Spendy Wendy to Saver Savvy

redofromstart

It is very normal, the important thing is that you have recognised it and have taken control.  Mindful spending rather than mindless is what I keep telling myself. 

Spendywendywoo

@redofromstart thank you. I spoke with DH last night and gave him some of the figures and he too was shocked. He’s even more on board now. 

I’m going to continue with the 2024 accounts whilst tracking 2025 spends against budget and do some data analysis so that I can really show the difference month on month (for when the months are dragging, though I really don’t think this will be needed but we will see). 

Thanks for your reassurance, it’s appreciated x

FootyFanDan

I admire how committed you are to this.
I did a similar thing a few months ago but just with CC stuff for now and I was totally embarrassed how much was mindless, thoughtless spending and how much I was spending on unbudgeted daft stuff. It also shocked me how the odd £5/£10 built up. Thankfully I am a lot better at money decision (mostly) now.

Spendywendywoo

FootyFanDan said:

I admire how committed you are to this.
I did a similar thing a few months ago but just with CC stuff for now and I was totally embarrassed how much was mindless, thoughtless spending and how much I was spending on unbudgeted daft stuff. It also shocked me how the odd £5/£10 built up. Thankfully I am a lot better at money decision (mostly) now.

Thanks @FootyFanDan, that's great to hear - I bet you feel so much better for it too I'm inspired by people telling me that focus works and how they have made progress, and now I can see that change is possible for us too.  I'm a data gal and just seeing the data has really helped further to maintain the motivation. I am longing for the day I can say we are FI... until then we plug away and make that difference  

Spendywendywoo

Friday! Glorious Friday!

I have chilled tunes on and working though a pile of to dos (mostly work and a few personal to mix it up a bit). 

Going to share the full budget with DH today, he is very very much onboard after our conversation yesterday (I waited a couple of weeks whilst influencing spends so that I could show him the difference between this point of the month vs the same time last month and just the difference in spending, not that I didn't think he would be on board but visuals and data help get any point across). We often speak about the future on our dog walks, which is what posed me to take action, but this has really spurred him on. We do work well as a team usually anyway

Just popped on to say good morning, today I am going to work through the to dos but after doing a big clean up session, of the floors and surfaces, yesterday and a lot of progress on financials I'm going to take the day as it comes and then back to refocusing on getting the 2024 spends updated whilst maintaining our 2025 budget and tracking tomorrow. Not taking my foot off the gas though, my one thing to focus on this year is our financial situation, in turn I realise that, by default, this will have a knock on effect on my weight (less takeaways), my home (more time to clean and an actual budget for home spending to make it more homely), and more time to read - these 3 goals, along with overpaying mortgage are my 2025 goals anyway..... one single focus, multiple benefits

I need to declare final spend on Jan groceries in the morning. but I'll be under budget, just

Have a great day all, 
Wendy x

Suffolk_lass

Spendywendywoo said:

I got to the start of December, popped my formulas in to calculate the amount for each category and I am speechless, and incredibly embarrassed with the findings... I knew we were overspending, and I'm conscious that December is a more spendy month than others but...

Groceries: £960.74 (this includes cleaning items, the odd lotto ticket and dog food, plus anything bought at a supermarket as I have no receipts to review (I keep all receipts now until the items are recorded on my tracker)). Current spend since 15th Jan is less than £250 and our monthly budget is £450, but I expect it to hit this for the first few months whilst we move away from takeaways and eating out.
Takeaway: £216.57 (tbh this isn't as much as I thought it was going to be, but still excessive as the new budget is £100 and I'm not expecting to use all of that)
Eating out: £272.74 (I don't believe it's usual this much but we did pay for a family meal and we ate out more due to Christmas meet ups)
Coffee: £89! (We don't usually spend that much in StarBs but we got into an habit over the last two months of the year of nipping in on our dog walk (this ended over Christmas and we do now budget a small amount but haven't used any of it yet)
Amaz0n: £436.05 (we spend a lot here normally, stems from habits formed during COVID, and some of this amount was gifts, which I'll be budgeting and recording as such this year, but still, this is excessive and there is really no need for it! Happy to confirm we haven't bought anything from Amaz0n this year so far...

I can't look at November yet, that's tomorrow's job... I need a cup of tea and my book... I may even cry. Please tell me that this is normal after a LBM as I am currently very very embarrassed that we have been so flippant with our money.

Well, I was motivated before but even more so now, 
Wendy x

Completely normal. Cry with relief at your LBM, not shame my dear, and welcome to the realisation crew!

jwil

Don't beat yourself up about it, celebrate how much better it will look this year!

Spendywendywoo

Suffolk_lass said:
Completely normal. Cry with relief at your LBM, not shame my dear, and welcome to the realisation crew!

jwil said:

Don't beat yourself up about it, celebrate how much better it will look this year!

Thank you both.  It is certainly feeling more like relief now... relief that my future self will be proud of our achievements, rather than feeling like this when I am 67 and potentially unable to retire. 

We've looked at our overall finances, including pensions, shares and high interest savings accounts and we are in a better position then I thought we were in so hopefully the longer term plan will certainly be successful. 

There's point taking out of these to pay the balloon payment for the car though, I do think that the 0% credit card is the way forward as I've worked out we will be able to keep paying the same car payment amount for another 29.5 months, or we can up it (which is achievable) and pay over 22 months, which is the longest 0% I can find online and which is doable with our credit score. I am already saving for MOT, service, insurance, tax and maintenance in our annual expenditure so this should be covered separately too, meaning we should have a working car which is still fairly new for a fair few more years.

It's all coming together, slowly but surely. 

Happy Friday all,
Wendy x

Spendywendywoo

Hello

Busy weekend so far, we have not stopped - organising, running errands and doing jobs. Quieter day today as DS played football this morning (a win, hooray!), I have changed the bedding and washed the bedding we've taken off but instead of leaving the bedding in the utility room to dry, I've put it on the maiden in the hallway draping over the radiators, so the house smells lovely.
I've just finished recording all of November's spends in the 2024 budget tracker (working back through the year). Nov spends included; £750 groceries, £100 takeaways (this doesn't include those we paid cash for, the true amount would have been in the hundreds), £797.77 on misc/unknown as they don't fit into a current spending category so would just be money wasted (some health / dental but I have a category for that now as this is important), and £100 at Amaz0n... 

Small grocery spend yesterday, will  record this weekend's spends tomorrow but for now I am going to enjoy some time reading my book before starting dinner. After dinner I am going to look at our meal plan for Feb and maybe do a small online shop to click and collect this week. 

Enjoy your day, all,
Wendy x

Cara_

Some great updates.

Whilst it is a good idea to look back at your spending, which I think you will find it helpful as you can see where money was spent without much thought, I wouldn't dwell on it too much as it is in the past and you are making changes. Getting spending under control and saving gives you so many choices and it's very good news that you are in a better position financially than you thought you were.

I think you should be proud of the progress you have made as you are doing really well in a short space of time.