To cut a long story short, living within one's means is all very well, but has anyone any tips on how to adjust mentally to a 'corrected' situation?
For various reasons (some avoidable, others not) we have been spending way over our income for some time now and with no meaningful prospect of buying a house yet, have eaten a substantial way into savings that were being kept for a future house purchase.
I've taken a long, hard look at income vs. expenditure and find that keeping within the limits of my income and building in some saving means we're really facing some straitened times! First my budget was too tough, so had to loosen it up somewhat, but the 'eased' version is also proving problematic.
Trouble is that with savings in the bank and no debt (thank God) the expectation is that we can 'afford things'. The odd €10 here or there isn't seen as a problem when in fact it's a budget-wrecker and will either eliminate the ability to put money aside or worse still, continue to eat into the savings.
Has anyone else experience of radically changing things and if so, what tips are there to make the medicine easier to swallow?
For various reasons (some avoidable, others not) we have been spending way over our income for some time now and with no meaningful prospect of buying a house yet, have eaten a substantial way into savings that were being kept for a future house purchase.
I've taken a long, hard look at income vs. expenditure and find that keeping within the limits of my income and building in some saving means we're really facing some straitened times! First my budget was too tough, so had to loosen it up somewhat, but the 'eased' version is also proving problematic.
Trouble is that with savings in the bank and no debt (thank God) the expectation is that we can 'afford things'. The odd €10 here or there isn't seen as a problem when in fact it's a budget-wrecker and will either eliminate the ability to put money aside or worse still, continue to eat into the savings.
Has anyone else experience of radically changing things and if so, what tips are there to make the medicine easier to swallow?