I'm really ashamed......

ms_london

Hi Emilia

Welcome to MSE! It sounds like you are going great guns already and know what you are talking about.

You say your friend made herself feel better because you had more debt than her, well, for every person you have more debt than, there will be another that has more debt than you. Me for example, I owed £19,000, and I had no fancy schmancy shoe or handbag collection to show for it, although I did have every single friends 'Video' there was. :rolleyes: A bit annoying when the Dvd came in and they were useless, hehe!

Must be hard if your OH has completely different spending habits, although if he buys 'Taste the Difference' all the time yet still has savings, he must be doing something right.

And everyone needs a vice, budgets cant be too strict or we wont stick to them, so if your hair is your vice, dont worry about it, just budget for it, and maybe cut back in other areas, or get it done every 6 weeks rather than every for for example...

Will pop in and see how you are doing, have a good weekend xx

emilia_2

Lots of really good tips here. Thanks everyone. The "pretend it's someones birthday" trick is genius....why did I never think of that - especially when I was a student. I could have saved a fortune! Someone was asking about why I had to buy a wedding dress cover - well I bought mine off the internet from America cheaper and it came in a plastic bag with no cover - if I wanted a cover they ludicrously would have had to post it seperately plus postage so it was very expensive.....

But anyway went to the engagement party on Sat night and bingo they were only giving away FREE champagne. I think the groom to be must be loaded. Anyway I certainly made the most of it.... 3 glasses of champagne later and 1 glass of white wine (bought by fiance) and a few hours in all my money was still intact!! bonus. Went home having spent just a fraction of what I'd normally spend on a night out.

Spent £9.99 today on my OH which felt bad but then remembered what I'd done the night before. He keeps wearing these really manky pyjama bottoms with holes in them. They are just disgusting and when I've kept threatening to bin them he sulks and then wears them more often. So yesterday (while he was wearing them) I literally tore one of the legs off.
He went mad but then started laughing... so in return for the prank I bought him some new ones today. Maybe could have got these in Primark cheaper.... whoops!

I've also rather smugly raided the fridge for leftover veg tonight and cooked up some brilliant soup for tomorrows lunch. So aside from that one spend I'm going to try and spend minimally this week. God it feels so good to know my debt is going down finally....

My new 0% CC arrived today so must set reminder to cancel old ones (do not want any temptation) Also must look at Quidco - everyone talks about it...and I'm not sure what it is......

Happy Monday all and I'll check in again this week

Emxxxx

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Well done Emilia, sounds like you're getting off to a great start! :T

Keep up the good work!

tallyhoh

£40 a month on clothes is huge! I really love trawling ebay & charity shops, where I can get good stuff & shoes for 99p.
And dont let anyone start bleating to you about clothes that someone else has already worn, just think how many hands have made a garment (abroad) & how many people have already tried it on in a shop when it is "new".

I have a paypal account & I sell stuff I no longer want on ebay, I then use that money to buy more stuff. Result- never spend a penny on clothes.

justruth

TurnaroundSue wrote: »

When I go out with my friends, one of us wear a happy birthday badge and then put the bottles in a gift bag. We buy the first drink and then take to the loos and top up there. Hope nobody is watching who works/owns a night club/bar:eek:

Sorry to burst bubbles here but if you come to my club we take these off you! (we get wise to that sort of thing when the empty bottles are left in the loos lol) My job is to search people on the way in so I do have a good idea about the ways in which people try to sneak in drinks!

If you are going to somewhere and you are going to try this, at least make sure you buy something that is the same brand as they sell in the venue. That is always a big give away in night clubs when someone is sat drinking out of cans but you only sell beer by the bottle or pump. Not a spirit as most places will not sell spirits by the bottle. Something like wine of the same brand would be hardest to notice unless actively looking. :beer:

Hardup_Hester

Before anyone else spends £15 for a wedding dress cover, a single duvet cover works just as well & if you don't have one, borrow one or buy it from a Charity shop for about £3.

noynoy

aww poppet dont be ashamed it happens to lots of people and i have to say shame on your "friend" a friend would be supportive and not scornfull xxx cut up the other 2 cards and just write the card numbers down for when you need to pay it off that way you cant take them out when you go shopping x pay off an extra £20 on bills and £20 less on the wedding and try to find a cheeper wedding? £20 extra makes the difference of paying of a debt in 14 mobths to one in 12 months (for me it will) also make sure you do it now before kiddies come along as it much harder after wards xx
good luck hunny and welcome aboard x

TurnaroundSue

justruth wrote: »

Sorry to burst bubbles here but if you come to my club we take these off you! (we get wise to that sort of thing when the empty bottles are left in the loos lol) My job is to search people on the way in so I do have a good idea about the ways in which people try to sneak in drinks!

If you are going to somewhere and you are going to try this, at least make sure you buy something that is the same brand as they sell in the venue. That is always a big give away in night clubs when someone is sat drinking out of cans but you only sell beer by the bottle or pump. Not a spirit as most places will not sell spirits by the bottle. Something like wine of the same brand would be hardest to notice unless actively looking. :beer:

Knew I would be spotted, justruth:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: But thanks for the tip about taking named drinks, but we are very careful - always buy a drink in the establishment first!!! I am very litter conscious and do not leave the bottles in the toilets of the pubs/clubs I frequent. I take them with me and place in a suitable bin outside:p . Hope you don't live near me, but if I get stopped (haven't so far) then I will use the code name justruth and see if it is you

rachaelfleur

I know exactly how you feel. I have 3 credit cards, 2 loans, 2 overdrafts, 1 hire purchase and a student loan that actually makes me feel sick and the only thing I have to show for it is my car which I don't even own. I feel so ashamed that I got myself into such a financial mess and have no idea what I actually spent it on. I had my LBM just a few weeks ago and already I've started to make changes. Although you are one step ahead of me, I can't bring myself to tell my OH the extent of my debt. He knows a little but if he knew the actual figure he would go nuts. The reason I haven't told him is he's very black and white about everything and he would just say it's my mess I can deal with it. But because he knows a little he does help alot with groceries, petrol and gas/electric. I don't know if I can ever tell anyone how bad things are, just too disgusted with myself :mad:

Anyway, just wanted to say hello and I'm on the same boat, welcome aboard! :rotfl:

emilia_2

Thanks Head-in-sand and tally ho. Hi to rachelfleur - welcome - you aren't alone - I'm so glad I came on here too. Keep posting and you'll get some great advice and support.

So points from posts people have made - I must admit the new clothes thing is completely daft as I LOVE charity shops too. Actually this is pretty good - my finance ( I keep writing 'finance' by mistake - freudian slip?) my fiance's sister volunteers in a charity shop and she came back with 5 new tops for me last week and a pair of jeans which were really cool....Good eh? ( jeans were a bit faded but am thinking of dyeing them.... has anyone ever done this before?)

So total spends today 1) £20 petrol grrrrr. Nowt I can do about this - car is needed for job and appointments so can't even car share. It's excessive this week as I went home to pay the dear parents a visit - they live 60 miles away

2) £4.22 food - this was 3 breakfasts for week plus cheap veg to make soup for lunches rest of the week plus evening meal tonight. Plus went home and F was already cooking... so will save for tomorrow. I was well chuffed with this. This spend on food is unheard of for me - and it was good food too. Prawns on offer, noodles etc.

Soup for today's lunch wasn't as tasty as I initially thought. I put in the microwave today and the smell was wafting... one woman kept making funny faces as if to say "what is in there" - Slightly watery - I may fare better with the next batch. However watery but FREE....

0% CC hasn't arrived yet still need to chase up. Am planning for a cheap weekend. Unfortunately part of this will involve buying bridesmaid shoes. I know tradition is for the bridesmaids to buy them but she's only a nipper. Can't really expect her to smash the piggy bank can I?

I'm thinking e-bay....primark.....peacocks all cheaper shoe places but don't want them snapping or anything