Dottyannes 'in need of support' debt diary (all new)

edinburgher

I'm slowly readjusting to the lightbulb moment again and one minute i feel really positive and the other one, scared to death.

It's an odd feeling, isn't it? I get exactly the same and feel all empowered one minute, but terrified that I'm going to muck it all up the next!

dottyanne

rubbish weekend this one was , no matter how i seem to try to budget im always skint the last week or so of the month, i get paid at the end of the week but im skint till then, had to even use some of my precious £2 coins as i had no money on me for milk and bread etc. I have really good intentions, then something always crops up to shoot me down just when i think i am gettin somewhere, i do have aims and goals in my sights and am not going to give up but it gets me down at this time of the month, skint skint skint !!!!

JAMIEDODGER

Dotty, I have had a look at your SOA again and wondered how much you have spent this month on groceries.

I feed myself, 4 kids and 5 cats on £50/£60 per week. thats roughly £260 per month. I think you seriously need to address the amount you spend on food. How do you shop? Once a week? or every few days?

Meal planning is great, I find it helps a huge amount.

£480 is a lot to spend on food, if you could bring this down, then that would cover the shortfall every month.

edinburgher

i do have aims and goals in my sights and am not going to give up but it gets me down at this time of the month, skint skint skint !!!!

It might not help that much for me to say this, but it does get better. When I was at my worst with debts (working part-time and renting a flat but owing nearly 3 years' wages), I was often skint the day I got paid. It went on that way for a couple of years - every payday was a depressing reminder of how badly I was doing as I instantly had nothing to spend.

Nowadays I occasionally have some spare money I still have to sort out some debt stuff, but payday isn't quite the hateful day it used to be.

What made the difference? Facing up to the problem and doing something to sort it out. You're doing this yourself, so persevere, use your imagination and it will get easier in time....

doodledo_2

Good advice Edinburgher, I know I am going to be debt free shortly but prior to this things were definately getting easier, as the number of debts dropped and the amount owing dropped it did start to get a little easier each month.

Stick at it Dotty, its a long term plan :T

hypno06

Hi dotty - one thing that I have learned as I tackle my own mountain of debt is to look at things PROPERLY.

So, for example, I used to pay loads of money off the debt early in the month, in the belief that I would have enough to last the month.....then would run out of money and incur several bank charges, which cost me £200 or so a month alone! Yet, I kept doing it......but of course each month, I was further and further out on my budgets as the bank charges ate up more and more of each month's wages.

Once I actually looked at it, realised what was happening and made the payments to the debt at the end of the month instead, I stopped incurring bank charges because I was only overpaying the debt once all the household bills had been paid.....

The end result, though, was that I was actually SAVING money, because I was no longer incurring bank charges - so I could throw that £200 that I had previously been paying in charges, to the debt instead!

So........What struck me about your weekend posting, was how excited you are getting when you got another £2 coin.....yes, great to put another coin away for Christmas, or whatever, but then you get disheartened when you have to break into your stash to see you through the next few days.......

What you might need to do, for example, is to look at why you got the £2 coin.......for every £2 you receive, presumably you are SPENDING something, and you get the £2 coin in your change.......? So rather than concentrating on the £2 coin euphoria, why not concentrating on what you spent immediately before getting that coin - did you break into a £10 note for example? Was what you bought essential......? By buying something that you didn't need, you may have got a £2 coin, but actually, you have probably frittered away far more money......now leaving you short!

I may be way off, but that is the sort of change in attitude and approach that makes a big big difference!

lynzpower

dottyanne wrote: »

rubbish weekend this one was , no matter how i seem to try to budget im always skint the last week or so of the month, i get paid at the end of the week but im skint till then, had to even use some of my precious £2 coins as i had no money on me for milk and bread etc. I have really good intentions, then something always crops up to shoot me down just when i think i am gettin somewhere, i do have aims and goals in my sights and am not going to give up but it gets me down at this time of the month, skint skint skint !!!!

FWIW Ive never subscribed to the £2 thing. It totally is at odds for me with "budgeting"

I recall once getting change from a ticket machine at the tube station all in £2 coins for a 1.90 ticket.This was my travel budget for the week- imagine if Id saved all the coins! If you have enough sloshing around you can probably do it, but I personally dont think its for m, or for anyone who needs/ wants to budget properly.

Dotty, its not jsut about "menu planning" itrs about making sure that what you buy is about the cheapest you can stand. Do you buy the cheapest milk, do you buy the cheapest bread? Do you freeze bread to ensure none of it goes mouldy or stale? Do you tihnk about using powdered milk for say tea/ coffee but fresh for say, cereal? Im really worried your food shopping is potentially the reason you are struggling to budget ...

dottyanne

hi thanks all for your support and suggestions, it is a learning curve and some of you have made points that have really made a lot of sense to me, just got wage slips with this months wages on there so im going to do my monthly budget over the next couple of days, made £206 on ebay but still waiting for the feedback ( the buyer should have received yesterday as i sent registered) he hasnt posted any feedback and because im a noob i cant get my money until i get feedback

edinburgher

Send him a gentle reminder - we were all new once

dottyanne

hi, phew its ok, hes left me feedback today and the funds are now available to withdraw from paypal , not a bad day today, not spent anything at all but will have to nip for bread n milk a bit later. Planning to sort the budget tomorrow night, did a quick calculation last night and i think we might just be ok this month, still i want to be as frugal as possible espec with the grocery and incidentals.