also had to buy shoes for my counsin's wedding where I am the Maid of Honour. My dress fitting is in three weeks and I needed to decide on shoes so that I could take them to my fitting. This I felt better about, as I have been saving for expenses such as this. I had £100 squirreled away for it and (with a discount code) managed to get a lovely pair for £20.99.

With the 5 week month I am also finding it hard to reduce my spending further for groceries etc. I know it's not a huge deal, but our weekly jumps from something like £87.50 to £70 which although not a huge dive I am noticing the difference on. I will need to do some research into what meals are best in terms of cost but also healthy! Same again for my personal budget. This month my budget has jumped from £60pw to £37 taking into account both the 5 week month and having had to pay off the remainder of the Hen do ... definitely feeling the pinch on that one .... (maybe that's why I'm feeling so bad haha!). I went out last night for a drink with a few friends to celebrate them completing a massive challenge but again felt bad about the spend which was around £16.

Maybe I need to cut myself a bit of a break!