board of just surviving !! help !!

babie_gurl

thanks carra wow 4 kids !! you must be super organised!!

angelfacecuti75

Hiya,
I am a young mum and still have trouble with debt - but a few things I have noticed here that may be practical tips to help u:
- look for 2 for one vouchers for eating out, places that maybe closer to ur work - there may not be one near u but subway do some great voucher deals they often post through ur door - or switch to cheaper options like buying stuff from supermarket or easy stuff like soup and bread if u cant be bothered to do sandwiches everyday.
- save on ur shopping bill, bleach is bleach whether its flash or tesco, beans are beans whether its value or heinz - u get the pic!
- try and switch ur internet provider - i only pay £30 a month for phone and internet so thats a lot for just internet!
- look for cheaper places to go out ie pizza express do rele good deals/ pizza hut £4 menu/ or £7 weeknight menu (google it its good)
-just a tip from me: getting a water meter esp if u use a lot can be a mistake, as u end up paying more.
- drinking out is high - are there no cheaper places u cud go - ie go on special nights, drink at home before u go (much cheaper - know this from when i was a student)
- shopping fix - try and get something for free always! like free samples in magazines
- beauty fix - could u not try a trainee salon for things that dont 'matter' as much like manucures? an eyebrow wax could be maintained at home, after getting a professional to do it first - and diy treatments are just as good sometimes (sanctuary body wrap has saved me about £100 so far...)
make ur sandwiches, be creative in ur looks for places to go, find something cheaper in 2 for one vouchers, at home hairdressers and beauticans are often a lot cheaper and just as good or beauty schools are often good.
The site magicfreebies is also good for freebies and i sometimes find its nice getting something other than a bill thru my door.

1stdayofmylife wrote: »

I am relatively new to this as well, but in the same situtation as you. I have made some comments, hope they help.

QUOTE=babie gurl;discussion/2401867]Hi everyone
thanks for looking at my diary !!!
i am probably horrifieing you all i know !!
i love making money but i seam to love the spending too !!
I WOULD LOVE TO SORT MYSELF OUT SO I CAN ENJOY MY CASH !!!!
i seam to spend out of bordom !! yet i never realy get to do the things i would like to because of the silly spending i turned thirty this year and i think its about time to enjoy life but i also wanna be debt free !!!
my worst spend is food i get bord at work so i go out and eat!! im board at home so i go out and eat !! although i must say a waste alot due to i never know what you can freeze or keep so i chuck it !!
any how i know your all fab at this so give me anything you think might help !!
ohh just to let ya know im single and have no kids so all this is spent on just me !!
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,550.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
ebay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.78 This is very high what does it include, can you look at reducing?
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 This is high per month, especially as it doesn't seem to include heating. Check comparison sites and use cashback site to switch.
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 Do you have a water meter? If not and you live alone look at getting one fitted.
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.28
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.49
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00 This is quite high for one person. I aim for 120 a month and this is much higher than many people on here. Have a look at OS board.
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.00
heating token . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.04
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.63
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171.65
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 This is a lot especially considering food bill can you reduce, drink soft drinks etc.
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 Look for 2-4-1 vouchers, reduce frequency.
mobile insurence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00 Is this worthwhile?
laptop in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00 as above
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.33
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Can you reduce for a few months? It would be better spent on debt re-payment.
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.33
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 As Christmas
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 This is alot can you reduce only buy for close family?
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187.50 Stop this, take packed lunches, or just do once a week. Throw the extra money at your debts.
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.67 as meals at work

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,558.33

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,624

Hope my comments help, there are plenty of places where you can reduce to make your outgoings meet your incomings and further places to reduce if you want to throw extra money at your debts.

Good luck.[/QUOTE]

babie_gurl

ohh so many ideas so i went to aldi today as i pass it from work most evenings but i dont think its that cheep ! although i did get some washing up liquid 59pcorned beef 99pand seedless grapes69p
then went to morrisons where they were much cheeper 30p for potatoes so im gonna make spicy wedges with these bought stuff to make chilli for dinner at work tommorow!also bought kiwis and pears for 30p anyone know anything intresting todo with these? maybe ill make smoothy for bfast.

nanna58

Valued oppinins pay vouchers i just had 20.00 for survays .
i am sure you are beautifull enough without neeing to spend 50.00.

Fire_Fox

Get rid of that mobile phone and laptop insurance, if you read the small print you are very limited on what you are covered for - bet you would not be covered for butter on your handset! Ring your contents insurance provider and look at accidental damage and/ or contents away from home which should be cheaper than £16 a month and provide better cover.

Other than that you seem to have a really positive attitude and open mind so I think you will do great. Instead of entertaining yourself spending, entertain yourself on MSE, there are sooooo many boards to read and ways to make or save money. Some of the boards are really sociable too, there is a 'Single and in debt' thread on the DFW diaries and a Singles thread in the Arms, both are just chatty not chat up IYSWIM.

babie_gurl

gosh ive been soooooo busy im addicted to this site!! well i have switched one of my cards balence to another from 28% to 9% this means i pay about the same per month but its more off the balence not just the interest !!
ebayed a dress i bought for a conference for work ( worn once!)sold for £65
me and my sis were going to take a trip in nov to america as a bday treat ( was going to pay by card ! i know!!) but instead i have booked us a room in london waterloo for £19 travil lodge room sale and booked tickets for wicked £30 for both on last minuet.com just need to get us some cheep train tickets which i have put my name on the trainline .com so they will email me when some come up amazing my dress paid for our bday treat and i also have £29 of tesco clubcard vouchers was saving them for xmas but everyone has said im better using them on tesco deals so thats my mission for tommorow to see what i can get for the trip !!
also supposed to be going on a night out with my friend but im going to see if there is anything we can do thats cheeper normaly we spend £20 on tickets for comerdy club then £30 + on other stuff e.g food ,drink ect im sure there is something else we can do !!

challenges is food i have taken food on a couple of days but i think i need to think about this more i need a weekly meal plan !! im sure it will be easyer when i do my monthly shop i can look at this tommorow ! but dont get paid till end of month so i will have to try to use what i have!

now my friend is having an engagement party what should i get her dont want to spend a fortune but i dont want to look tight! normaly im very generous !! any ideas welcome !!

bluebag

Hiya babie gurl,
Glad to see you're beginning to get your head round all this, it can be a bit of information overload at first!
Can you take left overs into work for lunch? Easy to do and doesn't take much planning. My dd takes those individual sachets of flavoured chocolate or coffe instead of doing the starbucks run .. about 28p a cup they do flavours like brownie,moccha,vanilla, mint and even turkish delight.

For gifts I generally give the young 'uns a gift voucher for £20 from the post office, it can be spent in loads and loads of high street shops. If it's a very special occasion add a bottle of cava or whatever fizzy plonk on offer at tesco and a box of chocs also on offer, thorntons have been doing some for £3.50 lately. Get some multicolored tissue from the pound shop and your good to go. They all seem to be well recieved and cost less than £30.
Happy debt busting.
bb

bluebag

Forget my head if it wasn't attached! Check out your local college for beauty stuff, my daughter is a trainee beauty therapist and they are screaming out for clients, most treatments are less than half price.
My other daughter has just found a pay as you go gym, might be worth checking to see if there is one near you.
This isn't about doing without, it's about doing smarter.
bb

GEEGEE8

Good luck babie gurl.. you certainly like your shopping

Think of all that money you can save, pay off credit cards eventually and save up for a nice holiday, new car, deposit for your own house..

Think of something you want to save for and focus on that when you are saving that money.. x

babie_gurl

thanks bb and geegee i did ring my local college but they were not very helpfull! they said they didnt know what treatments were avalable but my friend said they had just moved in to a new bulding so that might be why ill try again next week !
thanks for the motivation you guys are fab !! xx:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T