My Debt-Free-Wannabe Diary

DontDoDebtKids

OK. Having posted a thread on the main DFW board asking people how they record their daily spending, I discovered that small paper spending diaries were the most successful.

I looked around for something suitable and nothing small enough to be carried around at all times was to be found. So, I have behaved in what I believe to be a true DFW style and made my own! :money:

Method:

1. Take two sheets of A4 plain paper.

2. Fold in half twice and then unfold. You should now have two sheets of paper with fold lines dividing them horizontally and vertically into four corner sections.

3. Using some scissors, cut along these fold lines so that you end up with eight pieces of paper.

4. Stack these pieces of paper

5. Fold the stack.

6. Using a stapler, staple twice along the fold line to create your very own spending diary!

7. Head each page with a date.

Mine now lasts until 23 August, so will report back then with my summary of spending (to be reprimanded by the forum gods) and my updated statement of affairs. See you then!

For further moneysaving, use two dates per page!!! :T

DontDoDebtKids

Had an expensive few days unfortunately, spending a whopping £444.18 :eek:

No spend day on the 26th :T

Main expense was to buy flights to get to my cousin's wedding in August which, after much grinding of teeth, I decided had to be gone to. Cost £306.80. One good thing, however, is that once a MSW gift has been found there shouldn't be any more spending associated with the wedding :beer:

So, "normal" spending was £137.38 - still more than normal as I went out on Friday AND Saturday. Going out cost £84.45 this week.

I had lunch at work once - cost £1.70 - and bought my car a tank of petrol - cost £49.03 - as well as my bike a new battery - cost £2.20 - for its speedo.

Spending Summary

Going Out : £84.45
Petrol : £49.03
Lunches : £1.70
Holidays : £306.80
Misc : £2.20

Total : £444.18

Not expecting any more big spends this week, however, so looking forward to a few no spend days this week and this weekend.

Wish me luck!

DontDoDebtKids

I was reading another thread over at the Motley Fool where advice was being given to a DFW fool about spending diaries.

The advice was to start one where you mark down how much you have in your bank account in one column and keep a running total "cash" figure in that column alongside the list of everything you spend.

I thought this was a good idea.

Now, as I've said earlier, my problem is spending too much on stuff. So, I've started a spending diary as suggested. But I need to know when to stop spending and how close to my limit I am.

Now, I've started my diary so I'm not going to start a new one until I run out of space. But, I will make a mental note to keep tally relative to my spending allowance of £714.67 per month.

So, in effect, I have spent so far this month £444.18 of my £672.67 (allocated £714.67 but have to pay for mobile phone etc. (£42 a month) leaving £672.67 available as my maximum monthly spend).

So, I have £228.49 left this "month" ending 27th August or £57.12 a week. :eek:

gallygirl

Your problem is also spending £84.85 on going out!!!!!:eek: :eek: :eek:

Stop it at once!!!!!!

One tip I found useful when keeping a debt diary was to go through and colour each entry in red, orange or green. Green - necessary and cheapest, orange necessaryish and almost cheapest, red.......... well, that's what teh £84.85 would be!!!!!

BTW - that £84.85 would have knocked 3 days off your debt free date.........

Loved the expensive diary!!!!

DontDoDebtKids

ali007 wrote:

Your problem is also spending £84.85 on going out!!!!!:eek: :eek: :eek:

Thurs 27th - went out to pub to celebrate friend's graduation (£16.70)
Fri 28th - went out in London (£57.25)
Sat 29th - went to Ascot (£9.50)
Sun 30th - went to Beach (£1.40 on ice cream)

I think that the bad :mad: activity can be attributed to Friday. It was something I wanted to do for some time and the opportunity came up but, other than that feeble excuse, I can't really defend spending that much.

I don't want to miss things like a friend's graduation and the other two things were cheap to DFW things and that lot only cost me £27.20.

£57.25, however, is lots I agree.

ali007 wrote:

Stop it at once!!!!!!

I'll try...

ali007 wrote:

One tip I found useful when keeping a debt diary was to go through and colour each entry in red, orange or green. Green - necessary and cheapest, orange necessaryish and almost cheapest, red.......... well, that's what teh £84.85 would be!!!!!

I'll try that. I'll try and dig out some coloured pens when I get home tonight.

ali007 wrote:

BTW - that £84.85 would have knocked 3 days off your debt free date.........

REALLY? Cripes!:eek: See what I mean about me needing to wean myself off spending on "stuff"? Thanks for the motivation boost.

ali007 wrote:

Loved the expensive diary!!!!

I've discovered an added bonus - it fits in my wallet where my notes go so I see it every time I spend anything which reminds me to fill it in! :T

gallygirl

Maybe instead of colouring over you should keep a red green and orange pen in your purse and write in at the time - probably stop you buying red things :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

DontDoDebtKids

ali007 wrote:

Maybe instead of colouring over you should keep a red green and orange pen in your purse and write in at the time - probably stop you buying red things :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

:rolleyes: I hardly ever carry a pen on me so I tend to borrow one when I need to write in my diary - so it's pot luck at the moment!

DDDK

DontDoDebtKids

I'm really getting into this DFW business! I wish I'd started a diary when I first had my lightbulb moment. It really helps to break your thoughts down for other people because you can think these things to yourself then never actually DO them!!! :mad:

The situation at the moment

I've had a no spend day today :A and am feeling motivated to clear my debt but it all seems to be going so slowly. I like to be active, have ideas and, most importantly, DO THINGS.

Apart from anything else, I've set myself the target of clearing one of my credit cards by October. That's soon really!

So, it looks like I need to do something. Bring on:

The Capital One Challenge

Now, the payment comes out of my bank account on the 20th of the month, so I have until then in reality. That's exactly 79 days to clear £3,200. I'm already paying £100ish a month in minimum payments, so will make one payment this month, one payment in September and my FINAL payment in October. £300 off £3,200 is £2,900 that needs to be found in 79 days. I have £452.93 "excess" cash to pay off this debt so that's £1,358.79 over three months.

The target

This leaves £1,541.21 to raise in 79 days.

That means I need to either shave £1,541.21 off my spending over three months or generate that much extra income.

Breaking that down into something more tangible, that's roughly £19.51 to raise/save a day or £136.56 a week.

What can I do?

I'm probably going to need to do some research and ask for your advice here! Some thoughts:

Ideas:

1) Ebay stuff

I have lots of what is in effect "rubbish" or stuff that I no longer need. I might round some of it up to put up on ebay. It's hard to know what I might need in the future, however. What I don't want to do is get rid of something that I then might purchase again in the future and "lose" money...

Saying that, maybe that's just a lame excuse to not get rid of stuff that is in reality cluttering up my very small house!

2) Use Quidco to earn money

This is quite fun but there is lots of what can only be termed "lag" in the "earning" and actual receiving of cold hard cash. Still, not to be sniffed at since then now offer a BACS transfer option I see.

3) Re-start my matched betting

This definately has the potential to earn £136.56 a week. Easy! It's just such a hard thing to sit down and start doing. Once you've started, it's like riding a bike (carefully). But it's not my favourite thing to do after a day at work. Sitting on the sofa, for instance, is much more appealing. Now it's not so hot, I don't mind so much I suppose.

DontDoDebtKids

Signed up for Blockbuster Video last night earning £7.50 on Quidco. Also, did a search for cars and earned 4p - every little helps I suppose!

So, I need to earn £31.48 today to catch up with my £19.51 a day.

I've noticed that you get £50 for changing current accounts to Alliance & Leicester and £50 for signing up to a new bookie, Unibet, through Quidco. That will sort today and 3 1/2 more days...

Edit: Just applied for an Alliance & Leicester Current Account to replace my First Direct Current Account for a few months, earning myself £50 on Quidco. So I've earned my £19.51 for yesterday and today and I have earned £18.52 towards tomorrow's £19.51 (leaving £1.03 to earn tomorrow). Yay!

Further Edit Have noticed that Quidco offer £66 for an Alliance & Leicester Personal Loan at a cheaper rate than my Egg Loan. I don't think I should apply for this though, as I don't think my credit rating can stand it!!!

Update Just got an e-mail from A&L saying they've accepted me for their current account! Yay! I also did another car search and a few other searches and the car search has already shown up as another 4p.

Correction: Got my Capital One Bill in today and the balance outstanding is £3,260.68 and the next minimum payment is £97.82.

As I needed to set up the payment details for Capital One in my HSBC account to enable overpayments, I paid off the 68p!!!!!! Only £3,260 to go...

DontDoDebtKids

Signed up for Unibet last night through Quidco and got my £50 referral as well as £10.62 from a quick matched bet :j

So my running total is:

Blockbuster £7.50
Alliance & Leicester £50
Unibet £50 + £10.62 = £60.62
Kelkoo, The High Street Web & Carsource = 26p

Total: £118.38
Capital One Balance: £3,260 :eek:
Days remaining: 77 days to go...:cool:

So that's £19.26 a day as my target!