I wanna be debt free - again!

winkle1

im really annoyed with myself, not only did I spend £3 on lunch yesterday, i also went out for dinner (which was preplanned and couldnt really get out of it, even tho others didnt turn up grrrrrrrr) and ended up spending £23 and then i realised i have LOST my travelcard which means i had to spend £5.90 on travel yesterday and £8 this morning plus im going out for dinner tonight which i dont really want to go to cause it means more money and im getting weighed tomorrow for weight watchers so should really have a healthy day!

and not only do i have to fork out on a new travelcard i also have to spend a fiver getting a new student travelcard - this will be the third time i have done this!

im in a foul mood today!

on the plus side i did bring in lunch from home.

winkle1

OK so yesterday I had my dinner out so spent a tenner, but I did complete my Nandos loyalty card and got a free whole chicken so thats tonights dinner sorted!!

NSD apart from a few shopping bits which will come out of the budget anyway.

winkle1

i must stop going out for lunches/dinners cause thats where alot of my money goes! spent £10 on lunch yesterday!!! I met a friend, but had home made soup today so not spent any money on lunch today apart from a bag of crisps.

£25 of the money that is owed to me went into my account BUT the book I brought on saturday for my course and the £25 gift vouchers I brought for a friends wedding has come out
also got my travelcard for the month and got a form to get the travel i paid when the card was lost to be reimbursed so need to sort that out. will still need to pay a fiver though to get my student travel card

seeing a couple of friends tonight but will drink diet coke in the pub.

winkle1

Hi I haven't written for a few days but I havent done too badly. I went to my mums for the weekend so only had to pay train fare - that was still £14 though!! but that was it for the whole weekend really which is not too bad.
i have to pay to get my eyebrows waxed today and then meeting a friend but using a BOGOF voucher for dinner to save money.
god i hate london where everyone is so spread apart, you cant go to people's houses and have a cheap night in, everything seems to involve either eating out or drinking out!
I'm toying with the idea of paying the HSBC overdraft off today and closing the account. That would be £500 off the debt but would leave me pretty skint for the rest of the month and I have a wedding to go to next weekend up north - eeeeek! should i do it?

vikki400

I think it is great that you are sorting your debts out and saving for a house purchase is a great idea, but you don't seem as committed to it as you could be.

I know it is hard havign to say no to going out all the time (I am in the same situation as well) but think of the benefits. If you put this hard work in now, you will get a house of your own and I know that is something I am looking forward to more than anything. Before I started being hard with myself I was eating out 3 or 4 time a week (ridiculous I know) and it has made a whole world of difference to my debt situation cutting down on it.

Have you tried having a look at how much you have spent on 'entertainment' in the last few weeks? it might spur you on.

debtdesperado

Well done for starting to deal with things... I know what you mean about entertainment and evenings out being your biggest expense.

I found exactly the same thing, and whereas previously I would try and cut back (and fail), I realised that what I needed to do was to rethink what I was doing and cut back elsewhere...some of these may seem a bit off the wall, and they might need tinkering for your situation, but:

1. if you go out more than 4 nights a week (especially if you are going to eat out), don't do a 'weekly shop' - just eat toast for dinner on the nights you are in. It's really easy to be in a habit of thinking, I need to go shopping, and then to spend £50 on food, most of which gets thrown away as it goes rotten before it's eaten, whilst you are spending £20 a night on eating out...

2. don't set your boiler to a timer in the evenings... if someone is in, agree that they can switch on the boiler to heat the house (set a timer so that they remember to switch it off and don't leave it running!) but if you are out and usually come in and go straight to bed, you won't even notice that it hasn't been on. But your fuel bill will plummet...mine dropped to about £10 a month by doing this!

3. Keep an eye out for vouchers (well done on the Nandos!) for 2 for 1 etcs - in advance. Print them out and keep them in your handbag, so that when someone suggests going out to eat, you can immediately suggest somewhere where you know you have/can get a voucher.

4. Investigate the cheapest drinks (or even stop drinking?) eg if you're going to get drunk, wine is usually the cheapest way of doing it, if you're going to drink, try not to eat anything (except maybe chips as they are cheap) - if you're hammered, you won't notice.

5. if you always get taxis home, find the cheapest cab firm you can and keep their number so you don't hail black cabs (or worse, dodgy cabs) on the street. Also consider whether it's worth getting a travelcard, or if you could just forego the tube and get a bus pass? I used to pay circa £90 a month for a travelcard, but then realised that over a month the bus costs £52. I generally spend the other £40 on taxis...but am still cutting overall costs...

winkle1

hey vikki, thanks so much for taking the time to write on my diary. you are right: I am not as committed as I could be. I have definitley stopped going out as much as I use to (I would NEVER spend Friday night at home before, now I love my friday nights in!!) and i could cut it even further, i have friends scattered around london who dont know each other so its not even like i can get a group of us together and try and incorporate maybe 3 nights in 1. or maybe i COULD do this? introduce people to each other and get an even bigger circle of friends?
but you are right, i do need to commit further I just like nice things and going out and seeing people
Hi debtdesperado, thanks for replying to my post, i reckon you must live in London too from your suggestions?!
the first 4 i already do (got a pizza express voucher and a girrafe voucher on me for tonight!!), the last one is a really good idea. my travelcard is for zones 2 and 3 cause in the morning i get the train and dlr and in the eve i get the tube and bus, but i could look into just getting the bus there and back?
although the travelcard is handy when in london and im supposed to be getting 30% off as I'm a part time student but i lost that travelcard last week
my two biggest (unnecessary) expenses are def travel and entertainment!

vikki400

winkle1 wrote: »

hey vikki, thanks so much for taking the time to write on my diary. you are right: I am not as committed as I could be. I have definitley stopped going out as much as I use to (I would NEVER spend Friday night at home before, now I love my friday nights in!!) and i could cut it even further, i have friends scattered around london who dont know each other so its not even like i can get a group of us together and try and incorporate maybe 3 nights in 1. or maybe i COULD do this? introduce people to each other and get an even bigger circle of friends?
but you are right, i do need to commit further I just like nice things and going out and seeing people

I was rubbish at it too... still am, especially when my boyfriend suggests we 'just go out for dinner' when we can't decide what to eat. Hopefully we'll both get there! Oh one tip I found is mystery shopping. If I can get paid to go out for lunch/dinner it's ok! They may not be places I would naturally choose to go to, but it is nice for a treat.

winkle1

How do I get into mystery shopping? Any tips?
I just looked at my spending diary and I have spent over £400 on non-essential items since payday which was the 21st October. That's shocking. And that's not including a wedding I have to go to next weekend up north and staying in a hotel, hiring a car etc etc...
This has really been an eye opener for me...
In other news I have had a couple of NSD's and I should be getting £8 back for when I lost my travelcard and had to buy train tickets.
Boyf and I also commented on how much food we have eaten this week - all the fruit and veg is gone! But that means we have been eating more at home which is a good thing and its all healthy stuff too.
I'm staying in tonight and going to a free fireworks display tomorrow so another low weekend for me. I do need to pick up my dry cleaning though which is a fiver....

winkle1

Hi, not updated this for a few days but finding it very hard at the moment esp when I got fined £20 on Saturday morning on the train when every other week I have been able to get an extension on my travelcard, no problem.

and then to top it off i left my travelcard at home today so thats more money to tfl - I hate them!

i suppose i can get that refunded so not all bad, its just a hassle.

I just feel like the more i try and concentrate on the money side of things, the worse i am at it!

and then this weekend i have a wedding to go to which means a gift, getting up there, staying in a hotel etc etc

and yesterday i went to put a Coast voucher on ebay and it had expired! so thats £50 gone!

arrrggggghhhhh

on the plus side, i brought lunch in from home and will do so all week - we have loads of food in. and I get paid next Friday so whatever I have left in my bank after this weekend I am putting towards the HSBC overdraft and will just have to be skint all next week!