Poor but happy at 55 need to be debt free to retire!!!

Poorbuthappy55

Whoops posted too soon hadn't finished!!!!!

I was going to say that I've spent too much while my brother, his wife and 3 kids have been staying with me.

I don'y know how to entertain and not spend too much money. Fortunately there's some good wine at Mr T's on 3 fo £10. We had a lot of fun so it was worth it.

Trying to claw back - Me & OH had soup for tea made up with odds & ends of veg and I've made a packed lunch for the 3 of us for tomorrow.

I didn't get my ebaying done the other night cuz I fell asleep watching TV.

I am aiming for 3 NSDs so purse shut until Saturday and then I won't need to draw out any cash until then. I should then be almost back on track.

I bought my train tickets through Quidco so should get some cashback and can then get my money back on expenses.

So as of now I'm back on track!

Poorbuthappy55

Yeh a NSD today!!!!!

Took breakfast, lunch & fruit to work and cooked some miserable looking veg for tea which were actually quite nice.

Lights are off in all rooms except sitting room where I am now watching Midsummer Murders and reading diaries.

I'm on the road to recovery whey hey.

Try and do same tomorrow - if I don't spend any money until I go grocery shopping at the weekend I will have made up for spending when visitors were hear.

Got my expenses cheque today so when cleared will pay a bit more off my MBNA card.

Poorbuthappy55

I promised I would be honest with this diary and today I have blown £7 on 2 magazines. What is it with me? I only popped into the town to do the banking for work. I really need to get my head round this DF life - I have to do it!!

Help me please I must get back on track.

Poorbuthappy55

This is my update since I last logged on.

Friday - had meeting in London nearly 3 hours on the train each way but only bought coffee on way up had water for the rest of the journey and took my own book & read a paper that someone left behind. Successful DFW day.

Saturday - did meal plans & list and most important stuck to it.

Sunday - enjoyed the sunshine by the quay OH bought a bottle of wine but only £3.99 (special offer in pub). NSD for me.

Monday - friend bought me lunch but I popped into Lidl for loo rolls.

Today - work took lunch NSD

I,ve got a great little book 50 suppers for under £5 free with Good Housekeeping magazine.

Tonight I cooked curry from scratch and made my own Naan bread and it was really yummy.

I am now looking at the up your income board so I can pay off a bit more.

I'm feeling really good about getting rid of the debt today.

Sun_Addict

Just catching up with your diary. I'm afraid I'm a bit of a magazine junkie but most of mine are on subscription. I usually subscribe when they're 12 issues for £12 or have a really good free gift with them. I keep saying I will cut down on the amount of magazines I buy but can never decide which ones to get rid of!

You sound as though you are doing really well at the moment. Well done!

Claw_back_money

Poorbuthappy55 wrote: »

This is my update since I last logged on.

Friday - had meeting in London nearly 3 hours on the train each way but only bought coffee on way up had water for the rest of the journey and took my own book & read a paper that someone left behind. Successful DFW day.

Saturday - did meal plans & list and most important stuck to it.

Sunday - enjoyed the sunshine by the quay OH bought a bottle of wine but only £3.99 (special offer in pub). NSD for me.

Monday - friend bought me lunch but I popped into Lidl for loo rolls.

Today - work took lunch NSD

I,ve got a great little book 50 suppers for under £5 free with Good Housekeeping magazine.

Tonight I cooked curry from scratch and made my own Naan bread and it was really yummy.

I am now looking at the up your income board so I can pay off a bit more.

I'm feeling really good about getting rid of the debt today.

Hi there
Sounds like you are doing really good stuff there!
How did you make the naan bread?
Cheers
Cbm

Poorbuthappy55

Hi

I'm not feeling quite so good about DFW today - am I EVER going to pay off this debt. Everytime I get some money to pay off my card something crops up - car needed money spent on it, guinea pig had to go to the vet and I dont seem to be able to get my grocery bill as low as I would like. It's much better than it was though.

I can't get a 0% card to balance transfer and Virgin card have refused to lower my interest rate! What shall I do next?

I need to up my income but I don't know what to do. I'm running out of Ebay items but will have another trawl.

I need a bit of a kick up the butt today.

Poorbuthappy55

Hi CBM

Forgot to say that I googled "recipe for Naan" and a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey came it. I did a third of the recipe for two huge naans.

I see from your sig that you have reduced your debt by over 10k in just over 18 months - can you give me any advice?

Look forward to hearing from you

PBH xx

Claw_back_money

Hi PBH

Thanks for the tip about the naan bread. I've never tried making that and will give it a go.

Hmm, don't feel qualified to give advice, but can let you know the things that worked for me if that helps. Some of it is so basic I could cringe now!

This is kind of the order we did things too.

Immediate stuff - found out APR of each of the debts and played on the Snowball calculator so got a sense of what difference paying a few pounds off could have.

Identified the most expensive debt, stopped adding to it! :doh:

Had an immediate target (first one was not to go over the overdraft, next was to get rid of a small debt, etc - still do this as it helps us focus).

Bills - we looked at each of our utilities and worked out if there was a cheaper way of getting it, this meant researching and changing suppliers, and took a few weeks. I didn't enjoy this bit at all. :wall:

Spreadsheets - I've got one for all our balances, one for interest paid, all with linked charts. I update them (cough) a lot. It is fab to see the balance coming down. In fact, sometimes I am near a target and don't put off buying groceries so I can meet the target! :rolleyes:

Spending money - we had pocket money!!! (for a few months). Somehow, having £50, cash in my pocket so I could buy clothes OR magazines OR get my legs waxed OR whatever really helped focus, and I suddenly found I wasn't spending anything in town. Also thought about NSD. Its no longer a problem and I rarely buy things now, so I don't do this.

Transfered credit card balance - but I note you can't do this. I could only transfer part of it, but by breaking it down I was able to pay off a bit of it which was fab in terms of being able to see a result.

Groceries - set a target, and did online shopping for a week. I was able to get excited by getting the expense as low as possible. The OS board had lots of ideas and I also...

...Changed food habits - got rid of junk food and ready meals from our diet. Discovered cookery, and especially batch cooking at the weekend, which gave 'ready meals' (like frozen bolognese) for those can't be bothered nights. I also deliberately started freezing single portions of food, and letting the family know that the sunday joint was to go for so many meals (normally 3, one on sunday, sliced on tuesday and curried/stewed bits of it later) so they didn't nibble at it all afternoon. They've all left home now, which may or may not be linked :rotfl:. I cut our spending on food over this time by nearly half - it was quite a biggie for us.

More income - mystery shopping, piggy clicks, bingo scratch cards, second job. All terribly tedious and tiring, but the little bits of money add up over time, and help meet those targets.

I also worked out what was important and found the cheapest way to fund it. OH likes having 'nice lunches', so I make and/or buy quite posh things to go in his lunch box, when they're on special offer. He also likes wine, :beer: so I keep a look out on the grabbit forum and buy a few bottles when on special offer - telling him how long they are to last for.

I don't claim to have invented any of this stuff - I found it all on MSE - but it has worked for us. :T I hope maybe something works for you...

Cheers

Cbm

Poorbuthappy55

Hi CBM

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to type such a long post.

Don't cringe - for me basic is best!

I am going to adopt as many of your strategies as I can.

Your signature has really inspired me. I have my spreadsheet all set up but I'm so impatient it's not going down quick enough. I am going to investigate surveys now.

I will keep updating.

Thanks again - hope you've had a good day.

PBH x