Dentist appointment this morning has left me feeling a little

What was meant to be a check up with a scale and polish has turned into a hygienist and a replacement of an old filling that apparently is making matters worse for me rather than better, so the bill is £190 rather than £21

Luckily I have enough to cover it but... what a pain!

Boo to the dentist - I don't mind the actual dentist so much but I have to see the hygienist regularly and she's £45 a pop....

So expensive I try to remind myself that it's for the sake of my teeth and they're worth looking after...I had braces for 5 years!! So I definitely didn't go through all that suffering for nothing...

Pleased to report that my total debt is now four figures, at £9,750!

Sadly my investment hasn't done fabulously, having lost an entire 0.15% in the last few days...I've been watching it like a hawk but remembering I'm in it for the long haul and there will of course be peaks and troughs!

Have a busy social week this week, will probably blow my entire socialising fund...it's OK, I've realised it's a bit pointless trying to spread my socialising out anyway because all my friends get paid at the end of the month so if I spread out my budget I have nobody to socialise with because everyone else is skint by the second week of the month!

Well done on all the shuffling... I love a good shuffle come payday!

Sorry you're feeling a bit low/ stressed, I know what a massive impact work can have on your mental health. I hope it's just a short stressful period and passes for you soon enough. I find that my anxiety and low moods are sort of cyclical so am hoping this is similar for you and you feel on the up again soon.

At the end of the day you should be so very proud of where you are.

You're doing great with the debt busting and you're making smart savings decisions. Investments and premium bonds in your mid twenties is very sensible and older you will likely be very happy and proud of what you've done. You're in a good position because you worked hard at your job and got a raise - which you totally deserve! There should be room in the budget for your fun stuff and don't beat yourself up about it. The important thing is you have the self awareness/ savy to realise if you're going to far aaaand you are smart enough to come up with solutions.

Another boo to the dentist from me It's been far too long since I've been and I am fearful about what I probably need done. I have the mentality that if they look fine, then they are fine? Probably very, very wrong! I can get dental insurance through my work for about £4/£5 a month so should probably take that up sooner rather than later!

Makes sense with your socializing fund! If no ones around to socialise and you have loads left it will probably just get frittered away. So better to spend it for it's purpose and have a good time doing it!!

Hi lonelyrat, thanks for pooping in.

You're absolutely right re mental health. I think it really is one of those things where it ebbs and flows. Anyway, work will always be stressful so I had better get used to it really.

In keeping with my socialising plan, I've had a busy week this week which has also been relatively spendy. Should be ok though as it's all in budget.

Only thing is this damned filling which I should be getting on Monday. Oh well, needs must and teaches me a lesson to not be so pig headed with my health and corresponding budget.

Lovely sunshiney day today and even enjoyed watching the football, which is very unlike me!

I've joined a diet bet, need to get under 80kg by the end of July otherwise I lose my £25! I think it should be doable as I'm about 80.5kg so only one more kilo to go...

Spent my Sunday morning picking aphids off my peppers and chillis, removing a pepper which has succumbed to blossom end rot, stripping excess leaves off my tomatoes and picking caterpillars off my broccoli

Serves me right for being a blackfingered millennial living in London trying to grow food off a tiny balcony

Will spend the day today catching up on life and cleaning the house, going for some drinks with a mate tonight and then OH will finally make an appearance this evening after he's done watching fast cars go vroom... his words, not mine!

Today shouldn't be too spendy... I'm thinking £30 max... but tomorrow will be as I still have £150 to pay on my replacement filling. My OH happens to have taken the day off work so he's kindly agreed to drive me there and back so I will probably make or buy lunch for him to make up for it.

Still trying to keep up with surveys but prolific is taking ages to clear...

Lol

Glad you've had a good/ busy week and well done on staying in budget Hope the dentist goes well today.

A dietbet sounds like a solid idea! I remember yonks ago I looked into doing it but was never confident enough... I may give it a go come payday though, would be good to keep motivation up. Sounds like you're going to hit your goal no problem which is awesome!

Hows everything going?

Hi my dear. Sorry for not updating.

Had a bit of a weird couple of weeks mental health wise. I've been really stressed and anxious these last couple of days for no real reason. Work continues to stay the same but it is affecting me a lot more than usual.

Had a bad week money wise too, I had a bit of a few days where I thought, fack it, I'm sick of being sensible, and spent loads of money on my credit card. I think I spent about £250 in total. It's not all arrived yet so I'll reassess the situation then. Also had to spend ANOTHER £100 at the dentist because of some issues that weren't spotted the first time.

Hate to dump out my purse on the internet but I suspect that I have some underlying issues that I need to deal with

You don't need to be sorry at all! I'm just happy you're back... I missed you

Sorry about the issues at the dentist (boo) and the weird few weeks. It can happen I wish I had some useful advice for you but I'm still all in a muddle myself so think I am the last person who should be offering advice to anyone! Don't worry about dumping out your purse (never heard that before!)... It's what your diary is for and I'm here to help if I ever can (not likely, but I can try!)

Try not to worry about the credit card money, perhaps just re-asses what it is that you bought and maybe try some returns Or treat it as a lesson and try and see if you can free up more 'fun money' in your budget.

Whoa, it's been a while since I updated on here!

Things are still mostly the same, stress at work and money issues, OH is still far away and so on...partly why I've not been updating is because nothing's been happening so it'd just be dull, dull, dull!

Glad to be down to £9,500 on the parental debt now but I have a major confession to make.

I qualify in March and it's my 25th birthday in April so I decided a major celebration is required. We've booked an 8-day holiday to NYC. It was totally out of budget and the lightbulb was definitely not on but to be honest, I'm not sorry about it!

The budget will need some serious rebalancing because I have all but wiped my savings doing this. At the same time, I don't really care!

NYC will cost us £630 each in flights and accommodation for the week. I also paid for OH and he will pay me back (he now owes me £830). I paid on my AMEX for the points and protection so I will need to take the money out of my savings account to pay it back first.

OH has started to actively look for jobs in London which has cheered me up a bit. It's hard doing long distance for such a long time.

We have also made quite a monumental decision to no longer aim to buy in London. We are going to buy in the commuter belt instead. The difference in properties that we could afford is insane. Between us, we could actually afford a 2 bedroom flat (if we got together a deposit ) on our current income in the commuter belt. In London, we can't even afford a 1 bed in zone 4. This has actually been a huge relief for us as we have been getting a bit worried about this. OH is in his mid-30s now so time is really ticking for him to settle down and I know it's something he worries about himself.

Work is work, as always. I'm having a particularly hard time lately because of lack of staff meaning I have picked up work that, realistically, is beyond me. It's been stressful

I will pop back in (hopefully!) to update on numbers shortly.

The real, raw, ugly truth

A summary of my affairs...

Debts

• Parental Loan: £9,500
• Amex: £1,300 (will be cleared partially using savings and partially on payday)

Assets

• NW account: £50
• FD account: £36.01 (pending transaction of £19)
• NW acc 2: £5.88
• FD saver: £150
• LISA: £302, £44 bonus pending
• HTB: £967.50

Notes

• The reason why I have so many current accounts with tiny amounts in is because I try to make use of all the bank switch bonuses and each account has 2 direct debits, so I need to maintain a small balance as a buffer.
• OH owes me £867 which he will pay back at between £200 and £250 per month.
• OH has an overdraft which is interest free (£250) which I will be trying to help him get out of, possibly to the minor detriment of my own finances
• I have a networking event coming up which I expect to spend up to £50 at
• My OH and younger sister's birthdays are within days of each other at the end of September so I anticipate there will be around £200 worth of spends related to that coming out of my next pay. OH's present is sorted but we may go for dinner. Sister will have around £100 spent on her.
• I am awaiting a payout of £7 from prolific and £50 from populus.
• I am awaiting a refund of £115 + £30 on a gift card from House of Fraser ( given the recent news) and £60 from Hobbs.

Forgot to add to the above that I have £150 in premium bonds.

Very frustratingly, I will be paid late this month which will mean that my rent will take me into my overdraft. To avoid this, I have taken out the correct amount for my rent from my Help to Buy Isa and put it into my current account ready for when it will go out tonight.

Things are looking a bit more cheerful on my end, which is nice. I have all but decided I will be buying outside of London. The next dilemma is, do I buy with my boyfriend or do I buy on my own?! I don't earn enough to buy a decent property on my own so it would be a studio or 1 bedroom flat. However, I am worried that things will go sour between us after buying. Also, he will not be able to contribute towards a deposit so the deposit would be my funds only.

I have floated the idea of buying with my sister, who has told me that she would be happy to lend me some money for a deposit without interest. Obviously, I would prefer to save my own but the area I'm looking to buy in is likely to shoot up in price in the next couple of years (it's up and coming!) so I would like to buy sooner rather than later.

Done a bit of research and it looks like I should expect to be paid between £35k and £45k after I qualify in the new year, which is nice!

Buying with your boyfriend could get messy however a solicitor should be able to draw up a deed of trust which basically outlines how the sale of the property would be distributed in the event of a breakdown in the relationship
You will hold a greater share of the property which should if things turned slightly messy mean that you get to decide the future of the property.

Thanks efes shareholder. This is similar to what I'm thinking of doing, or even simpler just hold the property as tenants in common. Luckily I'm a trainee solicitor so if I need legal advice or someone to draw up an agreement I can just pop to the next desk over...there are some perks to this job!

Just want to pop in and wish you well after having a good read from the start. Hope you are still managing to save for your annual train ticket at least as that will soon come round again. You are still young and it is hard to balance all your plans with your finances at that age I think. You feel bold because you have a good job and yet you never seem to have enough money! You want to do and have everything now or as soon as you can but don't forget that you are not your parents- so many times young people aspire to have exactly what their parents have or did but forget that their parent may not have had/done those things for many years of their working life. We have all been there but don't forget that you have years and years ahead and you don't have to do everything by the time you are 30. Enjoy every day while keeping up all your hard work as it has worked in that you had money for NYC available. Keep on keeping on and well done. Just don't be a lender too often would be a small comment! Bless you.

Hi! Thanks so much for your lovely comment and for popping in!

I can't believe anyone would want to read my diary from start to finish, I'm so indecisive and I swear I just flip flop back and forth on a daily basis

You are completely right in everything you say and I have to remind myself that it's OK for me to take a little bit of time to do things and everything doesn't have to be a huge rush.

Working on the lending money thing I forgot that it's silly and in fact a bit rude of me to be lending money when I still owe so much money myself.

I have actually managed to save up for a season ticket in a separate account, it's so out of sight and out of mind that I forgot it even exists! I will need to top it up a little because of the fare price hikes though. It will definitely be sad once it's paid out and I have practically no savings again...

On an unrelated note, I will definitely be paid late this month so I've had to raid my help to buy ISA to pay rent. I will replenish this once I've been paid but it's really frustrating. Silver lining, at least I had a help to buy ISA to raid...

Payday today, hooray.

I've decided to actually just dump the money in my LISA rather than continuing with my Help to Buy ISA. LISA just seems better overall.

Trying to stay motivated!

Trying to make sure I post on here regularly so that I am kept on the straight and narrow.

Spent £3.45 this morning after a particularly stressful day in Court, bought a coffee and croissant at Pret. I'm pretty sure that Pret is the weakness of every mid-20s Londoner out there. The food is OK and vaguely healthy but so very overpriced.

I brought lunch in today (first time all week, I keep forgetting it) so shouldn't have to spend there.

I'm secretly hoping for a premium bonds win but I know realistically it's unlikely! This is why I never gamble, I get too excited hoping for a win!

I'm still debating whether or not to throw all my Help to Buy money into the LISA. On paper it's a good idea but I'm terrified I'll need the money. I haven't got a proper emergency fund really, I'd been relying on my Help to Buy in case of emergency.

There will have to be a complete budget overhaul this weekend, I think...

Positive news, the BF has started looking for jobs in and around the London area, yay! This means that hopefully, we'll be able to move in together around the beginning of next year. I've had a good chat and a good look and feel it may actually be better for us to hold off on buying a house for another year or two because there may possibly be a big slump or at least stagnation. This is good because it gives us a bit more time.

My sis owes me £100 (I know, I know!) which she will give back to me the next time we see each other. We hardly see each other now even though we live together because our schedules don't match, so it's kind of like living alone! Great but at the same time, I was terrified last night because I thought I heard some noises...

I'm swamped at work! It's gotten to the point where I'm overwhelmed and don't know where to even begin, so instead I'm sat on MSE writing a long post...of course...