People, including myself, often wonder how I’ve survived 6 years of crippling debt. How did I let it get so bad? How could I sleep at night? How do I remain cheerful and upbeat even when I have £20 in my wallet to last me a week? How do I stay generous – even going as far as taking on debt to help someone out? How did I keep it all to myself? How didn’t I crack under the pressure? I like to attribute the answers to all these questions to one thing, it’s just the way I am. Let me break it down though. Continue reading
Author Archives: luxuriouslythrifty
Advent challenges | How I intend to build discipline this festive period
December is my second favourite month of the year, after October. I love the festive spirit, the laid back work vibes, as well as the tons of christmas parties, drinks and what not that are scheduled. All of this stuff usually has an impact, on waistlines and wallets. Last year I took part in my first Advent running challenge – the premise is based on the Advent calendar with an aim to run everyday for the 25 days from December 1st till Christmas day.
How to make 3 hours of mundane driving delightful
Music is one of the wee luxuries I allow myself. I haven’t bought music for years but I would go to live performances and gigs for some of my favourite bands. I’d also go to music festivals. I think experiencing Emeli Sande, Florence & the machine, Sick of Sarah, Kasabian, etc is worth the ticket prices. Obviously, now I’m on my frugal journey I’ve had to rein things a bit and I keep my enjoyment of music frugal by making Spotify one of my mandatory expenses and going to free gigs at pubs and what not instead.
Finding motivation in the oddest way
It’s the third week of November and a quick glance at my spend tracking spreadsheet shows that I’ve decimated the budgets for the last 3/4 weeks. For the first time since August I’m a little bit clueless about how much I should have in my given accounts even though I know my balances and how much I’ve spent give/take a couple of contactless payments I made last week. I’ve spent frivolously (£15.50 Cookhouse Joe’s lunch I’m looking at you), generously (£416 towards my parent’s Airbnb stay since they’ve been visiting me in London) and to save money on a future purchase (£16.80 on 2 tubs of Bodyshop’s hemp body butter because this is the only thing that prevents my super dry winter skin and I got 40% off on the day). Continue reading
Safety nets and catch alls | the importance of frugal habits
This week has been a spending disaster! I bought items that I hadn’t planned to – mainly because they looked nice and would be suitable for my wardrobe. For the first time in 2 months, I’m uncertain what my account balances should be and I have more unexplained money in my weekly spending account than I’ve had for quite a while. How have I got into such a mess?
October spending | a month of entitled pleasure seeking
Although I started tracking my spending nearly 3 months ago, I’ve only just got data through that was entered in a consistent enough format, as well as provides a more holistic view of my income and expenditure, for me to base future goals and budgets on.
Financial Independence is essential both now and in the future
It’s only been a little over 2 months since I had my lightbulb moment and began my journey to financial independence. I’m a little bit obsessive so once I discovered it was possible to retire early, that became my goal. I’ve read hundreds of blog articles, explored many options and thought a lot about how awesome it would be to be free from the tyranny of the 9-5 job. In the last couple of weeks though, I’ve realised that I’m not necessarily trying to quit work. I’m just trying to “decouple pay from work” – a phrase that I picked up from an awesome article written by Jim Wang for the Our Next Life blog. Continue reading
That awkward moment when you really want to say no it’s not OK but can’t!
I’m furious! Nothing fills me quite so much with dread these days as the large group meals. You know the kind I mean? Birthday dinners. Or hen do brunches. Work ones are the worst for me now. They weren’t so bad when I was a consultant and could generally expense most of the costs. Neither was I so bothered when I didn’t mind shelling out fifty quid for a meal. Now that I’m on a pretty tight budget it’s quite a different story. Continue reading
Is intentional spending the most important part of being thrifty?
I spent a lot of money last week although my Excel spreadsheet tells me that I was slightly under budget. It’s probably important to point out that last week’s budget was nearly twice my preferred weekly spend (since I started tracking expenditure ) – at around £290. It was my best friend’s 30th birthday party so for the first time in a long time I let my hair down at a restaurant and bought drinks at a bar and club subsequently. I also got her a fairly pricy gift. This week, I created a budget that’s supposed to redress that so that I can come in under budget for the whole month. Off the back of that, I have made some intentional changes to ensure I spend a lot less than normal this week. Continue reading
Weekly spending: W/C 26/09/16
Pay day was last Monday. A few months ago, the preceding weekend would have been super painful. I’d have been on edge about unplanned expenditure – and all expenditure was unplanned by this point because I’d be running on fumes, would have borrowed money from someone or have pawned something of mine just to get through those few days before pay day. The weekend before last, I was still worried about unplanned spending (e.g. tape for my dodgy ankle) but it was because I was trying to save even more money for the expensive month ahead. Continue reading
Diary of a reforming spendthrift 