Watching your finances when unemployed.

I previously wrote a post called “my finances – where the hell do I start” – looking back at that post has been a great inspiration to me recently.  Between my recent unemployment and the fact that we are approaching a new year I thought it was a great time to revisit this post and get some new focus on my finances.

Revisiting this post has re-established for me the importance of the envelope system.  Putting cash in to a relevant envelope so that you can spend it each week on the relevant items you intended it to be spent on.  Note the important word, intended.   The rules of this system are simple and work whether you are being paid weekly or monthly.

·         Work out your budget – what money do you need for the coming week / month?

·         Divide that money in to the relevant categories such as car fuel, groceries, kids clothes, dining out, clothing.

·         Label your envelopes with the relevant categories.  You may want to leave space to write down how much money you are putting in and then where the money is being spent. It will be a quick reference for you throughout the week or month.

·         Put your money in to the relevant envelopes. For example if you have budgeted 300€/$ for your groceries put that in the grocery envelope. Do the same for every other envelope.

·         Only use money in a specific envelope for a specific item.  Don’t be tempted to take money from the grocery envelope to put in the dining out envelope.  You are defeating the purpose.   If you do this than it is more  likely you will  not have enough money left to eat for the rest of the month. 

·         If you realize that a budget set for a given category isn’t realistic, discuss it with your spouse and consider adjusting that category.  If you don’t have a spouse maybe discuss with someone else who will help you keep on track.

·         Have a goal in your in sights.  Whether is a new dress that you want or to pay off a larger bank debt.  Any money that you have left remaining in these envelopes at the end of each week or month should go towards that. 

Ever since I started using the system I have found it beneficial, but even more so since being unemployed.   My money is now limited and this system has kept me completely focused on my money and budget.  More now than ever I need this envelope system.  It is so easy and simple that I can’t figure out why not many more people are using this every day. 

Being unemployed in the first place is hard, having limited money is even harder.  But why not try and make it easier if you can at all by trying this system.

 Do you have a goal in mind? Are you considering using this envelope system? Have you used this before and do you have any reviews on it – let me know in the comments.

S

I'm back with a great attitude and adventure - Restarting my blog

Hello World,

I started this blog when I first lost my job – I thought it would be exciting and an adventure and mainly give me a reason to get up every morning. I lost track of something and now I am actually finding myself again.

When I started this blog, it was a little place for me to sound off, share some ideas and thoughts and generally just get my thoughts out.  As I days rolled by I began to look forward to writing something for my blog, but then I noticed that no one else really had noticed my blog and I wondered why am I actually doing this if no one cares!  So I just decided to stop!  

BUT when I stopped I got myself in to a little rut of depression, self loathing, laziness and generally crappy moods.  I have returned recently from my favourite holiday of all – the Big Apple and I realised that I needed to get the hell out of my funk.  When I was there I was listening to the stories of some of those that survived Sandy – many losing memories and homes.  What struck me most was the attitude of the people in NYC – the resilience in the face of adversity.  One moment has stuck with me more than anything else.  

One night I was standing outside my hotel and I was speaking with the door man when a guy and his dog walked passed.  He regularly walked past the hotel each evening and they both started talking about how the hurricane had affected them.  The dog walker said that each evening he stopped by the hotel to look in the window at the news as he had no power in his building.  The window was his saviour letting him know what was going on further afield in NYC.  I asked him how long he had been without power – a few days he said.  “Everything in my freezer started to defrost – so I gave it to other residents in my building who weren’t so lucky with food” His building has gas stoves so they could cook easily.  He didn’t really know the other people in his building but couldn’t let his food go to waste and see others hungry.  He spoke about how he carried his little dog “bo” up and down 14 flights of stairs for his daily walk.  How the dog became a little superstar in the local bank where they allowed people to just sit there and charge their cell phones. He spoke about the great management team in the building and how they stopped by each day to check on every one.  They brought water from the pool on the roof to each apartment so people could “flush” their toilets.  (pool on the roof – some posh apartment building! )Notice something about this story? This guy didn’t moan or complain once about the situation he was in.  He wasn’t moping about; he was getting on with his life as best he could during the worst storm to hit NYC.

This one conversation between the doorman, the dog walker and myself has struck such a chord in me that it has helped me get out of my funk!  It has made me say come on, get on with things and look towards to the positive. 

When I was in NYC I bought Bethenny Frankels book “ A Place of Yes” I have only read the first chapter but this quote has stood out for me “ A place of yes is about taking responsibility for moving forward, even if you have to climb over a mountain of obstacles. You are in charge, nobody else”.

As I said above, at the start this was a little place for me to come in to, share, talk and chat even if it was to myself.  Now, I realise I need to find that part again and not focus on who is reading and why people aren’t. 

So here it is – my journey through the crap little hand of life that I have been dealt at the moment – Unemployment.  I am not the only person in this country or in the world that is unemployed at the moment and hopefully some of my little posts or ideas/thoughts will mean something to someone if they stumble across my blog.

In the meantime if you do decide to read this blog, please let me know by either leaving a comment or following my on twitter @mynextendeavour.  

Let restart this adventure together.

S