saving my future self from debt

pennyforthepot

What a beautiful weekend again. DH booked us into an Airbnb near Salisbury for Saturday night so we were up and out early Saturday morning enjoying a scenic journey. We stopped off at Lepe and did a 5 mile coastal loop looking out to the Isle of Wight then treated ourselves to a well deserved lunch over looking all the boats that were out in the sunshine. We got to our Airbnb - which I have to say was absolutely gorgeous. A converted barn, Scandie decor, on the top of a hill surrounded by nothing but rolling hills and a few cows. We spent a couple of hours in Sailsbury, visiting the cathedral and taking a walk along the river before we popped into Mr T and picked up a finest meal as a treat and a bottle of wine. Drove back leisurely today feeling rested and refreshed (well DH more than me as he snores and I don't ).

MSwise I'm too tired to work out the sums but DH paid for the accommodation, I paid for the petrol and the rest came out of our Brighton pot, spend of around £65 from there.

Spent around £12 on food on Friday for DD and £10 today, £10 on petrol so I think I have around £140 left in my cash pot for the rest of the month so my daily available spend is around £12.70. Will do the detailed spends tomorrow as I'm too tired to enter everything into my spreadsheet today.

Tonight I shall be having an early one zzzz

PFTP X

apple_muncher

Sounds like a wonderful weekend. And those pesky sums can wait a little bit longer...

beanielou

Glad that you had a lovely weekend.

doingitanyway

Airbnb sounds lovely

pennyforthepot

apple_muncher wrote: »

Sounds like a wonderful weekend. And those pesky sums can wait a little bit longer...

Indeed they can Apple Muncher indeed they can

pennyforthepot

Thanks Beanielou,

We only get to spend every other weekend together so it's really important that we make the most of our time together

pennyforthepot

It was straight out of one of those home style magazines. The lady who owned it was an interior designer from what I can tell - we really struck lucky

pennyforthepot

Spent a lot of my day brushing up on my driver awareness at the speeding course. I have to say I did find it useful. I think when you've been driving for such a long time it's far too easy for you to drive without really being conscious of the potential hazards around you.

The positive outcome from this is a NSD - my third this month - I don't know how people manage to get into double figures, I suppose I still haven't mastered the weekly shop. Not sure if I'll have time to do one this week either. I need to do a menu plan and shopping list tomorrow, as the bulk of my food shop is fruit and veg a weekly shop is not always ideal.

I was a little bit out on my figures yesterday so today I'll post the up to date ones.

Scores on the Doors

Spend today/Spent this Month/ Monthly Budget

• £0/£180.60/£250 -food
• £0/£47.15/£50 - stockpot
• £0/£40/£60 - kids
• £0/£27.05/£40 - miscellaneous
• £0/£53.43/£85 - petrol
• £0/£16.90/£20 - me
• £1.12/£33.39 - electricity
• £0/£7.32 - OP
• £12.92 - daily available spend

I can't believe there are still 10 days till the end of the month, it's the last third that seems to drag on a money front, desperately trying to avoid any unaccounted for spend even of the smallest amount.

PFTP X

pennyforthepot

• NSD ( 2 in a row) :j
• £1.57/£34.96 - electricity
• £14.13 - daily available spend, up £1.42

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

So the solution to increasing my no spend days is clearly to work more. Another one in the pot for today. It certainly comes with a high non-financial price tag though. Working long hours is physically and emotionally exhausting when you have to come home and do all the other things that normally occupy your time.

If the period during my family crisis and illness taught me one thing it was that life-work balance should be at the core of what we are trying to achieve. For several years I had to support my family both physically and emotional. I was the carer, the cleaner, the cook as well as the provider - and it very nearly broke me and my family apart and that was with a sound financial footing and an eye for budgeting.

In order to re-balance my well being I took a few months away from work and for the first time in 20 odd years since the birth of my children I prioritised myself. I happily gave up my non-essential spends during that period and focused on feeding my body and my soul with the good stuff:fresh air, good food, meditation and exercise. No branded item, no car, no foreign holiday, no bottle of wine, no fine dining is worth anything in comparison in my mind.

I am back at work now but I normally do far fewer hours than I used to and my emotional well being is balanced and stress levels are low. I am very aware that I am lucky to be able to have done this, but I did still had to make a choice about what I was prepared to give up in order to do this. For me it was a no brainier.

All that for a NSD

PFTP x