My Debt Diary

Verbatim

Brilliant James.:j

Having your own place is a fantastic goal and if you've got a plan in place I've no doubt you'll succeed.:cool:

I can see how hard it is as you haven't got a lot of slack in your budget which is why I think what you've achieved is so bl00dy amazing.:T :T :T

You'll be debt free in no time and saving towards your deposit.:T

James240

Verbatim wrote:

Brilliant James.:j

Having your own place is a fantastic goal and if you've got a plan in place I've no doubt you'll succeed.:cool:

I can see how hard it is as you haven't got a lot of slack in your budget which is why I think what you've achieved is so bl00dy amazing.:T :T :T

You'll be debt free in no time and saving towards your deposit.:T

awww cheers verbatim ur making me blush

James240

Righ unfortunatley ive spent a fair bit of money over the weekend but needed to unfortunatley ive spent £6.50 on prescription cos i needed some anti-biotics, got some food shopping which was £21, got some more petrol which was £5 and went out for an all you can eat chinese on Sunday which cost £15. So over the weekend ive spent £47.50 but £32.50 of it was neccessary so for the rest of the month ive got £46.64 for the rest of the month:)

EagerLearner

Oooh J - that'll be a challenge then! Baked beans, jacket potatoes, cheap cheese, pasta on the shopping list! BTW you can cook 6 jackets in oven all at once the once cool you can freeze for work lunches. Just take one out night before you need it.

Have you thought about opening saving accounts (any old savings acc) with your current bank and then moving cash to each one on payday (say one for food, one for petrol, one for going out)?

Really helps divvy up the wages and clearly see what's what - takes seconds online or on the phone to transfer money from savings to current acc if you buy petrol etc... I have 3 savings accounts with First Direct - one for 'lunches & dinners', one for 'shoes & clothes' and one for 'Entertainment & movies' which covers CD/DVD/cinema etc.

James240

EagerLearner wrote:

Oooh J - that'll be a challenge then! Baked beans, jacket potatoes, cheap cheese, pasta on the shopping list! BTW you can cook 6 jackets in oven all at once the once cool you can freeze for work lunches. Just take one out night before you need it.

Have you thought about opening saving accounts (any old savings acc) with your current bank and then moving cash to each one on payday (say one for food, one for petrol, one for going out)?

Really helps divvy up the wages and clearly see what's what - takes seconds online or on the phone to transfer money from savings to current acc if you buy petrol etc... I have 3 savings accounts with First Direct - one for 'lunches & dinners', one for 'shoes & clothes' and one for 'Entertainment & movies' which covers CD/DVD/cinema etc.

Hiya Eagerlearner :hello: yep its going to be plenty of pasta and the like lol ive got a supply of frozen chicken legs at the moment so im going to be able to use that as well :j will definatley be a challenge this month but ultimatley ive got to reign in my going out and spending money Unfortunatley this is a bit of a weakness of mine which will be made even harder due to christmas coming up , ive got a few savings accounts so might take up the idea of what u have said and give it ago and that way i might be able to control my money a little bit better

EagerLearner

Excellent - see spreadsheet below for managing your spend and also your savings - it does work - have my fingers crossed for you this month - have you joined the Grocery Challenge yet? There's a new one each month and you set yourself a limit - ours for 2 peeps is £120 a month inc food, cleaning etc - then you update your sig each time you spend to keep you motivated.

James240

EagerLearner wrote:

Excellent - see spreadsheet below for managing your spend and also your savings - it does work - have my fingers crossed for you this month - have you joined the Grocery Challenge yet? There's a new one each month and you set yourself a limit - ours for 2 peeps is £120 a month inc food, cleaning etc - then you update your sig each time you spend to keep you motivated.

will definatley have a look at ur spreadsheet when i get home EagerLearner cos im at work at the moment. with the little bit of savings i do have im using them for matched betting at the moment and hoping to increase them through that so i have a little money behind me just incase of any emergencies many thanks for the advice and grocery challenge? is there a link to a specific thread for that? if so could u let me know :)James

James240

arrrrrggghhhhh just got my phonebill today and its for £77 :doh: £34 more than i budgeted for :mad: So that leaves me with £10 for the month now :doh: looks like i wont be socialising at all this month im going to have to be a hermit and stay in me shell looks like ill hit 10,000 posts within a few days now that ive got absolutly £0 to go out with now :rotfl:

Verbatim

He he does that mean you'll be absolutely bonkers no home to go to like ss?

How's the matched betting going James? £15k for a deposit is a good whack, are you in the SE where house prices are that high?

EagerLearner

Here you go hun:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=56719

It's in the debt Free Wannabe section - I do this challenge every month - takes endurance but have saved around £25 each month as a result compared to my old ways...

Re BT £77 bill - get them to debit you monthly - if it is your quarterly total, you can definately get them to DD you monthly instead.

If it is your monthly bill - it's huge - why? Ours used to be big when we used dial-up internet alot - now we are on broadband at £11 a month, BT phone bill is just £12 a month DD. So £23 all in, compared to £34 or so before.

If you have broadband you can make free calls with Skype (https://www.skype.com) and https://www.voipcheap.com is good for making calls fromy our PC to UK and international landlines, free-ish (£3 a month or so). This has saved us £6 or so a month in international calls.