Learning to live within my means

astrocytic_kitten

I’ve reached 4 figures on the debt! Yay! I think this winds my debt build-up back to where I was in about 2015? I can’t remember exactly, but I do remember with clarity the awful feeling when I realised it had gone above 10k.

This also means I’ve hit both my goals for 2020 - under 10k, and 3 month emergency fund. I’ve been thinking about goals for the rest of the year but I’m not sure yet. A lot of this has been out of my hands - my health plummeted and then managed to improve enough that I wasn’t living on as little as I was expecting to - though the process has also made me really examine what I’m spending on and cut expenses right down. I want to post another review of how much I’m spending in various categories as I feel like it’s crept up a bit lately - just need to actually do it first.

in_need_of_direction

Well done. My next target would be a third of the dec 18 figure.  I do like a fraction or a percentage 

astrocytic_kitten

Thanks INOD, I love that target and it’s achievable - I’m going to target having the debt 2/3 paid off by the end of the year. 

I also like the way that sounds, feels like I’m getting there!

astrocytic_kitten

Finally got round to logging into my laptop to pull my ynab spending averages for Jan-Jun this year (I so wish they’d do the spending reports on the app)! 

Essentials

• Groceries £90.67
• Toiletries £11.24
• Household £21.36
• Cat food, litter etc £34.34
• Essentials total: £157.61

Health

• Yoga £21.99

Fun

• Books £5.57
• Plants £13.12
• Clothes £29.73
• Home £6.83
• Fun total: £55.25

I’d like to get the general grocery, toiletry, household and cat spend down to £150 per month. Definitely plan to get a new cat so the cat spend will remain. I’ve been running my cupboards down and need to do a big stock up so £150 will hopefully be do-able but tight. I’m continually amazed by how much I spend in the household category and this month is no different! I think I’m going to aim for £15 for this, with a stretch goal for £10. I’ve recently signed up for an eco friendly loo roll etc subscription so hopefully it will even out lower. Looking back through household spend, the thing that really sticks out is £40 at Lakeland earlier in the year on moth control stuff after I discovered they had munched their way through some of my winter woolies. Definitely not the most frugal way to deal with it!

I’d originally put yoga in the fun category but took it out as I’m happy with the spend and it’s pretty essential for my wellbeing. And taking it out also makes the fun category look slightly more respectable 😂 On the one hand, £55 per month to spend on stuff doesn’t seem like too much - I haven’t been seeing friends or going to the pub or out for coffee. On the other.... clothes have always been my spending nemesis and I’ve probably been on this journey for a bit too long to keep on bringing out the ‘but I used to spend hundreds per month’ justification! I’ve been budgeting £25 per month for clothes and I think I’m going to aim to actually get it down to £25 per month in the first instance. I’ve been stocking up on much-needed underwear lately though so some of the spend was needed at least. Kind of shocked I’ve spent so much on house plants too, though I did have a couple of big deliveries at the start of the year.

I might just give up on the book spend and accept I’ll be spending £5 per month on books. I do also use the library, especially their ebooks and online audiobooks, and always check there first. And I do read a lot (75 books so far this year according to Goodreads). Though I do also have 200+ unread books on my kindle before I get too deep into the self-justification!

astrocytic_kitten

H2 2020 spending targets
Essentials - £150 

• groceries - 90
• toiletries - 10
• household - 15
• cat - 35

Fun - £35

• clothes - 25
• books - 5
• home / plants - 5

I’m expecting the yoga spend to go up, to £40 per month. 

And I’m hopeful there will also be some kind of socialising spend! 

astrocytic_kitten

Paid another £600 off the debt today after a higher pay packet than normal, taking me to 9336. Barring disasters I’ll now reach the 1/3 of the original figure target comfortably, I’m thinking about a stretch target of reaching 6k by the end of the year instead. It would require quite an effort, but there’s lots of things I “need” (want) for home that I’m tempted to spend on so I need a stretch target to keep me focused on debt repayments - I’m hopeful I can have it all paid off by end of 2021 🤞

Chimi

Just popping in to say "Congratulations" it must be a wonderful feeling to have reached your under 10k target.
My daughter has several chronic conditions (I'm her full time carer) so I understand how much more difficult this journey is for you than a person without a chronic condition you should be very proud of yourself. Ive been following you for a while and have empathised with your ups and downs. 

StartingAgainAt29

Congrats AK! You're doing amazingly considering the current circumstances. I like your targets as well, I use monzo to do a similar list although I find it tough to stick to. I got an orchid plant the other day and it made me think of you, it brings a nice bit of colour into my living room. I have a few cacti that I haven't managed to kill yet so we'll see how the orchid gets on 😊

astrocytic_kitten

Thanks @Chimi, that’s so kind! It’s been a tough road at times but I’m starting to feel like I can see an end to it, and I’m feeling very lucky things haven’t been as bad as they could have this year, I’m so grateful to still have an income. Getting rid of the debt will open up some options to me to hopefully help improve my health too. Being a full time career is so tough, your daughter is lucky to have you.

And @StartingAgainAt29 I’m very touched you thought of me, how lovely to have an orchid too. I was thinking of you yesterday, hope you’re getting on ok.

I’ve been fiddling with YNAB recently, shuffled a couple of pots around so I now have a separate home repairs pot plus one for saving for big home purchases / replacement appliances (I’d originally had a combined one but then things that were more wants than needs started sneaking in to be saved towards, and I was reallocating money towards those from the savings. This will stop that). I’ve also moved the home repairs pot to a tracking account on YNAB so what is being saved there doesn’t show on my budget, as it’s really intended for big serious things that might come up in the future like a new roof (though the £63 currently in there wouldn’t go very far towards that 😂). 

If my calculations are right I’ll just squeak into the 8k bracket in August, won’t know for sure for a couple of weeks though. Loan is still being charged interest... I was planning to do a balance transfer once I got below 11k to a 0% card, but the MT offers on the card I was planning to use stopped in March. My other card does have a money transfer offer but the limit is too low to transfer the whole balance. And when I do the maths the difference in interest being charged one way or the other seems pretty minimal and it also doesn’t seem to change my DFD, so I’m thinking it’s probably not worth it. 

astrocytic_kitten

I’ve been slightly obsessed with my financial spreadsheet for a while now, I have various debt payoff dates depending how much I can pay off per month, savings targets, monthly budgets, but it’s all set up now and there’s not much left to play around with on it. So I’ve decided to turn my spreadsheet attentions to clothes 😂

I sold and donated massive amounts of clothing last year but I still have way too much, particularly workwear (to be fair I used to spend most of my time there). There’s lots I’ve been hanging onto because they fill a gap even if I don’t love them that much, or I do love them but would need to lose half a stone for them to fit again. And realistically I’m not going to be in a suited and booted 5 days a week sort of role any more...for one thing, a dress and blazer has been the closest I’ve got to that in ages, and for another if I stay in my current sort of role it will have to involve a lot of homeworking.

SO! I now have a (colour coded 😂) spreadsheet that lists:

• The clothes I love, reach for time and time again, and that fit me now
• The things I love that don’t fit (Only what was in the wardrobe, some of these are packed away)
• Everything that that has made it through several purges but that I don’t really love and there’s something a bit wrong with it or I don’t feel good in it so hardly ever wear it, but there’s still something about it that makes me keep hanging on
• If an easy fix would help (like the shirt dress that needs snaps in the placket) with the above category

The result of all this so far is that my wardrobe has only about a quarter of the clothes that used to be there hanging up in it, and I have some big piles of stuff to sell/donate. I’ve also discovered that the big auction site lets you schedule parcel collection, I’ve had a pile of clothes to be sold for ages but haven’t done anything about it because getting to the post office was out of the question. But now I can have parcels collected! (Have a feeling everyone else has known this for some time, but it’s news to me)

I’m going to start gradually selling stuff, while also working my way through the things I don’t really love but am still hanging onto for some reason and decide what to do with them. Today I’m wearing a top that I really like but it crumples easily and I always feel a bit of a mess in it at work. I think taking it out of work rotation but keeping it as a casual top will work really well as I do like it a lot and am liking wearing it today. 

Once I’ve sorted those two piles I’ll go through everything that’s a bit too small, I think I’ll give myself one box of things to keep that are no more than one size too small, but force myself to sell / give away the rest.

I’m feeling really positive about this. In the past when I’ve tried to sort through my wardrobe and be ruthless I’ve ended up hanging onto things because it feels like I’ll have nothing to wear otherwise. But thanks to the spreadsheet I can now see that I have plenty of clothes to wear that I love, so what’s the point in having the rest hanging around. There are 6 dresses I really love, plus another 3 that need a pretty minor tailoring fix to get them into that category, which is enough in itself even before the skirts and trousers. It’s a bit weird sorting through work stuff I haven’t worn in months and realistically won’t wear for another few months, but maybe the distance is a good thing to help make decisions. 

I’ve always wanted to be the sort of person who has a small wardrobe but love everything in it, and doesn’t spend half an hour in the morning wondering what to wear and hating everything. Fingers crossed I may be on the road to that...!