Balancing the books
Uuuuuuuurgh. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Hrrrrrrrrrrrumph.
Sometimes I hate being a grown-up.
So much to think about, so much to balance.
Including the bank account.
We've worked so hard at budgeting this year. We've thought about it every day. Made lots of effort with planning, even included a generous chunk for a pension fund for the first time. We've been paying back my Dad the money he lent us towards our house deposit. Basically, it's all been going well.
I was happily polishing my halo. Until yesterday. When we found out our car has to be scrapped.
Yep. Now you ask, that is the same car we only bought three months ago.
I am not going into the story (one or two of you have suffered through that already).
However, I will say the fact it was undeniably our own fault - caveat emptor and all that - has only served to make the whole experience all the more galling. Not to mention removed any useful possibilities of Improving Mood Through Revenge.
Moving on (I wish I could)...we needed to buy a new car. But there was a small problem. We had no money left in the car account.
Well, we had just bought a new car. Remember that one? And we'd already shelled out a lot for repairs on it (still, at least it'll go to the scrapyard with shiny new tires. Wouldn't want it to be shown up on its first - last - day).
So we had to look at the rest of the budget to find ourselves some cash.
Errr. Yeah. Well, any other time, that would be fine, but actually, I've been spending rather a lot lately. Well, I was proud of myself for doing all that saving. And it was in the budget, so why not? New clothes, things for the house...in other words, we had no buffer zone left.
Right.
No prizes for guessing where we finally got the money for the new car. Yep. The brand-spanking-new pension fund.
Ah well, at least we made £7.11 interest on it before emptying it out. Enough for a couple of McDonalds' in our old age.
Aaaaaaargh! With all the best intentions, with all that effort, we had ended a year in which DH earned what some people would describe as a huge amount with absolutely zilch to show for it.
It's been hard for me to understand exactly how it's happened. It's not like we've been splashing the cash everywhere. I'd call our lifestyle normal - actually, really quite frugal in a lot of areas.
But then, I'm sure 95 per cent of people who overspend on their income would say the same. It's not the Mazeratis and the Rolexes that break most people, is it?
So after much soul-searching, this is what I've learned:
We had a great plan - but we didn't change our everyday lifestyles that much to match it. Sure, we cut back a bit, but we also often used the budget as an excuse to overspend.
ie. There are £500 here allotted for clothes. If I go out and spend £350 on an unfortunate rainy Saturday in March, I'll just make it up by buying less later in the year.
Errr. Ooooooohkay.
Basically, we hadn't cottoned on to the fact that meeting our money goals was going to involve some tough choices.
A fancy plan ain't gonna get you anywhere unless you make the everyday, on-the-ground decisions that back it up.
You can help yourself a lot by making the plan realistic, and by remembering you are doing it because you want to. But the reality is that no spreadsheet in the world will work for you if you don't get into the spirit of it.
And no spreadsheet in the world can substitute for good, plain, everyday common sense.
Yep. I hate being a grown-up. But, while adult life may be a pain in the proverbial, at least it's consistent. Because can't all the same things be said about weight loss?
Love Rach xxx 