Learning to live within my means

savingholmes

Well done on the accountability posting. I think if you keep posting it will reduce the likelihood of you slipping. What are your next life goals?

astrocytic_kitten

Honestly, @savingholmes, my only life goal is to get out of this flare and try to regain some mobility. Things are pretty bad right now, I’m very limited in what I can do (even reading is a struggle, I’ve needed to switch to audiobooks) and I desperately want to be able to get back to work and get outside for walks again. My mood is improving at least, having low mood coincide with a flare makes everything so much harder to cope with.

Money wise, I’ve done the first of the month shuffle and I’m now back to 6 months emergency fund for my current living expenses. Next goal is 6 months emergency fund for higher mortgage payments if I manage to move. Once I’ve paid back the money I borrowed from savings to clear the debt I also plan to put some money aside for a painting. After that, I’ll split extra cash between getting to 12 months emergency fund / pension / divert some to a holiday pot (so many reasons I’m not up to travel right now even apart from pandemic, but I can dream!)

redofromstart

Sorry to hear about the flare, and I hope you can drag yourself out of it soon.  Mine is fibro and when it hits it knocks me for six.  Much sympathy.  Being read to (audiobooks) would be hell, but I can manage the light kindle when I can't manage books happily.

savingholmes

Sorry things are so hard. I sometimes use listen to audio books when I don't have the mental energy to read.

astrocytic_kitten

Just waiting on one more refund coming through then credit card will be back to zero! It should be any day now 🤞 Still struggling health-wise, but feeling much brighter now it feels so springlike through the open windows.

I keep on having the urge to phone up and increase the monthly mortgage payment, but holding off until I’ve fully paid back my savings. Definitely finding the motivation to pay back the savings harder than chipping away at debt, I’ve got some prolific money that I really want to use to buy books (why??? I can still barely read) but will be a grown up and put into savings instead.

redofromstart

I will be lost in admiration if you save the book prolific money.  I was brought up that we got a new book every pay day, and it was part of the essential shopping.  It was one of the hardest things for me to give up when we ran out of money.

savingholmes

Well done on saving. Hope you feel better soon.

astrocytic_kitten

I’m still letting myself buy new books @redofromstart, but the ones I’m lusting after are pretty editions of books I already own and I’m trying to stop the collecting urge. At least until payday - payday books are a tradition I think I might be implementing!

And thanks @savingholmes. I’ve never been in a flare this bad for this long but it’s definitely easing off, just taking time.

[Deleted User]

Hope you are starting to feel better AC.  Love the payday book idea - I am rather obsessed with books too (even though have loads I haven't read) and so get your urge to splurge.  Thing is, if you buy the pretty books, they will just be so pretty that you'll not want to touch them and they'll sit on your shelves gathering dust.....

greenbee

You can’t read the pretty books in the bath, so they’re more interior decoration than books when it comes to budget decisions 😉