Needs vs Wants…keep track

Hey guys’ve again…:)

One of the things I have been conscious of in the last few months has been working through my budget or expenses and identifying what I consider a want or a need.

There are multiple guides online as to what should be considered a need, but at the end of the day, peoples circumstances and mindset dictate what is a need to them depending on their circumstance.

For me, most of my needs fall into the physiological and safety categories identified in Marslow’s theory(see diagram below).So for illustration purposes, my typical budget will look like this, rent, baby’s nursery fees, bills, credit card and debt repayment.All these listed fall under a must-do/needs category for me.Every other thing is a want as it makes my life more exciting or interesting but I don’t actually need it to survive.E.g of such things include ASOS clothing or shoe shopping and using streaming services like Netflix or Apple TV.

Your ability to discern or decipher which is which is what will help you achieve your spending goals, allow you to live within your budget/means but unfortunately this tends to become the tricky part.

I have been loving Dame Ramsey’s approach, as well as some YouTubers approach to minimalistic living and wise spending in general.Its something I have found to be interesting and incredible and actually very sustainable if you are disciplined.

As biased as this may sound,I would like to suggest that I favour that approach very much and would encourage readers to visit some of their content and start practising or living that way as I have tested it and it has been worthwhile.I have occasionally slipped, i must admit but in generality has been super helpful to me.

On needs and wants, a very honest and detailed review of your budget will be necessary to be able to decipher this so you know where to invest your money more and cut out debt or leakages.

Like I said for me, my wants are streaming services and are things I can generally cut back on to save some money and eventually get to the debt-free life I am aiming for.

As always,i hope this was a good read and all the best with reviewing your needs and wants.

Image is from Canva (not mine)

On my mind

Hey guys,

A few days into February and my mind has been wondering and just looking for wisdom like literally everywhere as always.

I tend to do this to inform my goals and priorities for the year usually. So, while looking,I stumbled across one of my handwritten notes below which is more like something I would normally post about on my YouTube but I thought I’d post it on here anyways.

It is a quote inspired by a scripture in Proverbs 16:18 which says Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

It’s just something I’m always mindful of to help me walk in humility as God continues to lift me up and I start winning more in life.

I hope we can all practise that because 2023 is set to be a great year for all of us if we make the right moves.

All the best guys!

How January 2023 went…

We are a few days into February 2023 and as always I can’t help but do some reflection on how the previous month went.

I tend to revisit my budget at this time normally, examine the areas where I leaked money as well as areas where I think I lived with an inflated lifestyle mindset then decide the course of action for the new month.

On reflection,I did go a bit crazy needing change and ended up spending quite a bit on wayfair.co.uk stuff to update the look of my room.

I bought a new study desk and replaced my wardrobe which cost me just over £277 I wasn’t prepared to hemmorhage but I did anyways hoping it will be a great investment and set the tone for me wanting to live more active, proactive and productive life this year as opposed to a sedentary one.I really do hope it pays off and I can get a return on what I will call an investment at this point.

Looking at my January expenses, let’s just say, after careful consideration, the most sensible thing for me to do this month and beyond, is to look at ways to increase my income as cutting back can only do so much for me with the income I have.

Id be super transparent and declare my income right now but I don’t think I’m comfortable doing that just yet so I will wait for a future post so you can get a better perspective of what I am saying when I say I need to earn more.

One main thing I have discovered I need to cut back on at the moment though is streaming subscriptions.

I currently have Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Apple TV. I also had Disney Plus which I have cancelled as I can barely watch all of this together with the youtube content that I am currently consuming.I am leaning towards keeping Netflix only but again I will update you in a future post.

I also realised that I needed to cancel my Graze subscription which I have just done just before this post as its a waste of money at this point.I am not sure I need it as Im home all the time and practically eat all day.

I will be reviewing other areas of my budget and cut down on another expense in February as I have a “huge”saving goal I am working on this year.

My goal of February is to not make any unplanned purchases and live within my means so let the discipline begin.

Please feel free to share some of your February budgeting or money goals below.

As always, until the next post.x

2023 is here🎉

Happy New Year first of all and cheers to another attempt at being consistent with blogging.

I must admit that Christmas 2022 and entry into the New Year didn’t carry the excitement it usually carries for me.It was very weird for me and yes I know they say the novelty wears off as you get older but oooof…

As the year drew closer to its end,naturally I started thinking about what I was going to do with my life.I have to admit I had some ideas for my New Years Resolutions(NYR) but I didn’t have the clarity to express it with the intention I actually had(if that makes sense at all)?.

For the past few years,I’ve basically recycled my NYRs despite presenting it in different vision board formats.For last year,I used canva and pinterest and sadly the main thing I was able to achieve on there was clearing my debt and also getting a credit card.

Almost 90% of my NYRs didn’t happen so let’s just say I was not keen about NYR 2023 despite my nagging and constant advocacy for vision boards and writing the vision down in general.

I’ve been exploring via YouTube,IG and through conversations with family and friends the last few days and I have come up with these steps that will most likely help anyone in a similar boat like me achieve at least half of their goals.People swear by them so I’ve rephrased them in the way I understand them.

See below;how to achieve your NYR 2023

1-Set an intention and a reason you want that thing-why do you want that thing and how’s that going to benefit your life?E.g.A car because you are single parent and travelling with a baby on the bus is starting to feel long.This should be your why.

2-What habits can you start to make it easier for your goal to materialise?.E.g,if you want to save £50 a month into an emergency fund, the habit you will need to develop will be automating a £50 saving into a high yield yet easily accessible account to come out on your pay day(treat it like a bill) so the money is actually saved and untouched as well as out of your sight so you are not tempted to spend it.

3-Give deadlines to your goals.E.g if you have 12 goals,allocate one goal to each month and work hard each month to make sure you achieve that goal,then you can dust your hands off that goal.

4-Pray and commit the goal/s to God every month and ask Him to help you and bring helpers to help you achieve it.

I intend to practise these things I’ve shared as I’m determined to not go another year without seeing certain things in my life.I also hope that these steps will be useful and effective.

With that said,I really hope and pray this year is fruitful for everyone reading and we can all challenge ourselves to experience growth in many areas of our lives and live blessed lives.

Until,my next post,have a prosperous 2023 guys❤️

Tilly.x

December 2022

I woke up this morning from a notification from clearscore that my credit score had gone up.Yayyy,I must say I was very happy despite the increase not being a very significant one.

I have worked the whole of this year with the intention and agenda to increase my score and clear some debt and I am very happy to announce it has happened.

I had a very debt that was long standing and had almost £600 to clear as my goal before the end of the year and I have realised that I’ve only got £42 left to pay on 28th December as my last payment instalment to completely clear that debt.How marvellous is that?

Moving onto exciting things,I got my first credit card yesterday with a credit limit of £700 after years of working to improve my credit.The APR is over 30% which is not great and not adviseable but I need to build credit so this is a deliberate decision that I’m hoping will favour me if all things go well.

Hope all is well with everyone btw?

Anyways,I will share a few more posts about how I have discovered paying surveys from the IG finance community and how I’ve managed to earn over £110 in the last 3 months.I could have earned more but my mommy duties kept calling so this is not too bad.

Cheers to getting money wise and seasons greetings to everyone🎄❤️

1st post of 2022-January ending

Happy New everyone.I hope it’s not too late to still be dropping this line.January has felt quite long although not as long as I anticipated which is great.

I started off the new year with my NYRs and vision board and have a clear agenda to clear remaining debt and build credit properly this year using payment facilities like clearpay.I know,I know what you are thinking,isn’t that a bad idea?

It’s not if you know how to use it.This is not an ad from them but I stumbled accross it accidentally first week of January and decided to give it a go and surprisingly I haven’t been disappointed.

For anyone who doesn’t know,it’s a facility or a feature you find on some websites to purchase items from the website to split the payments,paying 1st instalment at time of purchase of item followed by subsequent payments at a later date.It works the same way as after pay,laybuy,split etc

I’ve managed to restock my kit as MUA(I bet that’s something you didn’t know about me but welcome on board anyways)

It’s been such an easy thing to do paying every other 2 weeks using it as opposed to carrying the burden of paying full price for something when you don’t want to use up your money.

Now,I must warn you.If you are not great at paying back ON TIME,this is not for you as you accrue £6 charge(s) if you do not pay on the day much like how you would get interest on a credit card.

For anyone reading this thinking uhhh this is clever,there is a cap on how much you can borrow for each period so feel free to apply,purchase some much NEEDED things only,pay back ON TIME and watch what progress you can make with your credit building.

Now I can’t say it’s beneficial for you in the long term in terms of building your credit as I have only used it for a month but it’s worth a shot if you don’t want to fork out a huge sum of money in a go for any purchase.

Again,do pay back ON TIME and don’t say u didn’t warn you.

On another note,what are your personal development or personal finance goals for Feb?Comment below.

Day 365 of 2021

The year has finally ended and as always,I have done my reflection for it and reviewed my choices/decisions.

I’m currently binge watching finance videos on YouTube particularly ones from humble penny and assessing what areas I can improve on in my finances.I love Ken and Mary btw,they are such light in this generation!

My sister and I had a lengthy talk yesterday about what things we’ve done right or wrong and what we would like to improve on and most of it has been finance and sticking to systems we have put in place this year.

For me personally,I’m still looking at debts and my total is just under £2500 worth of debt so I will be taking that into the new year(sadly I suppose)and working on it.

I must admit that I’ve made some progress generally and also in my finances l,although not as much as I hoped for BUT little progress is still progress.

If you are in the same boat as me,I encourage you to hold on and practise some discipline and self denial in the coming year so you can reach your financial goals and preserve what you are working for.

I’m sure there are other things we can all review from our lives in 2021 but in all things give thanks so let’s all be grateful for what we have also been able to accomplish.

I hope to be more consistent on here in 2022 and share more on here as I practise and learn more about personal finance management.

So,as always,I will speak to y’all soon,God willing.

In the mean time,celebrate God and your loved ones and have a joyous new year!!!!

Deuces.xx

Payment history-Credit karma

This year has been a bit of a rough year although very good in some ways overall if I’m honest.In terms of my finances though,as already mentioned in my previous post,I could have done better.

I knew my payment history was quite bad but i didn’t realise how bad until I received an email this morning from ClearScore re my credit score.

I decided to check my payment history and I am gobsmacked!Lets just say I will leave my credit score to your imagination because I just can’t share it😂

On to a better year(prays silently)

Here is my payment history so y’all can appreciate that you are not the only one.

Kick ass in the last few days of this year if you can though by reducing your spending and increasing your earnings(if possible) that’s if you are able to do that.

I will try my very best over here too!

The credit score

I’ve spent the last few years watching my credit score fluctuate and it has brought several emotions mostly brief sadness and anxiety,loll…😂

The feeling it reminds me of,is seeing your investment or stock value drop significantly(only investors will understand this)It’s really not for the weak.

If you are reading this and still experience these emotions,I admonish you to be strong and develop a very neutral attitude towards it.After all,it’s not the end of the world and as they say now, “it is what it is”.

Now,here’s what I want to commit to this year;becoming debt free which means paying off EVERYTHING I owe(currently around £4000),of course excluding my student loan debt with SFE.

I know,that for some or most people in their 30’s reading this,£4000 is nothing and you wish you had that much little debt but to me that’s like £400,000 and I don’t like it.

I say this because I almost never owe anyone except my sister and my phone company.It literally takes me prayerful consideration before I even attempt to borrow anything especially money from people.I’ve always believed that the borrower is a slave to the lender and I generally don’t like feeling indebted to anyone so I really try my best but life happens and we gather some dust along the journey.

Also,I’ve only ever had one credit card which was under £600 in my early twenties.I must add that,I mismanaged it as you would expect and ended up spending the last few years paying for it.Yes,years,because the debt kept increasing.Don’t ask me how!

A lot of people are misinformed about credit cards and are misled to believe that they are a curse but they are actually a great source of credit builder and actually a blessing once used correctly.

I mention credit cards because I plan to get one after clearing my debt,hopefully before December 2021 and getting one for myself so that I can build my credit as my credit utilisation is pretty low right now.

PS,if you have no clue what credit utilisation is,check Credit Karma(previously called noddle) or ClearScore or Experian or Google😀

Credit building will require a lot of attention to your spending,prioritisation of needs and spending in general,timely payments of bills etc so don’t start it you are not ready to discipline yourself now for the sake of your future.

I will end this here for now as I realise this is getting a little long but I will show you some of the images of my credit score I have tracked over time to give you a better perspective of what I’ve just shared.

So I shall you in the next one,hopefully✌🏾❤️

Tilly.x

Believe in yourself

Hi readers,

Hope you are keeping well despite Covid-19?

I woke up this morning with this on my mind;BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

I was wondering where it came from and I thought,is this message for me? As far as I am concerned,I feel like I need to tone down in many areas so i don’t become the overconfident and annoying person and I have found that I am gradually muting myself.

I am becoming so aware of this to the extent that i am starting to fight it and make sure that I remain exactly who I am whether it makes people uncomfortable or not.

My thoughts were confirmed a few hours later when I stumbled accross a video on Hustle and Heels’ Instagram page(HERE) of Bozoma St John speaking.She said in that video that she could not understand why people didnt see how dope she was around the age of 12/13 and I FELT THAT because I have had that literally all my life.I have felt misunderstood or misconceived many times in life .Here’s a link of what she said for some context…click LINK

As soon as I heard what she said,the message I had in the morning hit me again and this time,further weight was added to it which gave clarity to the message and I knew straight away that it was my message. Lollll😂

I say this because lately I have been dealing with a not-so-mild direction,autonomy or leadership issue with my own digital content with my blog,my YouTube, IG and other stuff in my personal life and I have been doubting whether the direction and paths I am taking are being influenced by my opinions,personal desires etc.

I have moving with extreme caution as result because I don;t want to make any unnecessary errors in this season and I seem to not trust my leadership especially now that I have to do things differently due to lockdown.

The message that was confirmed for me was;Trust what you are about,trust your own content,trust your gut when it comes to what you feel led to release into the world without waiting for someone to endorse it or give me the go-ahead.

I was reminded that the right people will connect with my message and hesitation will prevent my message from reaching the right people at the right time.

I was also reminded not to delay,to act and to trust that there is a purpose for my content online and I should just believe in myself a tad more.

I am writing this thinking whether there are any other areas of my life that this message applies to and the answer is yes which means I have some growing to do(HOW I LOVE GROWTH)

For anyone reading this who feels like they could do with a bit more confidence or believing that they are worth soemthing,or that they can contribute something,or evven that they are annointed to contribute,I urge you to have more faith in yourself,to trust that you are more than capable and that you are offering as much quality as anyone else or another person you are looking to endorse or approve what you come up with.

I just want to encourage you to keep going and give your best while you can and the right impact will be made in the right time.

So in the mean time big up yourself and above all trust that you are led by God and so you cannot get it wrong!!!

Speak soon.x

Bissou😘