£77,366.35 reasons to be debt free!

BEAT_THE_DEBT

i know what you mean about rest bills i was always a "oh are we short a fiver ill put it in" NO MORE!! Old life new life!!xx

hypno06

Being completely honest about the spending is a big thing - there is no point in trying to "find" the missing £200 or so, if you are not acknowledging where it was spent in the first place.

As for the restaurant thing, we went out for a meal as a colleague was leaving to have a baby last week.......to avoid the awkwardness (there is a big difference in peoples' earnings at our place so some are much less able to pay than others even without debt issues) we all ordered in advance and one person took the money before we started.....then we all contributed £1 to cover the cost of the meal of the person who was leaving work and the tip, and on the night we all went to the bar for our own drinks as and when, so no one who was making a glass of diet coke last all evening had to cover those who were drinking a couple of bottles of wine!

It worked really well, with no awkwardness at all. Some people ordered three courses, others just one - some had steak, others just a small salad, but no one paid for more than they had.

Perhaps another time, you could do this and take the role of "co-ordinator" on......?

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Excellent idea hypno.x

hypno06

It made the whole evening much more relaxed for me as I am often the person who is quietly trying to mentally add up the total bill as we eat, cringing as another bottle of wine, or round of brandies is ordered, and staring at my own paltry "cheapest on the menu" dish and wondering why I didn't just say "crap, I am going to end up paying £30 for a £6 meal".

hypno06

Also, by ordering in advance, some people chose to pay the "co-ordinator", say, £5 a week for three weeks or so, rather than finding the money all in one go on the night, which really helped them out.

WorkingHardDFW

I just wanted to say that a spending diary (really really honest) was a fantastic tool for identifing our overspending or helping us ID a realistic budget. Kids are expensive and their activities soon add up. Generally I found with our SD that I was under budgeting (hence the debt) however very occasionally I was over budgeting which was pleasant.

I get OH to put his receipts on a receipt spike (therefore his involvement is minimal) and I put all the receipts into our spending diary (excel spreadsheet) so that I can filter the data and work out what we are spending our money on.

Definately worth trying....:rolleyes:

In_my_dreams

WorkingHardDFW wrote: »

I just wanted to say that a spending diary (really really honest) was a fantastic tool for identifing our overspending or helping us ID a realistic budget. Kids are expensive and their activities soon add up. Generally I found with our SD that I was under budgeting (hence the debt) however very occasionally I was over budgeting which was pleasant.

I get OH to put his receipts on a receipt spike (therefore his involvement is minimal) and I put all the receipts into our spending diary (excel spreadsheet) so that I can filter the data and work out what we are spending our money on.

Definately worth trying....:rolleyes:

We have a spending diary each and also he is "forced" to release his reciepts at the end of every day. I then use all the receipts to try and balance the books and then at the end of every week I put it all into a sheet which produces a pretty pie chart which we sit and analyse in full and lay blame accordingly for our shortfalls :rotfl::rotfl:

I was just sooo tempted this week to not admit to the purchasing of lipstick but I did cleanse my soul and fessed up and I'm still here.

I have had a spending diary before but TBH it was VERY selective!

In_my_dreams

Hypno - that sounds like a good plan. I am in a business which you are either all wadded or poor as anything, no real inbetween and for some reason I am believed to be in the wadded team :rotfl:I too share the stress of having the cheapest meal and then paying over the odds for it. Hate it, if I know we are likely to split it then I will just have what everyone else is having!

Just checked my ebay, tried not to look until the listings had finished but couldn't resist and so far up to £110 :jsooooo excited that I have made that much on stuff I haven't used for an age!

Also having an odd feeling that I actually want to get paid now so I can pay some debts off and see my signature go down. Updated it today when I got my BC bill an amended the interest, and also altered the Egg figure.

Fingers crossed I will make the shortfall now and be able to start next pay daytechinically in credit. Before my LBM the fact that I was over budget would have been ignored (as better to ignore than face up) and my spending would have spiralled instead, as I would have thought there's no point sticking to a budget once it's gone wrong - bit like a diet I suppose :rolleyes:

Off to the kitchen to hunt out chocolate, diet tomorrow so last chance!!

WorkingHardDFW

For it to work the spending diary has to be completely honest which is hard. However as you've already ID it can be hard. Although our LBM was quite clear bits of it only came on slowly. We've learnt such a lot and even nearly two years in we are still learning:rolleyes:

hypno06

I'm deemed to be in the wadded team too, but if the truth were known, I am far closer in salary to the poor-as-anything team, and of course as soon as I say I am a stockbroker to anyone "outside", they assume I am on a six figure salary