Diary of an Ex-Spendaholic - Sorting it out in 2010

Ex-Spendaholic

Feeling totally demotivated at the minute (which is why I'm posting here to try and get it out of my system). At this point in time I'm very much in limbo with the Egg and Mint debts.

I also don't feel like I'm doing much at the minute to help the debt busting situation. I've run out of steam. I suppose the one positive to focus on is that at least the debt is going down a little and not up.

I really must focus - I must:

Advertise the car

Win something - I'm entering loads of comps to no avail

Come up with a plan to get more work for OH. Have advertised in a local paper but that doesn't appear to be working just yet

Sort out house insurance renewal

I think another part of my demotivation at the minute is the house. Normally I'm a very organised, clutter free type of person. However at the minute things are starting to slide. Having been unwell for a while and totally busy has meant that I haven't kept on top of things like I normally would. I must:

Clear out clothes which the kids have outgrown - charity shop

Clear out toys which the kids have outgrown - freecycle

Do a good tidy up


The above should help improve my mood.

carlos*the*mackem

You haven't run out of steam, you're just 'ticking over'. You'll be back at full throttle before you know it (apologies for the terrible car-related puns)

Ex-Spendaholic

Haven't posted on here in ages which has been due to a number of reasons - lack of time, personal problems, lack of motivation etc. I'm conscious though that I need to put my many financial thoughts down somewhere to stop them keeping me awake at night so here goes. :rotfl:

There is nothing really new. The complaint for charges on OH's egg card has now gone to the Ombudsman. :eek: I have heard nothing else from either Egg or Mint since they sent me copies of the CCAs. I'm not sure whether to ignore them until they chase me for money again or whether to offer a !!!!!!. Will think some more on this.

Otherwise things are going pretty ok. We have had an expensive time recently with a broken washing machine, kid's birthdays etc but can hopefully get back on track now.

I'm revising my list of expenditure as follows:

School Dinners 10 - till end of June
Kids Club/Church Activities 6 - till end of June
Kids Pocket Money 5
Kids Lessons 15 - This will finish at the end of June
Groceries 80 - I am aiming to cut this to 60
Petrol 30 - Unfortunately this needs to increase to 42 :eek:
Gas 30 - Should be able to reduce to 5 from end of March
Electric 20 - Can not get this any lower
Papers (yes I know but its my one vice) 4 - One day I will cancel these and save the £16 per month
Sealed Pot Challenge 7 - This is going really well
Other 43 - Changes above have increased this to 73 - will stick with this towards cost of holiday etc

From the end of June I will no longer be paying £15 per week on a child's lesson. Also my youngest should be out of nappies so I should save £6 per week on that. An insurance I pay by DD of £13 per month will finish, the kids activities of £6 per week will finish for summer as will the school dinners of £10 per week. In addition to this I should be drastically reducing the gas. When this is all added up I reckon there should be £261 per month less going out. I know of course that kids cost money over the summer but at least it will come out of what I'm saving. Of course the gas and school costs etc will return in September.

I'm very determined to reduce the groceries. I had been spending £100 on Asda online once a week. The last order was £60 and that was 2 weeks ago so it shows that I don't need to order £100 every week.

From beginning of April we should receive tax credits of somewhere in the region of £200-£250 every 4 weeks too so this will be a tremendous help.

Have been doing a bit of decluttering. Got rid of the cot, highchair, dolls pram etc on freecycle. Also have a couple of binbags of clothes to go to the school and also a couple of binbags of junk for their summer sale.

Still haven't advertised the car. :mad:

carlos*the*mackem

Nice to have you back! :j

What about reading newspapers online? All the dailies have websites. That way, you could save the cash, but still get your daily 'fix'

Ex-Spendaholic

Feeling quite positive today for the first time in ages. :beer:

Have £11.78 still left in the electric meter and £57 in the gas meter to carry over into the new month. Both of these are a miracle.

Have opened a Principality e-saver today after reading about them on here. :j You can have separate pots of money on it. This will allow me to do nerdy things like have pots for car tax, car insurance, house insurance, TV licence, holiday, emergencies etc. Ideally I would like to put money in each of these pots each month so that when the bills come in I can pay them all in one go rather than direct debit instalments which costs more.

Have had a No Spend Day.

Have sent letters to 20 local letting agents advertising OH's business. Maybe a little bit of work will come that way.

Kids are off for Easter now. I'm working the next couple of days and then I'll be off too. They won't cost me anything until at least Thursday and at that stage I'm going to dream up free/low cost activities for them - visits to the museum etc.

My competition wins have totally dried up, its been 8 weeks. Will be plugging away at it for the month of Easter and if no success will cut down a bit.

carlos*the*mackem

Ex-Spendaholic wrote: »

Feeling quite positive today for the first time in ages. :beer:

Glad to hear it; well done you! :T

Ex-Spendaholic

Off work now until 20 April. :j :j Need to find MSE things to do with the kids between now and when they return to school. The weather is woeful so parks, beaches etc a bit unlikely.

Had an expenses payment of £38.38 from work today. I rounded it up to £40.00 and transferred it into the Principality e-saver. This account is my new obsession. I split it between the holiday fund and the car insurance which will be due 1 October.

Quidco are sending me a whopping £1.87. I'll send this to the e-saver too.

Had a little spare left over from last month (a miracle in itself) so used this to pay off the insurance policy I'd been paying at £13 per month. This will free up £13 a month (funnily enough)

Also had a NSD. :j

Ex-Spendaholic

Just a few wee things I need to do over the next few days:


Phone Tax Credits. They had told me to ring back at beginning of April to make a new claim. :j - Done but need to call back again after 5 April when the new system is up and running

List that sodding car on gumtree. Some day I will actually do this. :eek:

Do an Asda online order. Have got this down from £100 to £62 and would love to reduce it even further this week. - Actually realised I had enough in the house to not bother with an order this week.


Sort our new PJs and socks for the kids. - Done

Do a clear out in DD1's room. She has way too much stuff :eek: - Half Done

Get DS to sort out his room. I'm sure there are far too many clothes in there which will never be worn again. :eek: -Done

Potty train DD2. This will mean I'll not only save the nappy money but I also won't be running about in the evenings to Tesco to buy nappies as I've mysteriously ran out.

Ex-Spendaholic

Happy Easter everyone. Having a cheap Easter - 3 Eggs at £1 each. :rotfl: Today was a NSD.

Hoping the weather stays like it was today so that we can go to the farm with the kids. Won a family ticket in a competition a few months back so this will be free. :j Also planning a few other non/low cost trips this week.


With school being off this week I saved £15 on a lesson, £10 on school dinners, £3 on swimming, £2 on milk bar money. :eek: I have transferred this to the Principality e-saver and will split between the holiday fund and the car insurance due October.


Comping like mad this evening, I will win stuff for people's birthdays/christmas or to sell. :beer:

Ex-Spendaholic

Totally fallen off the wagon. The kids needed new clothes and they got them. In total we've spent about £200 :eek: but that will do them for a long time hopefully. You just wouldn't see money.


Need OH back at work on Monday and kids back at school. When they aren't around money doesn't get spent. I have next week off as well as this week. :j