The Big One -My debt-free by 30 journey

SilkCutSilver

Cool - it's amazing what you can do with store cupboard items. If you need any ideas I have a bizarre talent for making something out of nothing - I'd be amazing on Ready Steady Cook!

I just :

• Did my expenses for this week (I have a habit of forgetting to charge some things in!)
• Re-activated my Home of Research account
• Ordered a Dove sample (useful for travels)

SilkCutSilver

Ooh just got £1.10 on Quidco from Just Rewards. Doing lots of small DFW things today! £1.70 lunch is my only spend too. All good

SilkCutSilver

Just went to check how much I could get for my personal mobile if I choose to stick with my work one to save money (sob! I love my Blackberry so much!), and it is a measly £22!! Rubbish. £3 cashback from Quidco makes it a bit better I suppose but it doesn't seem much for my beloved pink phone!

SilkCutSilver

OK I need a stern talking to ladies! This phone thing is driving me nuts.

Here's the deal. My company now have a corporate mobile phone offer. I have one - it's £9 a month which is paid for by the firm. All calls are free and unlimited, and I can (legally) get my work email on it. All for free.

My personal phone is about to expire it's 18 month contract. It's a Blackberry (which my company won't support for email etc) and it's pink and I love it. I am however planning to get rid of my contract and just use the work one, effectively saving myself at a MINIMUM £650 a year. Plus I won't have to carry two phones around.
Also my boyfriend is going to take over my O2 contract so he can get an iPhone - his credit rating isn't good enough for him to get one by himself.

So all in all it's a win win! But why am I hanging on to my Blackberry so much? Really the only difference is I have Blackberry messenger which all my friends are also on and I can message them for free, I have also had a company mobile for the last two months which is practicaly unusable.

I have now been allowed to get a new handset which should arrive tomorrow. I really want to order the iPhone for BF as a surprise but I''m stuggling to click the button as it will mean bye bye Blackberry once and for all.

I am fully aware this is utterly ridiculous but everyone has their comfort zones and mine is my lovely pink phone, but honestly what a waste of cash if I keep it!ARghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

SilkCutSilver

Morning, After getting over my ridiculous phone hysteria I have now got myself back on track. Off to get my BF's iPhone this weekend so that should be a good saving.

Last night I opened my Mint card bill for the first time in ages and actually realised it was a little bit less than I thought. So now need to update my signature :-)

Just made bread as we don't have any and I didn't want to go down to the shop and buy a loaf considering we are away again for the weekend. Feeling quite chuffed with myself this morning!

SilkCutSilver

Argh I have had a truly terrible couple of weeks with spending. I have decided I really need to sort it out - it's no wonder I never have any money when payday comes. It all culminated last night for me when I took £14 out of the £2 jar to pay for a takeaway I hadn't budgeted for because I had a rubbish day.

So from now on I have decided (after reading getting some inspiration on these boards!) that I'm going to do a "proper" budget. Every month I budget for food etc and for 'left over cash' which is just everything else. I'm going to start splitting this off into different accounts for actual things I buy and see if I am actually spending what I think I do.

• I'm going to get an 02 Money pre-payment card for my food budget and really stick to it - M&S and Waitrose are very often my downfall even though I'm usually very thrifty with food shopping. I'm going to start with £100 on the card - £50 for house hold food and £50 for work lunches (I can't make them as I am always in a hotel but if I have an incentive I can try and make them cheaper)

• I'm going to add some budget every month for books. I spend a fortune on them because i read so fast - and annoyingly Green Metropolis and Read it Swap It generally have old books I have already read. But I'm going to make more of an effort to list the books I have on Green Metropolis so that can self fund a little more. I'm also going to plan to buy books more regularly from cheaper places like charity shops or Tesco so I don't have a panic that I have nothing to read and then splurge £15 in WHSmith. I think £20 a month for now and see how that goes.

• Going to budget £50 a month for clothes and £20 for beauty/hair/etc.
• Going to do something travel wise - I can't get a monthly Oyster as it's a bit of a waste when I am out of town half the week, but I need to find a way of judging exactly how much train and Oyster fares I need to spend per month. May start with £20 on Oyster and £30 in a seperate little purse for train tickets.
• No more spending on credit card for things which aren't strictly work
• No more tapping into expenses money before credit card bill goes out
• Everything remaining I'm going to try and save

This probably seems a bit crazy but I have come to realise in the last couple of weeks since writing on here that it is no longer my income which is the issue it is my erratic spending. As of Sept 1st that needs to stop methinks!

SilkCutSilver

After yesterday's crazy-piggybanking-moment-of-inspiration I am feeling less like I have achieved today so going to list my small DFW things done today.

• Didn't spend anything on lunch - bought leftovers from my dinner in hotel room last night for lunch.
• Switched electricity to a cheaper plan with EON. Got my bill so need to do a compare on my readings when I get home tomorrow.

Hmm that seems a bit rubbish now I write it down....and I am starving now and I am bound to go back to the hotel and end up getting something seriously unhealthy as I think I have exhausted the available supermarket options which don't involve cooking and may have to give into the takeout. Luckily I don't have to pay for it in money but will pay for it on the scales at the end of this week. Grrrr......

dallas85

Hi SilkCut - well done on having a bit of a re-focus - I'm doing that nearly every day at the moment as I keep falling off the wagon!
I thought the O2 Money Visa card looked really good when I read it on the Metro! I'm not with O2, though, so I can't get one. Maybe some other networks will take it up soon.
I live in London too and I'm about to switch from getting a weekly travelcard to pay as you go. One thing I thought of doing was signing up for the auto-topup service. Whenever your balance drops below £5 it tops it up for you with an amount of your choice. You could do that for a month or a couple of weeks to see how much you were spending and then budget accordingly?
Well done, though - I've been following you progress and you're doing really well!

SilkCutSilver

Hi dallas,

I have just left 02 myself - see above [STRIKE]selfish rant[/STRIKE] post on my phone issues. However I decided to get a PAYG SIM from them so I can have one - and then put it in my old phone as a compromise.

Thanks for the tips re:Oyster - I'm always a bit scared of the auto top up thing in case i have no money in my account - and to be fair I rarely top up much in a month. I think I just need to work out exactly how much it's costing me each month - it was easy when it was always the same ridiculously expensive money grabbing £116 but now it varies it's hard to get a handle on it.

Think I may phone or google for some basic bank accounts later today for my 'piggybanks'. Payday tomorrow so be good to be all set up ready!

SilkCutSilver

Ok new 'piggybanking' plan is ready to be up and running for payday tomorrow.

My split is going to be:

• Halifax 1 - main account where wages and direct debtis/standing orders are
• Halifax 2 - account for expenses payments to go in and credit card payments to go out of - ONLY
• Halifax 3 - Books fund

• HSBC 1 - (old main account) Cosmetics, Clothing fund
• HSBC 2 (savings account)- DF Reward pot and £2 coins
• HSBC 3 (ISA) - Main Savings

• Lloyds TSB - (even older teenage account) - Emergency fund (I have forgotten my PIN for this one and have no internet banking so good for hiding away cash)

• 02 Money (will apply for when I get my new PAYG SIM) -Food and Grocery fund (including lunches)
• Oyster card - bus travel going to top up with £20 plus £30 in a seperate part of my purse for train tickets.

Probably seems quite complex to everyone else but I'm hoping it will work for me and I should be able to see some left over at the end of the month in each account so I can start really budgeting instead of having my 'pocket money' disappear into the abyss every month.