Am I the only one that looks at their bank statement at the in/out column and these figures are roughly equal?
I was talking about it with my driving instructor and we both agreed, if we've got money in our savings accounts, then we think, oh well... cheeky few weeks off?
I make a good wage on AW, but it seems my lifestyle always seems to be too costly whatever job I'm in, and I just spend whatever I earn.
Is anyone else the same or am I just a total financial spaz?
You may or may not take the last line as a rhetorical question, lol...
If i got it i spend it...but i have a huge mortgage plus all the rest.
I so need a holiday though that i think i am going to indeed save this year - the thought is there
I am terrible with spending. Not so much on luxury things, but little things like going out for meals or to the cinema, getting my nails done etc. All those things seem little at the time but they add up :/
For a while now I've been (trrying) to budget so that at least I have my bills paid before I consider splurging. I read over on sw a great technique for earning/ managing your money so you always have enough. First you need to know roughly how much you earn an hour on average, then how many hours you therefore need to work in order to meet your minimum goal. Then split your month up like this - week one working all out, as many hours as poss to cover bills money, any extra goes into bills money pile anyway (rainy day!). week 2 tax money, week 3 savings, week 4 spending money
Yeah, I know what you mean! I'm always so full good intentions, I think, oh I'll go on cam all day blah blah blah... end up doing phone chat and IM!
That's a really good way of looking at it Katie; gulp, just remembered my tax bill, which I haven't even begun to start saving for... *shakes head*
TThe same tax bill I'm saving for? haha. I have over half of mine, 6 days to make the rest .....
I tend to be quite good... I live quite frugally and could certainly afford a bigger and nicer place in a nicer area, although the place I have is pretty good and the area is far from being a bad one! And I could drive a better car and buy more clothes and gadgets and toys... there are always things I "want". I guess I could get away on holiday more... I haven't been properly away for three years!
But in truth I am quite good at separating what I want from what I need, I think?
My car is nine years old, a bit battered and has 200,000 miles on the clock, but it is a luxurious and comfortable car which never seems to need anything more than a service to keep it running and is reasonably economical on fuel... so after all this time I can't really find a good enough reason to change it? Just so I can have a new numberplate? Or so that the neighbours will see that I have a new car and wonder at the magnificence of it and be envious of it... or perhaps despise me for it? Seems silly to me - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
And yea, sure... it would be nice to have another bedroom and maybe some more storage space, but it's only me here and actually this place is perfectly comfortable... better than comfortable in fact... I like it here. I don't need more space... I'd like it if it were there and I'm sure I would soon make use of it, but I don't actually need it for anything.
"Stuff" I can do without. I don't own much. I like the idea of being light - not having too many chattels. Aside from a few small sentimental things (which would all fit together into no more than one shoe box) I could walk away from everything I own in a heartbeat and not feel the loss of it... and that makes me feel free. I'm thinking of going abroad for a year or two, and I really do feel like I could just lock the door on this place and go tomorrow if the fancy took me without paying any mind to what might become of all the "stuff" inside.
I'm not a gadget freak... heck, until last year I'd had the same mobile phone for six years and no doubt the one I bought last year I will have for another six! So I guess I'm not really much of a "consumer"?
I buy very little, but what I do buy I try to be sure to get a good balance of price and quality, with quality being more important to me than price. If I have a choice between a chair I can sit on for £50 or a chair which is beautiful and comfortable and well enough made to last at £200, then I will buy the more expensive one - but the fact it cost more doesn't bind me any more strongly to it... it's just a chair. And if I am going away for the weekend, I'll book into a good quality hotel or rent a cottage rather than find the nearest travel lodge!
It's funny really... I'm not sure why I am like this? My brother and sister are not. My brother is "careful" with money, but he does seem to manage to spend everything he earns and is always waiting on the next pay cheque, and my sister is a raging consumer, constantly re-mortgaging her house to get more money to buy more stuff with... seem like madness to me... new car every two years for her and her husband, three foreign holidays a year including skiing for Christmas (and that ain't cheap!) every gadget you can think of four times over for them and their two children... iPhones and iPads all round...
My Granny once said to me (I think she was quoting someone else, but I'm not sure who):
"Have nothing in your life which you do not know to be useful nor find to be beautiful."
And I guess I must have kind of taken it to heart?
One of my fave quotes TB
"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
William Morris
xx
You seem to be careful and sensible with your money Trinny. I wish I was more like that! I'm generous too, not to blow my own trumpet but I love treating my family, love seeing their faces on Christmas Day when you buy them something nice. Taking my mum on holiday again this year, she can't afford it, so I guess I must be of the mind, money's for spending!
6 days to make the weeks worth of tax Katie, and you've got over half already? That seems pretty good going
No.. a year's worth lol! Been working at it for a month now