Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget - 2021

candygirl

helensbiggestfan said:

Just checked my March budget.......could do better. 😂🤣.  

Join the club hun.Mine's awful, due to loads of Amazon spends 🤭🤣

savingfortomorrow

LL- brilliant advice. It's hard to justify losing so much income. I know I would feel resentful and that would not be ideal. I want to focus on my overall life and make a better-balanced life. I know when I commuted long hours I gained so many kilos due to a poor diet and not having time to exercise. It is hard to realize having a nest egg gives me security especially having grown up with food insecurity. It remains with you, the need to keep the pantry stocked and bills paid ahead. 
It takes honesty to realize that I'm motivated by money and the consequential security it provides. My CV looks terrible to some as jumping jobs at the flip of a hat to gain more money. Moving now will just damage my health and limit my saving plan. 

Phoebe - the garden is beautiful. It will be so charming to read a book in the summer there. It is so lovely.

savingfortomorrow

I removed my card details from Amazon and saved a fortune as have time to search for the card- it stops impulse purchases and accidental basket buys. 

helensbiggestfan

SFT.  There's nothing wrong with being motivated by money, as you say it buys you security and peace of mind.  And whilst it might not buy you health, it can buy decent medical care.  🤣. And whilst having money doesn't guarantee love and happiness, it can make life a little easier.   I wish I had known that when I was 20.  I was brought up by parents who wanted money but who would never admit it.  That would have been vulgar. 😂. It wasn't the done thing to be too ambitious.  

There is a great book called "Nice Girls Don't Get Rich". I can thoroughly recommend it.   If I were an educator I would make it compulsory reading for all girls.  It really made me stop and think when I read it, about my upbringing, about how my family shaped my relationship with money,  how families, teachers and employers view women and why women to this day are still playing catch up. I only found the book last year.  

I am definitely a late bloomer.  Maybe if I had read that book when I was younger I might have got going sooner.  I would have followed my heart and had the courage of my convictions rather than allowing myself to be directed by my parents and ending up in an employment cul de sac.    As it was I reckon I wasted around 15 years doing work which bored me silly and which didn't really reward me financially either. A lose-lose scenario.  

Oddly enough I have just been watching a programme about Grace Kelly and her "missing millions". According to her will her estate was only worth 10,000 dollars but in reality she had been really savvy, channeling her fortune through a series of trusts and charitable foundations, 

Wednesday2000

savingfortomorrow said:

 It is hard to realize having a nest egg gives me security especially having grown up with food insecurity. It remains with you, the need to keep the pantry stocked and bills paid ahead. 
It takes honesty to realize that I'm motivated by money and the consequential security it provides. 

I can relate to that too.x

I feel like I'm very risk averse because I'm worried about ending up penniless, which is unrealistic. I assume it is the fear from childhood although I've read that a lot of women suffer with "bag lady syndrome" even if they are affluent.

Wednesday2000

A champagne moment today was having a hot bath with geranium, rose and ylang ylang essential oils. It was the perfect temperature. The clocks going forward didn't throw me like usual as I remembered to set the clocks the night before, for once! I started a new book in bed last night and I will carry on with that in a minute.

Oh yes, I have sorted out the date of a day out in London next month. It's on the same day as my long awaited haircut!

helensbiggestfan

Good Morning my lovely friends.   

Oh I get bag lady syndrome.  When my first marriage broke up and I had to lose my pretty little home by the sea I had to start again from scratch, so my top priority was to get myself in a position where I could buy a little house. I saw property ownership as my security blanket and my way out of being poor.  

I took the highest paid job I could find and ploughed my money in to an old wreck.  Seriously, it was barely habitable, but it was in the country with fabulous views. I could see it had that magic word "potential". I had very little money left and couldn't afford contractors so I rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in. For the first 3 months, I had to eat, sleep and live in one room......in the middle of winter.  It was freezing 🥶😂. 

3 years of blood, sweat and tears later I sold it for more than double what I had paid for it.   That one deal, that big push set me on the road to freedom and security.  Everyone thought I was crazy. No one  could understand why I wouldn't just rent a nice batchelor girl flat and live the life of a carefree Singleton, maybe meet a nice new man,  I had other ideas. 😁.  This was back in the mid seventies, only a year or so after women were finally able to get mortgages or credit in their own name.

 I just seized the opportunity. I decided I wanted security and freedom that no one could ever take away from me again.  It would all be mine. Of course  I did meet a nice man, several in fact,😉 -  eventually meeting the man who became my wonderful second husband.  

Some might say I took a huge gamble, leaving my first husband, striking out on my own and lumbering myself with a wreck, living in a virtual building site for three years but, for the  first time in my life I stopped listening to the everyone's advice and just followed my heart and listened to my instincts.  What others saw as a stupid gamble, I saw as a calculated risk which would reward me in the end. I played the long game and won.  It wasn't easy, not for the feint hearted. For 3 years I had no holidays, I had to sell my car, I hardly bought any clothes or had many treats, i lavished all my time, money and energy on my investment but all that hard work and sacrifice paid off in spades. 

It was fear of never having anything, of bag lady syndrome, which inspired me, spurred me on and kept me going when I felt like giving up. That house was, without doubt, the best investment I ever made (apart from my second husband, but that's another story). 🤣

Wednesday.....your Bath sounds wonderful.  And your plans for post lockdown sound fabulous.  I must admit I'm chafing at the bit now. I am so looking forward to getting out and about again. My holiday, a hair cut, being to browse the chazzers, launching my business. 

Not long now. 🤞🥂

helensbiggestfan

Meet Dolly, my business partner.  😂🤣.  Together we are going to get rich. 🤞🥂💃

Maybe.......

helensbiggestfan

Ps.  Have you seen the weather forecast for early this week.    🌞🌞🌞.  Wahoo. 

Wednesday2000

I used to have a mannequin when I sold dresses on ebay.

I'm so happy about the nice weather next week. I should go and tackle the garden weeds and clean the drive while it's sunny.

I'm reading a thriller set in the alps and it's making me feel cold. I got into bed to read it. At least that makes my two little dogs happy as they like sleeping on my bed. They like it when I have a lazy day.