Living My Life But(t) N.A.K.E.D.

Swinstie73

I thought it was time to up-the-ante with my debt busting, as I envisage 2010 to be the year that I finally become debt free. Now, I thought this in my last diary – Handbags & Gladrags but that became a rambling mess with me adding approx., £5.5K to my debt after paying off over £11K.

So, it’s no more Handbags & Gladrags for Swinstie, it’s all about being But(t) N.A.K.E.D. Now, ladies, small children and animals, do not worry (and sorry any guys out there), but this simply means:

I am Living My Life (in 2010 and beyond) But
Never Again Keeping Enormous Debts!!

I am carrying on with my 3-Point Plan(s) as I have three areas in my life that really need sorting:

Finances - £8,448 as of 1 January 2010, includes £3,930 (Loan) and £4,518 (Credit Cards)
House - Live in a clutter-free, clean, tidy house and take pride in my home
Wellbeing - Get fit, get healthy and enjoy love and life to the MAX!

Plan 1: Finances
I am going to deal with the credit cards first, as the loan is fixed and can’t be over-payed. Currently saving to pay this off either Dec 2010 or March 2011, or let it run its course til March 2012 (I have a feeling I won’t save much paying it off early, but who knows).

I currently pay approx., £400 per month to the CC’s and this should make me debt free by the end of 2010, however, as I added £5.5K to my debt previously (I can account for most of this, i.e. new fridge freezer/laptop etc., but A LOT was frittered away), I am giving myself a safety net of allowing, IF REQUIRED to add £900 - £1000 to my debt for un-expected purchases. Still paying the same amount will take my DFD date to March 2011, which is the utmost last date I will become debt free.

Plan 2: House
I have a lovely but tiny house, with a kitchen, living room, bathroom and of course a bedroom, easy to keep clean you might imagine, eh no! Not with all my clutter and penchant for Handbags & Gladrags. Ideally I wanted the house sparkling by the New Year, in reality, I cannot be ar*sed, so I am vowing that in 2010 my house will be the palace it wants to become and I am going to start with the Bedroom of Doom!

I have followed the Flylady Thread (still try to but can’t keep up), and if I can get one room entirely ‘gutted’ by the New Year, I will be ecstatic.

First job is to deal with the mountain of clothes/shoes/ boots/bags etc., currently residing at the bottom of my wardrobe, try everything on and either give to charity (I can’t EBay – don’t know how) or to my sister and stream-line my wardrobe. One of my challenges next year is to only spend £120 on clothes; this is already down to £102. :rolleyes:

I will tackle one room each week until the whole house is finished, then keep up a daily and weekly ritual of cleaning and tidying, so that I will love my house again.

Plan 3: Wellbeing
I have a very cheap membership of £21.50/month for the gym which I used three times a week! Right now, it’s once a week (if I make the effort). I am not over-weight (by much) but would like to lose 10lbs, taking me to around 9 and a half stone, so will be making the effort to visit the gym at least 2 – 3 times per week – I enjoy it, it’s just the getting there I don’t enjoy!

I am also going to detox (after Hogmanay of course) to try and kick start my healthy eating, cutting down on tea (gradually this time), make healthy cheap dinners, take lunches to work (I spent £4.30 at work today) :mad:

Work hard at my relationship, my weight affects how I feel right now, as I was always ‘skinny’, and this doesn’t bode well when OH sees me N.A.K.E.D.

So, this diary is all about me enjoying life, going out more (cheaply of course), taking pride in my appearance, laughing (even at myself), knowing I don’t need or want the latest gadgets, not being wasteful, being happy and eventually Debt Free!

P.S. Starting this today as it is pay-day!!

mooomin

Happy New Diary :j

EssexHebridean

Woo! New diary! *Subscribes*

Shoe_Gal

:j fab new diary

Great 1st post - very close to my own situation and aspirations for 2010 (except I am single - but it's on my list :rolleyes:)

Will be following you - good luck :A

FeeFee

Got to admire such determination and plans 'pre' xmas and new year!!
:j:jlove it:j:j

Swinstie73

Hi all,

Thanks for posting, always the fear with a new diary - I can hear cries up and down the country, of 'Not another bl**dy diary'

Well as detailed in first post, although it is pay-day today :j but :eek: as it is now 38 days (not that I am counting) until January's pay-day, and my DD's don't come out until 1st Jan onwards, my current debt is at £8,448. I have split this into CC's and Loan (see siggy) as the total was a wee bit too daunting for me.

I have been reading the live on £4K for a year thread and believe that I can live on £3K, which is £250 per month after deducting all essentials. Ok, lock me up now :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Annual Allowance:

Food - £1,080
Toiletries/Hair - £120.00
Mobile - £120.00
Clothing & Footwear - £120.00 (now £102)
Window/Bin Cleaning - £60
Gifts - £420.00
Leisure - £960.00
Misc - £120.00

Total - £3,000

I am keeping a spending diary and will report all expenditure on here to keep me in check.

Spends To Date
£12.30 - Breakfast/Lunch and Jeans (not super cheap ones, just the extra I had to pay to ones I exchanged) :rolleyes:

Cash
£69.05 (Includes £10 contribution from OH to make Xmas Eve dinner)

Bank
£1,857.71 - All Outgoings/Debt Repayments = £565.94


After deducting the rest of my monthly expenditure, I should be left with £397.39 by next pay-day - we'll see :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

mooomin

Swinstie73 wrote: »

Annual Allowance:

Food - £1,080 For how many people?
Toiletries/Hair - £120.00
Mobile - £120.00
Clothing & Footwear - £120.00 (now £102)
Window/Bin Cleaning - £60
Gifts - £420.00 This seems high, what else could you do to reduce? Ideas below!
Leisure - £960.00
Misc - £120.00

In terms of gifts, here are some ideas from me:

1. Utilise vouchers from survey sites (Boring as hell but it does eventually pay out)
2. Stalk the Grabbit and freebies boards for good ideas for gifts
3. Go to the sales. Most of the stuff that I bought for Christmas this year was bought in January :A Set a strict budget for each person and don't go over it. If you go sales crazy then return the stuff you don't want.

Swinstie73

Good idea on the survey sites F_F, will look into them as only do free scratchies and on some bingo sites just now!

Food is for little 'ol me, however OH is down 2 - 3 times a week so make dinner for him also.

Gifts are for Christmas (£300) and Birthdays (£120) for approx 10 people, do you really think this is too much?! Never thought about the sales, maybe I will have to speculate to accumulate!

mooomin

Swinstie73 wrote: »

Good idea on the survey sites F_F, will look into them as only do free scratchies and on some bingo sites just now!

Food is for little 'ol me, however OH is down 2 - 3 times a week so make dinner for him also.

Gifts are for Christmas (£300) and Birthdays (£120) for approx 10 people, do you really think this is too much?! Never thought about the sales, maybe I will have to speculate to accumulate!

*geek alert*

I have a festive spreadsheet which says what I bought for each person. To give you an example...

This year my auntie is getting a Boots set which is a jewellery box with Royal Jelly toiletries. RRP was £20 but I got it in the 75% off sale for £5.

Uncles and Mr Fresian's dad got soapbags from M&S at the same price, again bought in sales.

Mr Fresian's sister got Soap and Glory gloves (For hand cream) which were about £2 reduced (Thanks to the Grabbit thread) and winter gloves from Accessorize which were £1.75 when they reduced things to 75% off.

The spreadsheet for this year will be more sexy and have:

Person
Gift
Price Paid
RRP

This will let me see how much I spent and how much I saved!

Other ideas include the following websites which have "free" books - you just pay £2.65 postage.

https://www.bangzo.com
https://www.snazal.com
https://www.wotnix.com

The free books change daily and I now check it each morning. I have one book for next Christmas already My dad got a Terry Wogan hardback from there for £2.65 and Thorntons chocs for nothing (Free on Boots 3 for 2 gifts)

Don't forget Quidco/Topcashback for your shopping. I use Quidco as although they charge a £5 annual membership I have made £280 this year from them and I prefer the layout of the website!

Hmmm....this is longer than I meant it to be. Hope it's of use!

EssexHebridean

Some cracking ideas there for presents. I have already decided to start putting presents for christmas and birthdays together from the start of this year as christmas has been so much less stressy without the panic about where the money is coming from. We have a family tradition going back since I was tiny of an additional bag of presents to be given out after supper on christmas day - all small, cheap stocking-filler type items, and simply with initials written on the outside so no-one in theory knows who they are from. My aim for next year will be to put as many of these bits together from freebies as possible - should be a fun challenge!

Nottoobadyet

Swinstie73 wrote: »

I am Living My Life (in 2010 and beyond) But
Never Again Keeping Enormous Debts!!

Love it! Subscribing... .