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

NGlady2

Hi all - just sharing a thought with you all regarding my over spending all the time on clothes:

If I round it up to £2000 - which ill be honest, wouldnt be much more than I do spend each year. Over the four years since i left school, I would have £8000 - which is shockingly the same price as the brand new car im perving when i pass my driving test.

That put me into prospective.

Considering going through my bank statement for the last four years - but i wont because
A: itll be far too time consuming
B: I purchased in asdas etc so i wouldnt know whats not and what was for clothes etc
C: itd upset me lol.

I am buying some 'stickers' for my diary (sad.. but i love stickers!) and in my 'date planner' section, I am going to put a lovely little sticker everytime I get a 'nsd' - when i achieve a reasonable amount of 'NSD' I am going to have a treat. the amount of stickers required will vary on the treat. For example: My holiday in April, is going to cost me 100 nsd etc, which is the amount I do budget for a work day being around £4 a day, because thats not subsidised. Ooooo and also a sticker for each time I make a 'debt repayment' - with a reward when everytime the 'debt pots' are finished

ooo I feel a child again with my stickers!!

I didnt buy lunch at work for two months november/december - and I saved a lot of money.

20 work days a month is £80 - thats NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY POUNDS PER YEAR

I was putting this into a different account for a xmas party outfit to be 'free' - maybe i should consider continueing with this idea, and only spending on clothes what I would be spending on food at work.

NGlady2

By the way girlies,

Would anybody be interested in making a 'facebook group' - you can make it completely private, so nothing you write in the group can be seen by anbody out of the group. So basically, no prying eyes can see anything you've written. Also only 'invited' people can join, so there would be no risk there either.

It may be beneficial if were wanting to write stuff that we want to put on here but the whole world not to see.

I have a few of these groups open with people from previous forums and they do work really well.

Frogletina

NGlady2 wrote: »

Hi all - just sharing a thought with you all regarding my over spending all the time on clothes:

If I round it up to £2000 - which ill be honest, wouldnt be much more than I do spend each year. Over the four years since i left school, I would have £8000 - which is shockingly the same price as the brand new car im perving when i pass my driving test.

That put me into prospective.

Considering going through my bank statement for the last four years - but i wont because
A: itll be far too time consuming
B: I purchased in asdas etc so i wouldnt know whats not and what was for clothes etc
C: itd upset me lol.

I am buying some 'stickers' for my diary (sad.. but i love stickers!) and in my 'date planner' section, I am going to put a lovely little sticker everytime I get a 'nsd' - when i achieve a reasonable amount of 'NSD' I am going to have a treat. the amount of stickers required will vary on the treat. For example: My holiday in April, is going to cost me 100 nsd etc, which is the amount I do budget for a work day being around £4 a day, because thats not subsidised. Ooooo and also a sticker for each time I make a 'debt repayment' - with a reward when everytime the 'debt pots' are finished

ooo I feel a child again with my stickers!!

I didnt buy lunch at work for two months november/december - and I saved a lot of money.

20 work days a month is £80 - thats NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY POUNDS PER YEAR

I was putting this into a different account for a xmas party outfit to be 'free' - maybe i should consider continueing with this idea, and only spending on clothes what I would be spending on food at work.

The big numbers are really scary when looking at them in hindsight.

Stickers - lol. What ever helps is a good idea. Did I tell you I had a birthday card from my ex-partner with Thomas the tank stickers. He sent me an email yesterday saying it was to remind me of the Talallyn railway where we went on holiday. I thought that was sweet of him.

But back to finances. NSD's are really good way to cut down on spending, I haven't spent all week - well, I've not been out all week either, but may force myself to go out today. But it sounds a good idea to use a number of NSD's to spend on other things. Personally I want to spend only £100 a month on food - and less if I can to begin with because of the stocks of food I have in the house.

I'm thinking of listing the food and drink I have out of the house separately - I know I spend a lot in Costa but that is because I see my daughter there every week and pay for the two of us and sometimes food. It adds up really quickly. But I haven't budgeted for that - maybe it should be out of what is left from the food budget?

Will put the final touches to my budget over the next two days.

Frogletina

NGlady2 wrote: »

By the way girlies,

Would anybody be interested in making a 'facebook group' - you can make it completely private, so nothing you write in the group can be seen by anbody out of the group. So basically, no prying eyes can see anything you've written. Also only 'invited' people can join, so there would be no risk there either.

It may be beneficial if were wanting to write stuff that we want to put on here but the whole world not to see.

I have a few of these groups open with people from previous forums and they do work really well.

Will send you a PM

ziggles50

Hey NG that is some mad demotivation. If if did that with mindless spending (especially when i'm broke) i would weep!
i am also a bit disappointed in myself in that i don't really know how bad things are except for what i put on my cc. I will have to seriously stop editing my budget or better my spends inputting.
I will also have to spend more time on here being mse instead of talking rubbish. I'm just as bad on a diet site i am on too!
I'll also PM you NG!

CompletelyLost

Anglea: yep, matched betting is done online. The Gambling forum here on MSE explains everything far better than I ever could It's worth doing though.

NG, I like the sound of the facebook group. Have PM'd you.

freeoffers

Anglea wrote: »

I am going to blow your cover as this isn't the kind of post I imagined when you said you were going to make some comments on this thread.

Very boring :rotfl:

Blow my cover??
Whatever do you mean Anglea?
Just making what I thought might have been a helpful comment. Thanks to Frogletina for the kind words. In the true spirit of this thread I've decided to have another look at my online order with Tesco later, too many cakes and biscuits on there. Might have to overlook the copious amounts of chocolate I've ordered though.
I'll say an early happy new year to everyone here.
_party_

freeoffers

CompletelyLost wrote: »

Anglea: yep, matched betting is done online. The Gambling forum here on MSE explains everything far better than I ever could It's worth doing though.

NG, I like the sound of the facebook group. Have PM'd you.

I did a whole month of matched betting during the 2010 World Cup. Its a little fiddly but it does make money. Well worth checking out the gambling threads. The only downside is that I still get emails and mail form betting companies.

Frogletina

Just to update you all

My son has had his operation now and should be discharged tomorrow. However it was more complicated than anticipated - I will know more after a phonecall at 10pm tonight

Anglea

Hi FR

I really hope everything will turn out well.

Food - I had a comfort eating session - crackers, Christmas cake and stollen with thick marge, at least it wasn't butter.The type where you stand at the worktop and stuff in anything you can get your hands on and two seconds later you can't even remember eating.

.I have a few ways to get rid of any excess weight quite fast but need to get into the right mindset again.

NGlady - you've very brave to face your expenses like that and using stickers is a really good idea. Are you still bringing in your own drinks like you mentioned before?

CL and FRF. thanks for the info about matched betting.

Freeoffers in your post you said you had put on a lot of weight. I hope that apart from cutting out cakes and biscuits from your online shopping you will change your mind and also remove all the chocolate too. Your g/f might not like the chubby new you