Happy Easter Monday to all. Odd that the pope should die on this day...I hope you've had a good long weekend. We've had lots of nice food and a good mix of family and friends, it's been pretty sociable by our standards, and included a nice walk with Ddog on Wimbledon Common, and dinner out in Islington. And The Penguin Lessons, which I liked very much.
Today we're resuming more normal stuff - getting laundry and ironing sorted ahead of DS going back to university, making meals with Easter leftovers, hiding the remaining chocolates so they're not all eaten at once.
DS' laptop needs an (expensive) repair and he is angling for a new one. But the trade-in price, plus the cost of the repair would still leave us £800 shy of the cost of a new one, so I am very much of the repair and keep it going for another year or so camp, but if the repair is going to take weeks, that's not going to work. He's meeting DH in town tomorrow and between them, they will work it out...God. It never bloody ends, the expenses of children.
SockHop - I'm so sorry for your loss, what a shock. You must be reeling. I found surrounding myself with personal finance content - YouTube, podcasts, blogs, newsletters, books - has been hugely helpful in getting a grip on the how-to; and then threads like these really supportive in creating a sense of community and motivation.
The writers/content providers I like best are: Claer Barrett (Serious Money, FT - you can get the podcast on Apple, for free, I think, and her book is available on loan from apps like BorrowBox or just hard copies via your library service. She does a 6 week newsletter course for £19, which you can sign up for via FT.com, but maybe take a look at her podcasts and book first); Making Money podcast with Damo and Tee (also a YouTube channel); Ramit Sethi (I Will Teach You to be Rich - a book, a Netflix series, podcasts, YouTube, email newsletters/blog - he generates a lot!).
There's lots of different recommendations for budgeting around, and free spreadsheets and the like. Basically, I try and keep my fixed/essential living costs to around 60% of my monthly income, although it has been much higher than this at points.
The remaining 40% is divided between long term savings/investments (stocks and shares ISAs in my case); building a cash reserve; short term savings pots (holidays, big birthdays/occasions) and monthly guilt free spending where haircuts, make-up, fun times goes. I use Chase for the latter two categories, Marcus for the cash reserve and Wealthify/Vanguard for the investment accounts. My big financial goals currently are saving for a new kitchen (probably 2 years away) and helping DS with an eventual house deposit (God Only Knows).
Automate everything you can (standing orders and direct debits) and pay yourself first (put away money in pensions, investments, savings long and short term) is generally the advice. Be very intentional about your money and give every pound a job to do is another bit of advice that crops up again and again!
The thing is - these systems can take a bit of time to work out and set up, so don't expect to do it all at once. You will learn as you go and you will feel a sense of achievement by getting on top of it, bit by bit.
Sorry for the long post, I'm a bit obsessive about personal finance, having had very little education about it from my parents and being clueless for a long time.