MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Three items listed on Vinted today sold almost instantly, so I've wrapped and just posted those. That's £28 to put towards the CC bill when the money hits my account. £65.56 left to find/ make to clear it again. 

Moneywhizz

I have read along with your diary and admired how much you are able to save and to overpay your mortgage. Maybe you just need to get a bit more balance and allow yourself a reasonable allowance every month for personal spending so that you don't feel guilty when you buy yourself something. You could do the same for holidays and entertainment. If you have a fixed amount going into these pots monthly you can do these things as long as the money is there. Yes, it may slow down the paying off of your mortgage but you do need to be able to enjoy life while you are still young. You are in a strong position now with your finances, yet you still seem to be anxious about money. This is a good opportunity for you to have rethink and rebalance between saving and spending. You work hard and manage everything so well, you deserve to be able to enjoy things without guilt. 

FacelessNumber

I think as with most things a bit of balance is key. It's ok not to save every month but it's also good to have a bit of a buffer for if things go wrong. For example people with no savings would soon be in trouble if one of them was unable to work.

Personally we have an amount we try to keep our pot at and sometimes we spend it all and have to build it back up and that's ok! But everyone has different priorities and that's ok too! If you feel like being less strict would make you happier then try it out and see how you find it.

You need to do things that make you happy now as well as save for future you!

Sarahwithlove

Balance is definitely key. They are right in some respects as you can't take your money with you in the end. Could you maybe start saving the extra you earn from vinted, surveys etc in a saver for those kind of luxuries rather than putting towards debt? I've done this and started allowing myself to have it for my football fund so I get to do extra games once I've saved the funds up. 

MeandO

Thank you for your comments and suggestions Moneywhizz, FacelessNumber and Sarahwithlove it’s much appreciated.
 Moneywhizz, you are right in saying I still get anxious about money. I think it’s the fear of not having enough to cover anything major that goes wrong in the house. It stems from a traumatic series of events to do with our then house back in 2017/18 and then bad luck with the following house up until 2021. It was just an awful period of my life which will forever affect me and has set me back by 15+ years or so financially. I would be mortgage free by now if it wasn’t for that. I’ve done my best to move on, even had counselling, but the fear of potentially losing DS’s home as I don’t have enough money panics me whether it’s a logical thought or not. It’s rubbish how my thoughts can render me so anxious at times over situations which don’t exist.

Anyway, you’ve all hit the nail on the head with the balance theme and so I’ve spent some time today re-doing my budget from next pay day. I’ve lowered the EF from £500 to £350 a month which saddens me and makes me a bit panicky, but £500 a month was proving tough to put away especially as I’m also saving £350+ in other pots.  I’ll pop the new budget on here tomorrow, but I need to try and shoehorn DS into thinking about an early night for now. Xx

MeandO

I've paid £127.50 off the credit card this morning the funds for which were boosted by a £50 ebay sale yesterday. There will be another £28 to follow once the vinted orders have cleared. 

I've zapped a few books and Xbox games this morning to try and get some £'s for on z!ffit, but it's below the minimum payment amount so I will wait until I have a few more items to send.
I've also paused our Pr!me membership. DS tends to listen to music via a free app on his phone now and I rarely order things so it can be cancelled for the time being. Perhaps I'll reinstate it nearer Christmas when I will likely be making more orders.

I have finally bitten the bullet and booked to have my hair cut and professionally coloured this week. I've always box-dyed my hair to save money and because of my dislike of going to hairdressers but it's looking awful and in bad condition now. I have been feeling so rubbish about myself and feeling so old lately that I've forced myself to do something about it although it feels completely out of my comfort zone to sit in a hair salon. I am still in shock at the price it's going to cost me though and am not at all happy about spending that amount of money on my hair. I think it will be a one off and if I don't feel it's worth it I'll be going back to dying it myself! I don't have the money saved specifically for it so it will go on the credit card and I will pay it off with a different pot or use any money made between now and pay day to add to it. It better be worth it! I have put money aside in my new budget to cover haircuts etc in the future, that way I may no feel so guilty about spending the money.
 
I'm back to the fitness classes this week too after not being able to go during the summer holidays due to childcare or being away. I'm nervous, but looking forward to feeling a bit better about myself again. The pain and stiffness I get in my knees and joints have got a lot worse since I was last there so I'm hoping it will help or a least not hinder me.

badmemory

I am really fed up of going to my current hairdressers.  My usual one left & I am getting really sick of having to tell her replacement how to cut hair.  I mean how difficult is it to understand - look at the amount of growth since last time you did the colour & cut that off.  I have even said you will never hear me say you have cut it too short only that it is too long cut more off.  This is almost 10 visits on.  Even the colour doesn't seem right.  My old doctor suggested I wash mine in aqueous cream & that does really help mine.  I blodge it on as early as would be socially acceptable & then more when about to wash it.

MeandO

I hope you have more luck with the hairdresser soon badmemory x

MeandO

It seems to have been a really long day today and I can’t wait to get to bed. I slept better last night but still feel shattered and I’m aware I’m a bit grumpy and have less patience today because of it. I’ve also found the loneliness of WFH a bit much today and it’s made me feel quite miserable.  I’m going to try and tidy my little box office up a bit tomorrow to make it nicer to be in although I’m not entirely sure where I’m going to move stuff to yet as there’s no other storage to speak of. I started filling another charity bag today and will work on finding more bits to put in there. Some of the vinted items will go in there if they’re not sold within a couple of weeks too as I don’t have the room to store them. I also want to repaint the walls in the box room as the pale blue walls just make it gloomy being on the north side of the house. I’m going to see if I have any spare paint leftover as I don’t want to spend any money on it if I can help it. I bought wallpaper for one wall in a sale a while ago but am not sure if it’s right for that room now, I’ll wait and see what the walls look like when repainted first. I have a huge desk and two computers on there presently - my work laptop (which is larger than an average laptop) and a very large Apple Mac. I no longer use the Mac and it’s 10 years old and can’t be updated to the latest OS so is unlikely to be with anything. I would like to get rid of it but it seems a shame to just throw it. If I get rid of it, I can downsize the massive desk I have in there and maybe make a bit more room. It involves spending money on a new one though which I don’t want to do. I’m also using a spare kitchen chair as a desk chair and have been for about 5 years, which may explain why I’m in pain when I stand up, but I don’t have anywhere else to put the spare chair (and don’t want to get rid of it) and I don’t want a wheely office chair to ruin the carpet in the box room! Oh, and I don’t want to spend on a new chair. I think I just need to suck it up and be grateful for what I do have. 

I’ve contacted another ‘antique’ person about selling some items that belonged to my Grandparents as I didn’t hear back from the last person. I feel guilty for getting rid of these things but they are just collecting dust and sadly DS never met my wonderful Grandad and my lovely Nan died when he was a baby so he has no memory of them and the objects will not have any meaning to him. My siblings have shown no interest in the objects either. If I do manage to sell any I will put the money towards paying down the mortgage as that way I feel like my Grandparents are helping us to own our own home. They’d approve of that I think. ❤️❤️

Moneywhizz

have you readjusted your budget to give yourself some personal spends money? I know it takes time to adjust but reading your last post, your mindset of not spending money on anything that would actually benefit you is still very evident. You shouldn't have to suffer with a sore back because of a chair that you have been using for 5 years. You need try to start doing things to make your life better, rather than struggling along feeling pretty miserable.