Hello budget friends.
My name is Hannah and I want to share my money saving journey with you all, I will share the ups and downs of this financial journey.
Before I get started on my budgeting journey I should introduce myself. I am 23 from the South West of England, I work full time and I live at home with my parents, sister and dog. I also have a boyfriend and we have been together for 3 years.
As I said before I work full time so I am either at work, annoying my boyfriend or spending time with my crazy family. I run an Instagram page where I share my saving journey since January 2019 and I love it. It has allowed me to learn from some of the most inspiration people I have ever met when it comes to finance.
The reason I have started this blog is to hopefully help someone like me, who wants to learn more about money, how to save for goals and live more frugally.
I hope my savings journey inspires you to start yours.
Where it all began:
January 2018:
Back in 2018 my boyfriend and I had a conversation about money and possibly living together. This was when I realised that I needed to grow up and learn about money.
Saving £50 a month and wasting the rest of my wages was not good enough especially as my boyfriend had already saved a lot more money then me.
This was when I really started to think about my finances and what budgeting meant. I was already in debt at the age of 21 as I owed the bank £4,000 for a personal loan I look out for my first car.
But I had no clue what I was doing, I ended up making a lot of mistakes and missing payments on car insurance etc. It was not a good time. I just muddled through for most of 2018 thinking that I will be all right and I can start saving soon.
December 2018:
December 2018 was the month of change for me. I had enough of wasting money on takeaways, subscription I hadn’t used for months and unnecessary spending.
This is when I turned to the wonderful world of Instagram. I was amazed! People were sharing their saving journeys, how they have saved £10,000 in one year. I didn’t think this was true but I wanted to save like these people.
I researched for days and weeks deciding what budget planned worked for me, what my goals were and how I was going to keep myself accountable, that’s when I took the plunge and created my Instagram page.
January 2019:
I had finally created my Instagram page and started sharing my story and I loved it. I had so many people follow me wanting to give me advice and support my journey. It was amazing, I spoke to some incredibly inspirational women who welcomed me into the budgeting and money saving community.
I had also created a Zero based budget which allows me to maximize my savings each month. 2019 was going to be the year for me! I was saving on average £300 a month whilst also earning extra money by completing paid surveys.
I had my goals in mind, my budget set up and all my emergency funds ready which meant I was ready to save lots of money towards my house deposit.
December 2019 – 2020:
In December 2019 I was approached by The Times Money Mentor to tell them all about my savings journey in 2019 and I was so excited. I explained how I saved money, what went well and what didn’t go well. It was great to be asked, and share everything that I have learned. Click on the picture bellow or click the link above to read the article they have written.
Picture was taken by my Dad: Tony Cooney Photography
At the end of 2019 I had over £5,000 saved which includes a Help to buy ISA, emergency funds for car repairs, less bills and a new bank account with Monzo.
I was so happy with my savings plan and everything that I have learned. That I wanted to share all this information on a blog.
So here we are, in 2020 with £5,500 saved and my £4,000 worth of debt paid off.
I hope that you will stay with me on this journey and I hope that I can be of some help.
Hannah X
