This year will be the year.....

NO-SPENDING-FOR-A-YEAR

We're all looking for the quick fix ( win the lottery??, inheritance for a distant unknown relative??, premium bonds have come up??) but sadly the reality is we've just gotta chip away at it one day at a time!!


What you've achieved already has been amazing to shift £30,000 is just phenomenal!!


Debt is sickening, stressful, restrictive.........shall I go on..........


Keep the faith lovely as we're all in it together xx

1974nicola

Reconsidered the plan wrt to realism. Unrealistic to say I'll manage on last weeks money and that £10 will possibly carry me till Friday. I'm actually just setting myself up to fail by being unrealistic and then I'll just get fed up. So.... Having reconsidered...... I'm going to withdraw last Friday's money. Being frugal with that and having some left over will give me a feeling of success. Sound like a plan?

See you all later! I'm off to the cash machine.

1974nicola

Morning all!

Fell asleep thinking about money and then woke up again the same way!! I wonder if that's what rich people do......maybe there's hope for me yet.

Anyway, I had a look at YNAB after seeing it mentioned on here and liked the idea. Sadly my wee laptop's browser won't support it and I cant update because it's an ex work laptop and I'm not the administrator. So, last night, I decided to do my own version and had a fun evening with spreadsheets. I've allocated my money as follows

£400 - Food
£32 - Car
£100 - Petrol
£128 - Birthdays/ Christmas
£100 - Outings
£20 - Cleaning Products

This means my full £780 is spent every 4 weeks and hopefully I can save by being frugal. Any thoughts? I'm wondering if it would be possible to make cuts somewhere, save first and then be forced to be frugal instead of hoping for the best.

1974nicola

Looking forward to the 1st when I can update my frugal fund. Council tax free month and only token payments to (some) debts. I'm going to be able to transfer over about £700 I think. One month in and £1500 up towards F+F.

1974nicola

Silly, silly me!! My daughter is heading off to China with the school. I still need to pay £146 for another 3 months. Spreadsheets being updated accordingly.

I also need to spend some money on my garden this year. Paid a small fortune to have it landscaped about 6/7 years ago and many of the plants need to be replaced and pots/ bedding plants etc. According to YNAB every pound should have a job so I'm going to have to allocate something for that too.

Its amazing when you look at your finances in any kind of depth, you can see where things have gone wrong in the past (and continue to do so)

I remember having a convo with husband and we described our money problems as cash flow issues. I.e. the money was coming but it just wasn't in the bank yet we said. Fast forward 10 years and £84 thousand of debts and we can clearly see that cash flow wasn't the issue. The issue was overspending. Even with that knowledge, I still don't think I had fully grasped how to budget. I thought I did. But the budget has been vague. However, for the last few years we have managed to spend what we earn and no more.

What I am trying to do now is eek a bit extra out of the money and save it to be finally free. Had a scary convo with husband. We've only got 20 odd years before retiring. So far we have less than nothing to show for the last 20 years of full time work paying good wages so......... there really is lots of financial work to be done in order that we can have a nice life and retirement.

NO-SPENDING-FOR-A-YEAR

Oh my days, are you sure we're not the same person lol!!


I had similar convo with DH about what have we done with all of our earnings over the last 20-25 years!!! it's been sand in our hands and we've literally wasted thousands and thousands and still didn't have enough hence the trail of debt -if only I could go back..........


Anyway, back to budgeting, until the last year or so I considered budgeting to be a dirty word that I would only have to do it if didn't have enough money (uh hello, you've been living beyond your means and spending money you didn't have for ever!!) and then I had the worst most stressful few months of my life in recent times (middle of last year) and I realized it was sensible people who weren't living the champagne lifestyle on beer money who budgeted, so over the last 6 months I've gradually restricted more and more - shopping budget set, heating thermostat reduced and timers for hot water & heating all set for less time per day (and didn't notice any difference at all), tried to travel by car less, haggled with sky package amount and had it reduced, I could go on but it is a tad boring!! I've looked and virtually everything and tried to downshift and I'm surprised and how all the little bits do add up.


And as my DH said to me, we're still got 20 years to make good ☺☺☺


Lou xx

1974nicola

Ha!! That's funny, Lou. Defo makes me feel less alone.

I also wish I could back sometimes although.....Never mind the finances...... I'd go back just for the waist and the hair!!

Thank goodness that the past doesn't equal the future. And you can see how all the changes you're making are impacting the debts. It's all good. I've definitely managed to hold money back from this current wage so far, which is progress. Like I say....this will be the year.

BTW - Thanks for popping in :O)

1974nicola

Updated spreadsheets a toaty bit early because I'm away this weekend and because I was impatient. It's not amazing and actually I'm a bit disappointed if I'm truthful. But that's just me being unrealistic, I suppose.

I'm disappointed because I haven't managed to save the full amount that I was previously paying towards the debts. So instead of saving all the debt money, we've spent it!! I know what on (flights for my husband- compromise to no family holiday) and I agreed to it so I can't complain really. The plus side is that I've shown husband and he was also a bit disappointed. Husband feeling it is progress, I think.

Anyway new total is £1084 towards £25K which is a good start in anyone's book! I'm just being impatient. So ... I am going to keep my chin up and also remember how well I have done over the last few years by not getting into any more debt and chipping away at current debts.

I'm also going to enjoy my weekend away. Woo hoo

NO-SPENDING-FOR-A-YEAR

Quickly popping in just to say have an amazing weekend, enjoy every minute and don't think about reality until you're home, Lou xxx

1974nicola

Just checking in..... Thanks Lou! That was really kind of you! We did have a good weekend ... but instead of escaping from reality, we discussed it! Always beneficial - especially when hubby has agreed to get with the programme! I know I go on a bit about hubby but I feel we have had such differing views on money and it's great that he's finally agreeing with me about what it'll take to be free of it. We'll get there together......
So, to other news, we're back home and still watching our daily spends. Had a NSD on Thursday when Mr N was off. He pointed it out and high fived me. Progress indeed!
Nothing extra saved but we're staying within our budget. I've had a bit of work this week and some jobs booked in for next week. Just need to make sure I invoice them. I've saved the money I received last week to put aside for next years tax bill. All pressies for February bought so hopefully no unforeseen financial things. Hubby needs new tyres and service but he can wait till pay day this month and the service can be carried out the following month.
Defo need a haircut and colour though. As does daughter (minus the colour). As does dog - didn't get it done before we went away. I'll just do my boys myself. All in hand......