Becoming debt free and saving for the future.

DebtFreeMonkey

First shift back was lovely. It was good to see everyone and I got £5 for 'help and support' in my team so yay.

Wednesday was minduction day for the MA and everyone was so nice and some people on the course are so funny. Anxious for my first lesson Monday, though.

Student finance went in today so I've cleared my CC and will 'pay' back to the student finance fund, even though there isn't necessarily a reason. It'll be good practise. Whatever is left before the next lot goes in I shall split between savings and debt payments.

Weekend is almost upon us. Tomorrow is my day off and then I don't get another one where I'm not either working or at uni until the following Sunday. Busy times.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

DebtFreeMonkey

By no means am I near to spending all my money for this month but I've been wasting money lately and I'm very disappointed in myself for it. Looking forward to pay day and having a fresh start in October. Because of my holiday, September's budget has gone awry, though not in a bad way as such...

SpekySquarehead

So, to hold yourself accountable, where have you been 'wasting money' this month? Consider this as somewhat of a confession...

Doing_it_my_way

Try not to be too hard on yourself, you have realised you have been a bit lenient so thats a really good start, like Speckysquare says, use this to work out where your weaknesses are

[Deleted User]

Have just found your diary and read it all. You're doing really well!
It's great that you're tackling this now rather than later! It took my until my early thirties to have my LBM, wish I'd have realised earlier and I could be sitting pretty now at 35 haha!
I'm also a fellow vegan - seems there are quite a lot of us on here! Although I'm still working on the WFPB thing and need to lose weight rather than gain it (although not right now as I'm pregnant haha)
There's a vegan store cupboard challenge thread somewhere that you'd probably enjoy!

DebtFreeMonkey

I've just been wasting money on food that wasn't needed or wasn't the cheapest it could have been and I've been lazy/bad time management with travel but payday was yesterday and I've worked out all my budgets for the month! Should stick with it, now

Thank you for the support guys and welcome to the party Moguline! Haha.

DebtFreeMonkey

October is an incredibly busy month and I'm wondering about food planning? I usually like to cook food fresh everyday but does anyone have any tips for meal prepping and reducing time spent on making/preparing food whilst still having tasty stuff to eat? Luckily, I'm vegan so I eat incredibly cheaply, especially at the moment whilst getting debt free. If it wasn't for my spice cupboard, I'd have gone mad at eating pretty much the same ingredients. I mean, rice, potatoes, beans, lentils, passata/tomatoes, mushrooms, frozen spinach, frozen peas...like that kind of cheap, cheap stuff! Haha.

Whilst we're on the subject of time management...anyone have any experience with daily schedules and the like? I mean, I'll be so pressed for time, this seems like a good idea to just be able to cope.

[Deleted User]

I'm reading atomic habits at the moment, really recommend it, it's about improving your habits a tiny bit each day and makes so much sense!
In terms of meal prep, I mostly just make more dinner than I need, especially when making things like curry or chilli, and always freeze a portion or two for lunches later on.
I also find just spending half an hour of a Sunday chopping onions, grating garlic etc and putting it in the fridge in an airtight container really saves me time in the week. It's not meal prep as such but it means cooking something nutritious in the evenings takes a whole lot less time.

FootyFanDan

Hey

just caght up with last few entries, whilst it can be annoying when you feel like you have overspent its important to find the triggers for these to limit them(you will never fully lose them) For me it tends to be when i have had a rubbish few days i just want skittles and a few beers ahahah. It is alos important to try not be too harsh on yourself, just coz we are all on a journey to rectify a istake of getting in debt it doesn't mean we shouldn't also live

I also struggle management wise and i find when i am on my last shift at work i work out my days off and what i am going to do with the time off, to ensure that its productive but also to ensure i get enough time for chilling out as well. I started this as i felt i was't maximising my time at all.

I still want to find time to fit in learning to play guitar...although not sure neighbour will be keen lol. I wanna take up swimming again and also thinking of doing some boxing stuff...not for the punching in head but more for fitness and punchabg work to get rid of tension/stress

Despite the money hiccup you are doing really well, keep going. I saw a picture whilst i was out other day that seems apt here it was something like ' a detour should never prevent you reaching your final destination'