scottishspendaholic update

Hey everyone,

Feeling very money saving inspired at the moment, and 99% of the praise and thanks has to go to the amazing & inspiring posters on here.

I just wanted to write a wee update to let everyone know how I am getting on. Thanks to each and every one of you.

I joined this site in January this year after making myself feel ill at how much I spent over Christmas and in the sales. I couldn't even tell you what on. I spent about 4 weeks half heartedly following all the advice and trying some money saving schemes like buying books from charity shops and trying to resell them on Amazon (sooo didn't work) and that time was over my birthday so I used that as an excuse to spend money (in charity shops, but still a significant amount of money).

My OH didn't know about my debts - he'd been there for me before and to cut a long story short - some of my debts were that I had *stolen* £3,000 from joint money in an ISA in my name - don't, I'm so ashamed. My poor OH didn't know what was going on - I was trying to encourage him to help us both save money in our joint expenses and snapping at him all the time - it all came to a head on 25 February where I broke down and confessed all.

It was wonderful - such a relief - he was really understanding and not as mad as I would've expected. Partly because he had also spent joint money in an ISA in his name (I know its confusing) but not as much as me. We're both rubbish with money and it was just too tempting. We used the remaining ISA money left to pay off his £900 credit card bill and pay £853.90 off my Mint card. Anyway we worked out a budget and I decided to make more of a go of my eBay wedding favour business to enable me to overpay the debt.

Since that date, I have been doing fairly well - a few slip ups on the way and a few naughty creme eggs eaten but I'm fairly impressed and astonished at my progress so far. It might not be massive amounts but its good for me.

Last month I made...

£0.60 found round the house
£24.42 on Amazon
£3.89 closing old savings accounts
£150 babysitting for neighbours
£250+ profit from eBay

I had an unexpected car battery to pay for and a couple of pre lightbulb moment trips away to pay for but managed to overpay my credit card at the end of March. I am due to be able to overpay £200+ hopefully in April - here is the breakdown:-

£3 bagged coppers
£15 bagged 20ps (by end of month)
£27 ISA interest
£40 selling kitchen table and 4 chairs locally
£80 (+ possibly more, sent out some quotes this week) on wedding favour business
£35 on eBay junk from house

In May and maybe again in June I am hoping to do a car boot or two to get rid of the non eBayable stuff. I have also been featured in a magazine this month (out yesterday, but I haven't seen it yet!) that features my eBay wedding favour business and gives my contact details so hopefully that might bring in some extra interest. I am also thinking about readvertising the babysitting in our local parish mag (£30 for 3 months - seems to pay for itself) and advertising dog walking at the weekends.

I am paying back my mum and dad for a loan they gave me to pay for a new power steering rack for my battered old Ka but this is set up on standing order for the 1st of every month and I honestly don't even notice it. Am going to keep this going, once they are paid back, to save up for future car costs. Them having the access to the money (and not me) makes it much safer! I am also saving up post office savings stamps (£5 each) to afford my year's car tax in August.

In the last week I have also started getting the bus to work rather than the train. The bus goes from my village but the train station is 6.5 miles away (65 miles a week) so I am now saving £25 on train fares (bus monthly fare is cheaper) and £25 ish a month on petrol (a saving of £50!). I have decided to keep the car (for the moment) as we live in quite a rural area and my OH is out a lot but will revisit this decision in the summer. This money I will use to overpay the credit card.

Also - today I was out of my mobile contract and called to ask for my PAC number but they gave me a great deal - T Mobile U Fix 300 off peak x network minutes and 230 text messages a month for £15 including VAT. If I want to make calls in peak times or send more text messages then I have to top up like PAYG. Thought that this was better than £10 300 text message O2 SIM card for me as I will inevitably use it for some calls and then it will be £15 or more.

I allow myself £20 a week in cash - stamps, meeting a friend for a drink, in town bus fare (different bus company but I walk when I can!) etc etc. I try not to spend this unnecessarily.

I am also due to put in a court claim next week for my bank charges of £750 + interest which if successful, will hopefully clear my overdraft.

If this all goes to plan, I will start saving to pay off my loan (no overpayments allowed).

Anyway - thanks for listening. Its been really cathartic writing it all down! I hope this doesn't sound - oh amen't I great - its really not meant to - I just wanted to get it clear in my own head and tell you all how I am doing.

scottishspendaholic x