2024 - slowing down, simplifying and saving up for a more intentional life!

Taking_back_control

I’ve decided to draw a line and start a new diary ahead of the new year. 

For background, I’m in my mid 40’s, Mum to one amazing little boy and feel as though I’ve never got a grip on this whole adulting lark! This is reflected in the very chaotic nature of my life and the way I budget / manage the household finances (or rather lack of budget / management!).

Debt, whilst much higher than I want, is manageable at present. It has come about through lack of emergency funds and poor budgeting / sticking to the budget. 

Since my son started back at school in September, I’ve had a run of stress related poor health and it really has now given me the wake up call that things have got to change. I really need to work at slowing down and simplifying my life in order to enable me to be more intentional in all aspects of it. 

Signing off for now as need to see to the animals (and move that blooming elf 🤣). Have a great day! 

Taking_back_control

First day of my Christmas break - at last! I’m really not feeling it this year. I’m hoping now that I’ve finished work it’ll kick start my Christmas spirit - we’ll see. I’m usually pretty organised in the run up to Christmas, but that seems to have gone out the window this year! Whilst my spending seems to be more under control this year (gifting list has been rationalised, maximised use of loyalty points and cashback), the lack of general organisation has driven me mad and as a result I’m going to be spending the next 2 days, wrapping, delivering and tidying ahead of DS finishing school. Oh well, hopefully lesson learnt and will do better next year. 

I’ve spent some time messing around with my spreadsheet, and looking at the current figures, end of 2025 seems doable to clear the debt. Either way it needs to be gone by the end of 2026 as this is when our mortgage deal comes to an end and I really don’t want us in a position of still paying the debt off and mortgage payments increasing. 

I think going forward I need to start concentrating on and celebrating the small wins, rather than getting too bogged down in the bigger picture. This applies to all areas of my life.

With that in mind, small wins over the last couple of days…..
1. £10 in Amazon vouchers received via work app.
2. Last presents ordered via click and collect - just need to pick up today.

Tasks for today:
1. Collect click and collect pressies
2. Engage elf mode and get wrapping! 

3. Find the bottom of my laundry basket
4. Drop off pressies to friends

Honeysucklelou2

Love the title of your new diary…

[Deleted User]

Best wishes with your plans. Are you able to put any figures to your income and debt? Perhaps post a SOA.

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

Good luck.  I am new to posting but have read many diaries over the years and looking to start my own next week.  I think committing to posting seems very valuable in terms of accountability, regardless of who responds so I wish you all the very best - it looks like you have a good focus on what will work for you.  In my view small wins on a consistent basis are what’s important. 

L

Taking_back_control

Morning,
Hope everyone has had a good Christmas! Whilst it’s been lovely, I’m craving the return to normality and a little bit of space! I’m so anti social 🤣.

Not really a great deal to report on the money front as not been anywhere to spend and still waiting the start of the new financial month.

I’ve been very lucky to have received money from parents and in laws this year. Will split this between the debt and a little bit put aside just in case. I really don’t want to fritter it away. The only thing I’m tempted with is a pair of running shoes. The ones I wear have been reduced to half price and I’m tempted to get a pair to rotate with my current ones. I’m running the London Marathon in April and being on the heavier side I’m quite heavy on my running shoes, so I’m thinking of getting a pair to make sure I’m not running it in half knackered shoes……

I realise I’ve not given details of what I owe as yet. I’m holding off as I have a large refund due on one of the cc and figures are somewhat skewed at the moment so will wait for this to clear and see where the land lies after that. Should hopefully be in a position to post in the new year.

Right I guess I better spring into action - I’ve been sat here for long enough listening to the rain and trying to put off braving the weather to go and sort the ponies. Wish me luck🤣☔️

jackieblack

Half price running shoes sound like they would be a sensible purchase 

Taking_back_control

Happy New Year! Wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2024 🎉

NYE is a bit of a non event in our house - spent the afternoon at the local trampoline park with DS and then an evening of games and nibbles just the 3 of us. 

I’ve taken a bit of time to reflect in how I want my life to change in the coming 12 months - some are too personal to list here, but here are my top 5 in no particular order:

1. Financial 
Make a dent in the debt. Currently standing @ approximately £16k. Mortgage comes off a very low fixed rate Dec 2026 so want it gone ideally by end of 2025 to give us a year of over paying 
2. Home 
Fall in love with it again! It has so many positives but we don’t really appreciate it enough and are constantly lusting after something bigger / better. It’s in a great location, with good neighbours and reasonably private, decent sized rooms and decent plot. It’s just beginning to look a bit tired and neglected, which is completely our doing! Focus for 2024 is to declutter and claim back some space! This will also help with goal 1…..
3. Simplify and slow down….
I want an easier, calmer life! First step to this for me is organisation. Need to move away from last minute.com and get organised. Decluttering will definitely help. Try and take away the panic / stress a bit. 

4. Family life…
Largely tied in with no.3 as this will help free up time. I want more quality time as a family. Christmas has just happened this year and I feel like I’ve let DS down with it all. I feel constantly in survival mode and want to be more in the moment with him. 

5. Health
For the first time in my life I’ve felt like my weight is affecting my health - both physical and mental. This needs sorting. 

Signing off for now as need to get myself up and out to sort the animals 

savingmore

Just bookmarked your thread.  Firstly, happy 2024!   I love your areas for working on and have many of those myself, except we are mortgage free (it’s wonderful).  We are retiring in four months and moving so need a huge declutter.  I have been brought up to hang onto things ‘in case’ so going to try to break that…not thinking it will be easy.  I love books so that will also be a hard category to declutter but know I have to!! Anyway, small steps are the way forward and will make progress everyday, even if it’s a very small incremental step. 

Taking_back_control

Morning!
Last day of my Christmas break today, so cinema trip with DS is planned. I’ve used Clubcard vouchers, so it’s cost us the grand total of £1.80. We have so many goodies from Christmas we’ll take a selection from home, so all in all should be a nice low cost afternoon out.

Need to spend the morning trying to get the house into some half decent state, easier said than done with amount of Christmas pressies DS has received.

Need to get out for a run shortly too. My training plan says 40 mins so will head out before the rest of the house wakes up and get this done. 

Small wins for yesterday included paying for a birthday party present with amazon vouchers obtained through my works app (points collected for being active, meditating, completing workouts etc) and a £10 sale on Vinted - need to post today….

Payments for month so far:
BC - £300
Very - £300

Jobs for today:

1. 40 min run
2. Sort house
3. Post vinted
4. Look into balance transfers
5. Chase up refund onto cc

Taking_back_control

Morning,
So yesterday was supposed to be my first day back at work - DS had other ideas! Woke up and within 10 minutes had D&V. He’d made a miraculous recovery by lunchtime though and was back to his usual bouncy self, just with less appetite! Did me a favour in a weird way (not that I’d ever wish him ill!) as getting to work would have been a nightmare. Of the 5 routes out of the village only one was passable due to flooding and once I made it into town I’d have had to navigate numerous road closures also because of the floods. I’ve never known it so bad in my 40 odd years of living round here. Also managed to de-Christmas the house, so that’s a massive job ticked off. 

Another Vinted sale of £5 - so £15 made week to date. Not bad considering the stuffs been on there a while. I have a box of stuff to work through so will get listing today. Any sales will be sent to BC - there’s a balance of £4777 on there with a 0% deal ending 1st June.

Need to take a serious look at store cupboards and devise some sort of meal plan. I feel like since Christmas I’ve been living off the same beige food as we’ve not really done a proper shop. Time to get the slow cooker out!