My first spending diary

specialhat

Hello! Well, I've just experienced my first month of consciously trying to Live Below my Means to try and get out of debt. I kept a spending diary and wrote down every little thing I spent my cash on. What an eye-opener! (If this is the wrong forum, please tell me!)

Background info: I am a 24 year old journalist (hence rubbish pay) and live in Zone 3 London, but work in another city 25 miles away. My landlords are my parents and I rent my 1-bed flat from them (for a very reasonable price) and live alone.

My total debt is 5,172.44 (for details see below).

Sorry, it's an extremely long post!



SPENDING DIARY #1 JULY 15 - AUG 15 (a day early because I'm busy tomorrow!)

Opening current account balance: +81.76

INCOME this month

Wage: 1045.92
Expenses: 40
Transfer from savings account: 20
Gift from grandparents: 20
Petrol from dad: 13 (he topped up my tank when I visited and gave it a carwash! J)
Money owed to me by friend, paid back: 10
Penny jar: 7
Ebay cheques: 10.83

Total: 1166.75
Total balance available: 1248.51


OUTGOINGS

Rent: 425
TV licence quarterly bill: 30.25
Canteen bill from June-July: 15.04
Final balance owed to friend for holiday: 26
Savings account (for quarterly bills): 20
Internet: 14.99

Minimum debt servicing:
Egg card minimum payment: 68.93
Charge on overdraft from last month: 7.41
Cahoot loan: 63 (minimum payment was 50)

657.62

Petrol: 99.66
Supermarket: 104.67
Total other spending (mobile, travel, socialising etc)*: 272.36

Total outgoings: 1134.31
Remaining balance: 114.20


*Day-to-day spending breakdown

Mobile phone: 35
Travel (bus, tube, train, parking, taxis): 16.10
Meals out: 38.70
Lunch at work: 34.15
Snacks: 12.46
Pubs and bars: 26.35
Stationery: 3.49
Cigarettes: 4.90
Scratchcards: 3
Gifts: 7.47
Swimming: 10.80
Exercise equipment: 20.00
Toiletries: 26.51
Clothes, shoes and accessories: 35.05
Ebay Postage: 8.81
Misc: 4.30


Notes on spending:

SMOKING: I have given up smoking entirely this month after borrowing my friend's copy of Allen Carr's The Easy Way to Stop Smoking. I used to spend 2.45 a day on cigarettes (10 a day = 73.50), but this month I only spent 4.90 for the whole month (before I quit), so this month I have made a saving of 68.60. I suppose I made a further saving of 7.99 by borrowing and not buying the book!

CAR: I drive about 50 miles a day, 5 days a week, to and from work, and often more when I have to go out and about for the job (any travel incurred for the job is refunded in my expenses at 38p a mile). This month I also drove an extra 200 miles to visit my family. I am very lucky in that my parents pay for everything to do with the car apart from petrol. As I live in London I do incur other travel costs (like buses) as I can't drive everywhere (especially if I'm drinking!). I have started buying bus tickets (£1 each) or bus travel cards (2.50) and walking instead of general travel cards (£4.70) and saving loads.

RENT: I live in London (Zone 3) and pay 425 pcm including all bills and council tax. Again I am very lucky in that my parents own the flat and I pay them rent.

SUPERMARKET: This includes washing powder, cleaning products, toilet roll etc, as well as food. I shop in Tesco (on my route home from work) even though I have a lovely Waitrose almost next door to my flat, because it's loads cheaper. I tried Asda but I found the quality of the own-brand products to be so awful that I had to bin things, so I'm sticking to Tesco.

EXERCISE: Instead of smoking, I have started exercising and swimming,. The outgoings of “exercise equipment” are a one-off. I bought a Swiss ball (9.00), weights (5.00), a swimming hat (1.00) and swimming goggles (5.00) in the sale (total 20.00) when they would have been 36.95 (total saving: 16.95). I swim 2 or 3 times a week at 2.75 a time, which includes the non-refundable 20p for the locker. I am currently taking part in a scheme whereby if I swim 10 times before Sept 5th and I get 2 swims free (saving 5.10). After that, I am considering becoming a member. For 16.00 a month you have unlimited swims (the locker fees would be on top of this). You have to pay a 30.00 one-off fee to join this. My only concern is the pool is near my workplace (in another town to where I live) and I don't intend to stay in my current job for another year.

LUNCH AT WORK AND SNACKS: I am shocked at the amount of money I have spent on lunches at work and snacks, especially as I took my own lunch in nearly every day!!! Next month I will try to cut back on this entirely which will hopefully save about 20.00 a month.

PUB: I have cut back on drinking hugely since last month, and I think 26.35 is fairly restrained for London prices for a whole month. At an average of £3 a drink that's only about 9 drinks in a whole month! The "Eating out" total is only for 2 meals out too - and one was a friend's birthday. This can, of course, be reduced though.

EBAY POSTAGE: Obviously I have got this back from the buyers so it was only a temporary outlay.

STATIONERY: I needed a printer cartridge - but instead of spending the usual 13.99 on one in the shops, I searched https://www.moneysavingexpert.com for tips and bought one from https://www.choicestationery.com for 3.49 (saving £10.50).

TOILETRIES: I did seem to run out of a lot of stuff this month, but most of the stuff I did buy was BOGOF or bought from a Savers shop, so I have lots stocked up in the cupboards now and anticipate my spending in this area to be a great deal less next month. For 26.51 I bought 4 big bottles of hair serum (I have long, thick, curly hair and these will last me about 4 months), 2 bottles conditioner, nail polish remover, some hair gel, eye make-up remover, a concealer stick, some fake tan (I'd rather buy this than try and sunbathe and get burnt), 2 body sprays and 2 roll-on anti-perspirants, which would usually have cost 38.87 full price (saving 12.36).

MISC: The “miscellaneous” spending was a 60p charity donation, and a picture in a frame that I fancied from a charity shop (1.50), and 2 Sunday papers.

MOBILE PHONE: This was a restrained month for me, but obviously it is still FAR too much. I'm on Orange Pay as You Go - any advice on service plans? Or maybe I should just stop phoning so many people so often. This is a real reduction already as I used to spend about £70 a month :ashamedface:

CLOTHES: This includes essentials like tights and some new buttons to mend my trousers, but also some bargainous jeans (13.50, originally 45.00) which I couldn't resist in the sale as mine are falling apart, and a skirt I spotted that I really wanted last year for 15.00 - full price 45.00. I know, I shouldn't have bought them, but they're really nice!!! Damn this saving marlarky.

OTHER INCOME: I sold a number of things on ebay this month, but have only included the 2 cheques I received on this month's income. I have left the remaining payments in my paypal account for now, which total 32.63 at the time of writing. I will transfer this over when I reach a total of 50.00. I also won 5.00 on a scratch card which I will cash in next month.

OTHER MOVES MADE THIS MONTH:

At the beginning of the month, I transferred my HSBC overdraft of 2,000 (at 14.8%) to my Egg card (2.9%), making a saving of about 25.00 a month in charges. This has also had a great psychological effect as I am in the black for the first time in years and find it a lot easier to see how much money I have available when it's a simple positive number.

I have opened a Barclaycard Platinum which is 0% until Aug 2005 and I am going through the process of moving some other debts onto this, although they haven't come through yet.

I have cleared my Cahoot flexible loan (8.3%) and with my Egg card at 2.9%.

Before I did this, I transferred 1,800 of my Egg balance to my HSBC Visa card at 3.9% because there was not enough room and only my Egg card transfers loan and overdraft balances.

I got a Tesco Clubcard because I buy all my shopping and petrol there and though it would be worth getting some points for it.

I phoned up the babysitting agency I am registered with and extended my catchment area in the hope they would be able to get me more work.

I bought the Writer's Yearbook (on ebay (cost taken out of my paypal account) as I am a journalist, as the first step in trying to sell some freelance articles.

I am going to put 40.00 of the remaining 114.20 into my savings account to go towards buying Xmas gifts. The remaining balance (74.20) I shall pay onto my HSBC Visa card.

Your comments and advice will be gratefully received - if you've read this far!

DiggingOut

Well done! You've pretty well analysed your expenses.

One thought for you. Every pound you spend is a pound that you could have used to reduce debt if you didn't spend it, right? So every pound you spend is really the same as if you borrowed it -- you are one pound more in debt because you spent it. And that will be true until the debt is gone.

So you should view your expenses as, "Is this something I would borrow to buy?" Now obviously, you have to buy food, so you would borrow to buy that, and at times you will have to buy clothes, and you have to pay rent, etc.

Now it was only £3, but would you borrow to buy scratchcards? I suspect not....

Would you borrow for those meals out? I would guess that the one for your friend's birthday, you would -- and there is nothing wrong with that. But maybe the other you wouldn't have. Maybe the same with some of your pub expense.

Moneysaving doesn't mean deny yourself all pleasures. But it does mean prioritising and recognising what you are spending -- and being economical in what you do buy.

You've picked up on the obvious things, like mobile phone cost, etc. Other things might not seem so obvious. Do you watch enough telly to justify the licence fee, or are you wasting your money for something you don't really use?

Can you get a cheaper ISP, cheap enough to make the change worthwhile?

Nothing else really jumps out at me -- you already got a big one when you quit smoking! ;D

Oh, one other thing. Visit your dad frequently, preferably when your car is dirty and low on petrol.

Your debt details aren't entirely clear to me, but it appears it is all at 3.9% or less?

Margaret_Millne

Mobile phone: 35

What is the "3" signal like where you are. I know a lot of people have been negative about "3" on here, but I just got one through "The Link". I get 500 minutes - that right, not a typo - a month for £12.50 for the first 3 months I think it is, and The Link also reimburse some for a few months after that, I think up to 6 months. I am not absolutely sure how it works as my husband did all the investigations for me for the best deal. Even at £25 a month, that is an awful lot of calls for your money.

I think they also do a cheaper tarriff, but I got a very nice free phone included in the deal, not sure if you do on the cheaper tarriff.

Just a thought. It might help.

specialhat

Would you borrow for those meals out?  I would guess that the one for your friend's birthday, you would -- and there is nothing wrong with that.  But maybe the other you wouldn't have.  Maybe the same with some of your pub expense.

Moneysaving doesn't mean deny yourself all pleasures.  But it does mean prioritising and recognising what you are spending -- and being economical in what you do buy.

Do you watch enough telly to justify the licence fee, or are you wasting your money for something you don't really use?

Argh. Two meals out and about 3 trips to the pub in a month - I was trying to be so restrained. I really don't think I could cut down on the pub visits, but I could the eating out. I live alone so I can't be a hermit! As for the TV licence - that gets plenty of use.

Thanks for the tips, guys - will reply more later.

DiggingOut

Argh. Two meals out and about 3 trips to the pub in a month - I was trying to be so restrained.  :'( I really don't think I could cut down on the pub visits, but I could the eating out. I live alone so I can't be a hermit! As for the TV licence - that gets plenty of use.  ;)

Personal decisions. I wasn't trying to say you haven't been restrained. It just depends on the person, what they enjoy, how important things are to you.

Your spending as detailed here looks pretty reasonable.