Learning to live within my means

girlatplay

I'm stalling for goals for next year also.  Obviously I want to move, I've been quite vocal about that but that is more about finding the right place than working towards getting it.

I like that you are able to breakdown your categorised spends for the year.  I've never made it past January before, with noting them, so I'm hoping to do better next year.

I'm looking forward to reading how your year goes 🙂

astrocytic_kitten

Thanks GAP! The breakdown is all thanks to YNAB…currently lapsed after the price increase, so despite transferring everything to a spreadsheet I have absolutely no idea what I’ve spent or where I stand 😂 I’ll restart it tomorrow as moving house really isn’t the time to lose track of budgeting, then once the move is sorted I plan to switch to Starling or similar and see if I can work with that instead. None of the other apps I’ve tried really do it for me.

I’m having a huge wobble on the house move, wondering if more than doubling my mortgage is the right thing to do. It’s the only thing to do if I want to stay in this city, but still…I’m worried I’m setting myself up for loads of financial stress. I can afford it fine if things stay as they are or get better, but they’ve got steadily worse over the past year so what if that continues 🤷‍♀️😬

Cheery thoughts to go into a new year with 😂 Must do better!

savingholmes

Happy New Year. On the house - I suppose my question would be your health. Have I misremembered or do you have health issues that flare up? If so you need to think about whether doubling your mortgage to get a 'better' home is likely to improve that or worsen it & explore mitigations.

astrocytic_kitten

Thanks SH, you’re right about the health issues and the risk of increasing mortgage due to that. The problem is that it’s the health problems driving the move, my current place actively makes things worse in some ways and my doctors are all very keen for me to move somewhere more accessible and have said it’s the only real hope I have for any improvement in my current condition. 

So it’s a real dilemma….to get the sort of place I need my choices are to increase my mortgage to get something suitable in my current city, or to move away for a cheaper place which would be far away from friends, support networks, would mean I need to find a new medical team etc.

I’ve gone back and forth and back and forth for several months on what’s best, eventually decided to stay in my current city but I’m still not sure if that’s the best option. Also places that work that are in my price range don’t come up very often, so if I was to pull out of my current purchase it could be several months before something else comes up either here or the other places I’m looking. 

astrocytic_kitten

Anyway, happy new year everyone! Despite an early night I haven’t had much sleep (expected up to midnight but who the hell sets off fireworks at 2am?! Then the cats decided 5am was the right time to start charging round the flat at top speed). So rather than a bright eyed and bushy tailed start to the year I’m under a blanket with a vat of tea and don’t plan to move any time soon 😂

Here’s hoping 2022 brings us all some hope and peace. 

greenbee

It's normal to have wobbles about moving. But as you've said several times, you have made this decision based on logic - so regardless of the emotional wobbles, you know you have done the analysis and made the decision for the right reasons. Try to focus on the positives - you'll have more suitable accommodation, you're not uprooting yourself from a location you know and have an established life in, and although the mortgage is larger, you have the skills learned here to help you manage your money and deal with it.

I'd recommend not overpaying for the first few months - you need to save to fund unexpected costs as a result of the move, where you may need to do work on the new place that you hadn't thought of. But once you're in, and have established a budget, you can start taking steps to tackle the worry of the big mortgage, whether that's overpaying, or building up an offset fund.

Hopefully the move will be positive, and 2022 will see life getting a bit easier for you. 

astrocytic_kitten

Thanks for the reality check @greenbee, you’re right of course. I’ve bored everyone IRL silly with my agonising over this 😂

Possibly losing my home is a bit of an emotional trigger for me after a lot of housing instability growing up, and it’s easy to get lost in the emotional wobble and lose sight of the reasons I made the choice. I just need to hang onto the positives and that by moving I’m giving myself the hope of health improvements.

savingholmes

'Sounds like you have a plan then. 

[Deleted User]

Just caught up AK - I think like you say it's a bit of a circular argument - if you get away from where you are now, your health could well improve somewhat and you might be able to work more, then less of an issue.  Totally agree with what greenbee says re overpaying.

I also think 8k a year spend is pretty good!  I really have never added up what we've spent over a year before - I think it would scare me too much.  But good ideas for cutting down if you can and keeping a running total of what you've spent on clothes might work as a demotivator tool!

astrocytic_kitten

Oh gosh, it’s been so long since I’ve commented here. I’ve been in limbo with house move stretching out and lots of drama and just not really wanting to get into it. But things are resolved and I’ve just taken an extremely deep breath and set up a thread on MFW 😱 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6349529/the-turtle-moves-slowly

I still feel like a total imposter doing it 🤣