Not so much debt, but lifestyle!

MessyMare

I've been lurking around here for quite a long time, and am truly an MSE convert! I'll start by giving some background stuff...

I'm turning 22 this month, and while I'm not exactly in mountains of debt, I feel like I shouldn't be in any! I live at home, currently rent free (but which will change to a nominal amount once I've been in my new full time job for a month). I have a 1971 VW Beetle to keep on the road, which is actually surprisingly cheap! You'd be surprised how much you can save on car maintenance when you don't have to take it to a garage to be plugged into a diagnostics machine, and there's always the sense of satisfaction of not having to pay road tax :rotfl: My vice is..books! Oh and driving inefficiently....sometimes you just want to get home.

Four years or so ago, I got into a relationship that wasn't the healthiest around. I always seemed to be throwing money at him..paying for his groceries, bus fares, etc. And when we split up, he was left owing £100 to my mum, and a huge sum to me which I just wrote off. You'd think I'd learn from this, but no. My spending spiralled out of control, and I was constantly in my student overdraft. Every time I wanted something, I bought it, and I was nervous until I saw the payment go through...I dreaded seeing my card declined. Every time I was at the cash machine I waited with my fingers crossed until I heard the machine spooling up to chuck some money at me. Never checked my balance or opened bank statements. My credit card became so easy to use...never on essentials! If I put it on the card it was like I could pretend I could afford it. Being with a boyfriend who would spend his money so easily didn't help...but I can't lay the blame on him...I have inherited my mother's money sense and my father's ability to spend it, and unfortunately I seem to chose to display the latter!

In the New Year I decided I had to get real, and I started taking charge of my accounts. I opened a savings account, and started paying off my credit card balance. But it wasn't until my then boyfriend dumped me that I really decided to take the reigns back and be the one to decide where my life was going. I opened and filed all my bank statements, started a spending diary and a budget. I've got a zillion and one other lifestyle goals too, so I thought perhaps a diary on here would prevent me from hijacking other people's threads!

So here we go, The Lists!

Debt:

Egg card: £144
Bank of Mum: £191 (though she insists that I don't have to pay it back, my morals and I are in agreement- I spent it, I pay it back)
Myself: £68 (I know it sounds odd to owe yourself money, but I had some unbudgetted for car repairs, so I'm slashing my budget each month to effectively pay myself back)

Goals:

Have over £1000 saved by this time next year (should be doable, have £611 in there already!)
Get back down to 12 stone by this time next year! (need to get back on track, my diet has lapsed this week)
Have my life (and this house!) decluttered by this time next year...I want a fresh start!
Set up piggybank savings accounts for car maintenance and petrol
Set up an ISA with a decent rate! My Nationwide one is actually at 0.25% at the moment Luckily I haven't paid into it this tax year (I know, naughty!).

Will finish this post here, and drop another couple in explaining and giving myself some lists of things to do!

MessyMare

Just a little bit about my budget and spending diary...these have gone through some reforms!

My spending diary I've had for a while, but let lapse. I was writing down everything I spent, but not keeping a running total of it, so was left to guesstimate...usually generously! Last month I restarted it from my payday. I wrote down what I had left after paying bills, and what I spent each day. Everything I spent I deducted from my balance, and thus had a running total of what I had to spend. It really made me open my eyes for what I was doing! At the moment I only work part time, with a basic wage of £314 per month. I've had to face up to the fact that on that wage, I only have enough for my bills and petrol, with very little left over for spends. Luckily I worked my butt off doing overtime, so raked in £550 this month (it was actually £570, but as I hadn't realised I would get the extra £20 I'm ignoring it ). Signed up to online billing with vodafone- what a palaver that was! I had signed up years ago but forgot all my details, so had to ring up and blah blah blah. Anyway, that meant I could properly budget for my phone bill, so with that, CC payment (which still isn't showing on the account, sigh), monies for Yoga class and repayment to my mother out of the way, I've got a much better idea of what I've got.

So the target for this month is to come in under budget, even though it's an expensive month! Going away for the weekend to a vw show with a friend, so just got to get the money off him for his ticket, he'll help with petrol and then all I've got to find for that weekend is money for food and probs £50 extra should sort that.

Got my birthday too, but as I never go out for it, that should be nice and cheap!

New job starts next month. I'm a little worried at having to find the money to work a whole month in hand...anyone have any advice? Hopefully my last month's wages from work should cover petrol...fingers crossed!

wendz86

Hi,

I am a similar age as you, I am 22. I don't have too much debt , a little more than you though

I think it is a great diea to get in control before you get yourself in any kind of serious trouble.

Good luck!

MessyMare

Thank you! Good luck to you too The sole reason I'm not in worse debt with my overdraft is a few lucky sales on ebay (totalling about £300-400) and the fact that my part time job is with Waitrose/John Lewis Partnership...That yearly bonus helps to dig me out of the red

MessyMare

Right, last update for today then I'll leave this alone.

Today was a NSD, yay Also sold the annoying (but gorgeous) picnic basket that was taking up masses of room and never being used £15 in my bank account, yay

I'm off out tomorrow afternoon, might use some of my Irish lottery winnings to pay for my drinks...I'm only on diet coke so it's not too bad!

Have a lovely evening anyone

MessyMare

Ok, quick update as I really must go get dressed.

Today is being counted as an NSD, as although I'm going for a drink with a friend later, that money is coming out of Irish lottery winnings.

Payment has gone through for egg card, so that's down to £94. Pleased with that, though I wont be able to make a £50 payment for next month, it's still being chipped away nicely.

So the ToDo list for the rest of the week stands as follows:

Reset call timers on my phone - Done
Make bed - Done
Put washing out - Done
Do washing up - Done
Make lasagne for tea tomorrow night - Done
Check online banking - Done
Put the £20 I made for the piccic basket in bank - Almost done, gave it to Mum and she transferred £20 into my bank account
Get food together for Take That on Friday - Done (only they took the lids off all my bottles of drink going in! For my own safety apparently. The water bottle survived but spent a little money when I got really thirsty)
Download all the songs for Summer mix CD (see how many I can get for free!)
Ring HR department for new job to check they've got all paperwork - Didn't need to, got a letter saying they had!
Update Bookmooch (is the server down? Ok, that would be a yes) - Updated
Update sig at the end of the week - Updated
Buy some castor oil and have a go at the oil cleansing method
Put the footspa on Gumtree and mark the hamper as sold - Half done!
Clear out the rest of my clothes
Have a crack at my bedside cabinet

Woosh, you think that's enough to do ?

fendi-bag-lady

Hi ColleenPanda :hello:I saw your post on gingernutbizkits thread and just wanted to say you sound so like me!! I'm a bit older though with loads more debt :mad: (almost 24 with over 16k of debt) I too get into debt with an ex boyfriend an being wreckless but hey ho we're here now! I saw your just about to start work in a childrens home. Good for you this is something I would love to do! If you don't mind me asking how did you get into this? I seem to be getting nowhere at the moment!

Anyway keep up the good work!!

xx

Snow_White_5

Hello ColleenPamela. Saw your diary while I was browsing and wanted to stop by and say hi :hello:. I totally understand what you mean about ignoring bank statements etc. for years and the relief when you fianlly start organising your finances. I was exactly the same. A lot of your goals are similar to mine too, so I'll subscribe and pop in again to see how you're doing.

Well done on the lottery win and enjoy Take That -:smileyhea so jealous! (and how MSE of you to take your own food!)

SW x

wendz86

Have fun at Take That, I am going tomorrow!

MissShoes

Just found your diary and wanted to post- good luck with it all. The spending diary is such a good diea. Mine has slipped recently but I am back on it with a vengeance!

Good luck in your new job, hopefully more hours means the debt will be gone in no time.

Shoes

xx

MessyMare

Hi Fendi-Bag-Lady - As for debt, I feel a little bit of a fraud here sometimes, as my actual debt is so small. However, I think it's only small because I've had a student loan and overdraft! I've just finished my degree and was looking round for jobs I might do when I walked past a Jark Healthcare agency and saw a position advertised in the window. I commented to my mum that I'd love to do it but didn't think they'd want me fresh out of university when the staff from the agency overheard and collared me! So I wrote myself a CV (my first ever!), sent it off to the agency and the rest, as they say, is history! He actually told me that this company are looking for people with no preconceptions of the care home environment. I'll PM you a link to the actual company's recruitment page if you like? I don't know if there's anything in your area but it's always worth a look

Snow White - It really does feel fantastic to be in control doesn't it :j it certainly helps that I no longer have a boyfriend that spends every single penny every month (or the one before that who spent every single one of his pennies then quite a few of mine!). Take That was wonderful! Worth every single penny and more besides, I've never ever seen a show like it. Glad I took my own food- fish and chips was about £8.50 or something!!

Wendz - Hope you had a great time at Take That too...did you succumb to the temptation of any of the t-shirts? Honestly, I could restock my wardrobe with them, I liked so many! Ended up with the black one with silver writing on the front - the "this could be the greatest day of our lives" one, and my sis, me and her friend Gem are clubbing together to get the discount on the website and save on delivery, because I want the "Shine" one too

Miss Shoes - Thank you very much! You've just reminded me that I need to update my spends diary I'm trying to write down what the spends are for this month too, so I can do myself a spreadsheet at the end of the month and see where I can cut back.

So I've got a whole weekend off, and I've no idea what to do with it! Going to try to have two NSD to make up for giving in to t-shirt temptation.

When I first started out on this plan to not only be debt free, but to also curb my "I want it, I'm buying it habit", I was really miserable about it. I was on a diet too, and I tend to find that if I'm dieting, my spending goes up, and if I'm trying to not spent, I eat for five! But it's become really empowering...saving is giving me the same buzz as spending oddly enough, and I feel I have more to show for it. When I opened my regular saver I was chuffed to bits that I was planning to save £30 a month, now I'm managing to put away anywhere between £100 and £250, and it feels like such an achievement.

So, the to-do list to keep me motivated:

Bedside cabinet!
General whizz around my room - Half done
Upload photographs from last night onto Facebook - Done
Sign me and mum up for the scratchies...we both agree that it's a great idea and every little helps - Half done, she has her reservations...I'm trying it for a month before signing her up
Figure out what I need for my car so I don't overspend at Bugjam (and see how much of it I can get for free!)
Update spending diary - Done

That's all for now, thank you everyone who's commented