Must try harder! 14 April at 1:28PM in Debt Free Diaries 208 replies 6.1K views

WinterWarrior

To echo the words of many a school report, I must try harder! 

My dad often quoted ‘a fool and his money are soon parted’ and it’s taken many years and losing my dear dad before I really took it to heart that I am that fool.
My position isn’t terrible, but I’m terrible with money. I often get to the middle of the month with nothing left. I have pots set up in a Monzo account, fill them and empty them every month. I have a savings account, put some in and take it back. I watch Dave Ramsey YouTube clips and get inspired, but can’t even get to the £1k emergency fund!
So to keep myself accountable, here I am!
My husband and I keep our finances separate, we don’t have children and we share the mortgage payments, etc. We have both had bad experiences with shared finances in the past, so this works well for us.
I have 2 loans and am on the pay your debt by Christmas 21 thread and have been hammering overpayments to get these done (about £9k left). After this I hope to fund a 6 month emergency fund and then start overpaying the mortgage. 

I have a credit card which I clear every month, but often there’s a lot on there and it sets me back before I’ve even started on the next month. 

So my short term aims are:

1. pay loans off in 2021
2. put money in pots and not take it back out
3. put money aside to fund the month up front instead of running behind and using the credit card and then paying it off the next pay day
4. stop frittering...so much is wasted on silly things (on line slots (now blocked, I was getting really silly), amazon purchases, kindle books when I could choose free ones, etc).

I’m so ashamed that on the 14th I have no money left apart from £50 to cover a birthday present. My card is zero now, but anything I need until the 30th will have to go on there, so I really must make sure it’s kept to a minimum. Part of the household split means I don’t pay for food and I already have a full tank of fuel, so it should be doable with a bit of effort. I work from home and we are in the sticks, so only on line shopping will trip me up.
good luck to everyone out there who’s struggling. We can do it x

Honeysucklelou2

Good luck with getting the loans gone. The debt free by Christmas is a great challenge and really helps to keep you focussed.

WinterWarrior

Thank you @Honeysucklelou2, I appreciate you stopping by. 

A pre ordered kindle book landed today, so I fell at the first hurdle and am £7.99 down...but hopefully that will be all! 

It’s been a lovely sunny evening after work and I read in the garden for 15 minutes with the dog. It really feels like spring has sprung. 

Four_Seasons

Welcome, I will be following and cheering you on.

WinterWarrior

Thank you @Four_Seasons. It’s kind of you to cheer me on. I was a little worried I’d be a quiet diary with tumbleweed rolling past as I chatted to myself.  I will try to keep things interesting! 

elbree

Hi @WinterWarrior 👋 I had to chuckle about filling the pots and then emptying them again, that's EXACTLY what I've done this month 😂🤦. My downfall this month has been the garden, the nice weather drives me to homeb*se and I go plant crazy. Good luck with the NSDs. Have you seen the 'Tilly Tidy' challenge? I really like it. 

WinterWarrior

Hi @elbree...I did the Tilly Tidy for a while... I kept spending it 🤷🏻‍♀️ ...May will be so much better!
Monzo must think I’m doing the Hokey Cokey, funds are in and out that often. It’s getting embarrassing, so I really need to turn over a new leaf. 

The weather has been lovely hasn’t it? We have a large garden, but it’s mostly left to it’s own devices apart from mowing and pruning. Daffodils, bulbs, shrubs and trees do well, but garden centre flowers are basically a salad bar for wild bunnies and pheasants. Probably a good thing as garden centres are in very short supply in the far north. I do miss big garden centres though, especially at Christmas with the beautiful displays.

elbree

They can be money pits though so probably a good thing!

WinterWarrior

That’s very true. You go in for a plant pot and come out with a patio set, a barbecue, a tree and a fountain! 😬

Naomim

Good luck. Kindle was my downfall too. I'd often only buy books because they were 99p but they all added up!  Now I'm all charity shops and the library. 

It's good to have some short term goals to focus on. I've found the Monzo pots a godsend and have been very disciplined with them but it's hard to get started.

Good luck

Naomim 

WinterWarrior

Thanks @Naomim, i follow your diary, so great to see you here. I hope my false starts will be a thing of the past after pay day. Discipline doesn’t come naturally, but I’m hopeful it can be learned.
I’ve found there are a lot of good free kindle books if you sort in price order. The trouble there is that often they are part of a series to suck you in! I do pre order the upcoming books from my favourite authors, but I will try to read plenty of free ones too. I have a stack of the free first reads from prime to keep me going too. I used to be insistent that real books were the only way to go, then I reluctantly tried kindle and now I prefer that....it’s also less painful to drop it on your face when you are falling asleep than a hard back 🤭