What Sophie Said

I feel like I did a lot of ‘growing up’ over 2015. I learned a lot about myself, about what I want to do, and about where I want to be. One of the things I’ve really been trying to improve on is the way I handle my money. I’m a few months into a new job, a few months into a new city, and a few months into a new living space. I moved to London, which has made the whole money situation even more necessary to think about. Growing up, I was always the one who spent my pocket money as soon as I got it. I did once save a decent amount in my Building Society account, but then spent the majority of it on adopting an orca (a kind of whale) for one year, aged 10. I’ve improved over the course of university and my first couple of years of working, but there are definitely still improvements to be made. Recently, I’ve begun trying to switch my brain out of short-term mode, and focus on both long and short-term when it comes to my money. Throw in the fact that I’m g...

The results are in for my first challenge month! I will aim to get these up on the last day of the month, before introducing a new challenge on the 1 st , but Christmas and New Year has thrown every schedule out of the window! My December challenge was to spend no money on any make-up or toiletries. I admitted this was a little easier because of my beauty advent calendars, but when weighed up with the temptations of amazing sales it was still tough. I did it, though! I’ve begun working my way through products I had forgotten about, and using up a lot of sachets and samples, which is clearing up space in my room. I definitely want to continue working through all the things I already have, and try and use up as many as I can before buying loads more. Judging on the way I then acted yesterday, when faced with the sales, I have begun to think a bit more about what I want and need. December gave me the chance to look through and rediscover what I already own, so I have a...

I held off on posting this at first, as I didn’t want to publicly set myself a challenge I couldn’t stick to! I have decided that I will begin each month by setting myself a challenge, which can cover any aspect of my life, and do little updates on here. It might be a good way to set myself in the routine of new habits, or just prove to myself that I can stick at something for the month. December’s challenge is a toughie: NO spending on toiletries or cosmetics. Anyone that knows me knows I have a huge collection of these things, far more than I could ever be using in one go. My mum moans about it all the time… until she needs to borrow something, that is! Although I don’t waste all my money on these things, and I do budget and have money to save at the end of every month, it can never hurt to save a little more. I thought that, in the months where I was finishing Christmas shopping, it might be a good idea to reduce spending on myself. And so December’s challenge was born. 16 days...