Lady with no willpower needs help to keep on track...

AnnieG

Hello
I, like it seems many others, have been lurking here for some time, and need a bit of help to keep myself focussed, so thought that writing a diary might help. Allow me to introduce myself - I'm a single mum to a 9 year old boy, work in HR in he public sector and am hopelessly disorganised and spectacularly untidy.
About 4 years ago I found myself in about £45,000 worth of debt. I sold my house and used the profits to oay about half of my debt and negotiated payments with my creditors for the remainder. I'm now down to about £12,000, some of which I owe my mum who lent my £1500 to buy a new car when mine died, and around £9500 to credit card companies, but I 'm paying fixed monthly amounts with no interest, so that's manageable. Oh, and about £250 to the Next directory which is the only bit of 'working' credit I have, and although the interest rate is disgusting, I simply haven't got around to doing anything about it yet.
Anyway, about a week ago I had a strop because everyone else is going on holiday but I can't afford it this year despite earning a good wage and theoretically being in a reasonably good position.... this comes down to me being disorganised and not planning anything, including how I spend my money, which just 'disappears' every month.

So, I booked a holiday for next summer and now need to save about £1600 to pay for it, which given the amazing things people on these boards achieve shouldn't really be too difficult. I've also been dreaming about doing a masters by distance learning for about 6 years but haven't been able to afford the fees at £3350 per year, so if things go really well maybe I can enrol on that next year.

My biggest problem is food shopping, I think i must spend at least £250 per month, even though my son eats lunch at school and dinner at the childminders, so I'm really only shopping for me.

So.... I'm planning to overhaul my grocery shopping, and try and understand what I'm spending my money on as I should have about £200 surplus that I can save every month.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. I thank anyone who may offer support my thanks in advance, and fingers crossed this is where I start to get a little bit more control!

Annie x

Taylo_2

Hi Annie,

starting around the same time as me! One of the things I am going to try to do, and this may help with your grocery shopping, is keeping hold of my receipts or trying to keep a spending diary for a little while so I have a better idea of exactly what I buy and then I can look at the easy ways of cutting that down. Sure there are many other ideas winging their way to you but hopefully it is a start!

AnnieG

Hi Taylo
A spending diary is such a good idea.... as long as I remember to keep it up to date! I've managed to keep one for my petrol for the last couple of months so I'll have a good go with the groceries too. I'm terrible for planning dinner or taking sandwiches to work and then deciding I want something else so spending extra.
I found the willpower to give up smoking though, so I guess I must have some lurking somewhere??!
Annie

AnnieG

I just realised that I made the last repayment on my student loan this month, a mere 14 years after graduating, so have an extra 100 per month to play with. Plan for tomorrow is to do some menu planning and try and decide on an amount to spend each month so that I'm not just spending until the money runs out.

david_hellier

AnnieG wrote: »

Hi Taylo
A spending diary is such a good idea.... as long as I remember to keep it up to date! I've managed to keep one for my petrol for the last couple of months so I'll have a good go with the groceries too. I'm terrible for planning dinner or taking sandwiches to work and then deciding I want something else so spending extra.
I found the willpower to give up smoking though, so I guess I must have some lurking somewhere??!
Annie

Another way of using a spending diary is to allocate a specific amount from your budget and deduct spending through the week. Try to end the week with some over to carry forward to the next week. This avoids overspend and monitors your buying habits.