Starting Over

Hello and welcome!
Love your username - is that a Becky Bloomwood reference? I read the Shopaholic books again recently and I found some of Ms Bloomwood's behaviour painfully familiar.

I started my debt free diary at the end of January this year so I'm pretty new to all this too. There is lots of great advice in the diaries and the Debt Free Wannabe boards so have a browse when you have time.

The things that really helped me:

1. OnTrees account/app - you link this with your bank accounts and credit cards, it gives you a breakdown of exactly what you have spent over the past 12 weeks. Breaks everything down into categories, you can edit these and add new ones. I was spending blindly and I didn't have a good overview of where my money was going so I found this very useful (and scary!). It helped me identify the black holes and blind spots in my spending like buying coffee or lunch at work, and I could make easy changes to save some money.

2. SoA (State of Affairs) - everyone will ask you to post one and although it is scary, it is really helpful to get an outside perspective on things. There were several things (like Spotify, gym membership etc) that I thought I couldn't live without but I was convinced to give them up or make a switch to cheaper supplier and I found that I can actually live without them This link has some advice on how to complete one : Help for the first time poster

3. Knowledge is power. I willingly kept myself in the dark about the interest rates on my credit cards because I didn't like to think too much about how much debt I was in. BUT finding out exactly what interest rate I was paying (some of my cards have several different interest rates) and when these rates ran out was really helpful in terms of helping me prioritise what to pay off first. If you are like me, then make finding out your interest rates, statement dates etc one of the first things you do. Also, sometimes just by having a chat with your bank or card provider, you can get a lower interest rate. I called my bank to check something about my personal loan and they told me I could refinance on a lower interest rate which saved me just under £90 a month in repayments.

4. YNAB (You Need A Budget) is a great piece of budgeting software. You get a 34 day free trial when you first sign up. HOWEVER, I think that OnTrees was more useful to me at the very beginning because I didn't have an accurate picture of where my money was going. YNAB have a great YouTube channel with lots of advice on how to get the most from their website and about budgeting in general, another thing that is worth a browse when you have time.

5. Snowball calculator - to help you figure out the correct order for paying your debts off.

6. Join Cashback, survey sites and market research focus groups. There are loads out there but I use TopCashBack for cashback, MySurvey for surveys and Trend Market Research and People for Research focus group sites (I can't keep up with too many!). I've been using TopCashBack for about 9 months and I've made nearly £400 in total (ok, I have also spent a lot on it!) ; I've made £40 from MySurvey since end of Jan and done two Focus Groups (£90 total) this year.

7. Try cheaper brands. I used to buy certain brands because I assumed they were better quality, but I've been making an effort to try cheaper brands since January and I've been really pleased with the results. Biggest one for me was switching from Tesco & Waitrose to ALDI for my weekly shop. ALDI is amazing! I think a lot of their products are way better quality than Tesco or Waitrose and they are way, way cheaper. I'm a proper fangirl for them now I switched brands for a couple of skincare and toiletries too and found that I either preferred or didn't notice a difference when using a slightly cheaper brand.

8. Clear cookies / Delete card / paypal information - if you have any websites that automatically store your card or paypal information then delete it. Clear your cookies. Unsubscribe from mailing lists if you know that certain ones always tempt you to buy something. Stop following the spendiest blogs/instagrams - I found there was one blogger that always prompted me to buy something, so I've just stopped reading her blog for the time being.

Good luck! I'll subscribe to your diary so I can see how you are getting on

thegirlinthegreenscarf wrote: »

Hi


What is the difference between onetrees and ynab? Are these definitely secure? Its lunctime and I am on the ynab youtube channel right now. Just downloaded the classic app too, but its in dollars. Is this normal or have I downloaded the wrong app?

I find OnTrees easier to understand that YNAB. I'd say the main difference is that OnTrees is good for tracking what you spend and if you are not used to having a spending diary then it makes it much easier because it imports the info from your bank account. YNAB is better for budgeting, there is supposedly some way to link it with your bank accounts etc but I wasn't able to do it with any of mine (I think it may be set up for USA banks, not UK ones).
As far as I know they are both secure websites, I have been using OnTrees since beginning of the year and I haven't had any trouble with fraud.

YNAB is an American company so I think dollars is the default but you can change it in the settings ... hopefully a YNAB expert will be along shortly to explain because I find it confusing enough to do the very basics!