Learning to live within my means

astrocytic_kitten

Thanks for the encouragement @joedenise!

My monthly loan payment hasn’t cleared yet, but I managed to make a £600 overpayment this month so my debt is currently sitting at £7989 and will probably be around the £7640 point next week when interest and payment clear, meaning I’ll have paid off 2/3 of the original figure! I need to keep on reminding myself that £8k is still a lot of debt for someone in my situation, even if it does seem small compared to where I started from 😂 The thought of having to fess up to anyone about my level of debt puts me back on track with that thinking. 8k is more acceptable than 23k, but still higher than I feel comfortable with anyone knowing I have.

Feeling the fatigue today after what felt like a long week at work even though it was only 4 days. I’ve started online listings for 3 dresses and taken pics for them but will finish them later today or tomorrow. Once those 3 are listed I have 3 or 4 more things to go up. I think everyone’s feeling the pinch now, dresses I’d normally feel pretty comfortable getting around £30 for seem to be going for half that.

Good news is I’ve been more sensible since I last posted, have spent on food but nothing else. There’s a few things I want for the flat (like a picture frame for a picture that’s been waiting to be framed for a couple of years, and to finally get a lamp for the bedside table - I’m in a nesting mood and trying to fix some minor annoyances), but I’m saving for them in a pot and will hopefully manage to restrain myself until I hit my target.

Smashingitnow

Hello! Just saw your footer on a post and thought...wow that is some effort! I hoped you had a diary and you do. It's bed time here so I'll pop back to read the bits in the middle but you are doing amazing! You're right about how it feels...at 23k (which I was getting on for) 8k sounds fine...but only zero will do when you commit!

alt80

You posted on my thread about debt. You've done incredibly well to clear what you have. Going to follow this for if my remortgage doesn't work out if you don't mind?

astrocytic_kitten

Hi to new visitors! The more the merrier @alt80! 

Though @Smashingitnow I’m not sure I’d bother with the bits in the middle, it’s probably very depressing - people die, cats die, I get ill, then a bit better, then worse again, and throughout it all I continually overspend on my clothes budget. It’s been quite an 18 months when I think about it.

Smashingitnow

Oh that is quite the summary!!! Do you know I was so bad for clothes. Not necessarily spending money I didn't have (though as I had debt I'm not sure what I mean by that....Iol...I guess I spent my 'real' money on clothes and the credit went on other things! Moving abroad has cured me of it....I'm all capsule wardrobe now but it helps the weather is very consistent here. The seasons in the UK are such a temptation to spending. Bedside lamp sounds lovely...it's like a luxury you can appreciate every night you don't need to haul yourself across the room in the dark!

astrocytic_kitten

Clothes really are my nemesis when it comes to spending, and it’s all about insecurity and not feeling good enough but thinking the right clothes will be like camouflage. I grew up working class poor and now have a pretty middle class lifestyle, and a lot of my colleagues are upper middle class.... I‘m not ashamed of where I came from, but I have about 50% chip on my shoulder about the way some of them (not all!) don’t realise what life is really like for people without their advantages, and 50% imposter syndrome and feeling not good enough.

Though I’d have liked to have reached it some other way, being ill has helped me feel less need to outwardly belong with clothes though. I guess now it’s obvious I’m different, and leadership know all the details, I’ve faced the fear of everyone finding out I don’t fit. And life on the other side of that isn’t nearly as bad as I feared.

I lived abroad for a while when I was much younger and did the capsule wardrobe with no problems - I remember coming home and getting clothes out of storage and being frozen with indecision because there was so much choice. If only that had lasted 😂

astrocytic_kitten

Spending a lot of time on MSE at the moment reading diaries etc, and a lot of time staring at my spreadsheets. Yesterday I started planning out mortgage overpayments for when I get the debt paid off, and while it’s great to have a plan and it’s great to think about next steps now the end of the debt feels like it’s in sight, I think I might be getting a bit obsessed and maybe need to disengage a bit. Everything is basically ticking along (as long as I don’t lose my head and buy anything really expensive 😂) but there is no point doing detailed planning on post-debt life yet - who knows where we’ll be in a year after all. I did resist making a big purchase today though, it was definitely a want rather than a need!

In other news, I need to get back to meal planning as I’m finding myself living off scrambled eggs and toast a little too often. Was doing really well with it for a while but now I’m more at the wait till I’m hungry then see what I have stage which never ends well.

joedenise

Scrambled eggs on toast isn't the end of the world, it's actually quite healthy!  In fact it's something we have quite often but usually for breakfast or lunch rather than dinner!  I usually defrost some frozen spinach in the microwave to stir through it as well, depends to be defrosted, squeezed out and chopped for it to stir in evenly.  This eat least gives you some veg with it!

astrocytic_kitten

Thanks @joedenise, I do put fresh spinach in it if I have some in the fridge, and I do use frozen spinach a lot in other things....the problem is that when I don’t meal plan I end up starving and feeling sick and not really thinking straight because I’m so hungry and then I want something as quickly as I can, and at those times dealing with frozen spinach just seems beyond me. I’m aware this isn’t the most mature attitude to food, but it’s why I need to keep on top of meal planning and making sure I’m keeping my blood sugar pretty stable throughout the day. Otherwise when I’m tired I’ll have either eggs on toast or beans on toast every night. Or porridge. Or cereal 🤦‍♀️ Not sure I’ve ever outgrown my student eating habits, even though that was 20 years ago now.

joedenise

At least beans on toast or cheese on toast are healthyish!  Porridge isn't too bad either as it's slow release energy.  Most cereals on the other hand aren't particularly healthy.

I definitely find life much easier by menu planning.  I'm on holiday at the moment and am still menu planning!  We're in a motorhome and nowhere near shops so trying to only shop once a week but can't buy too much as only have a top box and a small space under the seat of a.small scooter to put the shopping in but it's working out OK.  Halfway through our holiday now so another couple of weeks to go.