Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

crunch_time

Thanks JoJo - yes love Aldi wines. Unfortunately a lot of the husband and my wine purchases have been spontaneous so the cost depends on where we are.

I have been listening to a podcast (I!!!8217;m all about the podcasts at the moment they are changing my life) by a lady called Brooke Castillo - Life Coach School and it is blowing my mind!

She talks about how we over eat, over drink and over spend to !!!8216;buffer!!!8217; feelings. I!!!8217;ve known about the essence of it for a agile but listening to her talk it!!!8217;s like she is talking to ME like a friend and I am mapping it up and can already feel myself changing. I realise I have been buffering with with drink to stop focusing on my feelings of disappointment about having a rubbish day. I feel I have over spent in the past as a way to buffer my feelings of inadequacy and competition with my sister (who I don!!!8217;t like and don!!!8217;t speak to) and buffer with snacking as a reward for all my hard work living this life.

It feels funny to get it all down but that is the truth and now I can tackle it and live a brilliant life.

She is so clear in her communication it just blows me away. I can!!!8217;t believe how different I feel and think after a a week of listening to her back catalogue!

Anyway, nsd yesterday!! Will have to get cheese to go with tonight!!!8217;s JPs but with tomorrow!!!8217;s grocery money.

I!!!8217;ve budgeted out our weekend as well!
All heading in the right direction.
The obstacle is the way

Crunchy xx

Willowtree222

I impulse spend to get a 'high' when I am struggling with my emotions. In teaching, that can be a lot of the time as well. x

crunch_time

Hi all

Cannot believe it is June tomorrow. Where is this year going?

With regards to money I feel like we are just coasting at the moment until I am earning so that!!!8217;s why I have not been as regular on here as in the past.

Looking on the bright side of things all bills are being paid and there is food on the table so can!!!8217;t ask for much more at the moment. Am def appreciating the value of money.

In other news we had a call from our car company who we have the PCP through saying we might be able to get a new car for cheaper! Hmmm - so we went to the dealer who said the manufacturer were giving us £5000 towards a new car! Great! However, once they had done all the calculations in order to get a new version of the same car we would have to pay another £1000 upfront and an extra £40 a month. How ridiculous is that? I think the sales guy genuinely thought we were up for it as he kept asking if we were sure we didn!!!8217;t have any other money to put towards a new one! Why would we do that when we have a perfectly ok 2 year old one?

Anyway it led to a lengthy discussion about cars with husband. When the pcp thing runs out in feb next year we will get a loan out to pay it off and then overpay it as much as we can as quick as we can.

With June being a five week month I shall be looking at ways to drastically reduce spending and food money over the coming weeks!!!

Crunchy x

Willowtree222

I hadn't realised that June was a 5 week month. I need to get on top of that too.

Car dealers always have a way of enticing you in and then it always ends up more expensive somehow. x

JoJoC

Oh god...another 5 week month? Yuk.

Thanks for sharing though, I'll need to be sensible this month!

crunch_time

Good morning debt free wannabes!

Its been a while since I've regularly been on here. Been busy with my course and then life as well. My course is nearly finished and I have been thinking about next steps which includes money so I have decided on a fresh start.

It's also my 4 year anniversary of being on here today!! Wow how much has changed in 4 years! Originally I started the diary so we could clear some credit card debt and divert the money servicing that to overpaying our mortgage so we could afford a bigger house. I was pregnant with my DD who is now 3.5!! And we had just come back from a walk on Father's day where we decided we would start a diary and tackle this head on.

Since then we have moved not once but twice and paid off over £20k of debt and then some. We are now in our long-term, probably forever home with a hefty mortgage and..... nearly £13k of debt.

For once I am not worried about this nor do I feel guilty. Things have happened that I could not control and it was harder than we thought to live off one salary. Nevermind. Let's get smashing this debt once and for all.

I'm off to see an accountant today about setting up my own business as a freelancer and the best way to do this so I figured now is as good a time as ever to get started on our own finances too.

I'm in a really good place. In the last 6 months I have done a lot of work on my own emotional well being and know I can make lots of money doing what I have just re-trained to do. So it is a time to focus and commit and get on with the job in hand.

Crunchy xx

Seasidegal58

Happy anniversary crunchy!:beer:

Things have certainly changed since you started posting - but you are now in your forever home so no need to worry about moving anymore. You can take your time now with any home improvements you want to make.

Hope you have a productive meeting at the accountants today. Exciting times now for you on the work front!

crunch_time

Very good meeting at the accountants today! Going to set myself up as a sole trader in the first instance. I am also applying for supply teaching from September for 2 days a week or 20 days a term. I lot of my work for my business can be done in evenings so I can work flexibly.

Now got to do business set up stuff and finish course at end of July. I want to be all set up and ready to go from then onwards. It!!!8217;s going to be a busy summer juggling starting a new business and childcare but I know I can do it and do it well. It!!!8217;s just a case of organising my time effectively.

I might not be able to rake money in until September so I!!!8217;m not going to get to detailed about debt pay back just yet. Just living within budgets and spending as little as we can.

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

I've started a new diary to document my absolute final debt countdown!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=74416152#post74416152

I do hope you guys follow along - you've been amazingly supportive over the years!!

Crunchy xx