Keep calm and carry on....

South_coast

They're here!!!

themadvix

Exciting times!!

If your BF is really well paid could you persuade him that he could FIRE really quickly (say by 50?)? Or am I in dreamworld!

Enjoy (?) your tea towels!

South_coast

Too late Vix, he's already 53 😮😂! And he's one of those annoying people that says he doesn't want to ever really give up working (no round the world cruises for me then 😥)

South_coast

Well, it turns out the excitement didn't stop with the tea towels. Went out for some shopping after I finished work - and there was no queue at Sainsbury's 😀! Buoyed with my success, I then went to Lidl - no queue there either! That's the first (and second) time I've walked straight into a supermarket in 3 months!

And.... even more excitement....I actually had money left in the grocery budget (the first time I have not pinched money from the petrol pot in.... ever? Definitely the first time this year anyway). I get paid on Friday and don't need to shop again, so have treated myself to some wine and even had some left over to go to the credit card. And there was me thinking I couldn't top the tea towels for a bit of Monday excitement 😂!

South_coast

Evening all, ploughing on over here. Decided to live on the wild side and shuffled the remaining £5.55 of the grocery budget over to the credit card, so I'm now done with June and the pots and current account are all at £0.00 (apart from petrol, which still has the lovely £50.00 I put in there on my last payday and remains intact 😀)

Have also run some figures through a net pay calculator to work out the lowest salary I need to work locally/in nearest city (with/ without parking)/in second-nearest city (with/without parking). It's quite reassuring to see how low I can go if necessary and still be able to pay the bills (and eat 😂, eating is very important 😀), although the drop in salary would be 😮😮😮 Need to remember that all I need to achieve right now is to survive, and earning enough to break even is a whole lot better than eating into savings every month. It would only be OP's/savings/investments that would suffer and those are "nice to's" and not essentials. Definitely a useful exercise though, it was quite eye-opening to see that I'd need to earn an extra £2k per year gross in order to pay for city centre parking in second-nearest city 😮!

Now just need to muster up the enthusiasm to start putting myself about a bit (in the work sense, obvs 😮). With everything which has happened at work in the last 18 months or so, my self-confidence is pretty low and I'm struggling to focus on selling myself and portray what a great asset I'd be. In a weird way, I'm not sure having the savings is helping either. Knowing that I could survive for quite a while without a job is making me a lot less motivated than I think I would be if it were a total existential emergency - need to snap out of that mindset I think, that's money that could be used for my Future Freedom instead of supporting myself now. I'm going to include it in my "money needed" figures now, so I can see the impact that spending it will have and encourage me not to do so!

Grogged

Going great guns there, always like a TT transfer.
Your sounding very organised! 👍
If you have a years worth of savings, maybe think about slicing it into monthly chunks and putting them into a 1 year fix account to remove the temptation. That way, if you really needed it, you've got access to it when needed.
Alternatively, put it into a postal only account to make it just that bit harder?
I did consider suggesting buying and burying gold doubloons in your garden, but not sure if you like parrots? 😀

kaycastle

themadvix - Ooh that sounds like good advice. Yes getting to the end is the worst, I always land up doing something very wrong haha. I can do a few simple things, it just takes me very very long and lots of tries. I do think once lockdown is over finding a sewing group or something like that would work really well for me so they can keep me motivated.

That's a good point on the savings south_coast, I think I'd be the same. I seem to like to be under pressure as I often procrastinate until I am. I think a lot of us do! Are there any online courses or anything like that you can do - sometimes learning something new is a boost to confidence. Make sure you're getting out on plenty of walks as well and plenty of sun - all good mood boosters! 

South_coast

I like the rum which comes as part of the package! I could bury doubloons in BF's garden, but they would probably be dug up by squirrels (either that, or knowing my current luck I would misjudge and they would end up in the septic tank 🤢)

I think the key will be keeping it fixed in my mind that I want to maintain the savings now and not leave myself exposed again, so anything I take out will eventually have to be put back in and the more I take out the more it will slow me down on the overall plan!

South_coast

Hi kaycastle, didn't see you there this morning, you snuck in while I was wittering! Not sure about courses, I'll have a think about that. I'll definitely be getting out and about a bit more and hopefully lose a bit of weight, which I think will help with confidence too - I just sneak inside the "normal" range at the moment, but very conscious that it's literally by about 2lbs and my clothes are protesting 😮!

I think after a week or two of not working I will be much more motivated, but I just need to finish now and have a breather so I can file this job away in a mental box in my head and move on. BF thinks I should be pushing for something new straight away because it's likely there'll be a gap in between anyway, but I can't think about two things at once!

sofarbehind

I'm glad to see your diary back in regular action SC, so much to catch up on. I relate to the loss of confidence at work and struggling to sell yourself well. I am grappling with this as well, it's not easy to overcome and I'm looking at coaching. Perhaps you are right that the savings are making you procrastinate but at least you have time to look for something you want rather than being forced to take the first thing. I think you are so motivated by your financial goals this won't last long. 

Loving the idea of calculating the minimum salary you need - this is one of my mini MF milestones, it will be so helpful to know I don't HAVE to keep the stressful job. Well done for getting to that point.