No Spend 2024....

[meemawww]

Or at least the first couple of months to make a dent in my credit card debt!
I feel like I need a thread to encourage me and hopefully get some tips anybody like to join? I earn an alright wage but my god am i frivolous with money since my earnings went up!

@CurlsnSunshinetime4tea But you are going in the right direction. You're doing good. I know it probably feels slow, but keep on keeping on.

I don't think I can replace the £2k, to be honest. Not as 'savings' for a rainy day. I've been saving what I can each month since January knowing that I would be coming to the end of my employment, and being ill at home meant that I could save money out of my salary. I've got 2 more paychecks, and then a big black hole! I might be able to save £600 a month out of each of these, but then we will eat through that (and a bit more) with mortgage/bills and living the month after. The rainy days are likely to hit in September and we're not sure what's happening then for money.

But, I'm cautiously optimistic. The last 6 months have taught me that I can take some kind of control over our money and that we can live on very little if we have to. I'm not as stressed as I was.

How are you feeling about your whole situation?

@Hatty65 i'm feeling much better than last summer when every day from april to november i was seething over the mess dh had walked us into but this year is much better in part to 1) holding firm in 23, although a total bitch over it 2)being better prepared for the big expenses that come each spring.
i sure hope you hear soon about your income stream and it's news that you can work with.

@CurlsnSunshinetime4tea Good for you! It's miserable having to be the person clutching the purse strings tightly closed but it sounds like you need to where DH is concerned. And it's not being a bitch - it's being pragmatic about what needs to be done.

I'm always an optimistic, glass half full person so I think we'll be ok. At the end of the day, we've a roof over our head and we don't need much in life. We're in an old house with open fires and DH loves a chainsaw. We've probably got enough logs sawed to keep us going for several years, so if we need to cut back on central heating we will. I'm not as well stocked as @2024Hackathon in the pantry line, but I could usually feed the 5,000 so eating our way through the freezer and larder will keep us going for some time!

We don't really need much in life - to be honest a lot of our previous spending was mindless and wasteful, takeaways out of laziness, or buying stuff on impulse because it looked good. I've got a lot more cautious about buying 'stuff' just for the sake of it and realised there isn't anything I'm desperate for.
Like @Captainladder I do find that an awful lot of our spending is just food. I think we could cut back on some of that or eat more cheaply.

@CurlsnSunshinetime4tea @Captainladder @2024Hackathon

It's been a long time since posting on here, but if you are still about I thought I'd update people to say that (finally) my ill health retirement was agreed.

I still have no idea how much my pension will be every month, and need to do a lot of form filling to apply for it, but it will be a relief to get sorted. My job ended in August, and we've been limping by since then on DHs and mine PiP disability money - but DH has also just hit 66 (state retirement age) and will be able to claim his old age pension of just over £800 a month so life is looking up a bit.

I hope everyone else is doing well. I know it's been a tough year for all and the run up to Christmas is always tricky.

hello @Hatty65 wow it's been a long year for you! i hope the form filling goes smoothly, will HR help with this at all? nice that your dh will be able to claim his old age pension. lovely update and thank you.
i've frequently looked at the december 2023 start of this thread for inspiration as it's been a long slow year in many ways.
financially slightly better with the ploc (personal line of credit/our mortgage) down by 9.5K (from 52K owing to 42.5K at this moment) my cc has 2.3K owing vs 3.3 last year (although it's been zero at some points during the year) i've just come back from visiting my dd in the UK and my mom on the east coast of canada (vs me being on the west coast) both visits falling in the urgent need category. of course we are in november not december so the ploc will be down to 41K (automatic payments) by then and the cc down at least by 1K.
our savings are pretty flat with no significant changes due partially to dd's unfortunate circumstance. then there is christmas to throw into the mix...maybe the cc won't be down much :(.

@CurlsnSunshinetime4tea That sounds really positive, with the ploc and cc! I know it often feels discouraging, but you are nibbling away at things and in a better position than last year so well done!

Sorry to hear you've had family issues and hope eveything is ok with your dd and mom. It's difficult balancing struggling finances with family issues, particularly when you feel you have to be somewhere and it will cost.

I think we are going for an 'old fashioned' Christmas this year with focus on food, family and friends rather than commercialism - and trying to limit the spending. I've spent a lot of the year really decluttering a lot of 'things' and it has helped me focus on not feeling so overwhelmed with stuff.

The form filling will get done, I guess, and I might be able to access some sort of lump sum amount (pretty small) for an emergency back up, so that's positive.