I’ve recently finished listening to a brilliant podcast called ‘Her Balanced Business‘ by entrepreneur Kim Sprague. It’s really got me thinking about my finances and my money mindset.

I’ve worried a lot about finances over the last 18 months, more so at times than I’ve let on.

I have to admit, I’m not great at listening to podcasts. I have the attention span of a gnat and tend to switch off halfway through!

Her Balanced Business was different, though. Each episode was around 20 minutes, so I could listen to them in manageable chunks.

I had met Kim online at the beginning of lockdown after joining the Lean In Supper Circle. Kim was a guest speaker at the first event I attended. Her story intrigued me.

I hadn’t heard the phrase ‘money mindset’ before. But after listening to the podcast, I started to review the relationship I have with money.

Slipping into a negative money mindset

Although I’ve had money worries over the last 18 months, I’ve never been in what I would call ‘real debt’. The largest debts I’ve ever had are my student loan and a mortgage.

My parents instilled in us from an early age not to spend more than we could afford. Something I’ve largely managed to stick to. This changed a little bit when I moved to London. But thankfully, I had some savings at that point. London is not a cheap place to live, especially if you want to enjoy London life too! Ironically, most of the negative money mindset issues we experience actually come from our parents.

When my ex moved out in January, I was determined to stay in the flat we had rented. This was probably a mistake in hindsight, but I don’t regret staying there, despite it hitting me financially.

Another contributing factor to my money worries, although another one I don’t regret, was booking my trip to India. The trip had seemed like a bargain when I booked it. But I hadn’t accounted for all the hidden extras (flights, luggage, new clothes, excursions, tips for our tour guide, etc.). Although I spread the cost where possible, my credit card bill was rising.

I started to gulp every time something else went on the credit card. I just kept telling myself India was a trip of a lifetime.

Increasing money worries

When I returned from India in January this year, that’s when I really started to worry. I was living on such a small amount of money after my rent and bills had been paid.

I don’t have an extravagant lifestyle by any means. Most of my monthly expenditure, aside from rent and bills, was going towards my car and food shopping.

By late spring/early summer, we were well into lockdown. I was working from home and spending more time than ever before in my flat. At this point, I actually started to save some money for the first time in months. I was saving money on petrol and shop-bought lunches. The relief at saving again made me realise I had put myself ina crazy situation by staying in my flat. The pressure eased slightly, but by this point, I knew I needed to take action.

My trip to India had also reminded me of my desire to travel. India would always be a holiday of a lifetime, but I certainly didn’t want it to be my last! If I was going to go on nice trips in the future, and not spend the next year worrying about finances, I was going to have to look at reducing my expenditure and find other streams of income.

New Income Streams

New income streams were an area I was really keen to explore. I started to think about different options, which might tie in with some of the things I already enjoy doing.

I started to look into affiliate links through my blog. Whilst I’ve upgraded my WordPress account to use affiliate links, I’m struggling to work out how to add them. I need to spend a bit more time researching so I can:

a) find the right affiliate links for The Mindful Gingernut, and

b) work out how to use them!

During lockdown, I was scrolling through Instagram, and I kept seeing a sponsored post for Picfair. Picfair is a site where you can create your own photo store. You basically earn money when people buy them. I love taking photos, so I set up a store, and eagerly awaited to see what would happen.

Nothing.

I haven’t given up hope just yet. So many people on social media make side hustles look easy. They really aren’t.

Reducing Expenditure

With no luck with new income streams, I decided to refocus my efforts on how I could reduce my expenditure. Coincidently, it was at this time, that I started to get pretty stressed with where I was living. Despite the nation still being in lockdown, the noise outside my flat was increasing, with people arguing in the street, a constant stream of noisy traffic, and on top of that noisy neighbors who had moved into the flat behind me. It was time to leave.

Finding somewhere to live

I wasn’t sure I would find anything in London for much less rent than I was already paying, and to start with, things looked pretty dim. I was adamant I didn’t want to house share (at 36, I need my own space!), and whilst me and my boyfriend had been together for 18 months, we weren’t ready to move in together yet.

It was only when I started to look further out of London towards the suburbs, that I realised how much less I could be paying in rent. Yes, I may lose my outdoor space, yes, I may not have such a beautifully airy, clean flat (although let’s not forget I had that awful rat problem at the end so it wasn’t all roses!), in such a great location transport wise, but I would have peace and quiet, I could still have my own space, and most importantly, I would be able to start saving money again.

It took a couple of weeks of full on flat hunting, but soon enough, I stumbled across the flat I now find myself writing in. It felt like home straight away.

At the time, I paid my deposit and signed a 24 month contract on the flat.

Redundancy

I had no idea that in just a couple of weeks time, my job would be put at risk of redundancy. As silly and big headed as it now sounds, I never dreamt my job would be one of the ones put at risk.

I was now in a dilemma. I’d been looking forward to clearing the last of my debts and starting to save again, and now everything had been thrown up in the air.

I had 2 choices:

1. To cancel the contract but risk losing my deposit (as much as the rent was much cheaper, the deposit wasn’t!)
2. To move in anyway, and to hope and pray that I would find a new job sooner rather than later

I really couldn’t face the financial hit of losing my deposit, and as much as moving back home with my parents was an option, I wanted to stay in London to look for work and to be with my boyfriend.

So in late August, I moved all of my worldly belongings, and my cat, into my new flat in the London suburbs.

Moving from furnished to unfurnished

I started to plan the furniture I wanted to buy as I was moving from furnished to unfurnished. I brought a bed, and ordered a sofa (on finance, just so I didn’t put myself in anymore immediate debt).

Then I stopped in my tracks. I stopped to question myself. Should I be forking out on brand new furniture, when, if I don’t find a new job straight away, I will need that money?

I was disappointed that I had let myself get carried away with the idea of having my own furniture again, but (I thought) I was managing ok surrounded by boxes. It really did seem to make more sense to wait until I at least had another job secured until I started spending any more money. I then also started to question whether it was worth buying furniture at all, as my contract was only 24 months long, and by the time I started a new job, I would probably only have 18 months left on my contract, and perhaps at the end of my contract, me and my boyfriend would be ready to move in together!

Feeling inspired

In Kim’s podcast, she talks about how she found herself in a situation where she had savings, but didn’t want to dip into them when she was starting her business. She had become so used to having savings, that the idea of spending them actually worried her. What she then began to realise, is that actually, if she spent some of her savings now in order to set up the business, she would soon be able to recover that money, and grow her savings at a much faster rate, if her business was successful. Sometimes worrying about money, whether its debt or savings, can prevent us from moving forwards and from that growth we so badly need.

As I sat in traffic last week listening to her podcast, I suddenly realised what I had done. By convincing myself not to spend money on furniture until I had a new job, I’d actually talked myself out of being able to find a new job!

Changing my money mindset

I was in battle with a negative money mindset, and as a result, I found myself in a whirlpool of anxiety and unpacked boxes. Boxes which may never get unpacked if I stayed in that negative mindset.

Yes you could say I was being cautious rather than negative, but when I started to visualize my flat with furniture rather than unpacked boxes, my mood started to lift. I knew then, what I needed to do.

I don’t have loads of money, so I’m trying to spend wisely, but I know that spending a little bit of money now, in order to furnish my flat, will improve my money mindset, which will then put me in a much better headspace for finding a new job.

I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed though, just in case.

Have you ever found yourself in a negative money mindset?