The Vault with Financielle - “I’m Great With Money… For 5 Days a Month” | The Vault Episode 71

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Send us a text“No one needs branded food. You’re paying for a logo, not better nutrition” - we unpack this week’s controversial opinion, then dive into your dilemmas:💸 ”I’m great with money… for 5 days a month”💸 ”I’m Doing Everything Right… So Why Am I Still Struggling?”Got a money win or (totally anonymous) dilemma? Share it via the Financielle app community or email [e-mail] 💌You’re not alone in figuring this stuff out. Get honest, helpful reads at financielle.com 💖💸Connect with our Partners🐝 Consolidate your pensions with PensionBee (capital at risk)🫶 Protect yourself and loved ones with our friends at Lifesearch✍ Write a will that is tailored to you with Octopus Legacy🏡 Meet our Financielle approved Mortgage Brokers💸 Commission-free investing* with Trading 212 (capital at risk)🛒 Cashback on your shopping with Jam Doughnut (use code FINC)*The above are tracked links, which tells our partners we sent you and may in future result in a payment or benefit to our site.The 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

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. Hello. Hello. Hi, I've got my diet coke in a cup again because Holly won't let me have the can. It's not good for the look. Not the aesthetics. But what is good for the aesthetics are Birkenstocks still coming in strong with the Birkenstocks.

Are they the shoe of summer still? They have been for the last three years. Yeah, going strong. I am tempted. I got these in unique. I know you were the OG on those. They're still ugly. I can appreciate that they are a very ugly shoe. I like them.

I like the ugliness. Do you know the sandal ones, it's really annoying how expensive they are because when they first came out, they were 25 pounds for a pair of Birkenstocks. It's like the Crocs effect. Yeah. Because everyone that used to wear Crocs are like,

fuming because they're 40 pounds. I'm not spoiling, yeah. Well, these were only 45. Now these are like 100 plus. Yeah. When I got them. I was actually looking at vintage. Because they were ugly when I got them.

They obviously still are, but. Shoes, yeah. Vintage after shoes. I feel like you have to get the ones that people have just not used. I think the size. Crocs are fine. I was looking for the kids and I was like,

would I, because the ones that Teddy wants are 40 pounds. Give them a jet walk. For kids, crocs. Yeah, and they grow out of shoes quite quickly, children. And you were at school most of the week, so. Yeah. I still, I will end up buying full-price ones, but I think I went out of curiosity.

They weren't that much different, is all I of curiosity. They weren't that much different, is all I'd say. They weren't that much different. So ones that I'd found, but I was looking at Birkenstocks. I think a suede shoe is quite difficult to buy secondhand because you'll always feel like. I don't think I could buy Birkenstocks secondhand

because they get so worn. They kind of mold to your feet. You know what I call them. Yeah, I had some white ones when I was like 20, 21. I remember you got, you're an OG of Burdens and Strax. They were really uncomfortable the first time you were, and then they molded, they became soft and beautiful. I can't walk in these, like,

you shuffle. I have my feet look like this inside when I'm walking. What are they for then? How have you got them? The aesthetic! They look nice. She's looking at, I'll pop to the shop, I'll like, be in the garden.

But you can't walk, you're like a snow wet. These are my garden shoes. Are they white jeans? Yeah, they sit like this in my garden. What aesthetic. Coastal mum. Yeah, coastal mum. Coastal grandma.

Coastal mum. Coastal mum. You're looking younger. I'm going younger. Nice. Coastal daughter next episode. Yeah, yes. You look like you're visiting your mum on the coast. Yeah, stay tuned for coastal daughter.

She lives in Southport. Technically. You're visiting your mum who is a coastal grandma and you're the coastal mum. At this, I was going to do a link to what I want to talk about next and it's not working, so just scrap that and ignore what I'm saying. We got a question for you, Lucy, on YouTube, didn't we? We did. We were going to ask you in front of everyone,

what was the question? So someone questioned us and said, I would love to know why Lucy does not want to own a house. Yeah. And what was your response in Slack first? My first response was that I'm mentally 12 years old, so I'm not unfortunately allowed to own a house yet. And I don't actually know the full answer to this question, to be honest.

It's kind of, I do just feel so young. I've got this mental thing where I'm like, I am a teenager and I hopefully one day will grow out of that. But I just don't, there was a point in my life where everyone around me was buying houses. Like my brother and his girlfriend were buying a house and my friends were like, oh, getting on the property ladder and everything. And I'm like championing this, oh, wanna get on the ladder and everything early.

And I was just like, I nearly got caught up in that. I think I remember talking to you guys about it and being like, oh, I feel so behind. And you were like, oh, just like stash cash away. That's the best option that you can do. Like give yourself, give you future self options. So I took that advice. But for me mentally, I haven't got that money in a Lysa because the thought of owning a house right now is just not really appealing to me. I'm not old enough to own a dishwasher or like a washing machine. If something goes wrong with my boiler, I don't want to be the one to be in control of that. And like what if in a few years I'm like,

oh, what if I want to go and live in Greece for a year? I know for a fact, I get so settled and so comfortable so easily. If I have a house that I love and so I'm so attached to and I've poured so much love and like effort into, I will not want to leave that. So I think there's always a future for me to own a house and be sure of where I want to live, but that is not right now. Unfortunately. Very refreshing to hear because I think a lot of dilemmas or community posts that we get are people desperately wanting to buy a house, feeling like you're using that phrase,

feeling like they're behind. Get caught up in the hype. Yeah, it's so easy. Like, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Like you do have a deposit, oh, I must search for a house, I might move. I mean, people search for houses, I might move. Yeah, I still do that. Oh, you still do that. Well, and people do it when they're not ready to move. Neil does it all the time, and I'm for how some right move. I mean, people search for how some right move. Yeah, I still do that.

Oh, you still do that. Well, and people do it when they're not ready to move. Neil does it all the time. And I'm like, over his shoulder, what are you doing? He's like, I'm on right move. I saw a TikTok of, I think she's called the American Peach or something.

There's an American lady. Oh yeah, the Yorkshire Peach. Yeah, oh, Yorkshire Peach. And she makes fun of, she's American, of Americans. She's like, I can't believe I used to do this. Like, and everyone, all the Americans love that she's got, the other day it was like, do you have a washing line? Like, what is that?

No, the Americans couldn't get over this. I think they put everything in the dryer maybe. Whereas in the UK, the big thing is the sun's out, quick, get the washing out. But she was talking about her husband on right move. She was like, why are you on right move? What are we moving? She was panicking and he was like, no, I'm just browsing. And she was like, what do you on right move? What are we moving? Like she was panicking and he was like,

no, I'm just browsing. And she was like, what do you mean you're browsing? Like, what are we, what? She was getting really upset. And then a lady that they went out through a balcony and speaking to a friend and the woman was like, oh yeah, did you see your neighbors on right move? Like I saw their kitchen.

And she was like, why are you on right move? Are you moving? She didn't get it. She's like the only reason you look in America is because you've got high intention to buy, you don't browse. It's like a magazine here. I was like, Neil's like literally in bed scrolling.

What are you doing? He's like, I'm on right move. Why? We're not going anywhere. Just looking at a floor plan, I would knock that wall down. That's our favorite thing. You wouldn't think. With million pound houses, we're always like,

oh, I hate that kitchen. Oh, that garden's terrible. Oh, you'd have to do that, yeah. I think I do it for the shock factor of realizing how expensive property is. Like, something underwhelming is like, you know, six, seven, eight, nine hundred grand. And I say that genuinely,

like I'm not trying to be a princess about it, really underwhelming property is that they happen to be a particular type of square footage, they happen to have a really big garden, they're in an area that's very, like, not affluent, but like an aspirational area. And you'd wanna scrap it. Expensive and you go, oh God, I'd wanna change everything.

Yeah, and I have got this mentality in my head which might be wrong to have, but I'm like the longer we save, like I don't want to start at the very bottom. Yeah. Like I don't think I'm a fixer-upper. I think I wanna walk in somewhere and do like decoration stuff. Yeah. I don't think I'm a fixer-upper. I think I wanna walk in somewhere and do like decoration stuff.

I don't think that does not appeal to me. Like for example, my brother and his girlfriend at the moment are living in their house whilst it's being fully redone. And I'm just like, just could not do that. No. That's really good, like mature way of looking at it. I know you're saying you're a teenager,

but actually you'd be more mature about it than other people that would put themselves in a negative situation. Yeah, it's really self-aware. Yeah. Thanks guys. Thanks guys. So self-aware. But where people get it wrong is they don't save and then they don't do anything, like

just don't do anything. So they go, oh, I'm not going to buy a house yet. When I'm ready to buy a house, I'll save because the process of saving for a deposit nowadays, like the amounts of money that your generation is having to pull together, the mortgage rates that, you know, are even available at the moment mean houses are getting more and more unaffordable. And so if someone's just gone, oh, I'm not quite ready, let me go have fun and let me not, you know, at least have that in the back of their mind.

You don't give yourself options. And yeah, we were really strict with it. We were like, cash is king, so piling it up. And you were doing your extra investing anyway. So that was there. But I like that you even, you didn't got obsessed with the Lysa. I'm all for the Lysa, I like it right. But I want everyone to have ambition, to have that much cash or that much wealth that the one grand a year bonus doesn't change

your life. I want that for financial users. I want that for the community. I want to, it's like when people like over stress about a mini saving or a discount or, and it's like, just that shouldn't, it shouldn't matter. This is where we talk about this 10,000 pound decisions rather than 20p decisions and making sure that we're really thinking thinking of, like, so for you, the stress of that money being there in a lice, when you're not sure that you want to buy a property, even though you know you probably will and you probably will before you're 50 or older, you still don't want to put money in the lice and that's okay because that's your choice and all your forfeiting is a thousand pounds per year,

which I know it sounds a lot of money. So I'm trying to say it as nice when I want people to use high as lices and I want people to use this free cash from the government, but in the same respects, people are making decisions over here. You're making that in your investments. You're doing it. Someone else isn't investing and not making that grand.

And they're not putting money in the high yield savings. They're putting in the current account and they're not making 4% on the savings. So you didn't like the idea that it was locked in and this is about how it makes you feel. And so yeah, having, she's not, you're not anti buying a home generally. No, definitely not. Oh yeah, you're anti buying one for you right now or in the next immediate future, but you've got options.

Yeah. I think we always talk about it and it's like, okay, the only deadline that we would have where it's like, oh, we need to own where we live is children. And we don't want that for a long time. So we've helped delay that decision. Yeah, definitely. And definitely. We're like, what an education is all I can say.

You'll never guess what happened today. And like I said, the pluses and minuses, lots of people rent for an awful long time. We've talked about the four, the continent, it's much more a renter space there. And listen, we know that once you've got a family, if you're renting, that can be stressful that you've homed your home and it's your sanctuary.

And for someone else to make that decision to move you out and move you on must be quite upsetting and stressful. But at the same time, some people buy too early, buy the wrong house, they buy the wrong place, they pay too much, they rush in, and then actually they're strangled by their own house as well.

So when, especially by the time we get to retirement, what we want is people to own the home outright without a mortgage on it or own a home even if they then switch it later, have a really good private pension that can sustain them for a nice retirement and have lived and done nice things. That's like the basic package that we want most people to have. So as long as you've got one eye on ticking that box, and then for people that never want to buy a home, if you never ever want to, that's fine. You just need to make sure you've got

a big enough investment pile that if a landlord suddenly goes, we need to kick you out of the house, she's like, no problem, I have enough money to go pay that premium over there. Our rents have gone up because of the housing shortage. That's fine, I'll go around there and you've got options. Options is the most important thing. Can you ever see yourself wanting to buy the place that you live at the moment if that ever became an option or are you just so not in that headspace

that you've not thought about it? I think when we first moved into this house, we loved it so much, we like, yeah, dream house. In a couple of years, we can just easily talk to the landlord and be like, let's buy this. I think everyone does that. Yeah. Especially if it's a rental that you like. And, but I think because we have the, we're currently living in like a two bed house.

I think the reason that we would buy is for children. And I don't think it would be big enough for that. So. Enjoy it while you're in it. Yeah. Well, I hope we answered the question. Yes. I liked that someone asked it.

And it might give someone else a new perspective and make them feel like, oh, I don we answered the question. Yes. I liked that someone asked it. And it might give someone else a new perspective and make them feel like, oh, I don't want to get caught. I didn't want to get caught up in it, but I'm caught up in it because I feel all my friends are. Fomo. Yeah. Fear of missing out.

I like to do, if the only thing that you're missing out on, apart from that stability, but that's, you're not missing out on that, it's just like a, you know like a consequence of owning your own. You're missing out on the capital growth of the value of the property across time. But if you've got money in the market, you're getting a growth in a different way. Yes, it's diversification, so you've been able to have your assets across property and across the market. But that was my point about if you do nothing, you do miss out. But if you go, okay, instead of buying, I'm going

to put money here and watch it grow, the net impact on your net worth tracker in the app is the same. Yeah, and I think the other important thing to look for when renting, when we were looking for this house, it would have been so easy to just like go up a completely new bracket and pay like over the odds

for the perfect place that we wanted. But we were like, no, like this is, this money is coming out. I know everyone says it's dead money and it technically is, but it's not like it's keeping a roof over your head. Yeah, we're enjoying it. Like we're getting a lot in return, but it could have been so easy for us to just live above

our means in that respect. But we, I'm very happy we've got like the perfect balance. We've got a place that we really like and we're not paying extortionate because we chose not Manchester basically. Yeah. So that's extra money to be able to put towards things that grow your network.

Yeah, exactly. Amazing. She's an A-star student. Thank you for sharing. Okay. Controversial opinion time. Juicy one. No one needs branded food.

You're paying for a logo, not better nutrition. That's controversial for this logo, not better nutrition. That's controversial for this sofa, but it's more controversial for your chair. And this is a Lucy show today. You answer first, Gwenn. Where do you start? I think there's certain things, like in my head, I've got lists and it's like, okay, what do you want to buy?

Give me an, give me an item. But, premium. You pick your favorite thing in the whole world. Okay, give me some now. Can we talk about, hang on, she went to Paris. What did you bring back as a souvenir? Lots of, lots of butter. I just don't know how you've transported it back. I would be worried that it got warm and just, you know,

like clarify, do you really think it clarifies? It just looks like a baby in the middle. No, it's fine. I put it in a sandwich bag in the middle of my case. I was worried that it was going to melt. I was going to get home and all my clothes were covered in butter. That's what I was thinking. She smuggled butter. No, it's oil.

She went to the city of fashion. The city of love. The city of bear. Various types of bear. I reckon in the airport they were probably talking about you on the walkie talkies like this is sus. Like all this... Smuggling. You've got to smuggle.

No, whilst we were there, I was getting some dirty looks from Alex's family because we went, we stayed in an Airbnb, so there was obviously like a nice little kitchen there. I went to the supermarket first thing and just got a normal selection of household butters whatever we would have. I wanted to taste the local delicacies. Got some, and we got some, like just salted crisps and I was dipping the salted crisps in the butter. Oh dear God. Everyone was like, Oh my God. No one else was going to eat them.

Can you not eat it with like a nice crusty French bet? Yeah, I did that as well. What happened to hummus? You dipped it in the butter. I have never, ever known that. Butter is a dip. My husband will have any dip going, but I'm confident. It's called Dr. Dip. Dr. Dip, I'm confident he's never had.

Oh my God. It's so good. Okay. So premium is best. So that's a good example. So like Kerrygold is what's talked about a lot in UK. I know it's Irish. And I buy that for my kids.

And then the other day they were like, can you stop buying that Kerrygold and get Flora please? Because this is awful. I'm like, sorry, you want the synthetic butter instead of the grass fed Irish premium butter noted. When I was little I ate exclusively and I would not have any other butter, but I was like, do you have any?

I can't believe it's not butter. Oh, like margarine. Is that what it's called? Utterly buttery, can't believe it's not butter. It's called I can't believe it's not butter. What is the brand name of that? I can't believe it's not butter. Yeah, that's the brand name, yeah.

Wait, what was it? I can't believe it's not butter. That's the name of it. But what was it? Is it margarine? It's margarine,, that's the brand name. Yeah. Wait, what was it? I can't believe it's not butter. That's the name of it. But what was it? Is it margarine? It's margarine, yeah. Oh, is that oil? I don't know.

It's better for cooking though, for baking, sorry. I think it's like- What does Nana mean when she used to say best butter? Premium butter, I think, like anchor. So she'd say- So not even the best one. Oh, I had toast with best butter. And I was like-

Not Marge. I think that's what she meant. Okay, we'll get a clarification from my mom on that because I don't remember. So I buy, just like my kids are very humbling and I buy penguins for their, I live by Kersh, I'm like what 90s chocolate biscuits

can we get for you at lunches this week? And the other day I introduced them to Rockies and they were like, these are really good. I was like, they are really good. We do orange club, we do penguins, we do Rockies. And I happened, I ran out of them and I was passing a little and got some other stuff and I got seals.

So they weren't penguins who were called seals. And by God did my children let me know that these were terrible. And Teddy called them, what are these rip off penguins. So sometimes dupes are good and not premium branded food, but sometimes obviously like chopped tomatoes. Oh, wait, I was gonna say chopped tomatoes, but every good chef that I listened to were like,

you buy really good chopped tomatoes because they are 90% of your dish. So don't buy cheap. Yeah, I always get peeled plum tomatoes. You mash them yourself. Like organic tomatoes. But it kinda makes sense if you're making like, I don't know,. Always get peeled plum tomatoes and mash them yourself. Like organic tomatoes. But it kinda makes sense if you're making, I don't know, spaghetti bolognese.

A large proportion of that dish is the tomato flavor, so don't buy cheap crap ones. So what's wrong with the cheap tomatoes though? Cause it's a tomato, it's not a tomato. It's the taste thing. And I think there's a lot of added sugar in there as well. Mass manufactured, not grown. Like if you watch the Stanley Tucci in Italy program,

they talk about a lot of tomato brands, try and claim that they're grown in this specific area of Italy, or they'll put a picture of the place in Italy or the map or whatever, and they're like, this is the only place that these tomatoes are grown. Because everyone's trying to pass them off

as they're like the prime of tomatoes. Yeah, yeah. And everyone tries to do similar names where people think that it is. So like, I'm going for like loads of kid related stuff, but I know it's funny that you try and get away with it with the kids, but like Rice Krispies. If I can get a supermarket branded Rice Krispies, I will.

Whatever they're called. What do you want to do this morning? Cause I've got the Asta Shopping, they're on the side and you went, rice snaps? What are rice snaps? I was like, the Asta Shopping, it's fine. But I then decant them into think it's fine. But yeah, I would do that.

Yeah. Because the, cause you are paying for the logo for some things, isn't it? It is difficult and cost of food has skyrocketed. The cost of some things are... I mean, most Whole Foods aren't branded, but so we're talking about convenience ones a little bit more. So yeah, like I would always buy like Sainsbury's rolled oats. Nutella. Nutella, so I'd bought that, my eldest really has it once in a while, the younger two don't have it.

And I think she'd gone on a roll with it and I was like, it's expensive. Or it wasn't on offer, whatever it was, I was gonna get the Nutella, it was really expensive. So I got the Sainsbury's version. And I'd noticed she had it a couple of times and she literally doesn't complain about a thing. So I would never know if something was or wasn't nice, but it wasn't really going down. And I think, did I try it on something? Whatever it was, I tasted a bit. I went, oh my God, that's awful. I was like, we're done, we're getting proper Nutella

and it did taste a difference. And so, some people say that some versions of beans you can get, like I say, his own beans are exactly the same as brand-new beans. Like that's a personal preference, I think, more so. You're like. Because, like when you're on a money journey, and I guess one of the reasons why I would be a big advocate

of like supermarket-brand big advocate of brand, like supermarket branded or own brand is that you are paying for, sometimes you're paying for quality and that's what we've talked about. And so if you're on a, if you're on a budget and you're struggling, the cheapest tomatoes will do. You don't really care about where they've come from. Don't overpay unnecessarily, especially if you're going to put loads of other things in it as well. And it's going to be like a really big spaghetti bolognese or something that's gonna go through all of you and you're on a budget.

But yeah, it's a, so you're paying for that, you can come down a bit. Was it, Joe Wicks did a big thing about that, or Jamie Aliv or someone, it was just showing that- Greg Wallace used to do it, it was such a good program. I can't remember what it's called now. He used to do it. Was it You Are What You Eat?

Yes, and then they'd take a family and they'd be like, okay, this is what you usually buy. So diet coke, Quavers, What's It, it's like all the branded foods. Oh, they'd cover it up and they'd try and trick you and say you actually had a regular cola then and not a- I could tell. They did a fake taste test.

I want someone to do that to me. We can do it to you one time. They did a fake taste test whereby they were like, so we've bought exactly the same as what you usually have, gave it to them for a week, took all the branding off, and then they were like, because the person at the beginning of the show they were like, so we've bought exactly the same as what you usually have, gave it to them for a week to call the branding off. And then they were like, because the person at the beginning of the show would be like, I cannot drink, not Diet Coke.

If it's not Diet Coke, I'm not drinking it. Like I'm not drinking it, I'm a snob. I'm a Diet Coke snob and da da da. And then by the end of the week, like Laura said, they'd be like, you've been drinking a known brand one, you have no idea. They kind of like desensitized. Or they go, I could swap.

Yeah, could you swap? You go, yes, I could. Again, I think it's so difficult to know on each of the levels. To make that thing cheaper, what have you lost? Have you lost the branding and the extra margin that that company wants to make because they're a formal Kellogg's brand?

Or was there a higher quality thing in, like I said, the tomatoes or whatever it is, and you've lost that, because you wanna try and maintain flavor, maintain health where possible, but get a better bang for your buck. Just say like the supermarkets, like there's a lot of problems,

I get it with the pricing and stuff, but the kudos to them, I vividly remember as a young child, shopping for own brand things was probably seen as like, oh, they've got own brand. Like there was that. People used to buy it for a joke. Do you remember, there used to be like a Tesco value.

Where it was white with the blue stripes. It was literally like. It was like, look at me, we're buying a cheap one. It really was considered to be a thing. Like I didn't like. Oh, you didn't like it on for it. Like it was a thing. People It really was considered to be a thing like, Oh, you didn't like time for it. Like it was a thing. People would have been embarrassed at school.

I believe. I feel like there was a turning point with Aldi. Yes, it was the wine. So it was the, they started to invest in wine and middle-class people used to go only to Aldi. Not for food. Oh yes, yes, yes. And not for food.

So they started to bring people because of the wine. And I think it was probably an international European thing because Aldi in Europe is like Tesco. It's like whatever. And it is that now, but years ago, Lidl, Aldi, Neto. Lidl and Aldi and Neto would be, oh, do you shop at Neto? Do you shop at Aldi at school?

Like it was vicious. It was at Aldi. And it might not have been at other schools, but I get that impression that it was. It was at our school. It was like the own brand trainers and this, like non-branded trainers and non-branded clothes. Whereas now I feel like there's been such a good job of showing the benefits of doing own brand.

And like you wouldn't think twice about getting own brand Tesco food or Sainsbury's or Asda. Actively seek it out if for the right thing. Like when I'm doing like overnight oats or I'm doing porridge and I'm mixing in my protein powder anyway. Why would you buy Quaker oats over their own brand? Just these rolled oats, yeah exactly. And that's the point about trying to get things with

not loads of different added sugar, not loads of different additives or pesticides and unfortunately the more organic that you go. Yeah, the more natural food. I was talking about branded stuff, I was trying to think about healthy things, like fruits not branded apart from, I do like Pink Lady apples

and I feel like they're really expensive, but I like how they taste. So sometimes with a brand you are paying for quality. We talked about it with our friends in the day, didn't we, about Beauty Pie. And I think we might have spoke about it on here before. You buy, like their whole thing is you don't have to, we're not paying for like Keira Knightley to a star

in a TV campaign or an out of home or in Vogue. Like we've built the same product, it's the same ingredients, probably the same factory, but it's just got plain white branding. With simple bottle, not like a contraption. Yeah, and I quite like that they've gone, no, no, no. It's about the skin care. You're taking the pee out of the consumer here

because why should they pay 60 pounds for that moisturizer when they can pay 20? Because the ingredients are amazing, it's really good for you, like whatever. Yeah, I know that they're really good at that because all they've done, like it's in a P&L terms, they've just reduced the cost. So, you know, Chanel probably make the same that Beautify do on their moisturizer, but one of them has had to make theirs more expensive because they've got to pay for Keira Knightley. Yeah.

Okay, time for our first dilemma. I'm great with money for five days a month. I feel like I'm stuck in a weird loop. I start strong every single month. Budget made, bills paid, direct debits all lined up. I even track my spending for the first few days. But after that, radio silence. I completely fall off, stop tracking, and by the end of the month, I'm back to binge listening to podcasts and hyping myself up for the next payday like it's going to change everything. I've tried things like money minutes and I want to hit my money goals. I'm not lacking ambition, but the motivation just dies mid-month and I'm back in the same slump. How do I break the cycle and actually stay consistent with

my money? First of all, I would say you're same slump. How do I break the cycle and actually stay consistent with my money? First of all, I would say you're not doing the work at the beginning of the month like I think you are, like you think you are. So she's like, I'm assuming that she really got at the beginning of the month and I'm all in first five days. Well, we've talked about in a previous podcast,

like the work that I put on that first day or even those 20 minutes means that I stick to the plan for the rest of the month. So I already think that you may be not utilizing sinking funds properly or you're not using a bank like we use a digital bank like a styling or a Monzo where you've got pots. I feel like it's so hard to go off track when you've got pots and you've decided within each one what you're going to spend it on. Like I don't go into my bank account and hope for the best. Like if I'm going out for a meal, it comes out of my eating out fund. And when I look at the eating out fund,

I know that I've probably got two more going out meals than it may be. Like you start to get a sense. I don't, I'm not getting the impression that you're as close to your money as you think you are. Yes, you're tracking it, but are you putting all the things in like Laura does auto transfer.

So all the money is put into the correct pots at the beginning of the month. And I just feel like yours must be sloshing around somewhere that you go off track. Because you feel it's fair game. Yeah, it's like, oh, go on, I'll just, I'll just. When it's, you're giving it a job to do when you put it in a pot, whereas if it's just,

oh, that's in the account, even if you've got a budget. It's too easy to go off course, I think. Like we're all human. This is not a unique thing to you. If my money was all just sat in my current account, I think I would go off course as well. I'd be like, oh, I've got loads left in the account. We've got three weeks to go.

You'd have no idea. There's no self-restraint because you don't have to stay with it. Whereas I look in my diary, which is a really good tip. And if you don't do it, you should. To see what's coming up that month. Not one budget is the same for us as a family because there are different things,

like one month I might have a niece's birthday, my dad's birthday, a holiday, a weekend away, whatever it might be, or extra camps because it's half term. I accommodate for that. I don't just rinse and repeat because not every month's the same. So I just feel like this person might feel like

they're in control at the beginning of the month, but I feel like there's a little bit, probably more work to do to allocate these funds into these places. Do they give an idea, sorry, of where they're up to, like on the playbook kind of thing, or if they've got debt, or if they've got, she's just talking about struggling budgeting.

Because you need to be connected with the end goal as well. So if you've come to financial, usually it's because either like you're a money geek, you're all over it. You just want to be around like-minded geeks. But most people it's because they want to make a change. They've got a goal, they want to hit, they've got something they want to buy, they want to invest, they want independence. They don't, actually a leading cause of it or a reason to come is that you've just got debt that you're fed up of. And when you're that fed up and when

you're fed up of feeling this way and when you've got like a goal, it helps to tie the whole thing together. So firstly, you need to know what you're working towards. And like we've got survive, build and grow in the playbook to get you to grow. So we want you to work towards a place where you've got really good emergency savings, you've got no consumer debt, you've got home if you want it and you're actively investing. And if you're doing that, I can't explain how you're going to feel. So if that's in the future and you've got some hurdles to get to before you get there, you're at the very beginning of your journey, your budget is the key to everything. And there's a couple of reasons. So that's one reason that people

fall off track and lose motivation is they're not really connected to the long game. They see short-term sacrifice. And when you've built up spending habits of effort, you know, whatever, fine, let's do it. Let's splurge, let's go, let's get a takeaway. Let's go on a shopping spree, let's go onto ASOS. That's a habit, really hard to undo the habit. We've talked about no-spend challenges are really, really good for setting yourself like a temporary framework

to be like, this is like a short term willpower thing to break that cycle and to help the brain learn that there is another way that you know is an option. Like you don't have to say yes or have to give in, you can say no. So looking at habits. But the other thing is sometimes people go too tough. People set an absolute, she's like, I really good budget. If that budget provides for no fun, no enjoyment, no feeling of a treat,

then it's really easy to just go, sack it, not doing it. I'll do it next time. So I don't know which one of those things it is for her. You probably have to have a really good think about what in those moments when your impulsivity comes in and you decide to jack it in, what's happened? Are you tired, bored, upset, emotional? Are you busy? Are you stressed? Like I knew with my, with eating for me, I knew that if work was stressful and I was

working from home, I would go to the fridge. I would literally be like, I'd stare at it. Sometimes I would shock really healthily and I would literally be like, I'd stare at it. Sometimes I would shop really healthily and I was like stressed that there was nothing in. Like my little vice is diet coke and at the moment that's the thing that if I recognize the trigger and I go, actually, you're not hungry, you are stressed. I imagine for someone else that could be a spending thing.

I'm stressed on spending. You know, what is the thing and try and find that because you've got to come up with ways to, like it's like, it's like mini-school things in it, find like the, treat the, don't treat the symptom, actually cure it, find out what's causing the symptom to happen, so what's causing you to go off budget. We do have a lot of people that don't have a clear goal

because a lot of time they'll say, I just can't stick to it. So we'll be like, what are you doing it for in the first place, like what was the drive or what was the thing? Yeah, you know, okay, like why do you want to make a change we'll be like, what are you doing it for in the first place? Like, what was the drive? Or what was the thing? Yeah, you know, okay, like why do you wanna make a change? And then you start to think about what life's like. There must have been a reason why you decided that you needed to take back control of your money.

Is it that it doesn't make you feel good? Is it that you hope to have plans for the future to buy a home, but you can't associate that with your monthly budget? But I think by sticking to a budget and seeing that excess, they might not be doing something with that excess as well. So it kind of just feels like, oh, I'm just going through the motions

of creating a budget, it's really boring. Whereas I get the buzz from creating an excess in that budget and then putting that excess towards something. So I just feel like you've maybe a few missing pieces of the puzzle, either not doing the budget ready in the first place, not having a goal to stick to, or not creating that excess and putting it towards your goal. A few things to look at.

I feel like if you know that you're going to have to make changes to you, sometimes the self-sabotage comes in a bit because it's really hard. This is not an easy journey. So if you have issues with impulsivity, if you are keeping a certain lifestyle, if you've built up habits, this is like science. This is really hard to break. This isn't that you can just Sunday, one day go, I'm going to change. It's lots of small little things and it's trip ups and it's going backwards before you go forwards and it's life hitting you.

We tend to find the most successful people do a combination of one, like they have hit a bit of a rock bottom and they're like, I can't, I cannot do this again. Two, they have a goal, but they have a shorter term goal as well. So like they're not just thinking about this big, big, oh, I'd love to own a house one day,

but I've got this debt and I've got this here and I've not got a good income and break it down into these smaller goals. And ultimately not having too tight a budget so that there's not really an excuse to blow it because you've got permission to spend. Hopefully one of those things will help. I think we spoke about it recently as well, but maybe whilst you're in the midst of figuring all that out, move to a weekly or bi-weekly budget.

Yes. Just so you can, if you do blow it, you've only got a week to go till you're next. Yeah. Yeah. Paying yourself a week. Not like I wait three weeks. Yeah. So do a restart, refresh.

Yeah. You got a new, a refresh every five days, seven days. It was a community member that said that. Was it? Like I remember, we talked about it, but I remember you'd seen it in the community and said, someone said, I decided to break up my flexible into weeklies. And she finds it so much more manageable

because she was overspending and running out of money, but she didn't when it was weekly. And again, these are all short term things that you can try that's not a forever. You don't have to do that forever because you'll get into a rhythm and you'll know what you're spending and you'll later your food budget will be bigger.

But when you're in that intense moment, there's little hacks you can do to help. Okay. I've got a really good community and this is from a post in the community. Today I'm turning 30. Here's what I've already achieved. I paid for my birthday party using a sinking fund, no credit, paid off my first debt and closed my first credit card. I'd say I'm already off to a great start for my birthday party using a sinking fund, no credit, paid off my first debt and closed my first credit card. I'd say I'm already off to a great start for my 30th year.

Thank you, financial for the greatest mindset shift I could have received. Yeah, I remember seeing this in the community. Happy birthday! There was a picture with a cake and she's like blowing out the candles. Oh my God, was there? Yeah, she looks amazing. I need to go find it. Yeah.

That's like birthday present to myself. Yeah. That's like 30 present to myself. Yeah. So imagine entering your 30th year, like fully grown. Like 30 is like a big deal. I think it used to be like 21 and maybe it's cause I'm nowhere near 21 that I'm like, oh, who cares about being- Yeah, and I'm close to 40, so I'm like 40 is the new

and my friends are 50. That's about being 21, but I felt 30 is like a big, especially around now, people like thinking about buying a home or having children or whatever it might be. And that might be an old school maybe, people obviously a lot older, but like you coming into that decade where it's a bit more popular to do those things.

Whereas like my mom's age, it was in the 20s, it's kind of moving on. But yeah, to going and feeling so financially well, like she feels like she's achieved something like finally getting to grips with the money. I think if- I love it. No matter what your age is, if you're in this program

and you're improving yourself and you're improving your financial wellbeing, pick a 30, like pick an age, like by the next birthday. That's cool. What do you wanna achieve and have the moment like she's had with the cake and the picture and the well done me. You know, it's not like we see so often that, yeah, people want to, what do I think I'd be at 30?

Or what do I think I would achieve? And would I have had a degree? Or would I have been married? Or would I have owned a home by now? And there's so much comparison stuff that's quite depressing. I think the nicer stuff is this, I am entering this birthday year where I've done this, this and this.

And it's like those milestones. I closed a credit card. I paid off a debt. Yeah. Do it on your, because that's your terms and your wins. For someone else, it might be, I like filled an ICER or I started a new pension or I finally don't check my bank account on payday. I'm like happy.

It could be a mini milestone for you, but a mini milestone for your next birthday. Make it your 30th and like say, well done me. So exciting. If you'd like to tell us your win, head to the community in the app or email it to the vault at finitechild.com. Okay. Time for our next dilemma. I'm doing everything right.

So why am I still struggling? Hi guys, I feel like I have too many big money goals, but I'm still very much in survival mode. Right now, I've got £800 of debt left, £150 in my emergency fund and around £3,400 in a Lysa for a house deposit, and I'm trying to build up my sinking funds too. I know theoretically the order should be emergency fund first, then sinking funds, by which point the debt will be paid off through minimum payments and then the house, but it's hard when real life is happening at the same time.

My partner and I live rent free with his parents until March 26. We do still pay 200 pounds each, but after that we need to be out. So house deposit is our biggest focus. I've just started a new job and it's a dream. I work part time bringing in around £1,500 a month.

I've squeezed the hell out of my budget. I've managed to have about £300 excess a month, which I currently put into my ISA. But I'm struggling. Public transport is costing me a fortune and doesn't even get me into work on time. So I really want a little car. It would cost me about the same per month as a train, but I'm refusing to finance one. So I need to save £3,000. And on top of that, my friend is getting married in America next year, and I really don't want to miss it. Also, my partner's car keeps breaking and since we're currently sharing it, he uses it in the week and I use it on the weekend. We split repair costs.

I live in the south of the UK and moving away isn't an option due to patchwork family. Basically, I feel like I'm doing everything right, but it's just so much. What should I focus on first? I'm exhausted. I'm tired of that. I was just about to say I'm tired for her. So if we're tired from listening and confused about all the goals, how are you going to achieve all those?

I felt like I had a dilemma a few weeks ago whereby it was like the math isn't math-ing and the income's not reflecting of all the things that you want to achieve. We had that about the location, yeah, about I think it was someone in Sussex and the realization that they might not be able to afford to buy there or they need shared ownership. So maths, maths is a big player in this, but also like being things in sequence, like a

sequential method to this where we always say this, you can have everything, but you can't, you can't have anything, but you can't have everything at the same time. And this is why we tell you to focus on one thing at a time. And they are doing the right things, they're building up savings, you've got these different ambitions, but it is chaos. And I would find that really hard. And I would want to slow things down

and do one thing at a time. So like the wedding thing is I would also want to go to wedding in America. I would want to. That's fine. Can it go into the sinking fund bit of your budget and you save up as you go for it and that'll squeeze all the other areas of the budget. It'll stretch them. Sorry, not squeeze them.

It'll stretch everything else. But that's the way that you can make that happen and go, yeah, and go in there, it's going to cost £2,000. I'm saving up for it. If that can't fit in your budget, you can't afford it. Or you delay one of the other things you've said. Same with Calic. If you would like, I love that you're not going to go finance. I would really, especially when you buy a home, I'd really encourage you to avoid it because the number of people that try and get out of it later and are really stuck because they're used to a particular type of car

and that they've had that lifestyle and they're used to that payment, but it will push home ownership further away, I promise you. It is a big red flag for affordability because it's a big chunk. It's not usually cheap. So in terms of your budget, it is tough. Try and stay out of that. So then, okay, you need to save three. How long is it gonna take you to save three?

And then you've got house deposit. So all this is about, these things can happen in a certain sequence and you have to decide how quickly you want each of these things to happen. Does she say she's gonna be moving out? She has to move out by March 26th. March 2026. But if that's the deadline, then she might have to rent.

I was about to say, because I can't foresee you saving. You're not entitled to, I know you've not said you're entitled to it, but you don't get to just then buy. With a 300 pound excess, as good as it is on a 1500 pound income, like you've done really well to do that, that's not going to get you a house deposit.

I don't know how much your partner's putting towards his share of the house deposit. You're already on about 3,400, was it, or something. 300 pounds a month, like do the math. That's not gonna get you a house deposit. So you are gonna- Yeah, you are either gonna have to rent and you're paying for a train

and you said it's the same amount of money as it would be to a car. You can't do those two things at once. You might have to forego the car for a long time and continue with the journey. Yeah, I was thinking that. I was like, this is where, like you said, you have to do it. The way I would tackle this,

because nothing you said is unreasonable. This isn't like you're trying to travel the world and then you're trying to get a bougie car. Like everything makes sense. And it makes sense that you want all those things, but it is a numbers game. So you either need to up your income or you, I would write this down,

I would write these different things down on a piece of paper and order them in terms of preference. Then build a budget, leave the house deposit for a minute and the saving for a home, but build a budget that can you get car repair fund, that can you get car repair fund, new car fund and holiday wedding in the budget first. And let's have a look at it.

It's really good practical thing, model it, see what it looks like. It sounds like that would be a squeeze on what you earn, but it may be possible. The other thing with car maintenance is if you have an emergency fund, pull back, don't have a car maintenance sinking fund for now and use your emergency fund because it would be an emergency if stuff needs to happen to it.

Obviously later we say, you know, you're going to need to maintain your car, so please have a car maintenance fund. But for now that might be in full go. But I think you need to work those things into the budget. And if some things can't fit in, you say no to them. So yeah, you might be getting the train for the next 10 years, five years, but that might be okay, because you share a car, you maintain it, and it costs you the same, but you're not having to save up in the background for the car, you can save up for your home.

It's like a double expense to do the train and the car. Save up for the car, yeah, exactly. And then ultimately, you know, when it comes to the home, you have to model a lifestyle from March, which is possibly renting for a longer period than... She says she has to move out then, but maybe she's not thinking, I'm going to have to buy by March. Because surely she's not going to save enough by then. She might just have to go and rent. We live rent free with his parents until March 2026, but after that we need to be out. So the house deposit is our biggest focus. Fab.

So she's trying. I think it might be that there's a stop gap and there's a year, maybe even longer. And listen, we've talked about you renting it again this podcast, Lucy, but sometimes you get a feel for a neighborhood that you like. Yeah, you can experiment. You can suss things out. You can practice, you might not be able to save loads,

but rent, like you said, rent something that's just the right level of cost. That means you've got enough money to keep putting into that savings account. You're not going to have to put in as much when you lived with his parents, but that's already a gift. Like a lot of people don't get that.

Yeah, and just be mindful though, like I'm still going back to the income because if you're gonna then start paying rent, that income's gonna, that excess is gonna be even smaller. It's gonna grow probably. So you really have to look at that income level. It's not going to do all the things you want it to do at once.

You want to do all these things at a really short period of time. Laura said that we're gonna have to stagger things and it's just how it is, unless you, the only thing you can change your expenses of which it sounds like you're doing really, to get 300 pound excess on a 15, I've already mentioned it, it's really good.

Not many people can do that. So the fact that you're in that position already is fantastic. You're doing the methodology right. Like you're obviously budgeting really well. Imagine if you could put more into the top, what you could do. And I don't know why you can't do that at the moment. There might be reasons why you're part-time

or reduced hours, whatever it might be. Well, this is a maths game once you work out what you want. And this is like messing around with the budget and out getting a spreadsheet or a piece of paper and looking at your different options. And if you want to do these three things, you want to, four things kind of, you want to go to the wedding,

you want to buy a car at some point, you want to go to the wedding, you want to buy a car at some point, you want to put money into a car account and you'd like to save for a house, then you can use the excess that you get in now up until March 26th and then you'd have to factor in would we have an excess after that in rent and build a timeline of when that will happen. And the only thing that can speed that up at the moment really is income. Because you can't quit your expenses because they're already gonna go up

because you've already had like a bit of a, you know, a helping hand with that rent, virtually rent free like low renters in it so. You want to follow up? Yeah, definitely. I always ask us for a follow up, we need to be better with these financial community members. Tell us what you decided to do.

You, like I said, you are not asking for anything unreasonable or crazy, but I think it's gonna take you longer than you think. Yeah. But you'll get there. Definitely. Okay, that is all for this episode.

The vault is now locked. And just a quick disclaimer, the vault is just a chat on life and many topics. We are not giving financial advice.