Prosperous & Creative Soul Year 4

savingholmes

I get paid on Wednesday - so have done a bit of a review of how this last month has gone. It wasn't the perfect spend pay period - but then for me it had Xmas in it - plus an asbestos bill of over £1K so I'm not sure why that's a surprise!! I've also spent just over £200 on my side hustle idea - which included 4 years web hosting.

My in month net worth has improved by around: 
£650 off the mortgage
£1k into AVCs
£500 improvement in my CC vs net savings calc.
So £2,150 improvement overall

This was helped by:
Receiving backpay in December and a pay increment on top
£130+ of gifts in cash/gift card
Reinstating online food delivering in January - aiming for around £40-45 a week to reduce unintentioned spend - and prevent the boom and bust of spending loads just after pay day and then having very little left for the rest of the month.

What could have gone better:
Emotional / Careless spending e.g. at HB, BnM, the Rge, Am etc

If I want to meet my AVC goal, do more maintenance on the house and still reduce debt - I'll need to significantly cut down my fitter spending.

This coming month I may have new bills for an electrician and joiner - I'm awaiting quotes and I've arranged a boiler service. Thankfully I was able to move my home insurance to a monthly payment which took some pressure off. I need to find a new cleaner - but will probably wait until after Feb payday before looking due to those extra bills!

KajiKita

With fritter spends, how about having a little whiteboard or notebook where you write it down and then at least sleep on it? Might help more conscious spend decisions but still have enough ’flow’ for it to feel spontaneous?

KK

Alchemilla

Asbestos removal is sooo expensive...

Also feel your pain on the cleaner. I find they start well then either clean progressively worse or life gets in the way and they become unreliable. 

Trying a new one in a couple of weeks...

WelshmansDaughter

Perhaps the fritter spends are a reaction to restricting too hard in other areas? Like you have a mental rule that it is ok to spend in certain places because they are cheap/can bring stuff back. And that helps counteract being strict with yourself in other areas?

TallGirl

That is such an impressive improvement in savings and off the mortgage well done even if there was a bit of fritter. It is so hard especially if you enjoy going to those fritter places you name in person. Things just slip into your basket even if you do not need them. We have found having the £40 AS** delivery pass we can add most things in there so avoid going to places as they sell a lot more than food and pricewise it can be cheaper than Amazon. The only shop we do go to is L@ld as prefer some food from there over AS** but we always go with a list and try not to walk down the middle isle as you can get tempted there easily. 

Sounds like you are really cracking on with your side hustle do update on how you are getting on with the website we are just about to engage someone to do our site and need to chose domain names etc. It is all very new and very interesting for me. 

As for the art versus money and financial journey I think the best thing you can do it do what you are comfortable with. It might be trial and error but you know you write really well. I am sure you can transfer that over as not everyone likes video's and reels blogs are still interesting too or am I just too old. 

Blackcats

I agree with @TallGirl.  I like reading things too.  An article which is really attractive to look at because it includes some of your art would be something I'd like to read.

jwil

I'm another that prefers to read than watch videos.  Are you putting subtitles on your videos as well?

Financial update is good

LadyWithAPlan

savingholmes said:

Thanks Lucielle, TG and DF1D.



I was talking to my counsellor yesterday and realised today - I was happy for once. I have managed to retain my calm and mindfulness despite my return to work and despite looming family issues. So far at least. It may help (or not) that I feel less invested in work - and more invested in developing alternatives. I think I've given myself that invaluable quality of hope!

How brilliant ! And fact you recognise that there is a lot of good going on in your life ! 

Hope gratitude and seeing the joy in every moment of living  really makes a happy daily life. 

Glad you moving forward with your  creative side hustle - sounds exciting !

savingholmes

KajiKita said:

With fritter spends, how about having a little whiteboard or notebook where you write it down and then at least sleep on it? Might help more conscious spend decisions but still have enough ’flow’ for it to feel spontaneous?

KK

Thanks KK. I've given myself a spreadsheet tab for spending diary - but I'm typically a few days behind. However - the food spending has reduced significantly. Having pre-loaded gift card - and also a weekly delivery slot - is hlping prevent the 'nipping out' for something that then escalated into a much bigger spend due to the 'extras'.

Alchemilla said:

Asbestos removal is sooo expensive...

Also feel your pain on the cleaner.

Thanks Alchemilla. Good luck with the cleaner. I need one - but no money for that until at least February... But I typically spend less when I have a cleaner - despite the cost of the cleaner - because I can find things easily, my home feels less chaotic so less likely to eat out / get takeaways etc or overspend in general.

WelshmansDaughter said:

Perhaps the fritter spends are a reaction to restricting too hard in other areas? 

I definitely am 'uneven' in what I consider acceptable vs other spends. That requires some thinking about.

For example DD challenged me recently on feeling I could only buy clothes in the Sale. I don't mean that I literally never bought anything full price but it is rare. So this week I bought a single top that colour wise looks gorgeous at full price rather than other sale items that wouldn't have suited me as well.

WelshmansDaughter

Sitting down and thinking through all the rules you have as an Asd person is eye opening. The ones you’ve picked up from other people, the ones you use when masking, the ones that make sense to you…