Beauty La Linda Lifestyle: August 2017

Hello Friends,

Today I want to talk to you about money, money, money. In the past year I would say, I have been really trying to get in control of my finances. You will have heard me talk about this in the past! I mention it every now & then. It's also in my yearly goals & resolutions for the past couple of years & something I am constantly working on. However I don't think I have ever talked about it in any great detail.

This topic goes hand in hand with trying to minimalise my life & be grateful for everything I have. When you decide to go minimal or financially savvy a shift takes place in your mindset. You start to see things a little differently. You won't even notice at first you will just think "Yeah I'll give it a go" or "Ooh I didn't realise I spent that much on that" before you know your knee deep in excel spreadsheets & Dave Ramsey books & podcasts, tracking every step & giving yourself a little high five when you reach a goal.

I've decided to start a financial series on this blog because over the past year (although I am still a beginner & honestly don't believe I am anywhere near the standard of the vets of this topic I want to share with you my journey & if you guys can gain any inspiration from it then its worth every second of writing this!!

A little backround info

I am a spender! Yup no other way of saying it. Money used to slip right through my hand like water!! On payday I'm rich, 24 hours later I'm wondering how I am going to eat for the rest of the week! The crazy part is I have now been working consistently (apart from a few months last winter) for almost 11 years!! Where has all that money gone!! My mam has always said to me "Linda, you live a very rich lifestyle for someone who can't afford it!" But I could afford it! Well I thought I could. Sure I deserved to eat out all the time, Take out fancy coffees everyday, Newest phone (on contract of course), More makeup than one person could possibly use in a lifetime, 2 latops, car, 3+ Wardrobes full of clothes (while still having nothing to wear) & lets not even get started on skincare, jewelry, accessories & home decor. Yup I worked hard to waste all that hard earned cash as quickly as it came into my account & for what? Most of the things I owned I either never used (because I was working all the time) Forgot I even had, ate or drank. Yup pretty smart of me.

Now lets make this worse shall we. On top of all of this I was broke & somehow it wasn't my fault (damn economy!! picking on millenials for the baby boomers mistakes) Why me? I wanted to go to college, I wanted to get car, I wanted to go on trips..... so what did I do? I took out credit cards & loans. Sure it was the only way! "I know what I'll do I'll take out a loan for the money I will need (while also taking a little extra for living and shopping) then I'll pay it back (a small amount every week) and as i'm working I won't even notice it going out of my paycheck. Perfect! I'm a genius!! Haha #winning.

Well genius you are now 27 and still working down the debt you shouldn't have taken out in the first place (not to mention the interest that was accrued in this time), your credit rating is shit & you currently are spending most of your time and effort trying to fix all the mistakes you made financially when this all could be avoided (PS after going through your shit you have now thrown out / donated almost 8 black bin bags full of clothes and most of the shit that was so important to spend all that paycheck on back then.

So now I'm here. In the past year I have paid off a good chunk of the debt I owe but realistically I'm looking at another few months - 1 year before I'm debt free & let me tell you it ain't happening again. The next reason I will be in debt will be when I buy a house. Which won't be for another few years yet.

Anyway from now on I will be sharing my journey with you. I would love if you would join me!! I will be sharing all my tips, tricks, inspirations & goals.

It can be scary to start, believe me! The numbers alone are enough to give you nightmares but believe me it is the most freeing and satisfying feeling in the world when you start to feel like you are really getting a handle on your finances. Unfortunately for us millenials we we're born and grew up in the age of consumerism, online shopping, social media & recession. That's quite a mixture and I know that although its not nice I'm not alone in this boat. In fact I'm pretty sure the boat is sinking at this point with the weight, but there is hope!! we can do this!! In Ireland the highest number of adults living at home as has been recorded recently. That's crazy and up until a few months ago I was one of them for a while! We need to stick together! Share our ideas and tips! Work together and create a debt free life for ourselves. We are too young for all this financial worry and with a bit of financial savvyness we can have a brighter less stressful future!