As I may have mentioned before I have put myself on a strict budget this year with some clear savings goals for this year and next year and a joint plan for the next few years to allow myself and the other half to get ahead a bit before we start to think about two becoming three (or four!).
In terms of the big savings I am pretty good, we have a joint account for the mortgage ( which we pay a little extra on each month) , bills and food and I am getting better at getting the food bills down and eating out less every month. Each month I put a large chunk of my wages onto a specific bill which I am paying off one by one…. Such as my student loan or car loan. I am also saving for the wedding adventure next year.
As you can imagine this leaves me with… Not too much each month. It is with this money that I am rubbish. I am good at sourcing bargains using gumtree etc but not good at getting rid of unused stuff on gumtree… So this weekend I am clearing out and selling items we have not used for 12 months on gumtree.
I had done a clear out where I got rid of items which were too big for me but I think I need to be honest and now I am settled in my role realise I need far fewer clothes now I live away every other week and have a uniform. I also have items which I would love to wear but just don’t… It’s probably better to sell them now rather than hold on to them until they are no longer on trend and no one wants them..so today I re clear out the wardrobe and am listing loved items which I just don’t use on eBay tomorrow… I will add some links and pictures on here, possibly with a summary of why I am selling them so I don’t re buy items with the same problems.
To be honest Australia is quite a lot more expensive than England so I do still like to get clothes etc from the uk and save up to buy when I have a trip home. It’s hard when you have lost weight to learn not to buy everything in sight as it looks so much nicer now.
I think I may need a budget in a budget… And for my next break to put my head down, spend zilch and paint my house!
How do you budget? Any finance management tips?
ohmygodisthatfromtiffany 