goal setting – Frugirl Finance

The end of the month has come upon us, particularly after having announced my financial goals for 2020.

Unfortunately, things weren’t always so peachy for me this month. These were January’s biggest offenders:

Buying clothes

I spent £77 on clothes this month, bearing in mind that I was supposed to be on a low-buy 2020 and trying to avoid fast fashion for sustainability reasons and all that.

I bought two pairs of jeans, hair ties and a pair of shoes. I didn’t really need to, but I had coveted these pieces for so long that when I found these, I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out for the credit card.

Here’s the funniest thing … I couldn’t “afford” the clothes under my pre-allocated budget, so I ended up purchasing the items either on credit or via a pay later scheme, to be borne by future me next month. I could have dipped into my emergency savings to pay for the clothes this month… but it works out better for cash flow this way.

(Nearly) losing my Oyster card

Last week, as I was heading to my monthly volunteering session, I realise that I had misplaced my Oyster card. You know, the pay-as-you-go card that I stupidly hadn’t registered on the TfL website and that contained a full £19.90, ripe for the picking. In the event I needed to hop on the Tube in fairly short order, so I had to cough up multiple journeys during London’s rush hour … full fare. Ouch.

Luckily for me though, the next day I approached the concierge at my firm and was told that someone had found a stray Oyster card by the entrance of the building. I couldn’t verify that it was mine, but thankfully he gave it to me anyway. When I tapped it on the machine at my local station, the balance seemed about right.

This brings me to a sneaky expenditure that I never properly budgeted for: lost Ousters. I lose my Oyster card a few times a year, which needlessly sets me back £100 or so a year.

I’ll check back in with solutions once I find a way to deal with my habit of lost Oyster cards. Stay tuned.

Overspending on treats

Because I have started restricting myself on buying stuff from Amazon and clothes and skincare shops, my shopaholic tendencies ended up shifting to other things. Like food, for instance. And “gifts” for others. It’s an especially potent combination when it’s a gift for others that happens to be food.

This month I massively overspent when buying gifts for colleagues. I wanted them to eat the sweets that I really enjoyed, so ended up blowing my entire allocated budget to do it. Eep.

FEBRUARY AT A GLANCE

Not going to lie, Feb is looking a bit steep money-wise …

Important birthdays in February mean that I will be set back £200 or so (taking into account gifts and going out)
I will be heading to Vienna for a weekend to see friends – that would take a sizeable chunk of my budget
I will pay off my clothing “debt” next month, which means my actual purchasing power will be curtailed. Is it too late to return those items now…?

With love

Frugirl

If I am being honest, this blog should have been made years ago, when I first came to know about personal finance. But here I am now, ready to use this space to record my journey towards financial independence.

2020 expenditure

My total expenditure for 2019 was £27,105.29.

This was way higher than it should be, not least because it was massive increase from my 2018 expenditure at £18,000.

Not that it was a justification or anything, but I did have a few obligatory big ticket expenses in 2019 (moving home, paying for my mother’s holiday in Scotland and attending a childhood friend’s wedding in Cambodia), but in all honesty, I had spent the vast majority of 2019 spending way more than I should have, on things that I didn’t need.

Some of my biggest unnecessary expenditures were the following:

Clothing: £1200
Amazon: £2017.62
Skincare: £317.26
Work lunches and snacks: £1522

Here’s the worst part – I don’t even know what I had spent half those things on! I remember donating at least half of the new clothes I had bought simply because I didn’t end up liking them, buying stacks and stacks of pantry items from Amazon that later went to waste, and buying endless skincare products that I was only going to use a fraction of. And not to mention the work lunches … I ended up buying salads and Leon lunch boxes even on the days I had brought lunch to the office.

Rampant overcomsumption. That has to stop.

In 2020, I will try to reduce my yearly expenditure to £20,000.

Low buy 2020

2019 was an odd year for me.

On one hand, it was the year I was introduced to living more sustainably, mindfully and frugally. It was the year I spent watching homesteading videos of families growing their own vegetables in their own backyard, the year I tried to practice slow living, the year I tried to make lower-waste switches and being the kind of person I would be proud of.

On the other hand, it was also the year I was fighting to stay afloat at my new job, the year I faced unprecedented challenges at work and at home, the year I was at my lowest point mentally and physically. It was the year I adopted incredibly unhealthy coping behaviours, like binging on junk … and binging on clothes.

It was undeniably a remarkably challenging year in the sense that I was trying hard to live according to my own values, but it was also the year my behaviours pointed me to the very opposite direction.

In an attempt to reclaim my 2020, I am going to try a low-buy year. in which I will only buy things that add value to my life.

2020 savings target

Four goals:

This is the year I am going to try to max my ISA allowance.
£25,000 total savings: with my current income projections, I think this might just be possible.
45% savings rate pre-August, 65% savings rate post-August (when I am due to get my pay bump).
£55,000 net worth: I haven’t yet decided if this is going to be an all-in or base figure, but there is something rather symbolic about seeing the big five-oh, so I’m excited for that.

Other goals

My biggest non-financial goal for 2020 is to improve both Chinese and Japanese to a B2 level.

But my my biggest goal for 2020 is ENJOY LIFE!

With this, I end my first ever post on Frugirl Finance.

I wish you all an incredibly prosperous and equally meaningful 2020.

With love,
Frugirl

Tag: goal setting

Frugirl Fails: January

Financial Goals of 2020