My last post was back on the 12th March 2020, and things didn’t really get too good past that. Not only for me, but for the world in general.
Where I left my last post; I was going to start using cash envelopes and this particular model in saving and conscious spending… little did I know what was about to occur 8 days later.
On the following Friday, 20th March 2020, I was let go of my employment.
I would like to say it was a blessing in disguise, cause although I like the hotel/tourism industry I was absolutely miserable working in it. Most people around me were saying that it would be a good break for me, but as per my breakdown of debt, it wasn’t good for my wallet being on government welfare. For 2.5 weeks, from sunrise to sunset, I was job hunter along with most other Australians who lost their job from COVID19. I gave myself 3 weeks before I packed up and went back to my home town and moved back in with my family.
2.6 weeks later and I gained employment.
But funnily enough when you don’t work for 2 weeks and you have bills to pay that credit card gets used… a lot. Oh, did I also mention I got another Family Loan?
I, as much as a majority of the workforce, have been hit hard and still being hit hard by the effects of what COVID19 brought (I still can’t cross the border to visit my family without having to quarantine for two weeks on either side of the border) but I am pushing through and making it work.
So what’s the current damage standing since last time we met? Here’s the breakdown (don’t be too shocked)
- Family Loan – $1799
Some background info on this; When I lost my job and went into full meltdown my lovely parents made me make up an excel spreadsheet of my monthly expenses/bills so they could discuss between them what each of them would cover if it came to it. My mother went one step further and called me asking what the credit card debt was (side note; my father doesn’t know about the credit cards cause I don’t have the heart to tell him). It was one of the hardest numbers to tell my mother cause I don’t ever want my parents to take on any of my stupid debt… which was a whole bucket of stupid. So I gave my mother a smaller figure of what was actually owing and I would manage the rest. The starting figure of this amount was $2700.
2. The ING Credit Card – Total $1868.63
Instalment 1 – $468.48
Instalment 2 – $624
Instalment 3 – $418.33
Instalment 4 – $357.82
Backstory: I’m an idiot who doesn’t know when to stop. Legitimately. It started putting my car rego on it, then every. single. meal. and. coffee on it, then it was the clothes that I needed for my new job, then it was the weekly train tickets, then it was… breath… the afterpay payments… at this point I need to cut this card up. I cannot control my spending with it, and it’s purely because of this mental note – “I can create instalments and pay them off in smaller amounts over 12 months” WHY LAUREN?! WHY!
3. Afterpay – $259.28
Backstory: I have no explanation for this one. See above’s backstory.
Total Debt: $3926.91
I am literally back at block one. 3 months later and nothing has changed.
Except…
Money Positivities
I have an emergency fund. Believe it or not, I do. It’s the only thing that didn’t make me go into an absolute panic attack and pack my car up on day one. Apart from two occasions – 1. to pay for my fortnight rent that I wasn’t working, and 2. to pay for a week of rent where two jobs didn’t lap over by a week pay – I have been actually adding to it.
I also have what I call my “one-off, why are you here again, payments” fund which is my small but decent fund to cover upcoming one-off payments that I usually forget about and usually put on my credit card, so when those bills come I just pull the money from that fund and be like “yay, we already saved for you!”
I have also started a joint account with my mother, not for us to share money but rather it’s an account that she has access to so I’m not being an idiot with my money and actually saving said money for big purchases such as I don’t know… my own living place (oh the dreams of not renting in a share house or a room in somebodies house).
So there are goals and, believe it or not, some cute pink envelopes to start this cash envelope thing and I have a couple more apps on my phone. Starting today friends we are back on the ‘don’t be stupid, stupid’ bandwagon.
Here’s to not loosing my employment again!
I’ll talk to you soon,
Lauren
Moneyless Millennial 