Why do we fall? To learn to pick ourselves back up. (£26K+ DEBT!)

MrJester · 15 June 2017 at 1:54PM

sauceoclock wrote: »

Have you considered going to LIDL or ALDI (perhaps there isn’t one nearby)? I spend significantly less on groceries since I got in the habit 2 years ago. Their own brand laundry detergents etc. are also completely fine and sooooo much cheaper than other brands. I buy name brand fabric softener when it is on sale and just use LIDL’s own detergent, washing still smells fab! TBH I find Sainsbury’s horribly expensive!

Hope you had fun with your girlfriend!

I just did a google maps search and there is an ALDI about a 20 minute bus ride away, which would be a bit of a pain and not sure I'd be all that consistent with it. We do have an Iceland nearby, which does have some good prices on certain things (I think; can't say I've done a price comparison) but I don't trust it for meats etc nor the local Tesco as they both seem to have really crappy hygiene standards; I have been food poisoned from both, the Tesco multiple times and refuse to shop there now. The Sainsbury's though tends to be OK as it's a large store.

So, realistically, I could probably do an Iceland|+Sainsbury's shop day once a week where I get things I need from Iceland first with whatever they have on my list (with some exclusions) and then go to Sainsbury's for anything else I don't find in there.

It actually consistently winds me up how bad the hygiene of these places are, I'm in North London, comparitively with back where I'm originally from where the ALDI there is amazing food, amazing value consistently. Even just looking at the fruit and veg out on shelves between here and back home is far different in quality

Anyway updates updates..

My mindset is definitely shifting back to saving money mode. It hasn't been like that for a while but need to practice it to bring it back into norm. I spent about £6 on tuesday for a meal, about £7 yesterday on food, then I went to a free food and drinks eve and didn't pay for any beers or anything but then spent about £3.50 on a mcdonalds whilst a tad tipsy on the way home.

Last year I decided I wanted to go glastonbury and it's come around now, its next week. Once you paid the deposit you pretty much lose most of that unless you buy the full ticket so once I started it I felt invested even though if I could have backed out easier I would have. But I'm committed to it, so I just need to try and make it as cheap of an event as possible.

The ticket for it is paid for, my train there and back is paid for, but I don't have anything I need for the event itself except wellingtons. So I need to buy pretty much everything else still; tent, sleeping bag, etc etc. I'd be able to save a lot with borrowing stuff if I was back home, but being in London I don't have quite the same available to me (e.g. lots of freinds and family around to easily borrow things from) but in saying that I may try and extend to people I know here to try and get as much of the stuff I need to borrow; and check out the local charity shops for things like torches, big backpack.. maybe even a tent if I'm lucky

I worked out with an Amazon list it will cost me about £160 to get everything I need; and that's the minimum stuff no frills. I obviously don't want to spend this, even though it would be the easier thing. Might just post on facebook to see if anyone has things to offer.

On the PLUS side; I found out last night a friend is actually working a food tent at glastonbury which means FREE FOOOOOOOOD saving probably £5-10 per meal. He's working morning and evening, and said no doubt he can give me freebies. But people are sometimes just saying things to be nice.. so we will see. In terms of alcohol I am planning on taking some huge water bottles and filling them with gin + tonic so I don't have to spend much on alcohol there which is easily £5 minimum a drink. Going to try make this a minimum spend as possible its just going to be hard

System · 15 June 2017 at 2:56PM

Ah well at least Glastonbury will be fun! I know loads of people who didn’t get tickets this year when traditionally they go each time the fest is on! You’re right that festivals aren’t cheap, are you going with friends who could potentially split a tent or something with you? Good thing you’ve got your wellies! Poundland had torches last year, yes they’re not the 3 million candle ones but £1 is better than £10!! You can also go to the Glastonbury tesco (famed for it’s mountains of crates), yes it’ll busy and there’ll be queues but cheaper to load up on supermarket food than festival food as the going rate is so expensive as their space rental is so high. Next year maybe you could work the festival and you’ll have all the stuff too. Don’t beat yourself up, you can go and enjoy yourself, sometimes you just have to say life is too short. You’ll just reign it in again afterwards.

MrJester · 15 June 2017 at 8:31PM

I have a local pound place and they have a camping section I noticed a while ago because of the fest season so I'm very likely going to pop there and get some cheapo things like yes torches, I literally just need stuff for these 5 days and then I'll be done with them and so it'll be give to charity or etc.

I am going to try and get as much gear I need from friends etc. When you say Glastonbury tesco is that near the fest? Do you know if you can just keep going back to it i.e. leave the fest pop to tesco then back again

I'm not much into fests 'cause I like my sleep haha and this will be my first proper fest I just don't want to come back wishing I hadn't gone so don't want to spend a load of cash and feel like crap when I return ha. I have a feeling I'll do it this once and unlikely again haha.

Cheers, yeah you're right it is something I'd like to experience once and then I'll get back to everything. I don't really take breaks very often and don't like to but hey ho will get somewhere.

Did a bit of charity work this evening which was fun, like to make use of my time for something positive.

MrJester · 16 June 2017 at 1:15PM

RESULT.

I swallowed my pride and asked a bunch of people if they had camping gear; to my surprise my housemate has stuff I can borrow, my gf might have some stuff, and a post on facebook resulted in 4 people offering items too. I am literally going to save £££!

MrJester · 17 June 2017 at 9:31PM

I've been invited to signup to this new scheme in London, it's £30 per month and you get a bike then gets insured for theft, a lock, and free maintenance. They get their profits mainly from partnerships with businesses who advertise on the bikes, so it's kind of a win-win.

I was weighing it up and I used to cycle London and was starting to miss it, and I spend probably £60+ a month on London travel. With a bike, I would start riding around a lot more. London has places to lock your bike all over the place so it really is pretty decent for it. So my hope is the £30 per month will just pay for itself in free travel.
Especially over the summer it's so much nicer to be on a bike than stuck on a bus or in a tube!

I'll try it out anyway for a month or two and leave it behind if I don't use it enough.

System · 19 June 2017 at 4:03PM

Great news about the borrowing of camping gear. Yes you can leave the fest and go back in, the tesco toilets are quite renowned so don’t count on them being nice and think you’ll do a loo trip at the same time! It’s also a bit of a trek so plan wisely and take a strong bag with you. Cycling scheme sounds good, if it’ll save you more than £30 a month on travel then why not give it a whirl tbh.

MrJester · 29 June 2017 at 11:46PM

Hey. Just been catching up with life this week. Went to Glastonbury, I pretty much borrowed everything I needed, and spent about £150 whilst there - all mainly on food because it's pricey.

Had a job interview this week, I should find out about that tomorrow.. with some other jobs also in the pipeline. Need to secure a job at least part time so I can keep up with everything I want to achieve as well as tackle debts.

Got another trip coming up next week for a few days with my gf, shouldn't be much spending if we're clever about it.
Also got my bike too, £30 per month and it should save me that on Oyster/TFL costs at least, then hopefully more as I get used to cycling around again.

MrJester · 15 July 2017 at 9:28PM

Quick update.

Went away for a weekend with gf, lovely time, some money spent. I'm at a point where I'm just getting by skin of my teeth type thing, I take money out of my business when I have to.. of which there is very little left.

Tell ya its sometimes tricky when you have a relationship and you want to do stuff together. My gf is really understanding but still, sometimes I do just want to spend money so we can have a nice meal or pay an entry to something good. But thats not to say you cant do a lot of good stuff for free or cheap, so just need to focus on that mindset.

I didn't get the job I went for, but came damn near close - they called me to let me know exactly how close. Too bad as it was very good money and it was only part time which suited me perfect. Gotta keep trying, especially for a job like this as it would leave me time to still pursue my other entrepreneurial endeavours.

I have a part time job i can go to but its only ok money and is cruddy work but probably going to have to do that until i can get something better.

generally my spending is low, ive decided to change up my diet quite a bit which is helping my spending habits too (most of the time). I'm also still using this "Moneybox" app, which rounds up spending amounts (the pennies) and puts it into savings/investment.
I really like the whole approach of saving a little bit here and there, rather than doing things in chunks on a monthly basis. It's much harder to do the latter because its a more noticeable occurrence. So i'm saving weekly, little amounts, but at least it's happening.

In terms of debts. They're still immovable objects until my circumstances change quite a bit. I've got a second default coming my way, cant do much about it, and just have to accept it. Sometimes it bothers me, sometimes not quite so much: The former because I have good earning potential with my experience, skills, and knowledge, and if I did things "by the books" and just worked 9-5 mon-fri like everyone else I could have got out of my previous debts - which now seem extremely small - and the latter because I dont really care about having credit. I don't want to play the credit switching game, I don't need credit for anything and the only thing in the future is a house/mortgage but if I ever get to that stage of having money for that (post-debts) then I expect to be on a serious amount of cash that I'll just be pocketing cash away so I need less and less of mortgage. I believe in - after years of back and forth - cold hard cash over credit any day.

System · 31 August 2017 at 1:14PM

I adopted the approach of not beating myself up about the fact I made some mistakes when I was 20/21 and no longer lose sleep over my debt or money. At the end of the day you have a roof over your head and food in your stomach so you’re richer than most people who populate the planet in a lot of ways, hey? I booked a holiday to Amsterdam last week, it’s about £600-£700 I could have paid off my debt but then, why can’t I go and see somewhere new just because I have a loan too?

In terms of the defaults, I’m a mortgage adviser and tbh judging by the tone of your diary you aren’t going to be looking to buy a house in the next few years so these will likely not affect you if you manage to get them wiped/satisfied. I know it’s not for everyone but have you considered an IVA or a debt management plan? It might be a light at the end of the tunnel for you (not sure if you will be credit-checked for any roles you apply for, I would be for my job for instance, don’t take an IVA if that is the case), it can be expunged from your record in future and it shouldn’t affect you trying to get a mortgage if you reach that stage.

MrJester · 8 September 2017 at 1:34AM

Hey sauce. Time for an update.

I've been trying hard recently to land a job and I've finally got somewhere, I accepted a job offer this week.

I'll be back on £25k, which is a £1k step down from my last earnings in employment.. but it's not a big difference (£49 monthly). But hey I'm going to be earning ok again, and there should be plenty of room for promotions over the next year.
I do get slightly annoyed to think about how it I had stayed in some employment I'd probably be on my way to 30k+ per year, and in that time I instead racked up some serious debt. It pretty much dwarfs my previous debt and makes me feel a tad silly.

But, I've learnt a lot over the last year about myself and about my aims. I've just got to pay a price now, in blood sweat n tears

I've already looked into it and because I've been defaulting for some time now and my circumstances are about to change positively I should be available for yes an IVA or debt management plan. Without it, debt repayments probably look something like £600+ and that's just minimums. I'll be getting in touch with stepchange again very soon to see what we can do.

My primary focus over this next year is to get out of DAMN DEBT, and get my freedom. Secondary aim is to slowly build up a client base on my side hustle, so that one day I might be able to commit to it fully again and have complete freedom and flexibility.

My wage is £25k PA when I start, 45 hours though with any additional hours paid at £11 per hour (£1 less ph) BUT it has a lot of flexibility, as in I can work from home for a lot of the time. So this clearly has some good benefits too. So depending on how taxing the work is, some days I might just be able to stay at home and work all waking hours of the day and rake in the cash. We'll see. I still want to have a life.

I'm not sure how a debt repayment plan might work if I want to make overpayments; I would imagine that goes out the window because once you agree on an amount it is fixed to that for the duration. Unless I can't get a plan in place, or only a partial one (I'm not sure a 20k loan is too high). I'll ring tomorrow and find out.

I never make things easy for myself! But here we are, and the issue must be dealt with one way or another.

I don't feel like there is much stuff I want to buy anymore, for the most part I just haven't been able to do have got used to it. The tricky part is when your income rises, so often does your spending. I can see myself buying lunch out more often here and there, getting a taxi on occasion instead of the bus.. and before you know it it all adds up and you're wasting money. I want to work on this quite a lot if I'm going to succeed.

But let's journey on, and make something happen!

Why do we fall? To learn to pick ourselves back up. (£26K+ DEBT!)

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