Zig's new start (again!) on a budget!

zigmeister · 23 March 2009 at 8:24PM

Hi,

I'm 20 and currently about to finish my first year at university.

I have always been bad with money and now I am an official student with ingoings and outgoings I want to be better.

Ever since I turned 18 I have had credit cards. I owed about £2500 but paid them all off. I now have one credit card which my Mum owes some money on. I owe my sister £500 and my overdraft is at -£1100. That is my only debt now apart from my student debt which I'm not counting at the mo.

This is going to be my diary to keep me on track with my spending, and if anyone has any tips or advice then feel free to add them!

Thanks for reading that boring little lot!

Zig x

Pamela1705 · 23 March 2009 at 9:15PM

Hi Zig,

I'm quite new at this too, so I don't feel seasoned enough to offer you any advice. But what I would say is to be careful with the student debt - that's part of the reason why I wanted to start tackling mine. I left uni three years ago, did a post grad course in london and I'm now paying for that.

Just remember to watch what you spend - start now, rather than in a few years, and you'll see the difference! :j

zigmeister · 23 March 2009 at 9:23PM

Hi Pamela!

Thanks for replying

I'm lucky in that my Dad is putting away £200 a month at the mo to pay off my student debt. But I don't know how long that is going to last, and also, I want to pay him off eventually.

I'm always saying that I'm gonna start being more sensible with money but I always slip back. My main weakness is food shopping. I'm a right foodie and love buying loads of different stuff! I'm only buying for me and my OH but I reckon I spend about £200 a month which is way too much! :eek:

Zig x

zigmeister · 23 March 2009 at 9:28PM

I'm going to Jamie's Italian in Bath next week, I can't wait!

I have a 20% discount voucher for New Look and I have some birthday money so I think I might get some shoes. I love shoes.

I have food in the cupboard but I keep ending up going to the shop anyway and picking up something. I must be more organised and do meal plans or something.

Tomorrow and Wednesday should be NSDs as I have a ton of uni work to be getting on with, so hopefully I'll stay in the flat!

Zig x

zigmeister · 24 March 2009 at 3:21PM

My Mum owes me about £400. I haven't worked it out properly but it's around that. The money would be really handy but she has no money so I don't like to keep asking her for it when I know she doesn't have it.

I need to apply for my tax rebate. It's only about £50 but would go towards my rent. I'm lucky that my flatmate (who owns the flat) lets me pay the rent in chunks when I get my student loan through.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some overtime where I work in the Easter holidays, cuz I'll only have 1 assignment to do rather than the millions I have to do at the moment.

I'm a new member of pinecone and they are reminding me about a survey but I don't think I'm allowed to do them because I work in a supermarket. I don't want to get in trouble for doing it anyway!

Anywho, on with the assignments and Jeremy Kyle!

Pamela1705 · 31 March 2009 at 9:30PM

Hi Zig,

Hope you are still on the debt free wagon - I was just reading your thread and wanted to remind you to reply for your rebate!

It might be the best thing you do! I had a load of rebates to apply for from when I was a student but for ages I just couldn't get round to doing it. One day I totally forced myself and sent it away, and got £800 back, which paid for some driving lessons and other things. :T

Force yourself to do it. It's boring and faffy but you'll feel the benefit of it!

shaggydoo · 1 April 2009 at 8:43AM

I'm a newbie too. Just wanted to wish you Good Luck:D

Clarienne · 1 April 2009 at 4:47PM

Good on you for getting on top of your finances whilst you are still a student. Wish I had. :beer:

Beware 'not counting' the student debt - mine is still festering away about 10+ years after I graduated.

zigmeister · 1 April 2009 at 10:26PM

Hi Pamela,

Thanks for the reminder! Well at the moment I'm still getting on with my assignments but next week it's the Easter holidays so I have a big to do list to get on with! And that includes doing the rebate! That was good getting £800 back! Sadly mine will only be £50. But £50 is £50! :j

How is the debt-busting coming along for you?

And hi shaggydoo and Clarienne! Thank you for posting! Well I've kinda already been in debt and now I'm almost out of it I don't wanna go back there! It's so easy to say 'oh I'll just put it on the credit card.' I'm not very good at saving!

Zig x

zigmeister · 1 April 2009 at 10:38PM

Soo... an update.

Well it was my birthday and I had birthday money to spend on shoes so I bought some KG shoes. They are gorgeous! It was so nice to buy some amazing shoes and not feel guilty about them. :j

My money seems to be going down quite a lot even though I'm not shopping much. I think I'm doing well at eating from the cupboard. My stocks are finally going down! I am owed money towards the food shopping so that'll help. Getting petrol bumps up my spending though. I spent £15 on petrol, and got £10 cashback. Obviously the £10 got spent quite quickly cuz it was in my purse, and then that's £25 gone! :mad:

Tomorrow should be a fairly cheap day cuz I've got uni then I'm stopping at Tesco to get some rice and a few bits of food for over the weekend. Hopefully it won't come to much!

Zig x

zigmeister · 2 April 2009 at 11:40AM

Last night was good. I went in to Sainsburys specifically for raspberries (cuz I love them and they're £1.49 instead of £3 atm) and when I went in I saw loads of packets for 90p each. So obv I grabbed some!As I was walking round I saw the reductions guy reducing someone raspberries and so I went over and he reduced mine to 10p each!

Today hasn't been so good. I went to Tesco with the intention of not spending much, but I saw loads. It came to £40 so I had to use my vouchers which I wanted to save for the deals thing. So annoying. I did buy some meringues and cream to go with my raspberries though! :j

I'm hoping I will now have to buy nothing over the weekend. My boyfriend is going away with the car so cuz I'm lazy I figure if I stay in the flat then I can't buy anything!

Zig x

Zig's new start (again!) on a budget!

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