Reformed shopaholic? please can you give me the benefit of your advice

CompletelyLost

Anglea - I'm not sure I could ever do my spending diary on paper... it would take so long to add it all up. Good luck with it anyway! I'll be back later to check out your totals. Are you just adding up your unnecessary spends, or all of your spends? It's funny how we feel as though we spend more than we do! I was the same - almost relieved when I saw my mere £600 of wasted money :S It's all the returns I do that have broguht my total down...

As for the toiletries, I don't store mine in the bathroom either as family would probably use them. Mine are all kept in my wardrobe.

Frogletina - that's v true about the price of drinks in pubs. I'm the same though - I only ever have one or two soft drinks if I go out (my friends aren't really clubbers, more the type who like to go to restaurants or quiet pubs for a chat). I think it must be very easy to get into debt if you're someone with a busy social life (drinks, cinema tickets, meals, etc... they're all expensive). I know people who think nothing of spending £50+ on nights out.

NGlady2

Good evening

Well I have had a pretty good day today - I returned some shoes I brought from the internet the other week for £30. Brought a lovely blazer for £7, treated deman to dinner £14, bus fare £4. some sweets £2 and im happy with my little spend, need to get into habbit of eating at home more. also paid parking £4 as deman is a little on the skintside at the moment as he spent a fortune on me for xmas, so until 19th I am going to be splashing on him

Re toilleterie (can never spell this word, it varies so often lol) stuff, I have a cupboard in my bathroom which is unfortunatly overflowing with stuff i know ill never use, thing is, you can put them all in bin bags etc but the bins only get emptied fortnightly so have to be careful when having clear outs.

I know what you mean about spending more/less than you think, sometimes im convinced i've spent a fortune but i've only spent a few quid, other time.. its like money just evaperates lol.

I've never been a big clubber either, I absoloutly love country pub style beers

Anglea

Hi all

You'll have to wait a lot longer CL for my figures. Got into a mess :mad:

You wouldn't believe that I used to do all the finances for charities would you?

I think the current trouble is that after doing the receipts and totals in one notebook I'm now adding them to the proper book, my Dairy Diary to be precise (that's really good with tons of info on lots of subjects in case anyone's interested as well as weekly recipes).

Problems -1. the pen smudged :mad: then on the pre-printed monthly budget pages there are all loads of categories most of which aren't suitable, so I'm changing the words and 6 months across 2 pages, so loads of space for mistakes :mad: which I made

When I finally finish writing all this up, I will then go through all my papers and find all the utility bills and write them up too.

For 2011, I'll probably buy a ledger as I imagine getting into problems on those forms again I like doing it by hand, hate the idea of a computer.

I'll return tomorrow and comment on your posts girls.

Frogletina

Hi Anglea

I've currently got everything on excel spreadsheets but for years I've had hardbacked books and written everything in them. I have been meaning to transfer the information into the books and currently have them sitting beside me but it is quite a task.

Take your time to get a system that suits you - I've spent many a time with a pencil and ruler to create columns that work for me! And maybe do a trial one before you commit to your ledger, or at least draft it in pencil. Once you have decided on the best way for you, and entered your existing data, it will be easier to update on a daily or weekly basis.

I find it quite theraputic to put everything down - and the thrill of writing down a no spend day, or adding up savings is far better than looking at what I have spent

NGlady2

Morning girlies- its my final day off work today had ten days off for xmas this year, and have to say i've loved every minute. Did intend to have a big tidy out, never doned that! and do some NVQ work, again didnt do - but I relaxed, spent time with people i love and thats more important.

Me and Deman have set ourselves a NSD challange. Dinner where he works is so cheap like 2 pounds for a full meal and a dessert so he isnt including dinner in challange or petrol. Im including everything but travel. Demans going for 5 im going for 8 - wish us luck!

NGlady2

Well, I am very pleased with myself I have been to morrisons and I have brought ten frozen meals for about £11 - half price so they are quite decent ones they all contain about 6grams of fat, and was about a £1.10 each. I am taking these to work with me every day from now, so going by what I normally spend at work im going to save £2.50ish on food and if I manage to avoid the expensive ribena drinks (£1.30 each!!) I could save a nice amount.
Over a 20 day working month- this would equate to £76 savings! in four months £300 and that will pay for me to go back to Tunisia this year with hopefully a little slimmer to go with it
perfection!
If this works for these 10 days, I am going to go every payday and look for a low fat option (theres normally one in one of the main supermarkets!) and stock up on 20 meals That way itll always be there and I wont have any excuse.
Considering only taking £2 to work with me also each day that way ill be more careful.

CompletelyLost

Hi all,

NG I think I know the meals you mean in Morrisons, as we got some last week. Are they the healthy ones... we had the tikka masala with rice, and it was quite nice. They had a chicken pasta bake and others, too. Good luck to you and DEman - you should get him to join here, he sounds like a bit of a MSE'r himself! Enjoy your final day off work... can imagine the feeling of having to go back after such a long break

Anglea: Don't worry, I can wait for you to put me to shame... lol. I couldn't deal with paper records - I would hate to have to add everything up by hand. My spreadsheet does most of it for me.

Well, I'm going for my first proper shopping outing in two weeks. Going to have a look at the sales at the big retail park.. quite looking forward to it. Hopefully there won't be any impulse purchases.

Anglea

Hi all

NGlady you sound very determined and positive with your new perspective on NSD's and meals at work.

CL you know I have my eye on you so be careful what you buy :rotfl:

Frogletina I had a quick look at excel just to see what it was all about but couldn't get it going e.g. I named column A as clothes, B as something else etc but only the clothes name was coming out.

Yes I will have to experiment with the categories which I'm going to make as simple as possible because nowadays I have a habit of wanting everything perfect - so it becomes too complicated to even begin. Also remember to use pencils not pens when I finally get going.

Like now I'm wondering whether to do the ledger at all or just write how much I spend each day because that way I'll hopefully remember eating out. I have a feeling I'm going to get obsessive about it and never even start!

Tomorrow I'm going to the city for a medical appt, so hopefully look round at something (accounts book? ) originally I wanted to look at clothes but already WHSmiths and bookshops are calling out to me.

Yesterday I was going out and left my bedroom with heaps of clothes on there as nothing looked right :mad: when I put it on. I might be going out in a few weeks to a 'do' for my son and am horrified by the clothes scenario. Pity it's not fancy dress so I can cover myself in books.:(

What I don't understand is I see people twice the size of me yet they can find nice clothes to fit them, jeans etc. Yet I'm in clothes hell.

NGlady2

Angela - please don't take offence by this. But are you looking in the right shops for your age? I know that my mum used to be a Dorothy perkins girl but then she got a little older, and has since started finding more things to suit her in the likes of Debenhams etc. Or.. how about ordering a bunch of stuff from additions direct, have it on a credit account just for a week or so and then you have the comfort of your own home your own accessories etc to make a informed decision about whats good for you? I hate changing rooms, I always melt under the lights when you have made your decision just pay from there.

I am a preferer to have a note pad with everything I spend wrote down - its staring at me at the moment " dinner" "bus fare" etc! it just makes my spending seem a little real. That and I only had a trial with microsoft for two months on my laptop and despite budgeting to buy it each month I always buy something else

Hope everythings ok with the medical appointment Angela.

Yep CL - I have my eyes on you too Sounds a bit kettle calling pot black (is that the saying?!) with me watching for any silly spends with you when I ll probs go out later myself and not think twice about buying something stupid ill never use!

Deman - Well, he has to watch his money so in a way he is pretty MSE but in many ways hes not, he will spend now and think later though he doesnt have a huge amount of debt. Such as xmas, he thought oh he can afford XYZ for everybody now its two weeks before his payday and hes skinto, I don't mind though as I had some amazing xmas gifts I brought a lot of mine using the debenhams voucher grabbit (no minimum spend one!) and spent 37 lol. But even that annoys me, cos if i had of thought this out a little better, probs much like you girlies would have, made myself not buy anything for me, I could have got so much more gifts for people rather than bits i didnt actually need. Ah wells.

Deman isnt joining us - where else will I moan about him annonymously

Frogletina

Hi Anglea

Just showing you how I sort my finances out - I first work out my budget (usually 3 months ahead - a lot of bills change in April)

I duplicate this list and head that one 'actual'

I do a daily list as I spend and show what individual budget they come out of.

At the end of the day I total these up under housekeeping and personal, and other lists as appropriate. At the end of the month I transfer totals to the actual list and check I have not gone over budget.


Budget/Actual (2 separate lists)

january

Tv Licence
Home insurance
Water rates
Electricity
Gas
Maintenance
Telephone
Mobile
Council Tax
Travel (bus pass)
Housekeeping
Personal
adhoc travel
presents

Total ............





Daily log

Purchases January which budget?

(write down as you go throughout your day - eg, I might put down Sainsbury's and have to look later to split between personal/h/k and presents) no problem amending it if in a notebook


Housekeeping budget actual spend NSD

1st January Sunday

2nd January Monday

etc


Personal budget actual spend NSD

1st January Saturday

2nd January Sunday

etc



Presents

date present who for cost



I have this all on spreadsheets but can easily be done on paper