I know this kind of this has been done a gazillion times, believe me, I think I've read most of them, but I just decided that this might be a good way of trying to work out my spending problems. Well, when I say problems, I don't mean that I have a problem with spending money, far from it! I seem to have a genetic inability to hang on to any currency for longer than about three seconds before it wants to spontaneously combust in my purse and I have to spend it like, RIGHT NOW OR WE'RE ALL GONNA BLOW!!
Who knows where my 'problem' started? Could it stem from being an only child, ergo, spoilt? Maybe. Could my parents' ever-so-slightly-lax attitude to money have been a contributing factor? Possibly. Could the credit card company 'encouraging' me to apply for a card at 18 years old be to blame? Probably. Wanting to have something right now, even though I know I don't have the money to pay for it? Definitely. There are a million excuses I could give for not having better control of my money, 99% of them being someone else's fault! All I know is, that for the past twenty years, money and I have had a volatile relationship and now is the time to say enough is enough.
So, this year I've set myself a challenge (OMG, what have I done?!), so simple a three-year old could manage it. In fact I'd probably have done a whole heap better if I had let a three-year old manage my finances! Anyway, back to 'the rules' for the next 12 months:
- Definitely no spending on clothes, shoes or accessories unless it's a complete and utter emergency (or the elastic in my pants perish);
- Essential purchases only e.g. food (duh!), toiletries, pet stuff etc. I do have to put in a caveat here though in as much as I do have really sensitive skin (really, water has been know to bring me out in blotches) and try as I might, cheapy products just don't do the business for me. Sorry.
- All spare (!) or saved (!!) cash will go on repaying my debt (which stands at a figure slightly lower than the national debt and will be covered separately when I have gotten over the shock of seeing it in black and white)
- £50 per month to be saved for Christmas, birthdays etc.
(Before I go on, I must give more than a nod here to Alexis Hall, the writer of 'In the Red' where the idea for baring my financial soul stemmed and her 'rules' play a big part in mine. Alexis, you rock!)
Right, I know this won't be easy (ha ha!) and my work colleagues have already corpsed at the mere mention of my self-imposed challenge. This may have something to do with the amount of bags they usually see me come back from lunch with and the amount of Amazon parcels that tend to grace my desk of a morning (hmmm.) I'm fully committed to at least one tantrum a day for the first few months, but then I'm hoping it will be something akin to sciatica, you know it's always there, but more often than not it's just a little niggle.
Until we meet again xx
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