no debt, no savings, no assets, just blah. HALP!

lessavyfav

soortta pretty much on track for the end of the month - just owe my work colleague some money for a coffee and cake i was dying for and i slightly overspent at the weekend, but not by much. at least there's no need to take out money until payday on friday. this means i'll have saved £275 this month, something I have not achieved since i moved to london! i can't believe ive been living paycheck to paycheck for all this time. if i lost my job or something, id be in deep trouble..

I've also decided to stay put in this house for a while. the idea of living with 4 people scares me a little, even if they are nice people and the house is very big. it's more personalities..also my housemate who is currently abroad has decided to take a contract over there so it means she'll be moving out. for the next 6 weeks there will be no one living in her room so the place will be quiet..i can live with that for now. plus, the idea of moving costs is frightening me a little.

I have a few scheduled expenses for next month - money for a flight to barcelona in may, a talk by guy bourdin, a comedy show, spending money for my ski trip and i desperately need some concealer.

i cut my own hair on sunday and it kinda turned out okay!! so i am going to put my hairdressing appointment off until march, definitely a decent saving there!

next month my goal is to save £300 and have at least 4 NSDs.

lessavyfav

it's been over a month since my last post! i don't think i had any NSDs last month to be honest, nor did i save £300 but still managed to save some money..so far i have £675! i can see savings getting addictive the larger it gets, which is a great thing.

this month is my 30th and im going away on a short ski trip so i expect it might be a bit of an expensive month but here i am staying home on a saturday night so that i can avoid splurging on alcohol!

so, expected expenditures for the month, other than the usual rent & bills:
- a friend has a hairstylist friend who is going to re-dye my hair blonde again (i cant help myself, the natural hair colour thing just doesnt do it for my confidence, unfortunately). she's much cheaper than going to a salon.
- spending money for ski trip + insurance
- birthday dinner
- friend's birthday roast tomorrow
- birthday outfit? maybe just a top, have not bought any clothing for months, other than a pair of much needed jeans in january

i am pretty good with bringing in lunches to work, will continue to do that this whole month. no dinners out before ski trip (leave thursday afternoon)

let's see how i do!

EchoDelta

Just wanted to say hi, am new here and been reading through. Got some great tips off this thread.

Sounds like you are doing really well!

I'm a bit older than you and totally understand the "wobble" thing. Eg I have no pension and that bothers me. I want to have a decent retirement! 2013 is the year of frugal living! Only debt we have is mortgage, car loan and an interest free "pay back whenever we don't need it" loan from parents which we needed to fix house (dry rot =horribly destructive!). So we're currently saving for another baby, then parental loan, then long term retirement savings.

Wish you continuing strength of will!

Sarri_2

Ha, you're very brave to cut your own hair, glad it turned out ok!!

I read your thread and wanted to offer you a couple of tips - the first of which really helped me get the saving habit but was a good first baby step! It was back when I went to see my bank about getting a loan for my first car - the woman I spoke to pointed out that a year down the line it'd need an mot and maybe some work doing, so suggested I set up a savings account and a regular arrangement to move a tenner a month into it. I didnt notice it going out at all and was very pleased 6 months down the line when I had £60 sat waiting when I did have a problem with the car. I realised I could easily afford to put a bit more than a tenner each month, and it was so nice to watch my little pot of savings grow. I know £10 doesn't go far these days but if you're not at all in the habit of saving it's a good way to get started.

The second suggestion was an idea I had last year - I realised I had a huge stack of clothes I never wore, and really needed to get on ebay - so decided I'd have a year of only buying new clothes with money I'd made from selling old things on ebay. Worked brilliantly, and made me much better at saving up for things I really wanted rather than frittering on an impulse buy that turned out not to go with anything else!!

Hope that helps - good luck!!

marisco_2

lessavyfav wrote: »

Hi there..I'm a long time lurker, first time poster and have come to a point in my life where I am beginning to freak out about money, or lack thereof.

I have been following this thread with interest. I think you have been rather hard on yourself to be honest.

Okay so you are 30 and dont have savings or any major assets yet. Look at the positives of your life though. You are still young, living in a fabulous city, leading a great lifestyle, surrounded by friends.

You are not in debt, so your lifestyle isn't that reckless or out of control. You have just had different priorities up to this point. Coming up to thirty has made you re-evaluate life and where you are at. There are several areas of your life where you could cut back and enable yourself to build up a solid emergency fund in very little time. Going by your posts on here you have already started doing this.

You hold down a well paid job and are not asking anyone else to support you or bail you out. So you are self sufficient and as your needs change you can channel big chunks of your wage where you now wish to invest for the future. You have got yourself into a financial position where you still have choices.

I am coming up to 40. I own my own property outright and have a fair amount of savings. An enviable position to be in, maybe. Yes it gives me choices now and a level of freedom that I really enjoy.

The payback for all this though is that through my teens and twenties I worked myself into the ground. I missed out on all the wonderful fun times and experiences that you enjoy. Take it from one who knows you never get that time back in the same way once you settle down and have children. Something I do regret. I could have done it over more time and have some fabulous memories to look back on as well.

As others have wisely said cut back a bit on entertainment, hairdressers, clothes etc. Make sure though that whilst you are working towards where you hope to be in 10 or 15 years time you are still living a full and stimulating life.

lessavyfav

Well dear me, it turns out my initial journey didn't really get me very far now, did it? Although my life is remarkably better than this time last year, I'm financially worse off...today was a definitely low moment for me of which I'll get onto soon, but it's motivating me to get my act together.

So what's happened since last year? So much, most of it happened from October onwards. I really wasn't enjoying living in my flat where housemates were dirty and a bit inconsiderate, the house wasn't exactly the nicest either. Our lease was about to be up in November and I decided to move out. Looking around the area I'd been in, I found a lot of horrible places for more than £100 more per month - not great. But coincidentally a friend of mine needed a flatmate in her gorgeous house, who happened to be moving out just a few days before I had to be out of my house. All for the same monthly rental price! So I got super lucky and am now in an amazing bedroom with high ceilings, beautiful floorboards and a fireplace - I love it. The kitchen is also huge and spacious (I LOVE cooking and hated it in my old, tiny kitchen). On top of this, my housemates are all lovely so it's worked out great. The only issue is I'm not anywhere near as conveniently located as when I was living East, so I'm using buses/tubes a lot more. Before I occasionally topped up my oyster with £15 (would last me most of the month), but now it's worth my while getting a weekly Zone 1-2 pass (£30.40 per week, ouch!)

Then, my job. I had been working for almost three years as a permanent, full-time employee at a particular company, who happened to never pay me on time. I always ended up getting paid, but grew resentful because it's not like I was earning huge amounts of money. Anyway, it came to October where I spent yet another night moaning to my friends about how terrible it is we hadn't been paid and that I'd been working long hours and was super angry...so the next day I resigned. I was on 4 weeks notice but was able to be flexible and see out a particular project I was working on, so I was there closer to 7 weeks.

My plan was to freelance, get some good money behind me and try to find the dream company to work for. Of course, things didn't go to plan, I didn't have a huge amount of money saved (a little under a month's worth of my salary), moved house, didn't hear back from a lot of people. So whilst I did get a week long gig paying super well, things dried up over Christmas. The good news is I got a job at a company I've wanted to work for for years - a maternity contract starting at the end of this month. The unfortunate part is I am not having any luck getting temp work, other than a couple of freelance assignments at my old work (who of course won't pay me for at least a couple of months..)

And then things start to unravel. My parents have always been extremely supportive and said if I ever need help, to just call them. Of course, I thought I could avoid this because I'm 30 years old and should not be depending on them to help me, even in harder times, so I've been frantically calling and emailing recruiters everyday, since before Christmas; refreshing job sites and applying for short term work..I'm happy to work for minimum wage but I guess my recent work history is not that appealing as it's obvious that I'm not a 'career' shop person/receptionist/etc. Anyway, after a few weeks of my mother emailing me asking if I'm sure I'm okay with money, I conceded last night that it would help me greatly if they sent me a month's worth of salary that will cover me until my payday in late Feb, as well as being able to purchase a flight home to Australia (if I didn't go back in March, my parents will kill me!) However, it didn't go down too well that I was asking for so much money and my dad was very annoyed. They hate seeing me struggle and think I should have my act together by now, which I agree with. They seem to think that my struggle in London could be alleviated if I just move back to Australia but it's not that simple. Now I don't ever go on shopping sprees, don't go on lavish holidays or anything, but I'm certainly not sitting in the dark eating noodles either. There's so many ways I could be more careful with my spending and I really should have had more than two months worth of salary in my account before I resigned.

So after a very tough Skype conversation with my parents, I have promised I won't be in this situation again, and I really mean that. I have too much to lose - that is, I'd have to go back to Australia (which isn't a bad place to live, of course!), but it means I'd be leaving my wonderful boyfriend behind, leaving a life here that I'm not ready to leave yet (I love the culture in London, the new and exciting experiences I wouldn't have in Oz), and I wouldn't have the amazing work opportunities like I've just signed up for at my new company.

Unfortunately, my pay hasn't gone up, but the good thing is we get health and travel insurance, and a contribution scheme in place. Also, I'll get paid on time!!!

But I really need to kick myself up the bum and get a grip of my spending and put money towards a little nest egg. It won't be easy as I'll owe my parents around £2800 (I had borrowed £800 around the time I was moving, and another £2000 today), plus I'm going to Australia for two weeks in March with my boyfriend - super expensive to eat out or do anything, really. But it just means more of a challenge.

So here's my rough plan:
Achievable ways of saving
- put weekly amount into jar (ie week 1 of year, put £1 in, week 2 put £2 in, etc). it means at the end of the year I'll be putting much larger amounts in per week, but hopefully by then I'll have paid my parents back and have the spare cash anyway. And hopefully it'll be more motivating, too. The end should yield £1378!
- put spare change into my other piggy bank - it probably has close to £15 just in pennies
- put 10% of wage aside per month into savings account <I know this is going to be a hard one for me as I'll put it into an account when I'm paid, but will find myself dipping into it as time goes by. And putting it somewhere I can't easily access won't work until I have a good buffer of money (at least £4k) for a rainy day.

how i’m going to have the money spare/available
- put 10% savings aside as soon as I’m paid.
- put projected bills aside as soon as I’m paid (rent, council tax, phone, water, internet, plus some extra for energy, should be around £670 per month)
- make a rough meal plan weekly to minimise wastage. Even when I'm not going out to restaurants/cafes and instead cooking at home, I find I'm pretty bad with wastage. Food goes off, I buy the 'luxury' version and therefore end up spending a lot at the supermarket, silly things like that. Need to be much more conscious of what I'm buying
- experiment and see what works: try one month of spending all on debit card only to track spending, try another month giving myself a weekly cash budget where I can only spend what's in my wallet.
- Drink less. I haven't been drinking much lately because I've been on antibiotics. This one's also a difficult one when going out with friends. Most of my friends will say 'don't be silly, drink is my shout' etc, but at the end I always feel guilty and will end up buying them a drink back or whatever. As sad as it is, it might just be a lot easier for me to say I'm on antibiotics for a lot longer so there isn't that pressure or sour face as though I'm being boring! Don't need a wine with my Wednesday night Vietnamese soup..I can do without.

A huge long post, though I'm still sure I have more to say. For now, I'm going to write a rough meal plan, go do some grocery shopping and spend the afternoon making some batches of soup. I want to experiment and make my own version of the 'Glorious' Goan Spicy Tomato and Lentil soup, which is a favourite of mine.

Wish me luck!

Scritti

lessavyfav wrote: »

Wish me luck!

Good luck, indeed!

Nice to see you're back on MSE! Sorry to hear of all the drama. Such is life, I guess. We all have high and low spells so hang in there, best of luck with all your plans and do keep us all posted!

lessavyfav

thank you Scritti!

I was pretty good at the weekend, although i had lunch out yesterday with friends as I hadn't seen them for a while, which ended up being more pricey than I thought.

Now my first post of this thread attracted a lot of criticism for how much i was spending on my hair and I agree, it was ridiculous! I managed to find a hairdresser who is much really great, well priced and I go less frequently..so £80 each time I visit (once every two months). However, my old (expensive) salon have come out with hair colour products available on boots, so I'm going to give it a shot and do it from home. I have quite a lot of hair so I'll be buying multiple packs, but it should reduce the amount I'm spending by half again. Woohoo!

Today was a NSD and I'm hoping tomorrow will be the same.

lessavyfav

No NSD yesterday as I needed to buy a few things (breakfast for the next few days, flour to make pizza dough and some fruit). I also ordered my hair dye online which came to £33 (need multiple packets of dye and toner as i have so much hair). But that's going to save me around £50! I really hope it turns out okay though, it's all in the application

My parents have transferred me £1200 and gave me their CC to pay for my ticket to Oz, but when it came to checkout, it wouldn't let me pay as my dad is not a traveller - a cardholder needs to be travelling. So kindly, my boyfriend paid for both our tickets on his card. It means I owe him £755 which will come out of the money my parents have sent over, and effectively means I've borrowed less money from my parents (providing i dont get in a tight situation and ask for more), but will need to be much more stringent with my spending over the next 6 weeks.

So far, I am up to date with the weekly jar challenge (a grand total of £6), and keep chucking in change in my piggy bank..I really can't wait to start work and get that paycheck back into my account monthly! I am owed a couple of small invoices too (should total around £600 or so when tax and umbrella co fee is taken out), so that'll help tide me over for a bit.

Today I am aiming for another NSD. Got my food sitch sorted, but tomorrow might be a bit more pricey - I am meeting a new friend for brunch and then having the girls over for pizza. I'll be making the pizza dough tonight but need to buy toppings tomorrow. Hopefully that'll all be under a tenner (I have 4 guests, plus myself so that's at least 3 pizzas).

I did a budget last night (a real one, the MSE one that adds one off expenses and all that). Man, that is a huge eye-opener. The amount I spend on 'entertainment', that is, going out for dinners or lunches, is outrageous. I'm a bit of a foodi-phile so I love to try the new places opening up around London all the time, but it's to the detriment of my bank account.

So that's the first thing I need to work really hard to reduce. It just means more sacrifices; less drinking (that's what really hikes up the bill for me and my friends), less of these 'cheap dinners', which we do a little too frequently throughout the week, and most importantly, making it super clear to my friends that I'm trying to reduce my spend so they need to be understanding of that. Some of them earn double what I do so they don't really get where I'm coming from, but I just need to drill it into them even more :P

Other ways I can reduce:
- the cost of gifts by being more organised, instead of grabbing something at the last minute along with an expensive card..
- grocery bill. again, it'll be about being organised and really keeping an eye out for bargains, making sure i don't buy food that ends up in the bin, meal planning.
- just say no to bought coffee more than one day a week. i'm pretty good at this, but i guess i could tighten it.
- reduce mobile cost. Am currently on a £36 monthly contract on vodafone (rip off!!!) and i don't use it a great deal.
- sell stuff on ebay/amazon, musicmagpie, etc.

Listerbelle

Hi there

Fellow Aussie here, arrived in London in 1997 aged 27 - OMG! Now my life is split between California and the UK.

I couldn't read and run....just wanted to share a quick tip that I found worked well for me.

I had a well paid job, but desperately wanted to buy a place in London ASAP. I got myself a casual (part-time) job - I did event waitressing via an agency on some weekends and occasional weeknights.

I experienced all kinds of fantastic events and have great memories - for which I was paid. The opening of the Tate Gallery, an event of the year - I was there I wish I'd been brave enough to chat to our Kylie who was all alone, but I thought she might think I was a freak...this was in the year 2000 from memory. I even photo bombed a few pics of Mick Jagger haha. The Brit awards. Various posh parties and polo matches. I was unfortunately unavailable for a party at Richard Branson's house. But you get the idea.

The money isn't great, the experience is fun - a lifetime of stories - and if you are busy at work you simply cant spend any money including that shift's wages.

Just a thought

PS - get your boyfriend involved. I did. My now husband still thinks it was a crazy but fun time in our lives and we still talk about it now