Other What's ruining your life right now?

Amen to that. It's just a shame that mistakes with money can have a very long lasting effect.

As I said before, it's taken about 6 years to go from Rock bottom, to pretty financially healthy.

It was a hard slog.

I still have to be really careful with money. I understand now that spending is a compulsion for me. The problem I have now with earning a decent salary, is the urge to spend it all.

I'd sometimes compare it to giving up smoking. You learn to live, but the urge is always there, in some form.

 

I know what you mean, don't think I ever hit rock bottom, but it got close.
It is so easy for spending to spiral out of control. Steam/Humble/GoG sales are terrible for it, oh that games only 99p; oooh this one is only £2, etc. etc. and it quickly and easily adds up so before you know it you're spending way more than you should because you look at each purchase on its own merits, without any thought for the consequences.

I've taken the step of not carrying any cards that I can spend on with impunity, so that if I spend I know that the Wife will see and call me on it if its frivolous. Not the nicest of "solutions", can sometimes feel somewhat resentful that I cant spend MY money, but it seems to work for me.

 

When you were a kid, did you ever find that there were so many toys that none of them held any lasting appeal?

Consumer culture bombards us with impulses to consume more, more, more, but try to focus on one thing to save for, and once you've got, give it the attention that your earlier commitment promised and you should hopefully get more satisfaction, and less spending problems.

 

The shiny thing buying impulse can be difficult to resist - I know, I got in deep when I was younger; and it took more will power than I expected to overcome the impulse to buy.

Even now, I'll get as far as adding something to the basket online and then close out of the whole thing on purpose and leave it for a day. I often find, when I go back to it, I don't experience the same pangs of enthusiasm and I don't continue with the purchase. It doesn't mean I no longer want the item, I just have enough of a "moment of clarity" to realise I'm being frivolous.

I still buy things of course, but curbing that initial impulse has probably saved me thousands, if not tens of thousands.

Take a look at the market place - there are one or two people on there who must be getting in waaaaay too deep with the store and credit cards. There's always a slew of few month old expensive toys coming up. That behaviour is going to bite down hard at some point.

 

Regarding impluse buying and consumer culture, I try to give myself a "cooling off" period - if I want something, I wait (say for a week) and if I still want it, I give it more serious consideration. The bigger the item, the longer I wait. It's amazing how often I actually realise that I don't really need or want something after the initial "BUY NOW" impulse has worn off.

I'm really quite careful with money. My parents were by no means rich, and the value of money was instilled in us quite early on. We didn't have a car, didn't have fancy holidays abroad and didn't have the latest gadgets or clothes, but we didn't struggle for money - we just lived within our means and were quite happy doing so. My folks have never liked taking credit and always preferred to save up for those things that they couldn't afford outright, and I've definitely inherited that. I also don't feel comfortable unless I'm actually saving a decent percentage of my income every month

As I was saying to DeadP1xels, it doesn't matter what your income is - you could be earning £10,000 a year or ten times that, but you still have to live within your means. All that happens is that your outgoings expand to match your income, and you end up spending more on stuff that you don't really need.

This isn't me trying to be smug and show off how responsible I am - when I was in my early twenties, I royally screwed up my finances and it took me the best part of ten years to get back onto an even keel - it set me back at least half a dozen years in terms of being able to buy a house, for example. So even if you think you've learned the value of money as a kid, you can still make a real arse of things as an adult. Some lessons end up being learned the hard way

 

Ditto.

As a kid, when I wanted something I saved up my pocket money and (with my parents permission) I bought it (Lego!).
AS I grew up and got jobs, the same applied, albeit with less reliance on permission from my parents, but by then I knew what would and wouldn't be acceptable so I didn't ask for it!

For some reason, on going to Uni, my control went out the window. I think it was a combination of factors: peer pressure and access to more money than I had ever had (student loan lump sums, interest-free student overdraft and credit card)!

 

I'm often, since getting access to the Marketplace some weeks ago, surprised at the amount of expensive and little used kit that is being offered for sale there. I've not worked for several years now because of mental health problems so, I've got used to having little money and not spending what I have on frivolous purchases.

 

I use a different method.
If I want to buy something I have to have twice it's price saved before buying it, obviously there have to be exceptions but for general 'shiny things' shopping it works for me.

A lesson learned the hard way after climbing out of a rather large debt hole over 6 - 7 years, never again

 

I know the struggle of not knowing the value of money. Though I worked part-time from 2006 to 2011, my parents bought me a lot of stuff, even when I had my job. Been unemployed for 2 years, and I keep taking money out (only 300 maybe twice a year) that I throw in my stash for "rainy days". I do the odd jobs around the house and neighbours, but I haven't really been saving. This year for christmas, my brothers and myself agreed we would only get something for my parents, and something relatively small for my sister. We aren't buying for each other.

On a side note for value of money, I have no idea how expensive post-secondary education is in the US or UK but if I didn't have my parents paying for my education, I honestly have no clue where I'd be. I know a lot of other students who worked one or two part-time jobs plus had student loans to get by. I've really been spoiled and once I have a job it's going to take me some time to really adjust. I am rather good with avoiding impulse buys, since I like to research things so I usually give things a second or third thought before actually buying, unless it's something super inexpensive.

The more I think about this, the harder and harder it seems to be for young people. Consumerism is at an all-time high, most jobs require a university degree, and if a student is trying to balance living on their own, plus paying off a debt, they are going to have some serious financial struggles for years to come after graduating. It really is stressful thinking about all of this, and I don't even have any real debts. Without taking out a loan or mortgage, I don't see how it's possible for someone to really afford a home anymore.

 

Foxes...

Little ****ers got into the field containing what was to become my [and several other peoples] Christmas dinner...

Nothing survived.

 

That's a kicker.

We had a similar issue when we got chickens. You might as well have rung the dinner bell. After we lost one me and my dad went on a highly successful anti-fox campaign. We had to shoot 14 of them over about a month but they got the message in the end and have never come back.

That or they are all dead. Either way I'm not bothered.

 

To fill you in, a three year degree in the UK will cost you £27,000 in tuition fees (most courses, some are cheaper) and living costs over those years will range from about £15,000 to in excess of £30,000 depending where you live. Some of that is covered by a student loan (tuition and part of your maintenance), but parents are expected to contribute on a sliding income scale to maintenance costs.

It's cheaper than the US by far, but is roughly £18,000 more than it was a few years ago. Hence the tuition fee rise protests.

Personally, I'm thankful UK degrees aren't four years in length. Although my medical degree is.

 

My education probably cost in excess of 50-60k for my 4 year program, factoring in transportation, books, laptop lease, etc. I know for foreign exchange students, you basically double your expenses to live on residence, plus tuition is almost double too.

 

Gotta love this time of year; had two emails this evening from ebay buyers asking me where their items are. According to parcel2go, one was delivered on the 13th but the buyer hasn't had it ( checked with neighbours and around the property, no sign of it ), the other is still 'being progressed' by royalmail even though it should be there by now easily.

Started a claim for the P2G item, will have to see what happens with the other- both sent recorded/signed for so shouldn't lose and money on the sales, touch wood...

 

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I placed a stupendous 15 orders yesterday! None of them urgent, but all of them important and valuable. Let's play the Courier olympics! I wonder if the various couriers will be able to beat RM? I'm still expecting the Amazon ones to be here before the rest.

 

Last few days I've been experiencing some lower back pain, and neck pain. Could be my arthritis creeping back, I'll give it some more time before I contact my rheumatologist. I have been off my meds since April or May, but I do understand that arthritis doesn't "go away".

 

This 'Flu' that I've had for the past few days is clearly not influenza. My cough has gotten much worse, no amount of painkillers is stopping the jackhammer in my head and I've developed shortness of breath and lower back pain in the past couple of hours. I think it's time to contact the doctor on call

 

Went to the dentist yesterday to have the final session for a root canal, turns out there was the beginning on an infection in one of the roots so they were just cleaned out, going on antibiotics for a week then it's going to be done next Friday, annoying but ah well.

However I've now just woken up with mind numbing pain with no idea if it's meant to be painful again and it will just pass or if something has gone wrong.

 

First world problem: the fingers on my left hand are softer than a baby's bottom.

Context: bought myself a guitar so I can get back to playing again, which arrived yesterday. Stayed up 'til 3am playing like a nutter (with headphones). Now my fretting fingers are about as raw as I can ever remember them being.