The turtle moves.... slowly

girlatplay

AK you have come so far and with a lot of hurdles along the way.  Take a little time to be proud of yourself.  Three years ago you would have bought all the winter cozies with no regard for what you already had or for your budget.

As @savingholmes said to me, you spend a bit more when you buy a new home.

Also, I feel the same as you and @South_coast in that spending situation. When we moved I put money aside out of the proceeds of sale for things like wardrobes and beds, etc, so the costs are coming out of a budget but I don't want to talk about them as I know things are tough for people right now.

astrocytic_kitten

South_coast said:

I've been feeling the same about continuing to spend/consume in the same way, when everyone else is posting about planned cutbacks 🙁 Hope you manage to work through all the thoughts and feelings soon x

Thanks SC, I have not yet caught up on your diary but I thought of you when Sainsburys were doing their fruit & veg challenge! Hope all is well x

astrocytic_kitten

girlatplay said:

AK you have come so far and with a lot of hurdles along the way.  Take a little time to be proud of yourself.  Three years ago you would have bought all the winter cozies with no regard for what you already had or for your budget.

As @savingholmes said to me, you spend a bit more when you buy a new home.

Also, I feel the same as you and @South_coast in that spending situation. When we moved I put money aside out of the proceeds of sale for things like wardrobes and beds, etc, so the costs are coming out of a budget but I don't want to talk about them as I know things are tough for people right now.

You know me so well GAP, a few years ago I’d not only have bought ALL the cosy winter stuff but I’d have bought loads with the intention of returning some… then I’d have felt guilty to be returning an entire huge order so would have kept some stuff I wasn’t really sure about so I didn’t hurt the feelings of a gigantic corporation or have a warehouse person roll their eyes at me 🤦‍♀️

Like you I’ve kept some money back from the sale specifically for work to be done, and it’s gone to local tradespeople, but it just feels weird to be doing what feels like some very public spending (as far as the neighbours go anyway 😂). It feels like it would be way too much like humblebragging to talk about other than here though

South_coast

astrocytic_kitten said:
I thought of you when Sainsburys were doing their fruit & veg challenge!

....which I nailed 😀! Had to buy a lot of bananas to get me over the line at the end though 🤣!

savingholmes

I can relate to feeling guilty when I talk about spending £ or even saving £ when some are scraping to make ends meet - and sometimes despite their very best efforts are still failing.

At the same time - for those like me who have come from debt and financial insecurity - it is really important to have role models for life after - that it really is possible to win and become more responsible financially. That life's 'rewards' may be delayed when we are getting out of debt but do eventually arrive.

Sorry you've had to change your plans due to disability. I hope you are claiming all the help you can... It's nice to see you back posting.

astrocytic_kitten

Ah, poor neglected diary. As ever, when I vanish for a while I come back having overspent 🤦‍♀️ It's partly been home things, partly clothes, partly Christmas…The main problem is that I just haven’t been keeping track and assuming things will work out. But with cost of living increases any slack in the budget has gone.

We’re not talking anything disastrous - no debt, and today I faced up to it all, figured out how much I’ve overspent by and also how much I’ll realistically need to spend between now and the end of the year, and made things balance up. It will mean that I don’t make my normal contribution to savings this month but that’s not the end of the world - and hopefully it’s the wake up call to properly get me on track again. 

I really need to start reporting back on spends again to keep me accountable. I’m spending more than I’d planned to on Christmas, I only buy for a handful of people but about half of them have had such awful years that I don’t really want to cut back on what I get them. My presents pot is more depleted than I’d planned too, mostly because I sent a handful of unbudgeted random presents / flowers / etc throughout the year to people having a tough time. I also have some expensive dental work coming up that wasn’t in the budget anywhere because I’ve always had pretty minimal nhs dental costs and it just didn’t occur to me 🤦‍♀️

So at some point in the next month I’m going to sit down and work out an adjusted budget for 2023, I definitely need to add in a dental pot but also ideally increase the monthly contribution to my presents pot. And to take into account energy prices rising in April, and that I’m spending double what I used to for cat food…I really don’t want to decrease the amount I’m putting into savings so will have to have a really hard think about it.

I need to force my mind back into a more frugal default state, so hopefully going over the budget in detail will do that 😂

savingholmes

I feel you on the dental bills I've had a few of them myself. 

Well done for staying out of debt - and realising it was time to rebalance.

Welcome back!

astrocytic_kitten

Current moneysaving fails: I have started my Christmas shopping, and I’m feeling so exhausted and muddled I decided to just get things as I decided on them, and not wait around for offers or deals etc. My brain just felt so overloaded that even my trusty spreadsheet wasn’t helping much. And I also decided to just pay the postage if there’s only a couple of things I need from one shop. In the past I’ve tried to either make up the order with stuff I don’t really need, or I’ve got presents for people that weren’t really what I wanted to get, just so I could get the free postage from the places I was ordering from.

It won’t surprise anyone that in the week since I ordered the first few presents, every single retailer I ordered with has either now done 20% off or a free delivery offer 😂 it’s only small presents for small amounts so I’m just going to look at it as the cost of one less thing to think about. It’s probably cost me a tenner so far, which sounds like quite a lot. I guess if I was doing my shopping in person rather than online I’d have spent that on a triple whipped gingerbread latte and cake, plus some snacks to keep me going. On the plus side, I’ve also bought some cards so hopefully I’ll avoid the past few years where I get all my presents bought and wrapped early, then realise it’s mid December and I haven’t sent any cards yet 🤦‍♀️

Feeling pretty ill and sore at the moment so very much just muddling along.

Merlin's_Beard

I think at some point you hit the point where the cost of just getting something done does outweigh the cost of waiting for deals. If you're doing it as a conscious choice to save your brain because you're in survival mode, then I'd count that as mindful spending that's worth it to you right now.

Take care of yourself, you can save more money but you only get one you!

savingholmes

I agree with Merlin. Be kind to yourself.