The Mental Debt Struggle...

Sun_Addict

I hope 2025 is a good year for you. You deserve it to be. 

Cherryfudge

Loads of very best wishes for you and your son in 2025, @Keedie! May you go from strength to strength (and you are strong. Look how much you've gone through and come out on top)
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Makingabobor2

I think 2025 will be a great year for you. A fresh start & a new life. 

Keedie

I hope you all had a good start to 2025, and thank you for your New Year wishes. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic for 2025. I did some work on my vision board yesterday with my sister, hers were all images, but mine was more writing than anything and bullet points. Funny how our minds are all different isn't it?

But anyways, I'm going to encourage my son to do a vision board as well. I think he needs some motivation to keep focussed for his last 6 months of education before he ventures into the world of work... I know one thing that would be on his vision board is getting a driving licence. He's starting his part time job soon and he will be putting some money aside for lessons and I'll see what I can do to help him too. 

I've been working on an annual budget and getting things together so that I can start to save up for some annual expenses like the MOT & service, car tax and the subscriptions like Kindle Unlimited, Amazon Prime etc. I've saved for 2025's subscriptions and the money is there for the whole year, aside from the Apple One subscription. But I have now worked out that my share is £225 a year (rounded up to have the surplus for next year), and so I had £111 in that pot, and I added the rest from the money I set aside for February 2025's budget. It means that I have been able to cancel that monthly standing order, and I just need to hustle a little more to make it back up, but moving forward, I'll need less money for the monthly bills.

I made £7.18 in interest and cashback (which was £0.71 for the cashback) and so that has gone to the emergency buffer, which is now sitting at £152.52/£500 (30.50% saved). 

I'm off to Lidl as I completely forgot that I was meant to be making macaroni and cheese for New Year's Day dinner at my mum's house and I've gotta get that cooked and ready to be there for 6pm - eek!

Have a good evening everyone and Happy New Year again. Looking forward to the possibilities of a fresh start...

Sun_Addict

Happy New Year Keedie and what a beautiful picture and analogy ❤️

Cherryfudge

Have a great time at your Mum's!

Just a thought about your son's driving (and I'm not a driver) - I wonder whether the best thing you could do for his driving is to give him accompanied time behind the wheel so he gets lots of practice? It seems to me that people who get the hours in are at an advantage when it comes to passing the test, but perhaps some people who actually drive would be better commenting on this!

Keedie

It is a great quote and picture isn't it @Sun_Addict? I might do a vision board of quotes, and put that one in the centre.

I had a good evening thanks @cherryfudge, but my 16 year old nephew wasn't too happy with me. I completely forgot that he's gluten and dairy free (naughty aunty), and so he was watching everyone devour the mac and cheese with a long face 😬. I told him I'll make it up to him and make him one soon. So I'll sort that out when I get back from Brighton and drop it off to him. I usually make BBQ chicken drumsticks and Jerk BBQ drumsticks as well, but I just couldn't be bothered with faffing about for that, so I didn't bother. I think he was pining for that as well 😂.

I've finally updated the Etsy budget spreadsheet and put in all the information that I know. Some things like council tax, rent, water rates etc will increase from April 2025, so I've just done those line items up to March 2025. And I've figured out a better way to log my round ups and spare change challenges and stuff like that. So it is now easier to kind of fit with how my brain and budget works. And that's put a smile on my face...

Keedie

I got an email from the Help to Save people to say that I'll be getting my bonus in February 2025. I managed to save the maximum £50 a month each month for the last two years, so my bonus will be the maximum £600. It will be going straight into my mini emergency fund and towards my car maintenance fund. I have £152.52 in my mini emergency fund, and so by the time I get that money, I will be able to add to it so that I can reach my first £500 milestone. That £500 will then go into an ISA that I am yet to sort out. The remainder is for the car maintenance fund.

Anyways, all that yabbering on just to say that I paid this month's £50 into the Help to Save account. I had hoped that once the first two years was done, I could withdraw the £1,200 I'd saved and stick it in an ISA, but you lose the potential maximum bonus from years 3 and 4 by doing that, so I'll leave it in there, and then put all the money towards the ISA.

I've also paid £25 to Argos Card, so that's now down to £150. That's gotta be cleared by 14 June 2025, so with overpayments, I'll be able to get that down and cleared in May 2025.

Cherryfudge

Well done for getting the savings bonus!

Keedie

Thanks @Cherryfudge, it really is such a good savings opportunity.