Learning to live within my means

astrocytic_kitten

You’re right GAP - it’s a huge weight off my shoulders to know that without the debt repayments, and with all the cutting out non-essential spends / switching services, my outgoings have reduced so much that the reduced income covers my bills. It’s the first time that’s been the case, and the first time I’ve been able to focus on getting better without having financial pressures also playing a role in my decisions. I’m hoping it will do my health some good long term and make this recovery more sustainable, I feel like I’ve been in flares more often than not over the past couple of years.

girlatplay

It does really help the health situation when you have less worries, I totally get that.

Can't wait until I'm where you are!

astrocytic_kitten

You’re doing brilliantly - you’ll be there before you know it!

savingholmes

Well done on restoring your savings. Great position to be in. Hope your health settles too.

astrocytic_kitten

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated! I’m still fiddling around with how I’m going to organise my money and how much I’m giving myself per month to spend, seem to change it every couple of weeks. And I’m getting loan offers thrown at me which I’m mostly finding hilarious after all the years when I wanted to consolidate and couldn’t.

Still have expensive tastes...got a laura mercier lipstick sample when I bought more sunscreen and now considering spending half my June fritter money on it even though I have no real use for makeup these days 😂 also, I have about 3 pinky nude lipsticks already and really don’t need another. 

I’m currently trying to massage my ancient laptop into life again and need to start putting money aside for a replacement. I always start looking at the cheap end, end up wanting something in the £800-1k range which is way more than what I need, and then I give up and put off the decision till the next time I’m trying to coax life out of the old laptop. The problem is I’m head over heels in love with my work laptop (it’s small, light, but super powerful and fast) and am benchmarking everything against that, but I really don’t need something that fancy for personal use. I don’t want it enough to take money out of the emergency fund either, just enough to stop me deciding to buy something cheap and sturdy that won’t break in a couple of years. I hate laptop shopping. 

Also starting to put money aside for a new phone as the battery on mine is on its last legs. The phone itself is 4 years old now I think, battery was replaced about 18 months ago. And my iPad has also started to get verrrrrrrry slow sometimes. Honestly I’d probably be willing to pay quite a lot on tech if I could be sure it wouldnt be on a go slow with no battery within 3 or 4 years regardless 😂

girlatplay

I can understand you needing to save for a decent laptop, but the lipstick?  Come on AK, use up the three you have already and then you'll have my blessing for a new one 😆

savingholmes

Lol at 3 lipsticks

I would go for the higher priced laptop. I bought a £500 one last year and regret it

astrocytic_kitten

This exactly why I love MSE, thank you @girlatplay and @savingholmes! You’re absolutely right on the lipstick, and after you told me to use up my old ones GAP I realised that the reason I have 3 pinky nude lipsticks, all of which are several years old (pretty sure the oldest is over a decade and should probably be binned for that reason alone), is that I NEVER wear them but occasionally buy a new one in the hope it will be The One 😂😂🤦‍♀️ I have other lipsticks I wear more often but never the nudes.

I’ve got my eye on a £600 laptop, reduced from £700, that’s light (important because of my health), has good reviews and is on a lot of best of lists. Interesting what you say about the £500 laptop @savingholmes. I’ve owned one expensive and a few cheap laptops in the past 20 years and none really seem to have lasted. Old laptop has totally given up though so I do need to do something!

GeorgianaCavendish

My favourite lipstick is Frog Prince by Lipstick Queen - it’s green in the stick (!) but it “magically” changes to a pinky colour on application. Supposedly different on everyone and will be your ideal colour, not sure how much I believe that part but I REALLY like the shade it turns on me (sort of natural plus a bit more).

Saying that, I haven’t worn any makeup since end of March 2020! 

astrocytic_kitten

Oooh I love Frog Prince @GeorgianaCavendish! I need to put exactly the right amount on though, too much and it goes a bit neon pink 😂 I hear you on the makeup, I haven’t worn foundation or mascara or anything in well over a year but when I’m feeling washed out, or totally fed up of my lockdown wardrobe of leggings and jumpers, or wondering if I’ll ever actually do my hair again instead of chucking it up in a bun, lipstick tends to make me feel better with minimal effort.

I made one sensible financial decision over the weekend - I didn’t buy more plants 😂 There’s a particular one I’ve been after for a while but none of the local plant shops have access via their suppliers. An online place does it and they did a flash sale yesterday...about 30 seconds later the plant was in my basket, but then I realised that I don’t actually need it and closed the tab. A couple of years into the debt free journey you’d think I’d have moved past this, but I think it will always be part of me. Just need to continually strengthen the muscles in between the ‘must have it’ and actually buying it part so I can take a step back.