Learning to live within my means

GeorgianaCavendish

I completely understand what you mean about the quick feel-good fix from wearing lipstick! I've been wearing tinted lip balm for a similar effect (too lazy for lipstick!).
One good thing about not faffing with makeup or beauty treatments is that my eyebrows have finally had a chance to grow back in properly and they look much better than they did pre-lockdown. Seems like all they needed was to be allowed to do their own thing, not the tints and treatments. 

I had a really similar experience to your plant buying over the weekend. I had a bank holiday discount code for an activewear site and really fancied some new leggings, but after having them in my basket for nearly a day I thought I would rather not move the money out of my savings pot. The pots are a bit of a faff to administer but they are a great deterrent at times, adding in that extra step to make me really think about what I'm buying. A lot of the time I think I'm craving the buzz of buying something more than the thing itself. 

savingholmes

Well done on applying the brakes on spending

savingholmes

Everything ok?

astrocytic_kitten

Thanks @savingholmes, all ok just feeling very quiet. Still feel like I’m spending too much, though it’s within budget. I’ve started my running list of non-essential purchases up again though so I can keep an eye on it.

savingholmes

Glad you are ok. 
Perhaps revise your budget to allow more personal spends and then set savings goals for experiences and other things that help you feel truly alive...

astrocytic_kitten

I’ve been following along (albeit quite far behind) your journey and gorgeous pictures @savingholmes, it’s very life affirming. 

It’s a good reminder that I’ve been erring too close to the ‘stuff’ side of the purchases line rather than experiences. 

savingholmes

Glad it's helping. I'm posting pictures as a creativity outlet and for MH preservation. If it helps others too all the better. I think we sometimes get too hung up on words

astrocytic_kitten

My poor neglected diary! I've been meaning to sit down and do a review of H1 2021 spending all month and have finally got round to downloading the data from YNAB. I'm not sure quite how useful the averages are as its been such a wildly varying period of time - being frugal while paying off debt over the first couple of months of the year followed by a period of, erm, somewhat less frugality, but here we are...

	Monthly average
Food	-106.02
Cat food etc	-26.54
Household	-6.35
Toiletries/medical stuff	-38.2
Books	-20.72
Yoga	-55.58
Clothes	-28.71
Home stuff	-32.74
Plants	-36.8
Total	-351.66

I also bought a new laptop, a new pair of glasses, and the home spend is mostly from a couple of bigger purchases. I definitely feel like I'm overspending, would like to keep it to about £300 per month going forward. I'm transferring £400 per month to my daily spending account for all costs, which covers the above plus cleaner (£50 per month), travel (I've been building up a pot for this as some months I spend nothing but others I need to get taxis mostly to and from hospital appointments and I have a series of these coming up), software subscriptions, all those sort of things. £400 is very generous compared to the debt paying off period but I seem to be treating it as a target rather than a ceiling! I can't decide if it's ok as long as I stick within that limit (which I am), or if I should cut the limit down to exercise some control over it.

The prospect of a mortgage is looming on the horizon too, so I should really be keeping spending down for that. I'm very definitely buying things that are wants rather than needs (at least half of the plant spending was buying nice decorative pots for houseplants to go into ). Also rather a lot of money has gone on ice cream lately On the other hand, I have money going into savings each month and I've increased the mortgage payment to overpay monthly too. 

I guess I'm going through a sort of second phase of learning to live within my means - doing so while paying down debt is one thing, but I now need to find a balance of spending and saving I feel happy with without having the massive debt hanging over my head. I need to decide what I want my spending to look like in normal life, instead of constantly feeling guilty for not saving every penny.

savingholmes

I think you hit the nail on the head. It's an adjustment being DF and balancing future requirements with feeling like you are living today

girlatplay

I don't think your spending in the various categories looks too bad.

For the £400 pm daily spending, you could try something like in the grocery challenge; shave an amount off it each month.  Maybe £20.  Start August with a budget of £380, September £360 until you get to a level that you are happy with.  If all else fails, you don't have the debt anymore so you can take from savings if it's too tight one month.