The Vault with Financielle - “Rebuilding My Finances From Scratch After Losing My Job” | The Vault Episode 89

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Send us a text“M&S are taking the piss with their £8 carrots this year” - we unpack this week’s controversial opinion, then dive into your dilemmas:💸 ”Can I afford business class and if so, am I allowed to treat myself?”💸 ”Rebuilding My Finances From Scratch After Losing My Job”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*🫶 Get life insurance with our friends at Lifesearch. Speak to a female advisor here.✍ Write a will that is tailored to you with Octopus Legacy.🏡 Meet our Financielle approved Mortgage Brokers.*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.Chapters:00:00 Intro00:12 Nail Check and Personal Grooming01:55 Controversial Opinion: Expensive Carrots03:03 M&S Christmas Catalog Discussion10:05 Business Class Dilemma12:37 Navigating Airline Choices and Costs14:02 Community Wins and Success Stories14:44 Rebuilding Finances After Job Loss19:42 The Importance of an Emergency Fund23:23 Balancing Expenses and Savings26:06 Dilemma: Managing Fixed Expenses28:19 Final Thoughts and EncouragementThe 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 Fine and Child. This is a safe space where we talk all things life and money and no topics are off limits. How are we doing everybody? We're good. Good morning. Jumping straight in there. Can we do a nail check? What's on yours?

I'm sponsored by Pret. Oh my God, it doesn't. Calvin, can you see your nails? Do we need you? Like. Or a similar. Yeah. Yeah.

I thought that I was like, this is a football team's colors, but I can't think. What? Those are so pretty. Well, I was getting my nails done and I was just like going to get some burgundy for autumn, winter time. Yeah. And I was feeling a bit sad. So I was like, put some stars on there. I love that. Can you josh it up a little?

They look amazing. They do look a little like stickers. You know, like when you were kidding. You play around with like stickers at school. I thought you were going to do a nail check on everyone. I was like, do not. Well, you've got some colour on. Can you do it close upon Holly's colour?

No. I'm just like, I thought you were going to do one. for everyone. I was like, where can I hide my hands? I'm sat on them, sorry. Is that because you went to a wedding? Yeah, it's the only time I put my nails. They match your pants? They do match my pants.

But it's the only time I put my nails. But yeah. Weddings, that's it. No other festivity, not even Christmas. No, like, birthdays don't. Maybe holiday, but adjust my toes. Yeah. Oh my God, my toes, last time I got my toes done with gels.

Right now, they're French tips. Because I just keep like, kind of, and I'm just like letting them grow. So it's just the corner at the end. that's hilarious. If I get my, if I get gel toes, they're on for minimum 12 weeks. Yeah, yeah. Until they die. Like, no, in the summer I'm good at keeping up, like, I literally every three weeks. Oh, really? But. Mine don't grow that quickly enough. Mine do. Really quick. And I've got certain toe nails that grow really quick. This is elite toe chat for the people. We're on the wrong, we're on the wrong podcast.

I'm all going to say. Okay. Today's controversial opinion is very, very controversial. And I just need to get my prop out for the audio listeners. This is a book. Catalogue. Okay. M&S are taking the piss with their eight pounds carrots this year.

Eight pound carrots? Eight pound carrots. So this came up in the community. I think the Tully write it in the community. I think so, yeah. You'll have seen some of her blogs and writing in the community. She pointed out that M&S are charging eight pounds for carrots this year. Can you

describe the carrots to me? Are they gold Dusted carrots. Okay. I've got a sexy voice. Collection heritage, orange and yellow, British roasting carrots, eight pounds. But also, like, right next to it, braised red cabbage, eight pounds, baby parsnips, eight pounds. They just picked number eight. Roast potatoes, eight pounds.

What's eight times four, guys? I don't know that. 32. Imagine paying 32 pounds for... I mean... I said it with confidence. She backed herself. Can I'm look?

I just thought that I don't believe you. It went viral when this first launched the M&S brochure of which is a little bit like an adult Toys Ruz. Yeah, it is. Broasure with the get the pen out. What are we having? What would we like? Like manifest this MNS Christmas time. But it would have been like just keep flicking the page.

But eight pounds for carrots. Like we are going crazy. I think someone pointed out in the community that you can literally buy a bag of carrots for like or. couple of carrots for like 8p. No, I'm sure in Tesco and like Aldi and everything, you can. And a few days before Christmas, they literally have mounds of veg and it's like 8p. Yeah, like everything. Yeah, yeah.

Sweet buttery and citrusy. No, don't want that. So that's some butter and some lemon. Yep. Our carrots are tossed in a honey and blood orange glaze and finished with West Country Butter and Time. She always goes on. She's like, no I get it.

Take my money. Oh, God. Take my money. I actually thought it was D collection heritage, but it's just picture D. Yeah. And C collection braised red cabbages. I do like the videos. I don't know if you've seen them on TikTok of the product people at M&S

when they talk through what they've launched this year and like why they've done it and stuff. But it is. In that space, that's where you want to work, isn't it? Oh, can you imagine? What do you do for a job? Oh, my God, I bet they've got loads of friends. It's like, right, guys, we need to sell carrots. Yeah.

What do we think? Whiteboard. Descriptive words for carrots. Synonyms. Blood orange. Well, they didn't go that far. Orange and yellow. How do we describe that carrot?

Put some time on there. We'll get, yeah. That'll give us more money. Yeah. Honey. Every time we put honey on, you've got to add two pound. Was that cookies?

Oh, so these cookies. She's flicking through the catalog if you're not. Oh, yeah. Yeah, sorry, I'm digressing. She's having a great time. Did everyone see the, um, Oh, so the tins have been a big talking point, the jelly munchy, and it's on the, if you're watching visually, the picture of what's inside the tins on the back. The original peanut butter and jelly munch tin, 10 pounds.

Now, Aldi do a dupe of this. Do they? Yes, and I've seen a lot of people do the taste test between the two. But basically, it's just a bag of sweets. So I think, right, this is a good example of where on a personal level, I approve and then, like, don't approve. So I absolutely dupe the tin of whatever Because it's not what they're known for It's a sad, like

But there's, I am happy to once a year indulge And if I feel more indulged Because the characters are described a particular way Or it's probably more like hors d'oeuvre style stuff If I'm being honest, I love investing in Picky tea Picky tea Yeah, in the lead up

Like those little pies that they do And like just next level stuff even though some people have tried to copy it and maybe there was good at Aldi and other places maybe they are but we definitely Carl and I at one night during sometimes it's Christmas Eve actually

sometimes we have steak oh that's New Year's Eve we do get on Christmas Eve I think it's just like yummy and it feels nice and you feel like you've treated yourself and we've got a Christmas sinking fund to pay for it and if you want to do an M&S picky something four nights over Christmas and you've got a sinking fun for it

then buy the carrots We need someone to get the carrots Yeah we do because we're not going to So we might do a taste test But Neil has to cook them Oh god yeah I mean they're probably just microwave ones But it is crazy

Like I'm sorry I can't cook what I could do Carrots with a bit of lemon With a bit of honey Like I am capable of that I'm not like the page number was loose No Because what I'm thinking is How many people does it serve

Because you can't just have like Carrots You need to have all the extra things with it. I'm getting there. Yeah, because at our table this Christmas, I think we've got 12 or 13 people. So how many boxes of those carrots? So we need a minimum two of those carrots. Yeah, 100%.

Well, no, no, it says, yeah, I think it says serves four. So if you've got 12, you're going to need three. So that's 24 quid on cabbage. 24 quid on red cabbage. We might not have a load of that. You just have a little bit of that. It's like a, well, I didn't have that. Oh, I do.

It gives it a bit of sweetness. I would like it. We just don't. Goose, fat, rusting potatoes, eight pounds, serves four. But then I'd be like, no, serves three that. I saw a Liverpool echo that the beef Wellington was a hundred and ninety five pounds. Yeah, I've seen that. That's insane. And then they put Tom Kerrig in front of some of the things as well, don't this?

That's like another adding a fiver on per thing. Like, have you had the pie, the Tom Carriage pie? Do you remember when I got it? And then the molten cookie dough thing, you told me to get that. She was like, that's really good. The musaka. It was amazing. From that. I just would never pick that.

You couldn't give me my money back. I'm not buying a musaka from my M&F. I don't think I know what a musaka is. Well, neither do it. It's like a Greek lasagna. It's really good. It's lamb. It's lamp.

Well, that's why I don't eat it. I don't eat lamb, but you can keep your musaka, Lucy. I had a pie. It was absolutely stunning, like a steak pie. She's from Ligin, so it's... I am, but it was musaka versus pie. This is a person that's cottage pie every night of the week. Yeah.

Can we just have a moment for Lucy's tasteblood? I've literally got three prepped in the fridge right now. It's your hyper-fixation right now. But on TikTok and people go, oh, when you're coming from work and your mum's from school and your mum's got the casserole, like, slow cooker on and you're like, no. They're all my ideal be honest that people say about that.

The side of love it. What was the controversial opinion actually? M&S are taking the piss. They are. They are, but I think we'll lap it up. Yeah. They are, but it's just a bit of more. You are, but Holly's promoting the pies.

The pies are fantastic. Yeah, they've got a lot of promo right now. I think we'll do. We will definitely, that's, you know, and you've got probably one more payday to set aside extra money for Christmas. And listen, it's not for everyone. It's a very privileged thing to say that you can fit that into your budget. But if you can, to be fair, it would still be cheaper than a night out or a meal out or, you know, opt to something. No, it's not.

No, exactly. Personally, we probably rather have cash. Carrots. Than the cocktail, yeah. Me too. There's a place that do dupes as well that do like the finest ring. Like Aldi do really good dupes of M&S, they do. So you can't.

Yeah, because they have bans all the time. Yeah, yeah, even show it off. Have you seen those like boards that say like, off my tits on picky bits? No. Where have you seen those? I'm saying. Off my tits on, I may, it might even say on Eminet's picky bits. That's incredible.

Lydia is just Googling it and adding it to the list of dreams and things she wants to buy. You can see it typed in the background. Thanks, Eminus. Ladies, welcome to the great lock-in of 2025, a time for you to intensely focus on goals and self-improvement. With the help of our friends at AJ Bell Doddle, the next few weeks will be dedicated to helping you lock in on your investing goals.

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with both risk and reward. Okay, time for our first dilemma. Can I afford business class? And if so, am I allowed to treat myself? Hello, pink ladies. Oh, I'll take that. Like off grease. Yeah. I'm going to want jackets. Is it pink? No, no, sorry. I've said pink ladies. She said pink girlies. Lucy's trying to elevate us. Like, make us sound more mature. We're not. Ladies. We are girlies. Girlies. I love the pod and for some reason it's the only thing that focuses me and gets me through a 5K run. You poor girl. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Surely you need more of a beat than our monotone like some minutes chat. That is funny. But well done. My dilemma is twofold. Can I actually

afford a business class flight and if I can, am I even allowed to treat myself to that? We're getting married in March and going on our honeymoon. We're going to Dubai for four nights and Maldives for six nights. Here's a bit of a background. I earn around 55K. I have a two-month emergency fund saved. The wedding will be fully paid for. I have no credit card debt and I contribute 8% to my pension and my company contributes another 14%. I invest £100 a month into a stocks and shares. I also invest £350 into company shares. So overall, I'm investing just under 18% of my salary. On top of that, I pay my mortgage and overpay quite a lot. So far, I've overpaid a around 5K this year. Flying business class has been on my bucket list for years. I really want to

tick it off and since we're planning to try for a baby next year, this feels like the perfect time to treat ourselves. If I buy the tickets, money will be a little tight for a while, but I really, really want to. What do you think? The honeymoon all-in is 4K per person and to fly business is an extra 1.5k per person just for the UK to Dubai leg. So is this only one of the legs out of four flights yeah yeah and it's the longer longer one by a couple of hours whether that's relevant and that oh and we obviously have our travel background lots of our travel friends listen to this um did you do it so i'm like hell yes do it because did you do it yeah so we did it was a while ago though as well so it's much more expensive

now i think we did emirates all legs you can't Manchester today Dubai and then Dubai to Mauritius. Which is a long way that second leg. Maldives is only about three hours, I think. It's like seven. Yeah. It's all the way down the bottom of the ocean. And then back again.

So Maldives, Dubai. Did she do it at home? Yeah, Dubai, U.S. Oh my God. Maricious. What did I say, Maldives? Maricious, Dubai, Dubai, UK. We did four legs.

But. And Neil says it was better than the honeymoon. She worked in travel. I did. I got it. It wasn't cheap. It wouldn't have been cheap. It was not cheap.

It was just been like 5, 10% cheaper. Yeah. It wouldn't have been loads of. It was not cheap. Like, it wasn't. And now I would never do it. I've got two kids. We've got a bigger mortgage.

We invest. We do. That's what she said. So it was the right time. Yeah. So we did it for our honeymoon outbound. And I surprised Carl actually with it. He didn't know.

But a little bit of a hack is you might not get this, but you can upgrade in the three or four days before and it's cheaper, but it might not be available. So you kind of run that risk. And so I asked our travel counsellor, Karen, and is there any, like, are there any upgrades and how much is it? And so it's usually quite a bit less than it would have been when you book it. Yeah, you can bid as well with some airlines. Can you?

Maybe Virgin, you can bid. You can bid. Yeah, I'm not sure you can with Emirates, which is more likely to be an Emirates or not. I can decide the fee for that, but some of them will do a bid, an open bid and you can put in your bid and then if you're successful, you are if you're not, you might end up being like, ha, you know, one and a half grand for, um, that sounds a lot of money, by the just for the Dubai leg as well. Yeah.

I was what I say, maybe look at what the, it's not as far as, it's like you want, you want the first one. You want the first one. You want the first one. Yeah, she's doing the right leg. I lost Neil for like,

I'm not even joking. Minimum two hours. That's a show. He ended up drinking in the, she loses a daughter. Yeah. He ended up drinking with a monk. What?

In the bar. Can you see him at his flight? So seriously, I was like, where is he? I was like, where is he gone? Went to sleep, woke up. Still not there. Are you all right?

He's like, I remember a great time. I'm like, where have you been? He's like, I've been at the bar with the monk. I'm like, what is going on? So we both did it. But it's definitely something memorable. It's something, listen, it's a new money thing, isn't it? In terms of, oh, I'd love to be able to do it.

Like, we both wanted that. We wanted that feeling. You do feel like, oh, it's a treat because we'll never do this again because we're not in this club. It's a... I was with boat, if you think about it, we were both honeymoon and this is exactly the same situation.

Without kids, the cheapest you're going to have it. So if you really want it, things are going to be tight for lots of different reasons. It sounds like they're not in a position where she's loads of debt

and they're struggling financially and then they're going to upgrade to business class. And this is a harsh thing to say for some people, but some people would do that. They'd be like... Oh, we put on a credit card

and they'll pay it off for the next three years. With this person... Like, I've looked at this dilemma before because I sent it to Lucy and I, the minute I started reading it, I was like, no, she shouldn't. She shouldn't.

Did you? And then I read it all and I was like, do you know what? She's working on it. This person is shit hot with their money. They really are. And life is short. Like we've had a lot of shit going down in the last few months personally. And I keep doing the life's just too short.

It is. If you want to go and do the memorable thing, go and do it. Especially when you're in a really good place financially. So I actually was like, go and do it. But if you can pack it and get it cheaper and do it close, take the risk. I would, I mean, you know we wouldn't, but I would never put it on a card though. No, no. I wouldn't go life's too short.

Like, there's a balance on a life to shut. Yeah, 100%. I wouldn't put it on a credit card. But if you're like, we're going to budget for it, we're going to squeeze everything until we go and we're going to pay for it in cash. Like, honestly, life's just too short and enjoy that time together. Because especially before kids come, it's not something that we can have the privilege of doing. People do it where they go in business class and put the kids in the back.

I think I've done that before. I'm going to call you out, Trish. I think we have. Because she used to work in America quite a lot. She used to get the air miles. She used to get the air miles. She's put us in business class before with the points. 10 years old, the business class.

What a waste? Yeah. Can't drink anything. You could eat everything from the trolley though. You could go get the dairy milks and stuff. It could be whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. And then my nan literally went through the whole cocktail list. And she didn't drink, so it was interesting.

To the bottom. Arrived in New York with my nan was interested. I think they've been in business class before and then they've sent us it to the back with my nan. I don't think they have, but we'll see. But what I would say is, and this is for anyone listening who has always dreamed of it really wanted it. It's a lovely experience is not life-changing. No. Like, it really isn't.

It's a little bit of comfort, a little bit being treated more nicely. It's a lot of comfort. I had a mattress that big on a seven-hour flight and then a six-hour flight. It's a bit princess in the pier. What I mean is I don't want someone who can't afford it to be sat there going, oh my God, that would be the best thing in the world. It's like, it's just okay. Like at the end of the day, you're still on a plane.

You still have to use the same toilet. You still have to, like, wait and stretch your legs a little bit. Like, it's a lovely experience. I'm glad I did it. but I also don't think you'd regret your honeymoon for the rest of your life if you didn't. No, but it also depends on the airline. I'm going to put it out there.

Some business class flights aren't amazing enough to warrant that amount of money. I would say Emirates is amazing. Like with the A318, going in the bar and that is a very different experience than just sitting at the front of the plane. Like you're on the next floor up. You go up the stairs and it's like,

you've got your own little sweep basically, haven't you? you can lie completely flat, they give you a mattress this big and a duvet, which is very important to me because I'm always cold on a place. There's a bar at the back. Like, it is very spout. You've got your own little mini bar in the thing. Like, it's, it's incredible. But some aren't that good. American Airlines, not that good. You walked past and I was going. So where we say, we were going to economy. So I've been to Mauritius on my honeymoon a few weeks after, a week or something after we went on 30th to New York with our best friend. And it was amazing. But I got on the plane and I was like, it was an air.

American Airlines flight, they're not great. The code share with BA, don't they? We thought we were going to BA or Virgin. I can't remember which one. Walked onto the business class bit and we're like, right, where are we? And they were like, no, no, this is business. And I was like, this is economy. They're like, no, no, this is business.

I was like, where the hell are we going? Like, to the back of the plane, literally, you sat up. Sat vertical over the whole fight to New York. When you're coming back from New York and you literally got to sit up, like there's a stick up your back. Funny story is just to close that off in this whole debate about who can and can't afford it as well is on the way back. we got asked so do you want to upgrade for like

I think it was 400 quid a person and I was half thinking and Holly went absolutely not and our friends who had the financial means much more than we did to book it didn't and they came in the back with us oh my gosh I thought you were talking about when you came back with Carl from your honeymoon and they asked you want to upgrade

400 quid and I was like you said no no no the New York American Airlines they asked us if we wanted to yeah and we were like no you did I was like I'd might have paid it I remember thinking I won't enjoy I'd just done the Emirates thing where I was I'll wait for most of it and experienced it and enjoyed it where I thought, I'm just going to go to sleep, so it doesn't really matter. Literally, it regrets. We were all literally sat. We were literally vertical and clearly our two friends that were looking at each other going

and I was like, leave me, leave me, like, sock me off, like get to the phone play. They were great friends and they should have left us. I would have left you if I had the money. Oh, God. Are you going to be okay here? In fact, Hollywood would have re-booked with Virgin. She wouldn't have gone. I hope we helped our lady out. Depends on the airline, check. Because sometimes then they change the plane at the last minute

and it's not what you think it's going to be. Like there's a lot of risk with it. Yeah. See if you can get, see if you can do an auction or a bid. See if you can upgrade days before for cheaper. Try and get all the hacks. And if you can't then I would still say,

I think you'll be going Emirates with the way that you're flying. But three grand for one leg. I know. That's the only thing. It's not even both legs. Mine was a little bit. more than that for all four legs. Ten years ago.

Ten years ago. I know. That's what I mean. But she's just so financially well. I'm like, I would hate for her to be like, I really wish we'd have bloody done that. Now I'm covered in six hours.

I don't know. Oh God. I don't think we've been any help whatsoever. But I wish you well on your honeymoon. I hope you have the best time. Tell us what you do. Yeah, I need to follow up. Listen, either way,

doesn't change your financial situation. So you do what you want to do. It's trying to decide whether you get enough out of it for the money you spend. but also don't overthink that bit. You can afford it. You can afford it. Okay, community win time.

I am a huge fan of the podcast. Since finding you guys, I have saved an emergency fund, started paying back into my pension after having my son and just recently started investing. Well done. Amazing. Oh, I feel like she's on having your son as well. If you'd like to tell us your win,

head to the community in the app or email it to the vault at finitchile.com. If you're stuck in consumer debt, listen to this. One financial user said budgeting the financial way helped her clear over two and a half thousand pounds worth of debt and finally feeling control of her money. If you're ready to do the same, download the financial app and join our community today. Okay, time for our second dilemma. And there's some numbers in here, so we need to get our notepads out as well. What she means is listen. We have a habit of going, so she didn't say how much, she did, at the beginning.

right let's go okay rebuilding my finances from scratch after losing my job hi girls i've listening i've listened to your podcast for a while and i'm hoping i can get your advice on rebuilding my finances after losing my job for context i've never been very good with money in the past i fell into the monzo flex trap and got stuck in a cycle of paying back 300 pounds a month in repayments i've always had fairly well-paid jobs and last year took a new position on 45k at the end of 24, I found your pod and made it my mission to get better with my money. I started a mini emergency fund, was paying down my Monzo Flex balance and vowed not to increase my credit card debt, which was at £1,800. Then in February this year, disaster struck. I lost my job. I had one month's expenses covered, was three months away from my wedding and felt completely hopeless. During this time,

I had to stop listening to the pod because it all felt too overwhelming. Fast forward to now, I'm back in a earning slightly less than before, 40K. I managed not to add any more debt to my credit card, which is now at £1,500, and I've closed my Monzo Flex account. With my first couple of paychecks, I've saved £500 and paid back some friends who lent me money. However, after five months of unemployment, things I put off before now need attention, like car tyres and horse vaccinations. At the same time, I want to clear my credit card and rebuild my savings. So where do I start? I'm I'm so conflicted about how much to put towards each goal. Is putting £50 a month away enough?

My car insurance is due in October and I'd love to pay it in full to make the monthly expenses cheaper, but would it be better to put that money towards my debt or savings instead? After expenses, I have approximately £600 left for spending, saving and paying off debt. Where should I put my money to make the best decisions? Here's a breakdown of my monthly budget. it. No pads out. Next salary,

$2,478 pounds. House expenses, £850, bills and subscriptions, including car payment, £400, £400, and fuel £200. The horse definitely cannot go. I was just about to say, my first thing is you get rid of the horse.

It's fine. That's hilarious. Ride the horse to work. She knew what we were thinking. And P.S. I just want to say to anyone who's lost their job and doesn't have a big emergency fund, it is possible to survive. I went back into hospitality work after five years, so it is doable. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Well, firstly, thanks for your honesty. And I think we don't really go through someone's budget in detail on the pod. It'll be interesting to see whether people like that and go, oh, I get paid that much. Oh, because everyone wants to know, how much do you spend on groceries? How much should I spend on my home? Like, is my mortgage too high? Everyone will kind of wants to know. Yes, to those questions. So thank you for the breakdown. Yeah, and just being like vulnerable with it.

I can't imagine someone being so overwhelmed it, then she can't listen. And I'm sorry that you were there. Yeah, I get it. Get it. Sometimes you're like, I'm not in that space. And if they're talking about someone else's successes or someone else's problem that's just like mine and I'm in a space where I'm not ready to hear that, then fair play. Yeah.

So welcome back. Welcome back. Yeah. Cause is hilarious. You know, the only one that's falling. in the Monzo Flex trap. No. And that, like,

they don't get a hard rap. They don't get hard enough rap. And we call them out quite a lot and I've not heard anything back from them. They'll probably do it a bit more. Mongo. Monzo Flex is a trap. It's got a lot to answer for.

It really has. It comes across as it's like, oh, we're cool. Like, we're down with the kids, we're your friend, we're aesthetic. Do you want a nice code card? It was actually taking the piss out of all of us. The number of people that have a Monzo Flex account now.

It's scary. It shouldn't be our thing. It shouldn't be a thing. You're a Monzo, aren't you? Yeah. Do you get it, like, pushed on you all the time? That's what I mean. You can't get away from it.

It's not good. It's fine, I pay later. Like, just not to, like, dress it up in any other way. If you were going to say to them. It's enabling, it's taking advantage of people in a vulnerable position where you're like, I just need some money. Young people as well. Yeah, they draw in that Gen Z crowd.

Yeah. They've made it sexy and they've made it their friend. Like, it's not alone. You know, it's not. Would you like a loan? It's debt. It's chill. It's flet.

Yeah. It's dangerous, like, how you can market stuff like that. And people just not realize what they're getting into. So many people have got it on their budgets. She's played it off now at least. Yeah. So that's gone. And, like, yeah, going through the job loss as well.

Before you get married? Yeah. How stressful. You like, what else? Yeah, yeah. Because there's so many last, I know your budget for wedding as much as you possibly can, but the last three months before you get married, it's just giving people money.

Like, it's just the thing. And you forget. about things and you don't know about things. I think one big lesson learned for anyone listening is the importance of an emergency fund, like is what I would say. Because you don't know when you're going to let go from a job. There's going to be ill health.

There's going to be this, that and the other life is so unpredictable and we all know that. We've all seen someone in that position or been in ourselves and you cannot underestimate the power of an emergency fund. It's emergency fund and then keeping your expenses as lean as they can be. And what I mean by that is, committed expenses being lean. So you can have, who was I talking to this about? I mean,

obviously everyone all the time. But I was talking about the ability to pull back when you need is very empowering. So you can be, I love it when a budget, especially when someone's like, you build or grow in there are a really good place, they're debt free, they've got a good emergency fund, is as long as there's some investing going on and overpaying mortgages and stuff, high spend, living your life. We are traveling. We are shopping in M&S and buying eight pound carrots. We're going out for dinner. We want to go out for dinner. We're doing experiences. We're buying clothes because all those things are flexible. And if you need to pull back, you can. So if life hits you and suddenly you can't like work or you lose a job or whatever, you can pull back. But if you

have high fixed expenses, like I'm in a 12-month gym subscription that I can't get out of, I've got car finance. I've got this loan, that loan, anything that's fixed, the minute life hits you, you know to go. You've agreed to pay those things, phone contracts, stuff like that. So I think that's another empowering thing, empowering tip for people is make sure that you're fixed and committed expenses or as lean as possible. And I tend to lean to lean towards the bigger expenses. So this is like, don't get into a rental or a mortgage that's too much. Because that, you know, you can cut all the little subscriptions you want, but if you've gone too big on a committed expense

that is really hard to manage, then you've nowhere to go. Same again, car finance tends to be a chunk. And so on its own, yes, you can afford it. When it's stacked on other things and suddenly you lose your job, you've know where to, you can't cut that. Whereas if it was 300 quid on like Nando's, because I'm not surprised that's expensive.

It's another tip for another chat for another date. But that, you can pull back on that. You can go, we just won't go out to eat this month. we're eating and that's a really good balance. I think that's like one of my biggest learning cards with finance shell. Like we used to the right move thing where you go or the mortgage thing. What's the maximum we can borrow for the best house for the longest term? Yeah.

We've all played the game and now I'm older and wiser and I've done financial for so long and seeing these kind of dilemmas come through and see the wins from people and what they can do. I'm all about keeping those fixed expenses as lean as possible. And I mean genuinely go back. We've got a money MOT that you can find. Go back and just go through them line by line. There's got to be somewhere where you can not be so committed, like Laura said,

because the minute that you're only a bit of income, which is your salary for a lot of people, they don't have other forms of passive income goes, you've committed to all these expenses. And like you said, to have the freedom of having really lean ones and then having an emergency fund, you can plug that gap until you find that income again. It's actually so empowering.

We did it with finance show. We made sure before. we started that all our expenses were so, so, so, so low. Our entertainment funds are much bigger now than they would have been then. We would have just gone right. We're pulling everything back down. And we still had a great time and great memories with the kids. They wouldn't have known any different. But now we're in that place where we've got those, like I said, lean fixed expenses, but we can fluctuate the flexible ones and we've got this emergency fund. And she's saying, like, what shall I do now? Shall I save? Shall I pay down debt? Shall I get an emergency fund? And my

efforts were following the playbook, go back to the beginning, follow the principles and emergency funds your first place to start. Then you don't have to rely on credit should your income slip. Yeah, go back to the beginning. I think she's done super well, paying off people that she owed. She's cleared the Monzo Flex, which is amazing. It sounds like she just got the credit card. But make sure you've got one month's expenses. So use your access to build that one month's expenses first. For the, like, the horse things coming up or the car tires, especially with both those things. Like I would, when you've no sinking funds, I kind of treat those as emergencies.

And so we always talk about do one thing at a time. So I think build up the emergency fund and try and incorporate those amounts into that. So don't overpay debt at the moment. You're not in a position to. You need to build up that mini emergency fund that also includes, you know, the new tyres coming up because that will probably be an MOT pass or fail. That's a safety thing. Like we're really important that you look after that.

And obviously it you've told us. horse is non-negotiable and the horse needs its injections so we're right with the horse is quite important like you need a big sinking fund for a horse yeah talk to us about the expensive of a horse you need a farrier sinking funds talk to me about that what is that equine dentist sinking what's farrier? Farrier's feet so they if they wear shoes or they just get them trimmed down all that I'm just going to stop rambling no but I'm interested yeah but I feel like it's the kind of thing where you'd be like oh it's an emergency but you know it's coming every like right weeks or whatever and then the

vaccinations, they're not, they're not really a surprise. Yeah. It's a planned. Yeah. And it sounds like she's put, she says it because she lost a job. Yeah. She knew they were coming. She knew they were coming.

And it's this stressful thing on the horizon. And she's in a position where she's not got that sinking fund. What it must help, though, is with you going, but I'm getting one. Like, so she'll pay for these. So I think emergency fund. And then once the emergency fund is built up, she needs to go to overpaying debt and building up sinking funds and you do that at the same time. So once the car tires and the horse is sorted in the next two to three months it sounds like, then you'll have emergency fund, build

up your sinking funds with these things in because you're saying they're in your life and that's what you need. Build up the other ones and then overpay that debt. And you kind of do it in that order. It is just going back to the playbook and working through. But you're coming at it stronger, fitter. You've been through some stuff before doing it. You'll probably be quicker at it because first time you do it, you're kind of getting to grips with it. And and you're missing stuff out. And I also love the fact that she's still killing it, even though she's had to, you know, change careers.

She's earning less than she earned before. Yeah, absolutely rocking it. I think you mentioned car payment in the things that you need to pay of as a fixed expense as well, along with the horse. Like, fixed car payments are really tough, like, pill to swallow when you've got. You can get out of it, get out of that. That's where, again, car payment, car finance comes up so much about, what is the big deal and why is it so difficult?

And it's not that it's a bad. thing, but when it's looked at in the hole, it's another chunk and a stack and you lose your job, but you have to get a cheaper job, a lesser paid job. And you've got other life choices like horse. You know, she's not even mentioned kids, but that was when you do have them, you kind of stack it all up and go, ooh, what could go here? And when you own a car, it's lovely not having that payment. So that's something for her future as well to look at. She doesn't need to sort it yet, but that would really help her. That would grow her excess as well, wouldn't it? Yeah. Thanks for the honesty though and sharing the detail.

Yeah, I like that perspective, doesn't it, for people that are going through something similar. It does help knowing everyone's numbers as well going through the dilemma. Yeah, and she's, if anyone else wants to give us full overview, disclosure with your dilemma. And I think it helps us shows, Lucy, like 600 XS is really impressive. Yeah, it is. Really impressive. And I want people to picture a time where you are doing what you want to do, you're traveling, you're eating out, you're gifting people, things and you've still got 600 excess and that's going to something that grows your net worse.

So imagine your life when, I mean, people won't be able to comprehend this, but you are investing 600 a month. Imagine on top of your pension, everything else, you're like optional investing. That's well over six grand a year. Like that is going to grow. And it's realistic because once you get rid of those fixed payments that we're talking about like a car payment, that excess is just going to keep bumping up and off and off. Even if you reduced it a little bit and had 500 and invested that and spent an extra 100 a month,

like it is possible. and so it's really exciting to picture that time and you'll have got all the battle scars to go with it. Like she's absolutely earned and the right to be able to do that. I want to know the horse's name as well. Lydia. What's she's in the house called?

But what's like... Give us some horse names. It's like fluffy. We can pretend. Shout out to my friend, Tebow. Oh yeah. There you go. That's your friend's horse, isn't it?

Okay, that is all for this episode. The Vault is now closed. And just a quick disclaimer of the vault is just a chat. on life and money topics, we're not giving financial advice.