Short time lurker, long time money owe'er!

chunkytfg

Hello all just thought i'd finally say high to you all.

Been reading the various posts for a while now but only recently joined and plucked up the courage to say hello.

I havent done a SOA but compared to some of you my debt is pretty straight forward.

Cap one plat CC - £6003.57
B'card - Payed off last month after sale of race bike
O'draft - £2000 limit reached each month
Personal loan - £7750.67

Wow!

Sorry it never looked quite that big a debt when it was just in my head.

Thats £15754.24

Jeez!!

Okay now back to it.

The loan is 2 months into a 60 month payment scheme so for the time being that can stay where it is and i'll just keep paying the monthly payments until as such time as I've sorted out the CC and overdraft.

Now for my downfalls!

Like everyone i guess there is a reason to my debt and being truthful to myself I would consider myself very impulsive. For example i'm sat here on my laptop using my 3G mobile internet dongle thingy at work which was bought on a wim as the perfectly good internet connection i get from my work PC is monitoered so i cant get on youtube! I'm now tied into a £35 a month contract for 24months and paid out anouther £100 ontop of that for the laptop as although there were ones i could have for free this one had a bigger screen!

Also i'm what you would class as Fat! Now i'm okay with this as you might have gathered from my user name however part of the reason is my spending at the fast food places for lunch/dinner etc while i'm at work.

So my plan to cut my outgoings is to go on a diet by not buying food at work and to curb my enthusiasm for expensive things I dont need!

So finally a big hello and have a virtual drink on me

:beer::beer::beer:

poorandindenial

Hello newbie :wave:

I nearly had a fit when I saw how much I was spending on lunch at work, use the demotivator to see how much youare frittering aweay each month.

Use the snowball calculator (www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx) to see when you can be out of debt if you pay what you do now, then see what happens when you lob the money you sepnd on lunch at it.

I make big vats of cury/chilli/spagbol/soup etc etc and then freeze them and take them to work for my lunch (we have a microwave there) If I don't bother doing that then I will buy some bread, butter, salad and meat/cheese or whatever and make a sandwich each day at work.

poorandindenial

(I also have mobile broadband:o , shhhhhhhh don't tell anyone)

Mine is £30 a month and I didn't get a free laptop. But that was before I came on here and I now know that I can get broadband, phone and TV for £30 a month with Sky!!!!!!!!!. Guess what I am doing when I come to the end of my contract :rolleyes:

chunkytfg

Cheer for the snowbal thing i'll have a look at that later.

for the past 2 weeks but only 6 shifts i've put the spare change that was in my pocket into a mug on the top shelf of my locker so i could not see how much was in it and i've just counted it.

Bearing in mind this would normally have been spent on food i've jjust counted a few pence short of £30!!!

bloody hell thats probably the equvalent of £80~ a month

Right packed lunches for me from now on!

Even found another £2 coin in it so that'll go in my tin at home and i'm going to register my intent on the £2 callenge

poorandindenial

Nicely done!!!! It is amazing isn't it. I save about £150 a month by not buying coffee, breakfast and lunch (and a load of other old crap that I really don't need)

There is a lunch challenge thread on here (if you do a search on the debt free wannabee board for 'lunch challenge' it should come up; it might be worth you joining

There is also another thread called the '100 day challenge' we are about half way through but you would still be welcome to join. We nominate some things to not but for 100 days (or until Xmas) - mind you it has gone a bit quiet of late so we may have all been a bit off the wagon

paybacktime2008

Welcome! Im fairly similar to you in terms of debt and fatness lol. Things i had found helpful.

1. Putting the debts in black and white (Like you say when they are all together....scary mary)
2. An SOA helpful as it showed me i dont have a clue what i spend
3. A spending diary great online one on www.spendingdiary.com
4 The payment a day thread facilitated by internet banking.

Good luck.

chunkytfg

poorandindenial wrote: »

Nicely done!!!! It is amazing isn't it. I save about £150 a month by not buying coffee, breakfast and lunch (and a load of other old crap that I really don't need)

There is a lunch challenge thread on here (if you do a search on the debt free wannabee board for 'lunch challenge' it should come up; it might be worth you joining

There is also another thread called the '100 day challenge' we are about half way through but you would still be welcome to join. We nominate some things to not but for 100 days (or until Xmas) - mind you it has gone a bit quiet of late so we may have all been a bit off the wagon

I'll do the seach for the lunch challenge.

I've read the start of the 100 day challenge but with it being halfway through i thought i'd just watch it from afar!

Edit.... This one http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=659253&highlight=lunch+challenge

andys15

good luck//////////////////

Deep_In_Debt

Gosh! I'm on an old PAYG phone and have a crusty old desk top PC with a wonky keyboard!

Anyway, welcome to the forum. I also realised how much I was saving in a week when I did my own packed lunch although the company I work for have a subsidised restaurant it was still cheaper to take my own lunch and I can dictate what I eat and not be tempted with "extras".

Good luck.