no debt, no savings, no assets, just blah. HALP!

Out,_Vile_Jelly · 15 January 2014 at 2:51PM

Hi Lessavyfav.

I've lived in London for over ten years and my friends ALL earn more than me (have trendy media or City jobs), however as they're real friends that doesn't matter. Real friends don't repeatedly pressure you to go on expensive nights out, or make you always do rounds, or split the bill evenly when you've only had a veggie option with no wine. If your social life revolves around boozing and eating with workmates (who are different to real friends IMO) it might be worth looking at pursuing hobbies where you're likely to make more considerate friends.

The simplest thing you can do is to direct 10% of your take home straight into a savings account. The amount left over is your "new" take home and you budget from that instead. There are loads of good ideas on the site for small savings (eg packed lunches, batch cooking etc) but I sometimes think that's tinkering around the edges.

Many people struggle from payday to payday AND have spiralling debts, so you're in a stronger position, especially as you want to do something about it. Maybe you need to ask yourself how much of your expenditure goes on "keeping up appearances" (haircuts, nights out, gifts) and how much is actually for YOU?

Best of luck.

lessavyfav · 17 January 2014 at 8:40PM

Great advice from you both, thank you!

Well my new contract says I cannot work other jobs, but I do have the opportunity to do some copywriting freelance work with my old work just a day or two a month which will be great as extra income. I'm not sure how it is affected by tax in the end though, this is something I need to look into to see if it's worth my while. But it would be good to keep up my contacts at my old work, in case my maternity contract doesn't end up being extended.

Most of my friends are pretty good at not pressuring, but I guess the split bill thing is something we often do..we generally eat/drink similar amounts but there's always someone who'll drink a fair bit more or have starters and a main and then it's those little things that end up being a couple of quid more. At the time, I'm like 'Oh, who cares, it all comes out in the wash', but I suppose it all adds up. I also hate saying no and don't want to miss out on things, but the fact is, I do go out eating and drinking a lot and I need to cut this down.

This week I took out £70, trying to stick to £10 a day, not using my debit card at all..I'm not fully on track and don't think I'll quite be able to make it to Tuesday, I guess it depends if I can manage a NSD on Monday. I have £21 left. Annoyed I had to buy a last minute purchase of baking tray as we only had a tiny one in our house which wasn't much use for the pizzas..that was £5.94, something that normally wouldn't bother me but im sure if i was organised, I could have found for half the price, but there's no pound shops or cheap stores around - only waitrose, budgens, and a designer homewares store. Pizza night was fab but I overspent on the food by quite a bit, however I have LOADS left over. I can either make more pizzas or something else, plus I have some coconut macaroons that didn't get eaten. So let's see if I can survive date night with the boyfriend (film) and then a catch up with an old workmate on Sunday afternoon on £21! Definitely not impossible but we'll see!! I'll be pretty proud of myself if I do it!

I met up with a new friend yesterday morning (boyfriend's friend's fiancee) and we had a lovely stroll in the park and a good chat. She's a freelancer herself and her rent is super cheap as it's her fiance that owns the property, but she says she's is obsessed with saving. I hope I become one of those people obsessed with savings eventually!

longtermplanner · 17 January 2014 at 8:51PM

Your friends that earn double what you do could probably do with less spend on weekday dining too. It's easy to think that everyone else is better off than you - they may well have huge mortgages and credit card debts too.

kangadoo · 17 January 2014 at 8:53PM

lessavyfav wrote: »

In the long term, I want to save for a deposit to buy my own place, as well as possibly owning my own small business..I fear if I have one, I can't have the other though. It's definitely a generational thing to want to have it all.

Just to say this is not an impossible dream, especially at your current wage level! But a realistic goal (and maybe a target to help focus the changes you want to make, which aren't always fun and there will be days you think, "sod it, I'm going to spend!") is to try and save for a deposit and get a mortgage before you become self-employed. Things like mortgages once you're not an employee are a different story entirely!

Self-employment definitely has its upsides, but regular income is generally not one of them! :rotfl:

theoretica · 17 January 2014 at 11:26PM

lessavyfav wrote: »

- put 10% of wage aside per month into savings account <I know this is going to be a hard one for me as I'll put it into an account when I'm paid, but will find myself dipping into it as time goes by. And putting it somewhere I can't easily access won't work until I have a good buffer of money (at least £4k) for a rainy day.

You can make an 'easy access' account harder to get at - if it has a card you put it in a tub of water in the freezer. You could probably do something similar with half of an online or telephone password (remember the other half so you haven't written it all down for security's sake, eg kittenH&h^g-}^8Jb and remember 'kitten').

Good luck.

lessavyfav · 21 January 2014 at 12:56PM

Well it's Tuesday and I managed to survive on £10 a day for an entire week, with £2.65 leftover! I'm going to do it again this week, let's see how I go!

I'm happy that I managed to do it, but I'm not sure I could do it continuously long term without going a bit crazy as it meant a lot of days in doing nothing. I guess it's also harder because I'm not working currently so my days are longer, spent on my laptop or reading a book - I'm desperate to go out somewhere and grab myself a coffee or treat of some sort! Hopefully once I'm back at work I'll be too busy to think about it (must resist urge to buy coffee and only use work coffee..)

One thing I've decided to do is open another three bank accounts so that I can divide my cash up: Holidays, Savings & Emergencies, Christmas & Birthday Funds and Rent+Bills. Whatever's leftover stays in my current account and is for me to spend on train ticket, groceries, food, charity donation to red cross, clothing and socialsing..which should be around £800ish or so per month. I think it might be a struggle at first, but we'll see. If I stick to it, I should be able to pay my parents off within 9 months.

lessavyfav · 22 November 2014 at 9:10PM

I'm baa-ack! Gosh, I'm pretty useless with this whole diary keeping thing..I still do come here occasionally to read other's diaries and advice though..

Things have been going pretty well for me though. I paid my parents back all the money I owed (out of some money I already had in a bank account in Oz that my nanna had given me, so not technically giving them back money each week/month..), but still, it's sorted!

I've also saved £2700 this year and aiming to up this to £3400 by the end of December. I received a bit of a payrise as my boss was desperate to extend my contract and keep me which was a nice feeling - i didn't even have to ask for it, she had already sorted it with HR! I also do a little bit of freelance work on the side each month, earns me a bit of extra money but I mustn't forget I'm going to need to pay tax on that come next financial year..

So things I have done to help me with the savings:
-Reduced phone tariff from £37 to £16.50 :beer:
-Weekly grocery delivery from an organic place, comes to £32 a week (split between my boyfriend and I), we get plenty of veg, fruit, meat and eggs, don't have to get too much extra from the shops and I think I was spending a lot more when I wasn't doing online orders as I found myself in the supermarket virtually every night
-My boyfriend moved in so we took over the rent of another bedroom so that we can store all of our stuff, slight savings there
-In general going out a fair bit less as I am further away from where my friends live and I have to cook all the veg that is delivered each week!
-Monthly travelcard. It's only a small savings but adds up over time
-Waitrose free coffee every morning before work - I actually think their coffee is really decent and I'm a bit of a coffee snob!

I still have a bit to improve on, I can be a bit useless with bringing lunches to work (ie, i hardly do anymore), also I work late a lot so I have a habit of getting a small snack on the way out from work..also I was pretty good at putting all my change in a piggy bank but have been a bit lax about it lately - won't hurt to get myself into gear with that habit again.

The rest of the year I'll have a few expenses crop up that I need to be aware of, hopefully it won't impede on my final savings goal of the year. I have to get train tickets to stay with the boyfriend and his family at Christmas, wedding to go to (staying overnight at a hotel), hair done, I have nothing to wear for a winter wedding so I might need to think about getting something..also Christmas presents of course! I've already sorted two for niece and one nephew.

I'm going to try to keep this diary up though, the aim is to really go into savings overdrive next year as my boyfriend and I would like to buy a place together. Hopefully when my contract ends I'll either be asked to stay on, or else hoping to find a new higher paying job. Trying to remain optimistic! :j

lessavyfav · 7 December 2014 at 7:39PM

Time flies by..I can't believe it's coming up to mid December already!

I feel like I've been spending a lot of money recently with Christmas presents, train tickets for xmas and knowing I have a wedding coming up (need to get my hair refreshed and pay for accommodation), but in reality things are looking okay and I've paid for most of the things I needed to this month. I am also still owed money from some freelance work which I need to chase up - almost £1000 overdue, with another £220 that needs to be billed, so that will be great when it eventually arrives.

I've upped my savings to £3290 although might have to transfer some of the money back to my current account as I am planning on buying my ticket to Australia.

Considering a very low key January and since I don't know what's happening with my work contract i need to be pretty careful - I hope I find out my fate of my job this week - I already know HR has has a meeting with the girl I'm filling in for, so it's just them getting back to me - i have a feeling it's not good news though

greensalad · 10 December 2014 at 12:20PM

Good to see your progression!

How did your savings £1 in Week 1 etc go? I like the idea, might start it myself. But I'm thinking about going backwards instead so it gets easier and easier! (Also because there is no way I'd be able to put away the majority of it in December!)

LondonGirl252 · 10 December 2014 at 12:40PM

determined_new_ms wrote: »

Hi lessavyfav just wanted to say well done on starting your journey! There is a diary by londongirl (i'll dig it out in a minute and post) and she lives in London (as I'm sure you've guessed!) and has reduced her outgoings to clear her debts. However she has still gone out and socialised so it is possible to still spend time doing things for free/low cost. Read through for inspiration

I wish I lived in London as there are so many free things to do. Look out for free events, museums, exhibitions, cheap theatre tickets - so much more to do than going to the pubs!

Re your hair have you thought about being a model? A friend of mine in London used to get her hair but for free by vidal salon. Or can you find out about a home hairdresser and get your hair done every 6 weeks say?

Thanks DMS

I feel into the same problem as you of keeping up with the Joneses, I was going to Roof Gardens, Mahiki etc etc racking up almost £20k worth of debt until I had my lightbulb moment and turned things around. Couldn't have done it without the help of the good people on here

I found the hardest part was convincing my friends that I wasn't using money as an excuse to avoid them (you do find out who your true friends are though). The next time they suggest eating at an expensive restaurant check what the budget can afford and suggest an alternative. Now they're used to me suggesting lower cost eateries or even full on saying no its much easier. I usually back it up and say "after next payday" so they know I want to see them but either for free or when I have some cash.

Also, batch cooking. If you don't have a freezer it is well worth investing in a mini one (mine was £79.99 from currys) I was making about 10-15 meals for the cost of about £8... spag bol, soup, lasagne, currys, stews. Then freezing into small portions and just defrost one for food each night.

Hair defo.... I actually used to be a hairdresser, if you use one of the foam colours they're actually much better for your hair than the professional colours. Leave it on for longer than they recommend and have a back up in case you need to give it a second coat!

Well done on the biking though and cutting travel costs.

I hear you on the rent, I live in NW6 zone 2 and pay similar rent to you, I think living in London can be pretty grim when you compromise on area.

Also cleaner, we have always had one. In general, yes its a luxury but you don't have debt and it really does ease a lot of tensions in shared homes over cleanliness.

Defo get contents insurance

I hope all this helps and please do have a look at my diary in case I forgot anything

no debt, no savings, no assets, just blah. HALP!

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