Some great advice etc throughout this thread. I hold my hands up to spending years just wasting money and to a point the wife and I still do, Starbucks and takeaway food at breakfast time and my growing alcohol consumption which I blame squarely on COVID probably the worst. What turned it around for me is when work dropped off I realised if it happened long term I'd be screwed so I sorted it, that took a year but really helped. COVID then came along and I was fortunate to work through it and with not being able to do the things I enjoyed my bank balance grew and I now like Elliot suggested have a few months savings in hand. Now we did get credit for house improvements because of wife's disability and my car but I'm buying a new motorbike and instead of getting more credit I've ordered it for next year so I have chance to hopefully save enough to buy it and still have my buffer.
I struggled when I was younger financially but got through it, 37 years and most on nights at the same company helped but it means that now I'm "ok" I don't mind a few wasteful decisions but I am forward planning more especially with the mortgage as paying that off would help me to retire early.
Sorry it's so long 🤦