The Vault with Financielle - How to Save for Christmas, Travel, and Become Debt-Free | The Vault Episode 29

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Send us a textVisit https://www.financielle.co.uk to join our community!Welcome to The Vault with Financielle.How to Save for Christmas, Travel, and Become Debt-Free In Episode 29 of The Vault, we discuss this week’s controversial opinion, “If you don’t have a Christmas sinking fund, you’re screwed”, before diving into our listener dilemmas:- How do I save for everything?- The pandemic royally screwed up my financesWe celebrate possibly our most exciting win ever! After 7 years, 7 months and 12 days, our listener is officially DEBT-FREE 🍾🥂 Her commitment and determination is unbelievable and we are so proud 🤩 No matter where you are on your money journey, you are not alone ❤️If you’d like to share your money win, head to the community in the Financielle app or email [e-mail] your (totally anonymous) money dilemmas to [e-mail] and we may feature yours on a future episode 💌Thank you to our partner PensionBee, who are on a mission to help you build pension confidence and create a world where everyone can enjoy a happy retirement. With PensionBee you can combine, contribute and withdraw online. Join over 252,000 customers saving with PensionBee. When investing, your capital is at risk.Sign up and combine your pensions here 🐝Chapters:00:00 Introduction01:46 Welcome to The Vault04:49 Christmas Sinking Fund Tips18:15 The Importance of Emergency Funds24:06 Balancing Travel and Home Savings25:20 Travel vs. Home Savings: A Detailed Breakdown27:22 The Goal Snowball Method29:06 Inspiring Community Win: Debt-Free Journey35:42 Post-Pandemic Financial Struggles37:07 Overcoming Impulse Spending47:32 Final ThoughtsThe Vault is an entertaining yet thought provoking podcast that answers our community’s dilemmas and confessions surrounding women and money.Visit https://www.financielle.com to download our app.Watch the podcast on YouTube.Follow Financielle for more:▶︎ TikTok▶︎ InstagramAbout Financielle:Financielle is a female focussed finance app helping women to take back control of their money, ditch debt, increase savings and invest in their future.Recorded and Produced by Liverpool Podcast Studios▶︎ Web ▶︎ Instagram▶︎ LinkedIn

oh we've got new set vibes today if you notice something a little bit different what do we think it's giving wealth the kitchen oh it is it is i am it makes me it's a bit cozy i feel like i want to take my shoes off that's weird isn't it you can't you've got new shoes on i've got new shoes they were my birthday shoes how long till they don't get white anymore they're um they're white Steve Madden's they look a bit blentz you are great do you know I've got um I'm really anti-label the older I've got like the worse not the worse I am but I just don't anything so I was trying to find chunky white trainers that don't have these big big logos all over. And some Steve Madden ones tend to have really big logos,

but it's quite subtle. They go like, Steve! Steve! Yeah. That is a TikTok, isn't it? Is that from a trend? Wolf of Wall Street. Steve!

I think it's from somewhere. So yeah, I've got my new trainers, but Jeremy used to work in that place and the guy used to take his shoes off. He used to be like, oh! Public place, working, taking his shoes off. There's no excuse for taking your shoes off in a public place. You need some podcast slippers.

Yeah, okay, deal. With little vaults on them. Like hotel ones. Don't the girls' bathroom. No, it's not girls' bathroom. It's Paige Louise. They all have slippers. They wear slippers in the warehouse.

And like mental asylum uniforms. Yeah, they do. Tell me more. They all wear like... Would you say it's like a beauty... Do you know when you go and get a beauty treatment? Or like a beauty therapy one. You've got like big wraparound belts.

Oh, no. And slippers. They all wear slippers in the office. I think we should introduce that. Office slippers and pod slippers. Here for it. Do it. Order it.

Let's go. Welcome to The vault with financial this is a safe space where we talk all things life and money and no topics are off limits howdy everybody happy thursday happy thursday love vault day love vault day favorite day the thursdays arguably are the best day of the week it's friday you get the day wrong and it's a wednesday and i've been looking for the vault and then it's oh no it's tomorrow and you know it's um it's a special lady's birthday today Jacqueline who is our mum's friend and has kind of practically helped helped raise us from afar isn't she just so funny she's a legend and I've just I just sent her a text to say happy birthday and you know how people can you do it happy birthday. And do you know how people... Can you do it from me as well?

Do you know how people have a WhatsApp status? Well, I don't. I've never had one, but you can do it. Hers is, ring me instead, questionable. I think I've messaged her before and seen that. There's a couple of other funny stories about Jacqueline. On Facebook, her birthday was yesterday. I said to my mum yesterday, where are you going?

She said, I'm going to see Jacqueline for her birthday. And I was like, oh, I saw that on Facebook. She said, sorry, I'm laughing. She said it the wrong day on purpose to catch people out. Yes. So I went and sent her a birthday message. You don't know me at all wrong

I love it Joelle she does she was applying for a credit card and she was like years ago actually she was like scrolling through all the options

of like titles and she was like mister missus she didn't want to do one she said oh yes you don't get to know my title

it was back in the day when you called someone to open a credit card you weren't scrolling on the internet I'm completely lying can don't get to know my title. It was back in the day when you called someone to open a credit card. You weren't scrolling on the internet. I'm completely lying. Can I have a tissue? Can I have a tissue?

She rang the credit card company and they were like, so are you a missus? Are you a miss? She was like, none. Like, I'm just Jacqueline. And they were like, no, no, we have to put a title. And she was like, I don't want to put one. I don't want to put missus. I don't want to.

What are the other options? And they like read through the list. She was like, okay,, I'm Lady Jacqueline and I won't say her full name because that's GDPR. So she's Lady Jacqueline. Beep. Oh my God.

It's just Jacqueline. On her card. It literally says On her credit card it says Madonna. Yeah. It says Lady and she's not a lady.

She could buy it. But have you been that reverend? Honestly, I'm sorry. I'm crying crying laughing so much because this lady is so amazing but hilarious everyone should have in fact now you've all got jacklyn in your life so be more jacklyn yeah that would catch me i always look at people's birthdays on facebook that's the only reason i know why it's someone's birthday i won't have a clue you know sometimes people don't put it on and then you go oh no is it today sometimes I have to stalk to like last year when did they put like a birthday

or something they're not getting a happy birthday from me I have not got that strength that made me to go through Facebook thank you I've been sat down a minute and all my mascara's down my eye from laughing anyway what we're here for. Happy birthday, Jacqueline. Happy birthday, lady Jacqueline. Milady. Okay, I've got a controversial opinion. As we are in September, you've still got time. If you don't have a Christmas sinking fund, you are screwed. Oh, you're hitting us with the C word.

Early on in the year which one christmas of course silence yeah there's there's there are two sets of people in this world and you can switch from being one person to the other because I was one before and it's I remember a job I used to have there used to be a thing called Christmas savings where from January and it's a lovely thought work would help you if you want to save for the Christmas payday which would be like November payday really you could save a bit and I used to be like like what what people people and I get it people need help people struggle saving for things in advance we know that and so that work would do it for you but I used to sit with the accounting team and the number of people that would be like

can I have it back so many people we're talking July we're talking I want a new outfit like I need I can't get to the end of the month I have no money left I'm going to have to dip into my Christmas savings so in out in out I remember it was going in and out

and then there was like you can only take it out once oh my god because the accounts team were being paid to run the accounts for the business and they're spending

all this time doing everyone's personal budget basically doing I can't help Carol but like I say it's got to say Carol get your shit together

so i can appreciate how and then other people just use credit for christmas like it's just not a problem it's just what they do but we know i think we've seen some stats which is you're still paying it off in august yeah the year after and you forgot what rubbish you bought i mean we've all done we all overspend at Christmas no one does a Christmas budget right like I challenge anyone everyone will get it wrong somewhere because you forget about the outfits the meals out the like stupid tea towels that you want to buy the bougie like M&S picky food tea yeah yeah and like the extra drinks that happen,

not just the Christmas parties, but it's like, oh, should we go to the, I mean, Christmas markets. And you're going to do it. These things are going to happen. Presents for the teachers, whatever it is, we all get it wrong. So imagine if you're not prepared at all.

And I think, like I said, there are two separate sets of people, people that save for Christmas and people that don't. And I was once someone that didn't. And now I can't imagine how you don't when i looked through my thinking i was showing um my eldest like what i was explaining to him what our sinking funds where we put all our money how we budget and the first one's christmas and he was like oh you save for christmas is it not father christmas and i was like yeah i was like he does not pick up the full time i said i'm not giving him the full credit i was like because mum and dad actually put some money aside for Christmas too we have to buy things and it's

really expensive and he just couldn't comprehend that oh my god you have to put money aside to pay for Christmas of which not many people do I think we're probably in the minority although there used to be like the good way hampers style there is that thing of putting money away for Christmas to pay for Christmas food I remember my nan used to be the good way hampers lady so you'd pick your hamper I always wanted the chocolate only one and I was like mum please don't get the food one where you get like I don't know like custard and ham and like loads of random stuff um but do you remember the chocolate only one so and people would do that like when you're really really struggling it was a way of making sure you didn't go without on that special day and so you'd do the hampers thing and but yeah nana was the hampers lady because she earned some money for it but she got commission on it probably the day it got delivered her living

room which was a tiny living room in wigan we used to be like a fort and we used to play a gate i vividly remember us stacking them up high health and safety issues left right and center and we used to play a game I vividly remember us stacking them up high health and safety issues left right and centre and we would be like climbing around everyone's hampers that would come and collect their hamper because it was delivery time but they didn't pay for that all year so that is a little bit of a sinking fund yeah it is

like catalogue-esque but that's paying after you've got the item this was literally a good way hamper sinking fund they were trailblazers I know yeah but I think in sometimes some people um have variations of it with like they save up the nectar points and say that's I was just gonna say like I was speaking to my mum the other day she didn't know there was a Tesco club card app and I was like mum I've got four pounds I've got a four pound voucher and she was like oh have you seen that have you seen that she's got like £50 oh yeah and she was like

oh I didn't know I had that and she was like I'm like spend it at Christmas get a food shop so literally this morning I've got Asda rewards because I do Asda food shop

every Monday gets delivered and I've signed up to the rewards I was really good collecting them collecting them and there was a point where it was like

you have to use them within six weeks or something but then someone told me the other day that you can transfer them to a Christmas savings pot. So now I try,

then there's no deadline. So loads of people were panicking in the community not long ago saying, oh, but you know, you make sure, because I didn't realize there was a sell, a use by day on these credits. And someone said the other day at the gym,

oh, I've got my Christmas saving funds with Asda. And I was like, oh, didn't know that. So now I have like 16 pounds in there. So I will use that at Christmas, even though I still have a sinking fund, because inevitably we will be getting extra stuff that I will have forgotten about.

That's a good hack. Yeah. That is a good hack. I'm going to look at that. I feel like if you've not got a Christmas sinking fund, you've got time. Yeah. And tip is, go look at what you spent last Christmas.

That's true. You're going to spend the same. I mean, you're going to spend more, because everything's more expensive. Look at the November spending and the December spending and add it all up and then sit there and go, one, do I really want to spend that much this year? Because you might make better decisions. But two, just be realistic about it. Because if it is, you've got between now and then, what can you put aside? Because ultimately, it is better to slow down your savings journey,

slow down your debt payoff journey if you're going to spend it because there's no point putting it on credit um and i feel like it helps you plan better when you've got um a sinking fund because that's the that's the money you've got to spend who's it going to be spreading and get a little spreadsheet going who who's in the um who's in the list who am i buying presents for what's my budget for them and kids are older again this year every year the children that you buy for may not necessarily be your own children. Someone else's. There has to be a cut off eventually.

I remember the conversation in our family that was like anyone over the age of 18 or 21, I can't remember, is not like the aunties and uncles all agreed that they weren't going to buy for nieces and nephews anymore. Like we have to stop. Like there has to be a point. So do a little bit of life admin

and get it out there early in the WhatsApp groups and be like so instead of a Christmas present this year why don't we do a meal and then you know exactly how much or like just Christmas drinks

you know just get in there early with your friendship groups stop buying candles for each other no one cares they're still sat in the cupboard all dusty no one gives a shit

oh I don't anyway tat like keep your money go out for a nice meal with each other or nothing at all we don't like plans we want to stay in in money, go out for an ice meal with each other or nothing at all. We don't like plans.

We want to stay in. In fact, we should do, this is a thread of the community, we should do this. Tips for how to like workshop it. Like, what are the things that you can say? Here's your list of examples. Add me in the WhatsApp group

and I will do it for you. We'll not do presents. Because it's the same with like families, like where they buy adults presents and you're like, I don't, like, why are we doing it? So get in there first and say, obviously we're not going to do presents. Because everything you bought me last year

is in the charity shop. Just a quick one, Laura here. If you're wanting to take back control of your money, ditch debt, make better decisions and build wealth for the future, the Financial app is for you. With Financial, you can track your spending on the go, hit your money goals faster and create a realistic budget that you can actually stick to. Not to mention, you'll be part of an exclusive

money community who share tips, offer support and celebrate your successes along the way. Click the link in the description to download Fan and Shell and start your free trial now. This is your sign to take control of your money today. Okay, I'm done. Let's go back to the vault. I've got a friend whose mother-in-law used to buy her the most, still probably does,

buys her the most hideous gifts. And she's like, just stop. She's like, I'd rather have nothing. Like give the money to charity. You can't say who it is but I can say the type of thing that she used to buy she knows who it is

so handbags with dogs on her like dogs that she's got and Lydia's like pass it over which charity shop did you drop it off at

another thing my Nana used to do when she got presents from people so she loved getting gifts she really did and she used to lay them all out on the dining room table when you came in on the bed on the bed they were already put on the bed well they were on the dining room table first but if you'd not come in the first week she got annoyed and moved them up to the the bed and but then she had a drawer under the bed which was the present drawer drawer that she put them in to re-gift. Look at all my stuff.

It was not about the present. It was the fact that people had bought her something and then she was like, I'll just give it to someone else. But she had to be really careful that she didn't re-gift it to the person. She probably definitely did. I think that's like a grandparent's thing because my nanny does that to me and she's like, say if my brother buys her something, she'll be like, she's literally still got it all from like years ago. And she's like, I don't really like that. Yeah,'t like that and i'm like what do i buy nanny now because

i know how brutal she is but she confides it all in me and she's like awful that's really bad she tells him she tells him the shit you bought yeah yeah so any grannies listening can we have tips please because we clearly don't get it right we need to be more brutal just call it quits save your money

stop buying shit when you're walking out of Marks and when you're paying in Marks and Spencers and the stuff don't get it and Primark

or the fillers it's the fillers yeah don't need it stop the worst thing I still like go home for Christmas

which is like not a long journey but still go home for like the week before Christmas because I'm 12 I was actually saying to my mum I was like mum I'm gonna be like 30 plus and I'm still coming home for Christmas hello go to the fridge as well isn't it yeah um what was I literally just saying so when I come back I'm like oh there's so much stuff to unpack like where does it all go I've got so many bits and bobs like it was nice when I was unwrapping it but now you're living in regret yeah I've got so much stuff so Jen stop buying stuff so if someone's not saved for Christmas right now, it's September. There's maybe three, four paydays if you get paid monthly.

Oh, plenty of time to start a Christmas thinking fund. August, September, October, November. Yeah, start shaving off things that don't serve you, as in buying presents for people that you don't really want to, that if you feel a bit of pain when you buy them, you're like, I'm still doing this. Get rid of those because that's already going to pull your budget down. Like Laura said, have a little look at what you spent last year.

Look at how you can optimise. so next to points I think someone was talking about in the community and optimizing them for bulking up your Christmas savings as the tests go try and optimize but other than that let's start a sinking fund there's absolutely no reason why you can't have a few hundred pounds if you're in a good place when it comes to your money and like Laura said you might have to pull back on savings journey goals whatever it might be but christmas is coming and it's the same day every year so let's get sorted definitely it's um something where having a real think about what you spent last year versus this year is is a big big tip because i think you might feel sick and it helps you go no and i think if you plan earlier you're not as emotive because the snow is not out when you get the vibe of the christmas vibe and like you know michael buble is on you

know you're gonna get there and then our emotions take over so and again you know we like to play the female male card don't the woman takes all this on if you're in a if you're in a heterosexual relationship woman takes it on and the guilt that's what annoys me the most. Admin, spending, the literary department. And a big tip with families, we've had this where first it was stopping the children and then it was this adult thing

because we were all buying each other's stuff. We do things like the women's refuge or local charity shelters or I think we gave to that Choose Love charity, the migrant charity last year, like pick a charity and tell everyone,

let's not buy shit. Let's pool money. To do something good. Even 50 to a hundred pounds. If you're going to spend 200 pounds on a load of different people, put in an amount towards a charity. And as a family, you decide we've given that.

That's amazing. And then get together, like go for a mulled wine or a hot chocolate or something like that that is money better spent and spending quality time together than turning up tipping off some like marks and spencers gifts and then buggering off and not really having quality time this is a psa to the person that says we're not going to buy each other presents and then buys people presents i freaking hate those people stop it stop lying to yourself yeah because that you just make the other person feel bad and they probably told you that we're not going to do presents because you

buy shit presents anyway and you come and turn on i know we weren't doing presents but here's a homemade cake worst nightmare i know we're doing presents for the kids but i've gone and done this massive amazing thing and you just feel like you're making the other person feel bad so just stop. Okay? Period.

Okay. Dilemma. How do I save for everything? Okay. You can't but let's have a go. I'm trying to decide how I split my savings each month into travel house deposit and emergency fund so I want to buy a house in 2028 with roughly a 30k deposit in mind but I love traveling and travel regularly so this takes a good portion of my funds I'm currently budgeting 7.5k for

five months traveling next year but I also want an emergency fund of 3k. How do I split the 500 pounds I save per month across these? You can do anything, but you can't do everything. I have to shout out to these specific goals though. In 2028, I want a 30,000 pound deposit and you need a bit of that. You need that. That's like admirable um but this listener clearly has this like torn I want to be sensible and buy a house and I want to see the

world and I appreciate that I personally if I was gonna say what should we do first get the emergency fund done because once that's saved and it's not an incredibly high amount compared to the other goals that she's saving for get that off the table and your emergency fund will stop you dipping in if something comes up which inevitably will it'll stop you dipping into debt or getting taken on credit or whatever it might be that then will stop you reaching those other goals so for me if you were going to order it in terms of importance and you were following the financial methodology which you can find in the playbook in the app it would would be to do your emergency fund first. Once that's done, what's the thing that's coming up next?

It's travelling. It's travel and it's not a holiday. So usually what we would say with travel is it's part of your budget. So you can save for your holidays and save for house deposit or the goal that you're working towards, whether it's paying off debt, whether it's investing, extra investing, because it just goes in your budget. It goes in the sinking fund element. You work out how much you need. You divide it by the months left to that thing and you make it

work. And what you need to get is the right balance between how much I'm sending to holiday and how much I'm sending to the thing that grows at the end. And for those that don't properly understand the financial budget, we do it like a P&L and you've got your income and then you've got your fixed expenses come out, your sinking funds, which are these little monthly amounts that go to your pots of money. You have your flexible expenses and then what's left of your excess. And we want your excess to go towards something that grows your net worth. That could be paying down debt. That could be saving, saving for a home. That could be paying down debt. That could be saving, saving for a home. That could be extra investing. It's not holidays. So sometimes people

misunderstand that bit at the bottom and they go, I'm saving for a house extension. That one, I'm going to trip myself up a little bit because if it adds value to the property, I'm here for it. But if it's just, I'd like to redo my bathroom or i'd like to repaint my bedroom that's a want it's not a need but it's it's spending it's spending something and it's not growing your assets really probably a sinking fund like oh we're saving up for it's decorating the bathroom so we're going to put 100 pounds and we need 400 pounds we'll save 100 pounds a month in terms of a sinking fund 400 pounds at the end of it. Exactly. Because what's crucially here is that is not increasing your net worth. So the saving is

not, don't kid yourself that you're saving, you're saving to spend it. So that's spending, it's just deferred spending. Same with travel. When people say, what for use your excess for? And they say, oh, I'm saving for a holiday. That shouldn't be there then. And the reason why that's important is it needs to be higher up in the budget because what you need to show yourself is you're not putting anything towards things that grow. The bit of your budget at the end needs to be, there needs to be something there. It needs to be as substantial as it can be. And it needs to be going towards something. And so this is going to be interesting balance for our listener. Let's pretend it's a normal holiday first.

I like to travel, but I want to save for a house. Ignore traveling because that's different. You need to get that balance between what your annual travel budget is and what's at the bottom. You've said this recently, Holly, like you've said, I want to be... Okay. Are you calling me out but did you say

you spend more on travel than your mortgage this year oh yeah like priorities I want to pay down my mortgage but you did say on holiday but you did say that doesn't actually I want the balance I think I said next year we need to get a grip famous last words I think I said to my husband we need to get a grip we're not all perfect you know we're not all angels here with halos on our head at financial we're real people too oh god no exactly we want some news but to that point

what's in the bottom and where's it going and so that's a message to everyone that we want you to do something every payday that grows your net worth and if you're not doing that we're not helping you we're actually not doing our job I mean grows your net worth and if you're not doing that we're not helping you we're actually not doing our job i mean we're doing our job if you're not going into extra debt and you're saving up for things in advance but we want to advance your net worth we want to like give you more money and get it to grow so our listener that's traveling

i think i'll get it sounds like it's a one-off i like to travel so i'm going to be traveling every year it sounds like traveling yes like we're going and this is a period of time in my life before i adult and buy a house and she said she's only got 500 a month to save yes so she so unless she's got some savings somewhere she's already not got enough because if she thinks she needs seven and a half by net 12 months time say it's this time next year um that's only what the math don't work i was thinking that what's seven and a half divided by how many months you've got left and that's not including the emergency fund savings so she could have some savings she doesn't mention that but this is where you go if you need that get your emergency fund first i love that idea especially if you're traveling god you might need something

at some point um but also pick the right budget so it might be that you might have to go next december so that you can save up enough but that 500 is not a lot and that also says to me you can't save for your house because you can't you can't do both okay listeners i've got a controversial money opinion from our friends at pension b it's easy to sort out your pension. Agree? Disagree? Hard agree, but it really does depend on who your pension provider is. I've had them all. A pale, stale male coming into my place of work to talk to me about pensions whilst I daydream about what's for dinner. Or an annual statement that drops on the doormat, left unopened for months with loads of unhelpful jargon. But in the last couple of years, I found PensionBee and all that changed.

Yeah, I'm a PensionBee girlie too and I've never looked back. It's so easy to set up. You get your very own UK-based account manager or a beekeeper as they are called, who is on hand to support you. With PensionBee, it's easy to combine, contribute flexibly

and withdraw your pension money all in one place. Download the app today to get started or head to pensionbee.com for more information. And remember, when investing, your capital is at risk. Physically with the money she has, she either has to make more money. No, because the travel is coming up first and the only other way that she could pay for that is credit. Credit. So there's just no point. The sad thing is if you want to save for a house, it's your first house. Every year that you can do a lifetime ISA in the UK, you put four grand in,

the government give you a grand. And so you're missing out on that. But if you really want to go travelling... Does that work to say if you put a grand in, do you just get 25%? Yes. Is it not just... It's not just a fault. That's correct.

So she could get some money, but she's kind of leaving a thousand. If she wants to save 30, and by the way, let's be clear on the numbers, if there's only 500 spare every month. That's not going to get you there. She's not going to save 30.

No. So this is all about modelling it, trying it out, do the calculator. How many months before 2028? Math is not my strong point, so I'm not going to be able to share what it is. But 500 times that, it definitely wouldn't hit. So how many years have

you got to save to do that and be able to travel and to be able to you know have emergency funds as well um but house seems down the list if it wants to come up the list she's not traveling yeah you gotta pick one or the other to prioritize not one forever i don't know how old you are but if you um don't have children yet and you've not bought a house yet and you want to travel now's when you do it sort the house out later um is it really going to make a big difference to your life if you life if you push that back to 2030 no probably it doesn't sound like it and things change you yeah you can plan for the future but four years is a long way away. Things might change.

LA Olympics. Yeah. Hopefully your income will come up, you know, in that time. Yes, that's true. We're assuming that you're going to stay on this £500 excess forever. That might not necessarily be the case. Once the emergency fund is gone, that's £500 just going to the travelling and then once the travelling is done.

But like I say, in that meantime, find ways to get new income as well or additional income. The good thing as well about doing one thing at a time is you are psychologically more likely to do it more quickly there's a Harvard business study that showed that when you separate things out and super go focus on one thing at a time especially if it's like like if you think about the debt snowball the debt snowball is doing small and this is what the study was on it was on the debt snowball the fact about the debt snowball, the debt snowball is doing small, and this is what the study was on, it was on the debt snowball. The fact that the debt avalanche method where you pay off debt in order of interest rates is mathematically better. But the snowball, which is the smallest amount first and then building up, is proven to work more. And it's because we're humans and we're driven by emotions and psychology. And when we get little wins we feel good so i think this is a really good time for a like a goal snowball which is first save three thousand pounds emergency fund get it in the app um by the way i'm gonna do a spoiler here but we are building the sinking fund tracker in the app

i'm not sure i'm gonna say that but just don't tell anyone and sinking build a travel sinking fund in the app um the pot it's in the already, but an actual pot and seven and a half grand. Set the date. It tells you how many months you need to save and how much you need to save to hit that goal. And then do house deposit. You can see your goals in an order, but don't try and contribute to them out of order. Nail one at a time. Because I tell you, I think if you see that house deposit at zero,

but you're going to be more motivated to fill that emergency fund bang next one travel what else can I do can I get an extra job can I do some uber because if you could do that by June the quicker you go the quicker you come back the quicker you then start tackling that house one so I think I would do that I love that it's like you're on a mission for like however long it's like oh I'm currently on my house mission yeah oh I'm currently on my travel mission yeah I love that that's really cool goal snowball snowball goal goal snowball okay I think this is potentially one of the most exciting community wins like ever so i have just made my final payment my journey to financial freedom began at rock bottom after i ended an eight-year toxic relationship that destroyed both my self

esteem and my finances back then i worried if i had enough money to eat for the rest of each month i was living in one of the most expensive parts of the UK outside London, drowning in debt which was now all on me. I felt immense shame but I resolved to change. I embraced budgets, financial education and better habits. I learned to say no, prioritise myself and even doubled my salary. Day by day I persevered. This path was lonely and nobody truly knew how bad things were. Yet discovering the financial community reminded me that I wasn't alone. I know that I can't change my past, but I can now decide my future. Because after seven years, seven months and 12 days, I can finally say I am debt free. Round of applause.

Unbelievable. I got chills. Incredible. Yeah. That's a slog. Yeah. Can I also say that this person this is from the community and they had a debt-free party yeah oh amazing balloons and good balloons champers

champagne and deservedly so like imagine embarking on that journey on your own seven years is a long time a long time to say no it's a long time to um put off things it is a long time. A long, long time. It's a long time to say no. It's a long time to put off things. It's a long time. So also like the big thing is you get annoyed at your past self. And she doesn't say this, but I've been there where you're like, if I just hadn't have done that, that and that. You get so annoyed and especially when it's been as a result of someone else or influenced by someone else.

You get angry that you were in that situation. Yeah, that you put up with that. Yeah. But then the journey that she's been on, it reminds me of, I don't think you have Holly, but you've done an endurance event, haven't you recently? You've done your half marathon. I mean, you're looking blankly like that was a lifetime ago. I'm on to the next phase now. On to my next challenge. What's my next challenge next swimming swimming have you seen the the lots of olympics is quite back in the summer and now it's we're coming into the winter and everyone's starting to like

everyone's skiing are the winter olympics this year no they are every the two years aren't they i think they alternate two years, two years, two years. So you've got time if you fancy nipping. Maybe. Let's start some. We did go to Helsinki last Oh yeah.

Last December, didn't we? We watched Rana in the snow. I was thinking about that. That wasn't a marathon. I was in a sauna the other day and I was just thinking about when we were in the sauna. I was a wimp

compared to the local Finnish ladies. I felt so British. Yeah. Everyone sat there naked and they're like Oh my God, don't look at me. in the sauna I was a wimp compared to the local Finnish ladies British yeah everyone sat there naked and they're like oh my god don't look at me and then all the like

70 year old ladies were like just walking out the sauna casually just going into the Baltic sea of which it was it was minus something stupid

and Lucy bullied Laura and I into doing it she was like we're only here once. We'll never do this again. Like, follow me. Followed Lucy out into the snow.

Lucy went in. Swam. Came back. I went in. Came back. I didn't swim. You swam. You went in as well, didn't you?

Someone swam and I went in. You got your foot caught. There was a pole. Yeah. You don't want to know. It was painful. But it was painful all around. But what an experience.

I was talking about. What were we gone a long way I hope everyone stayed with us but an endurance event is so relentless and I'm talking about the actual the say the room we're going to run I like when I did Ironman it was the same thing. When you're actually competing and it's not, the training is hard enough, don't get me wrong, but even the event is so relentless.

You're just taught to put one step in front of the other, one step in front of the other. And at the time, you just think it's this mountain that I am never, like the negative self-talk in your head is just,

I will never do this. And I feel like when people have a huge amount of debt, relatively low income, on their own, you've just got this mountain to climb. And so everyone would forgive you for giving up. Do you know? Oh my God, you just stop.

You just stop running. Or for taking twice the amount of time because she arguably, a bit of her could go, I'm not going to say no to everything or I should treat myself a little bit because this is hard. And I know this community member and they genuinely have not done that. They have just been like head down.

Yeah. And suddenly one day it was getting closer and closer because the months were going by and she was like, I'm nearly there, I'm nearly there. And you're so motivated that you then one day you achieve it and you go, oh my God, I did that. So that community member as well, she shared a picture before on a fridge fridge she literally had a calendar and it was a day-by-day calendar so she literally for the last year or whatever has been ticking off day by day yeah tell me

you're not fully committed I just can't wait to see what she's going to do now I think we're all very much like make sure you take a bit of a break like before you look at another goal another challenge because I think like hormone shifts in there and other things like what's her can she spend on herself yeah I was like you need to get bougie now like as in not like crazy it's going to put you into net but like just have a breather yeah because that was a long slog like you you've done it now seven years you've you've nailed the habit I think I don't think there's going back there. I wonder if it can get addictive. She can clearly put this much away every month. Will she continue in that vein?

She might not. Reverse dopamine hit is not spending, it's saving, and that's good as well. So I think we definitely want her to enjoy it, but we're kind of so proud and we're now excited for the like so I wonder how many episodes in we will have the I've just bought a house yeah I'm gonna have it she will do it yeah yeah I don't know when I don't know where I don't know what it will look like for her um but when we do we'll come back to this episode and we'll remember

that she nailed it and for anyone listening that goes, I could never pay off 10, 20, 30, 40,000 pounds with a debt plus, you can. It's a numbers game. We've seen it so many times before. These are not rare things now. The seven year one,

I would say probably is just because that person's gone it alone. We've had couples that have done massive amounts of debt payments off together. Like do not feel like you can't do this because you absolutely can. Well done. Yeah. Woo. Cheers. Yeah. Cheers. Okay. massive amounts of debt payments off together like do not feel like you can't do this because you absolutely can well done yeah cheers yeah cheers okay the pandemic really screwed up my finances didn't it all not me I was in uni when you don't have anything, they can't screw them. Exactly. Hi, girls.

I wasn't a high earner before, but I was able to save money in ways I haven't able to since. During quarantine, I feel like even saying the word quarantine. You can't even say it. It's like a model. During quarantine, I went back to college and upgraded my skills. I've left jobs that make me unhappy and I've found that spending is a quick dopamine boost in an otherwise unhappy situation. I've tried emergency funds, investing and budget tracking, but I'm still owing on a consumer proposal, which I've barely dented, but at least it isn't collecting interest. And I usually have to rely on family to help me get through to the next payday even with a higher paying job my biggest dilemma is impulse control it's what got me into this mess and when payday comes around it's almost like I go into a trance leading to overspending try as I may I never seem to be able to stick to a budget with a big move looming I'm wondering how I can actually stick to a budget and

be self-sufficient financially? This is a big one. So it seems like she's just never been able to get back on track after COVID, the pandemic, yeah? I think it sounds like whatever budget she's ever created before might have been too strict, therefore she's never been able to stick to it. So a lot of people fall down in creating, sticking to a budget because they never made a realistic one in the first place or they never truly had the correct numbers. They didn't like go in enough on it.

They're like, oh, I get paid this much and I've spent a bit of this and I do a bit of that. No, no, like you literally have to get all that paperwork down, work out, it sounds like she's got debt, how much debt you've got, work out how much income comes in, what goes out, what are my bills. I don't't it doesn't sound like she's ever nailed the budget properly and I genuinely feel it's because she's she's never done it properly if that makes sense

you can't stick to it if it wasn't if it wasn't a good quality one to start with and a realistic one there's also a huge impulsive spending problem where I think it really benefit her to get the bank statement out look identify all the things and transactions like what they were if she can even remember like I would even print one out I don't know if you can even do that nowadays like the highlight download pdf send it to yourself like I really would sit down there um sit down ring us we'll do it with you oh my god we would verge we would love to do this it's our dream but you need you need a bit of budget therapy you need to go through it

like find a family member a friend and say I have a problem like you have a problem with impulsive spending because what's happening is the money's hitting

and I can imagine the heart rate's going to go up you get excited you get adrenaline and it's a routine that you're building it's very much similar to like people's

eating routines like if you want to binge it's so similar to that it's a routine that you're building. It's very much similar to like people's eating routines. Like if you want to binge, it's so similar to that. It's like you just want to get that release, that dopamine hit. So I would really recommend, because I think you're addicted to it, you're addicted to that feeling, sitting down with someone and identifying what you bought, what time of month it was in terms of your pay pay what your mood possibly was on that day like and you can do this going forward as well so we'll talk about that in a minute because I think you'll really start to click with this is not needs it's wants and it's not help like it's not helping you in the long run like do you remember that at the same time every month so

you know it's not yeah and so if there's a pattern yeah we can deal with the pattern because you go right how do i change your routine so this is the old-fashioned gym thing on the power of habit is um it's easy to not go to the gym so easy when that alarm goes off it's easy to turn around and go i'm not going and i did that this morning but that's because i need to wash my hair so then the power of habit is the same with gym. And they talk about if you don't have any routine and it's just the alarm goes off and I might go to the gym, and you don't want to, you're not likely to go. If you set an alarm, book a class, tell a friend that you're going,

going to meet your friend on the corner before you get there. Get your gym stuff out, laid out, ready to go. Next to the bed. There was literally a study about it when the trainers are next to the bed and the stuff's next to the bed there was literally a study about when the trainers are next to the bed and the stuff's next to the bed we were talking about gym group

about people that like mine's on the floor of the en suite whereas our friend Sue's so good she's got five days six days of gym kit

in little bags pouches pouches ready she's not rummaging around for a sports bra and disturbing a husband at like 5.30 in the morning

she should just go to sleep oh my god rummaging around for a sports bra and disturbing a husband at like 5.30 in the morning. Does she like lay the outfit out on her bed? I mean, you should just wear it. She should just go to sleep. Oh my God, imagine sleeping in a sports bra. Oh my God. That's like torture punishment. But it is prep goals. But this is all about what can you do at the point where you could lapse and waver?

What can you do? So let's have a look at the type of spending. You might be someone that is an amazon girly delete the app there is nothing that you cannot buy i mean lydia i suspect that if it's something that you truly need you could go find it somewhere in a physical shop yeah yeah yeah so so you can get the thing so it's not you can't go get it but you can't get it a click so that's an example a tiktok shop thing you know could be come off social so if you're someone that's influenced by social she needs to know when her spending is is her spending lunch time in the city going to Zara,

trying a few things on and just buying? Whatever the thing is, remove it and work hard with an accountability buddy. And again, come to the community if you want to help with that. We've got lots of people supporting each other. Because I think if you can remove those things, but as Holly said, have a budget that allows some spending, I think you're going to get the balance between I can spend something and funnily enough, when we put impulsive spending into our budget or fun spending we don't spend

whatever yeah can you go through your like impulsive spending how to use like how you overcome that with your list like your well I was just gonna say I always feel like a month can be a long time if you're an impulse spender and if you're struggling to get to the next payday. Would you say like budgeting weekly, like giving yourself a weekly allowance for everything like food, impulse spending, everything, like creating a whole budget for a week? I've seen people do that on the flexible stuff. So because in the financial app, you can do as many budgets as you want in a month. Some people do a bills budget genuinely and then they do separate budgets for flexible stuff.

And you can even do this a little bit with like pots and stuff with the digital banks. And so you could put, this is this week's food. Because if you put in like a £400 food budget, you know,

hey M&S, I'm doing all right. Whereas if you put in a hundred and you've got to also get like stuff for the house and stock, you know, you cup it up and make sure the stuff in the freezer and whatever that's not loads but at least you've got 400 to burn so i think that's good and if you are like if you do spend it all you've only got five four or five days to wait until the next one it's not rather than a month the last two weeks of the month we've started doing that with food because i'm a big food

overspender yeah so we end up like moving money from fun money because food is food and then that's my excuse to spend more because I'm like well this has to be fun but you also do that you've got a list on your phone haven't you have yeah so everything Lydia does this as well if you want something write it down wait at least 48 hours the dopamine normally wears off by then you've probably even like forgot what it even was um and yeah you kind of look back at it and you're like why did I even want that like what the hell it passes quite quickly doesn't it the next thing like just keep writing it down

I think I don't ever share it with the group. A lady went through her list the other day. She was like, I went through, I did the list and she was like, look at all this that I was going to buy. She was like,

and I might well have done it in the past. The list is long. She was like, don't judge yourself. She was like, just put it on the list. Even just small things

like coffees. Yeah, yeah. You want to go and get coffee. Walking past a news agent is like, oh, I'd like some sweets now. You're like, you can do that every so often

but if you do it every time because you just want the dopamine hit, there's a difference between I'm going to treat myself to some sweets or every time you, people just need that tap,

tap, tap. They can't get it out the system. Lydia, do you have any tips? It sounds like in Pulse who's spending, she says, I get paid and I just,

and then I blow it and then probably, it's like a diet. If you are in a healthy eating kick which often we are especially after indulging and you break it you go oh well i'll wait till monday like oh well it's friday now i couldn't possibly get back on the wagon and and he thought it feels like if she could nail this spending plan she could do well but the list is so good like it's so satisfying as well like when later on when the list is long and you're like oh my god that is a lot of crap that would have been yeah do you write down how much the thing would have been that's a good idea i've not seen add

it all up and be like i've made 200 pounds yeah i do that when i accidentally on purpose go upstairs in asda you know with all the homeless stuff. Hours lost. I just, in my head, I'm like, keeping a little, like, that's four pounds I've made. Yeah. Buying that. But maybe it could be on your list. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a great idea. You ever gone back and bought anything off the list? Yeah. Yeah. Like, sometimes it is stuff you do need. So that's fine. Or want, or really want. Yeah.

And then. You allowed want as well. But you just didn't need it, like, at 3am. Yeah. Like when you needed stuff you do need. So that's fine. Or want, or really want. Yeah. And then. You're allowed want as well. But you just didn't need it like at 3am. Yeah. Like when you needed the human sensory sock. Yeah. And we bought it. I was wearing that yesterday.

We need to wear it in the office again. Come to the pod in it. I don't know what episode it was. It was a long time ago, but it was on the list and we bought it. So is there anything else on the list that we need to be crowdfunding for? The bunny hammock. But you bought that, didn't you? I've never had a bunny hammock on the list.

What's the bunny thing? The flop. Hop and flop. Oh, my Nana made me one. Oh, there you go. So that's 30 quid saved. There you go. Thanks, Nana.

£30. You need to make it like a wish list. You need to make your list like public. Oh, God, no. Yeah, she needs a wish list. need to make your list like public oh god yeah she is wish list she's an amazon list but yeah yeah appreciate it i feel like you need to nail the spending thing because if you don't none of this is going to work you're going to constantly feel like you're failing you're going to constantly feel like you can't stick to a budget she mentions investing and she mentions shopping and i feel like she's probably social media influenced so if you are think about coming off socials or or um curating your feeds

and your Instagram or whatever it is to like positive influence you can pause and mute people for a little bit as well the stuff that so that doesn't serve you while you're in a particular mode of your life do that for a period of time and then because you can do a realistic budget you can and your first goal i would say like i said investing but you've got debt and then you're trying to spend like stop everything get to the end of the month and just spend the money that you made and you're winning yeah that's a win that is the first win and it's like we're all like one immediate gratification like not gratification but we want to win immediately like i i'm i'm getting back with my thing like like fitness i want to we want to win immediately like I'm getting better with my thing

like fitness I want to be able to lift heavy straight away you can't like that's not how it works we all want it to be we want get rich quick get fast quick

get thin quick whatever we want we want it quick but slow and steady just one everyone says it but we just don't like hearing it just as humans

but one day you'll look back and go I did that but it's one thing at a time I feel like that's a nice ending so that's all for this episode the vault is now closed p.s we would love if you would subscribe follow and share this podcast so we can help grow our amazing community just a quick disclaimer the vault is just a chat around life and money topics and we are not giving financial advice