Money makes the world go round

One of my first goals in sobriety is to get to grips with my spending. Never been good with money and though its caused me no real problems latelty (the past's another matter), I want to improve.

Drinking had a great impact on finances. Not only the cost of doing it but knock on effects like spending on takeaway food as I couldnt be bothered to cook. Not drinking has its own impact though, as there's nothing like going out shopping at the weekend when youre not hungover.

This last week I have written down every penny spent in a effort to see where my money goes. That in itself has helped greatly with impulse buying and so probably doesnt reflect my true recent habits. Its been difficult to get a true picture though as when I see offers like BOGOF on food items I use a lot I have to stock up. I probably need to spend one week just buying what we eat in the week. And there are other one off non food stuffs which arent regular spends. Anyway its a start.

The knock on effect from not drinking is that we have eaten less takeaway food and I am enjoying cooking more. Menu planning for the week would also help but I am starting by using what we have and going from there.

I have also started organising my money in the bank. My bank lets me open several online savings accounts that I can label for different things which helps seperate things and I've made a spreadsheet to keep track. So I now have accounts for long term savings, emergencies, car maintenance, bills and everyday expenses all in seperate accounts. I still have some credit to pay off but its not out of control so saving while doing that makes me feel I'm getting somewhere.

Saving money is new to me and I can see it becoming a new obsession but I suppose a valuable one. I love to log into my account and look at it!

Weekly goals:

• Start to track of a full month of spending when I get my April salary to get a bigger picture and plan an ongoing monthly budget.
• Put money away into various saving accounts when I get paid. Trying to keep as much as I can through the month and then saving it doesnt work! My need to be adjusted when i get a better picture of a full months expenses.
• Plan menus on a weekly basis from what I have in stock and write a shopping list based on what we need. Shopping without a list is another big weakness of mine.
  
• Cut down on smoking. This weeks money tracking has given me an honest view of how much I smoke. I know its on the 'to go' list but this early in sobriety I'm not doing too much at once.

Probably enough for this week!