Little steps: My saving diary

Hi everyone, I'm a returning poster and previously wrote about my battle to save money here In the time between my last post and this one, I spent a year working for a family who had zero respect for me, which pushed me into taking a risk on moving away and then 2 years working as a live in nanny 250 miles away from home. While I was a live in, my wages were low but my living expenses were covered so I managed to save a fair bit of my income.

In the end I wanted to move closer to home and after 2 years living in my nanny family's spare room I was craving my own space away from work! Now I'm living in Yorkshire in a house share and working a 5 min drive away. I feel much happier generally but it hasn't worked out so well financially.

When I left my live in job I had approx 9k in a LISA, which I can't access until I buy a house and just under 4k in savings which I lived on in the 3 months between moving back to my parents house and job hunting/relocating to Yorkshire. I've some teething problems in the first few months of my new job, hours fluctuating, not earning what I thought I would every month (though its hopefully sorted now) and I've relied on my savings more than I would like. I now have only £500 savings left and I'm living paycheck to paycheck with nothing left to put into savings

The good news is I will finish paying off my car at the end of August and then I will be £220 better off a month. I want to build my savings back up to £1000 and then work on creating a bigger emergency fund in case things go pear shaped at work again. I'm setting myself some little steps to help me get there. For the last few days of May, these steps are:

1. Eat from the freezer/cupboards. Only buy fresh food such as milk and fruit and use up what I already have.
2. Establish a budget to start in June.
3. Declutter and list unwanted items on Ebay.

Advice is always welcome and I look forward to reading through your saving diaries too

Take care,
Hayley