Geriatricmum vs inner voice: A monologue

Geriatricmum

Me: "Kids are at school and nursey, workout done, kitchen clean, 100th wash in the machine.... Time to relax with a cuppa and maybe browse the sales."

Inner voice: "you have £44.39 in your current account and zero savings"

Me: "yeah but I can pop it on the credit card!"

Inner voice : "you're currently using over 92% of the balances on your cards" 

Me: "shhh inner voice don't ruin my dopamine fix" 

Inner voice: "GET A GRIP WOMAN! you're 41, you have two young children that need stability, you have over 11k in credit card debt and you want to buy a house in the summer. Nursery won't get cheaper, food ain't gonna get cheaper, mortgages aren't gonna get cheaper..... I could go on!“ 

Me: “OK, OK, I'll stop spending like money like I'm in my 20's with no responsibilities and start listening to you, inner voice, instead of my hormones“

Inner voice: "Good. Now start one of those blog things and document what I say.... Time to face reality"

Me: "ugh fine... You're such an attention seeker"

Inner voice: "shut up". 

in_need_of_direction

Brilliant introduction to your diary.  Stick with it and soon those voices will be dealing with saving rather than spending.

Geriatricmum

I currently have 3 credit cards, with varying balances and some amounts on the cards still on 0% promotional offers.

Barclaycard: limit £1,300
Virgin: limit £5,300
MBNA: limit £5,600

Balance breakdown:

Barclaycard 31.04% £1,127.62

Virgin 20.01%  £350.37

MBNA 28.08% £189.88

Virgin 20.01% £2,452.44

Virgin 21/01/24 0.00% £1,206.40

MBNA 20/03/24 0.00% £372.60

MBNA 08/04/24 0.00% £776.25

MBNA 31/05/24 0.00% £2,745.77

MBNA 18/07/24 0.00% £516.88

Virgin 30/09/24 0.00% £1,040.00

MBNA 19/10/24 0.00% £381.15

I had thought about taking out a new balance transfer card to reduce my interest burden but inner voice told me not to as I had just started a new job in October and I might not get approved harming my credit score.

Background: I found a new job during maternity leave that had better pay and allowed me to work from home, my old job point blank refused these requests and wouldn't give me a pay rise.
I felt stuck in a rut and the thought of going to work and leaving my baby in a nursery for this job left me feeling down.
I listened to my inner voice and put myself out there, no easy feat as I had 'the fear' but we'll find out in 2 weeks if it's paid off as that's when my 3 month probation is up!

Inner voice :"you're babbling, get on with the debt busting plan"
Me: "a bit of background doesn't hurt!“
Inner voice: "zzz"

Anyways....I want to get rid of Barclaycard first, the APR is insane, this was my first credit card I dont know why I've held into it for so long.

Inner voice is still working on a plan of action..... 

Geriatricmum

in_need_of_direction said:

Brilliant introduction to your diary.  Stick with it and soon those voices will be dealing with saving rather than spending.

Thank you very much. I'm hoping this will keep me going when temptation comes my way.

There's always a personalised something I want to get the kids! 

Pollie

Exactly how old are the children because you may want to ask yourself 'but do they want the something?' (or even if they know what a personalised something is). Could possibly save you some money.

Geriatricmum

Pollie said:

Exactly how old are the children because you may want to ask yourself 'but do they want the something?' (or even if they know what a personalised something is). Could possibly save you some money.

7 and 1. Inner voice tells me all the time they don't need personalised stuff. 

Inner voice "yeah but you never listen" 
Me: "I am now"
Inner voice: "too little to late!"
Me "IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!" 

Geriatricmum

End of the week roundup:

Fails:

— Car went in for a service on Friday, ended up paying £412 for a broken rear spring (that's almost all the grocery budget for this month gone now 😳). I could've cried in the garage when he told me. Inner voice had some choice words for me on the drive home! 

Just slightly panicking about buying food for the rest of the month. Hoping to not have to resort to using the CC. 

Wins:

+ Added some outgrown baby vests and a pair of boots which don't fit anymore (fat calves) to vinted. 

+Managed 4x workouts this week!

+I didn't spend anything on uneeded items!

+Paid in cheque for tax rebate of £107.62 after I claimed tax relief for the professional fees I pay every year. Realised I hadn't done it for the last 4 years! 

redofromstart

Good luck with your new diary.

im not sure that you can anticipate broken springs on a car, but you can't just ignore them.

Spendless

Geriatricmum said:

Pollie said:

Exactly how old are the children because you may want to ask yourself 'but do they want the something?' (or even if they know what a personalised something is). Could possibly save you some money.

7 and 1. Inner voice tells me all the time they don't need personalised stuff. 

Inner voice "yeah but you never listen" 
Me: "I am now"
Inner voice: "too little to late!"
Me "IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!" 

Do they have names where you can buy this sort of stuff off the shelf or have to have it made? (I'm not asking you to reveal their names). My 2 you could occasionally find stuff when they were little - DS more common abroad, nowadays more frequently found (they're in their 20s)  and DD loved when she moved to another part of the UK at 18 where her name originates from and found more stuff there. But generally it was more me that wanted stuff than them. My suggestion leave buying the youngest till she's old enough to read her name. Eldest if a commonly found name let him buy a souvenir on school trips and hols that sort of thing or if one you have to order leave it for a birthday pressie or stocking filler.

Geriatricmum

redofromstart said:

Good luck with your new diary.

im not sure that you can anticipate broken springs on a car, but you can't just ignore them.

Thank you, definitely cannot ignore them. Didn't even notice it had happened! 

Geriatricmum

Spendless said:

Geriatricmum said:

Pollie said:

Exactly how old are the children because you may want to ask yourself 'but do they want the something?' (or even if they know what a personalised something is). Could possibly save you some money.

7 and 1. Inner voice tells me all the time they don't need personalised stuff. 

Inner voice "yeah but you never listen" 
Me: "I am now"
Inner voice: "too little to late!"
Me "IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!" 

Do they have names where you can buy this sort of stuff off the shelf or have to have it made? (I'm not asking you to reveal their names). My 2 you could occasionally find stuff when they were little - DS more common abroad, nowadays more frequently found (they're in their 20s)  and DD loved when she moved to another part of the UK at 18 where her name originates from and found more stuff there. But generally it was more me that wanted stuff than them. My suggestion leave buying the youngest till she's old enough to read her name. Eldest if a commonly found name let him buy a souvenir on school trips and hols that sort of thing or if one you have to order leave it for a birthday pressie or stocking filler.

DD7 has a name that could possibly find stuff off the shelf for but DS1 has a traditional Gaelic name so nae chance of finding stuff for him!

Definitely more me wanting it than them. DS1 does not need a personalised dummy and dummy holder for example. 😬