Well, here I am! A convert to the world of personal finance blogs and a newly reformed non-spender. I am planning to use this space to keep track of my goals and to motivate me to carry on.
Motivation, or rather lack of it, has always been my downfall regarding savings. I am capable of saving for something I really want (like a holiday) but never quite saw the point of saving money, just to have it there. During my twenties I ran up an overdraft and paid it off again four times. I also took out and paid off a loan. Miracle of miracles, I never took out a credit card (though I’ve had a run in with store credit – guess who came off worse?). So, I am now debt-free (apart from my mortgage which I don’t count as regular debt – I’d only be paying the same to rent), in my very grown-up sounding thirties and have no financial plan for the future. Until now of course.
I started trying to save last year but it kept going wrong. And by wrong, I mean I kept taking money back out of my savings account and spending it. I don’t know where it went – I have blanked it out in true shopping addict style. I don’t really buy that many clothes – I’m more of a bits and bobs shopper (magazines, pretty notepads, make-up, books, bags, crisps, take-out, chocolate and so on). It has to stop. In view of the current economic situation I have had to ask myself a lot of difficult questions – primarily, what would Husband and I do if one of us lost our job? Answer: errr…..overdraft? Meagre savings achieved last year? We could last about one month on one salary, which isn’t great.
When I started thinking about all of this a few weeks ago I spent some time tinkering on the internet for ideas and stumbled upon the world of personal finance blogs. Amazing! Hundreds and hundreds of ideas from people on a similar mission. Thus inspired, I have signed up to wordpress and have made a plan. I hope keeping up with this blog will keep me focused and, if I am the only one that ever reads it, it will do the job. However, if anyone wants to drop by and give me some advice then that would be great too!
Shoestring
