Sarahs Diary!!

xsarahahax

I have been a member for a while now, just lurking on this board and thinking about making a diary.. Just feel like everyone will laugh as my debt is nowhere near as bad as some peoples!!! But here goes..

I am 22 and living at home with my parents. Am hoping to get my own place within the next couple of years with my boyfriend but need to clear my credit card debt first. Problem is.. I have a slight shopping addiction!! I have no outgoings really, I dont pay rent (my mum wont accept it..) just have a phone bill of about £40 a month and petrol for my car (which i have paid off) I have a credit card debt of about £3,500 and am being crippled in interest charges!! Have bad credit so get refused for 0% interest cards.. so at the moment I am trying to put any extra money onto paying it off to get the interest rate down.

I take home about £1300 a month, and somehow seem to waste the majority of it on stuff I dont need... coming onto this site is helping me realise how stupid I am being!! (Which im sure most of you are probably agreeing!!) Past week or 2 I have hardly spent any money and have been e-baying all my unwanted clothes! Am doing a car boot sale next weekend too.

Will slowly get myself out of this stupid mess I have put myself into!!

xxx

MYLITTLESISTERLOLA

try challenging yourself to x amount of no spend days a week, I'm a recovering shopaholic (big time) and I can now manage 3 or 4 a week also it means any thing you do buy you will appreciate more, I get my fix by going to a local bootsale twice a week buy bits and pieces and then sell some on ebay, or try a spending diary and sit down at the end of each week/month you'll be really shocked to see where your money goes, I know I was, good luck

xsarahahax

Thanks :-) I have really been trying this week, have had a couple of no spend days this week and feel so much better for it!

notenoughcash

Can you give yourself 'spending money'? I thought I was living on the minimum I could until I opened a spending money account. I worked out how much I sensibly needed to 'live' on each week (for me this includes groceries, travel, clothing and entertainment) and opened a basic bank account which this amount goes into each week (I decided to do weekly to stop the temptation of going to my other account, never more than a day or two of feeling 'skint') and leave my card for my main account at home so I'm not tempted to use it. You wouldn't believe how much money I have saved!

beanielou

Challange yourself to clear your CC by Chrstmas~that gives you 5 months~ so £700 pm.
What do you think?

xsarahahax

beanielou good idea.. i will try but no promises!! could easily do £500 a month and then maybe aim to make an extra £200 a month??

notenoughcash this is also a good idea and i am looking into it!!

piglet6

Hi Sarah

Have you tried looking at the snowball calculator? This will tell you how much interest you are paying if you only make the minimum payments, and might jolt you into paying off the credit card earlier. (It certainly helped me wake up to reality!! ).

Also, try paying for everything in cash. Use no cards at all, not even a Maestro/debit card. Punching in a pin number is painless, whereas handing over cash is more "real" for lots of people. Try giving yourself a cash budget (£10 or £20 a day) and make it a challenge to see how much of it you can have left at the end of the month. At the end of each day, take what you have left in your purse and put it into a moneybox/tin and start the next day afresh. All of a sudden making your own lunch or walking to save petrol so you don't have to fill the car up again so soon seems more attractive!

Then, at the end of the month, you can pay what you have saved up off your credit card (or even spend 50% on a treat and pay the other 50% off the card - anything is better than nothing! :T).

And the rest of your salary you can pay straight off the card. You will have it cleared in no time, then you can start a savings account and start putting the cash in there instead - trust me, that can also get addictive!

Without wishing to sound harsh, you are now probably in the best position you will ever be in money-wise. Once you get your own place, you will find that money runs out of thehousehold for all sorts of reasons (and this is not meant to be a scare-mongering post, just a realistic one! :rolleyes:). If you can get into a debt-free position and, better still, into the habit of saving monthly, now, you will be doing the best thing for your future that you can possibly do. (A hint here would be that once you are debt-free, I would suggest transferring some of your salary straight into a savings account on the day you are paid, before anything else comes out - that way, you won't miss it and your savings will build up effortlessly!).

Sorry, I've just realised that this post is coming across all "moany and middle-aged" - in reality, what I wanted to do was encourage you and say well done on tackling your problems and taking control at such an early age!!

Piglet

GeorgeUK

Sarah - might also be worth keeping a spending diary.
In the morning, write how much money you are taking out with you
If you go to the cashpoint, write down how much you take out
If you buy anything , put a note in the diary
If you put anything on your car, keep note of it.

If you get into the habit of doing that a few times a day, you'll soon build up a picture of where you are wasting the most money on non-essentials. Hopefully you'll be able to cut back or find an alternative. Do you get many late's? If so can you make your own coffee or buy a thermos?

xsarahahax

Thanks for the advice guys! I have just made £200 on ebay from selling some old clothes, and am putting that straight onto my credit card!

I have just ordered a virgin pre-payed card where you put money on it, I am going to put £200 on it a month and try and live off that and put the majority of my wages onto my credit card! Has anyone else got a pre-payed card?

xsarahahax

Made another £100 on ebay so put that onto my credit card!

My mates from work wanted to go look in the clothes shop at lunchtime, I went with them but didnt buy anything. Am proud :-D

Valley's_girl

Well done you are doing really well. :beer:
Ally x