My start to getting out of debt

calleyw

lynseydee wrote:

Not meaning to sound stupid or anything but everyone keeps referring to the old style board. Where can I find this?

No you do not sound stupid look here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33


Yours


Calley

calleyw

lynseydee wrote:

Clothes we usually take in turns if we see something we like in Tescos then we buy it although it's not every month. Haircuts we get done every other month and that comes out of the £300.00 and we even usually buy presents out of it, even christmas presents for the family. I guess a lot of things we buy food wise is probably crap especially things that seem like a good idea at the time. A lot of stuff doesn't tend to get thrown away too much as we tend to buy a lot of frozen.

It might be better to break the shopping budget down even further. It helps you keep an eye on your budget. If you just lump it together it can make it harder to make any cuts as you don't know what you are actually spending on what and where.

Even if you buy clothes at Tescos with your shopping no problems. When you go to log the amount and where in a spreadsheet. Put food in the food amount in the food column and then clothes in the clothes column. That is what I do as I keep food and other groceries seperate. So if I buy bleach that goes under the household items. As I can't eat it. It may sound anal but it helps me keep better track of what we are spending on what.

I use something called open office for my word processor and spreadsheet because it is free and works in a similar way to MS office.

Look here http://www.openoffice.org/


Yours


Calley

lynseydee

Thanks Calleyw. By the way, I'm in Wiltshire too.

lynseydee

I have actually set up a spreadsheet in Excel which I can adapt so I might break it down into a few more sections. At least it give me an indication of what goes into the accounts and what comes out but I guess if I'm going to try and cut back even more it has to be a bit more organised.

calleyw

lynseydee wrote:

Thanks Calleyw. By the way, I'm in Wiltshire too.

What a small world.


Good luck with all the budgetting.


Yours


Calley

Molanole

Nothing really to add to all the excellent advice above but just wanted to say welcome, and well done on posting! Don't feel too downhearted if you find that cutting back on the food budget is tricky. It really doesn't happen overnight and is the single most tricky thing I have found. I'm sure it can be done but I think it takes a month or so to get used to meal planning and not wasting food.

Anyway, hello :hello: and I look forward to reading all about your progress.

lynseydee

Thanks Molanole, have decided to really give the food planning idea a try despite grumbles of "well you can do that cos I'm not" from hubby. Maybe he'll get more into it when he sees it's probably not as much hassle as he thinks. Did suggest to him last night about using any spare money left over from shopping money to put towards the joint bank loan and he agreed it would be a good idea. Target is to shave a year off of whats left so October 2007 is the date to aim for.

**purpleprincess**

Hey lynsey!! :hello: Sounds like you're doing pretty well!:beer:

Molanole wrote:

Don't feel too downhearted if you find that cutting back on the food budget is tricky. It really doesn't happen overnight and is the single most tricky thing I have found. I'm sure it can be done but I think it takes a month or so to get used to meal planning and not wasting food.

I agree with this, took me a month or so to sort this out. First thing I did was a store cupboard thingy and I was so surprised at how many meals I got out of what was just in the flat!:p Once you've cleared out then you can start again, this is what I did.

Good luck hun! xx

lynseydee

Nothing major to report today, just to say I have done an excel spreadsheet showing amounts paid every month, roughly calculated interest, how much in theory is left and if we have made overpayments. It's not very accurate but gives me an idea of roughly how long it will take to get the loans paid off. My target for the joint loan is 12 months early which is October 2007 which without overpayments we will still owe just over £2,000.00. We originally borrowed £7,000.00 over 3 years. The other one I did on just my loan, bearing in mind the first payment doesn't start until the 1st July for 7 years if I aim for my target date of 5 years my chart says I will owe roughly £1,700.00at this time without overpayments. Hopefully both these debts should be cleared by my target dates so will keep you posted on how I get on.

I hope the above makes sense

lynseydee

Been really thinking about cutting down on our shopping. Thought that if I started by taking out weekly amounts rather than a monthly amount we won't be tempted to spend more than we have. Thought about attempting £50.00 per week which would free up £100.00 to go towards the joint loan. Am I being too ambitious?