Sorting out the mess 'past me' got me in to, for a happier 'future me'

laurarutter89

It is so easily done, a lot of people start with spending over their budget and then it almost becomes a way of life.

The good thing is that you have realised and are doing something about it now and not later! 

I am hoping to start a family next year if we can as im already 31, and should be debt free by then but if I hadn't of realised next year would have not been possible at all. 

I am waiting for my first order to come through from Beauty Pie but my wedding make up artist highly recommended it so I am really excited to receive it 
I always think its important to look after your skin, I was buying Elemis products before at crazy money

Peaches113

Had to comment as I was just lurking from over on the Mortgage free boards and my diary is also named for ‘future me’. I also was/ am a serial spender and people pleaser so feel your pain in trying to balance these! On the budgeting my financial LBM happened when I discovered YNAB. It costs money after the free trial but the way it explained it really worked for me so might be worth a look, you’ll soon have dozens of different ‘pots’ for every eventuality life throws at you and feel suitably smug about it 😉 And on the beauty buys I know a lot of people are raving about The Ordinary as a good quality affordable brand. I personally love the aldi dupes when they’re out, especially the hot cloth cleanser (and you can order them through the website if you don’t have an aldi nearby) And also make up revolution have some nice skincare products. Anyway just some thoughts. Will subscribe and cheerlead for your ‘future you’

FOMO_overspender

Hiya @Peaches113, I think both our ‘future mes’ will be pleased (or I hope! I’m early days). 

I’ve seen a lot about YNAB and think I should check it out! Lots of people on here seem to swear by it, so it must be good! 

Yes I used to love The Ordinary but I found the serums etc so confusing to work out what they actually all did and meant, so I gave up! I LOVE the Aldi Lacura stuff, it’s amazing! I bulk bought their hot cloth cleanser so thankfully have about 6 months worth stashed so I don’t have to buy any for a while! 😂 (another bad habit of mine, buying loads of the same thing when I didn’t really need it). 

AnxiousTheElephant

I second peaches post about ynab. It works out about £5.50 a month and in my eyes is worth every penny. Sometimes you can have money in the bank but not money to spend and ynab definitely helped me learn that!!

Intrigued about beauty pie... Just looked on the website and was a bit confused. Do u pay the members price on top of your monthly subscription? Or is the members price deducted from your "allowance"?

angela110660

hello. Good luck on your journey. My daughter has Monzo and says you can choose to "lock" pots for saving. She did this to save for holiday spends and set a release date when she could take the money out just prior to the holiday. Might be worth looking into?

laurarutter89

AnxiousTheElephant said:

I second peaches post about ynab. It works out about £5.50 a month and in my eyes is worth every penny. Sometimes you can have money in the bank but not money to spend and ynab definitely helped me learn that!!

Intrigued about beauty pie... Just looked on the website and was a bit confused. Do u pay the members price on top of your monthly subscription? Or is the members price deducted from your "allowance"?

Sorry just jumping in here in regards to the Beauty Pie part as i just signed up and did an order. 

You pay your monthly subscription and then the member price of the products but you have a set limit set by your montly subscription. 

I just did the £5 a month for now to see what it's like but a Make up artist I know highly recommended their products. 

Hope that helps x

FOMO_overspender

angela110660 said:

hello. Good luck on your journey. My daughter has Monzo and says you can choose to "lock" pots for saving. She did this to save for holiday spends and set a release date when she could take the money out just prior to the holiday. Might be worth looking into?

Thank you! Yes, locking the pots on Monzo is a good idea, although historically I have unlocked them but I am hoping that my new frame of mind and this forum/ diary keeping me in check I won't do that. Also started to look in to YNAB, I know lots of people rate it but it does look ever so complicated, I think I will look in to the tutorials etc first before doing a free trial. I have Monzo and Yolt which both track your spending by category in real-time and you can set budgets on, so I wondered if it would all be too much alongside each other? 

blue_eyed_girl123

I've tried YNAB, but found dealing with Monzo and money in "real life" easier. Have you set up a bills pot in M0nz0? I found it easier to put bills altogether and then I know that any money left in the main bit is for food etc . Good luck with your debt busting! 

IrishSean

Sry, I skim read a lot of this; apologies if not all over the detail.

Keep an eye on when 0% runs out on virgin cc so its not the biggest apr. Credit is tightening a bit across the board; overpaying on loan is a 👍.

Other advice is all good.

Only thing i'd add is its totally doable and ur taking control of it while debt is a fair size but still manageable. WD

GL😀💪

FOMO_overspender

blue_eyed_girl123 said:

I've tried YNAB, but found dealing with Monzo and money in "real life" easier. Have you set up a bills pot in M0nz0? I found it easier to put bills altogether and then I know that any money left in the main bit is for food etc . Good luck with your debt busting! 

Thank you! I tend to try to use Monzo as my spending money and keep all my bills in the account my salary gets paid in to, so then I know if my monzo money is gone, it's gone