A sorry state of affairs....

mooomin

Yes but in the time you've had a baby and are going through a separation so to reduce your debts during all that is actually very good :T

Don't be too hard on yourself

ladylouise62

I complete a daily TV & Radio survey which puts you into a a draw monthly for up to £1000, and quarterly £2k. OK, so it's a chance thing, but I am not lucky and I won 2x£2 and 1x£5 so far this year - not tons, but it all helps. THese are changed in to a wide selection of both normal and online vouchers (I tend to change it into Amazon vouchers, but there is a large selection). https://five.surveys.com/Projects/j401036a/default.asp?id=x&s=hd

I also do another monthly one with the same company about what I buy which also has a draw, but if you are lucky you can get onto the 'letterbox study' which involves collecting and sending off monthly (in their freepost envelope) all junk mail and marking online any that you respond to. I get £1 a month for this, which is great for the little amount of work I do.
http://www.whatb.co.uk/quarter/rewards.asp?c=HASelfJoiner&p= .

MrsNotAPenny

Thank you Ladylouise

FF I can't find your diary Unless it's the mortgage free one?

Ok, so I've started a spending diary and I've kept all my reciepts from the last three days. Money is super tight this month, so no unneccessary spending from me - HOPEFULLY!

20/8: NSD

21/8: ASDA - £18.41 (groceries)
Tesco - £8.79 (£8 of this was clubcard vouchers though)

22/8: Slimming Group: £4.95 (sigh, it's expensive but I'm budgeting for it, if I really start to struggle, it can go. 3.5lbs off btw!)

Longest time I've kept a spending diary! :rotfl:

I'm promising myself to keep it up for a month, I've read somewhere that's how long it takes to learn new (good) lifestyle habits. How hard can it be to keep it for one month? Hmmmm....

Tomorrow is earmarked as a NSD. Which will be easy seeing as I've no money to spend

mooomin

MrsNotAPenny wrote: »

FF I can't find your diary Unless it's the mortgage free one?

It's the mortgage free one

MrsNotAPenny

Adventurous fresian! You'll get there

Today was marked as a NSD. However, some money came in early so I've paid £100 to the cc. (this was last months and this months payment, well it was £135 and I've paid £140 to it) and seeing as I've started spending, I'm going to get the bread/milk today (had planned on getting it tomorrow)

Wow, what a dull entry!

mooomin

MrsNotAPenny wrote: »

Adventurous fresian! You'll get there

Hah! When I started it I was debt-free apart from the mortgage but just took out a loan to buy a car so I'm squatting on the mortgage board at the moment and occasionally throwing a fiver at the mortgage so they don't throw me out!

Keeping_Positive

Hi OP dont be too concerned over the lack of debt repayment in a year. You have had some life changing events that could have seen the debt grow. Me personally it has but I wont give up just keep going. With your determination and FF on board helping Im sure you will continue doing really well.

MrsNotAPenny

Thank you Keeping Positive, MSE has such lovely members

So, I've not managed to get on (blinking kids getting in the way of my online life :rotfl:) Luckily, they've allowed me time to keep up with my spending diary. Here's the follwo up entries (incredibily dull, but I think having it on here will shame me out of spending!)

23rd (continued) Credit Card: £100
Tesco: £11.19 (£5 of this was a coupon)
Charity Tin: 0.04p (Toddles insisted on putting
a penny in)
*whispers* Takeway: £10

24th: NSD :T

25th: Petrol: £10
Window Cleaner: £4
ASDA: £36.82
Lottery: £2

26th: NSD :T

There, my first 6 days of my diary, and a hideous £ 75.21 in supermarkets. That would work out £300 a month on food if I did that every week. Jeez. My 'budget' is well off! My cupboards are bursting with dried/tinned food, my freezer won't hold anymore. I think I might be comfort shopping, worried in case I can't get out for food. Or maybe bordum? An excuse to get out the house maybe? Something to do?

I like going to the supermarket, I like browsing, I like pushing the trolley, I like having my kids confined to one space(in the trolley, obviously!) I like speaking to the checkout folk (oh, my, word, I'm a loser!)

I'll have to trim that back for the next few weeks, try and keep to the £150 I can actually afford to spend on food. That leaves me £74.79, less that I've already spent! Bit of an eyeopener!

Onwards and upwards!

MrsNotAPenny

....for another thrilling installment of MY SPENDING DIARY! Yipppeee :cool:

27th: NSD :T

28th:

Car Boot: £5 (the 'parking' charge)
Car Boot: £1 (ahem, spending)
Juice: £1

OK, so I spent £2 at the boot sale. In my defence, 50p was on a draft excluder (have you seen how much they are in catalogues?? It will also help with my heating bill. It's justified! and the wifey gave me a baking tray for free, later on when she was packing up) The other 50p was on a DVD for Toddles of his favourite cartoon (wee soul is lost without Sky - that's bad he/we depended on it so much) and it had two discs in the box. The £1 on juice is a bit excessive (considering I had juice in the house) However, one can was for my friend who got up early doors to help and one was for me, I couldn't have got her one and not me, she'd feel bad )

I made around £25 at the car boot, not amazing, but it was £25 I didn't have before.

Please note, it has been three days since I have entered a supermarket :money:

September is looming. Here is my moneysaving targets.

• Chase money from cleaning job (£40)
• Provide Council with statements to claim back £104 overpayment to Council Tax
• Have 50% NSD. Yep, that's right 15.
• Cash coins in (£40)
• Cash paypal money (£10)
• Renew licence, I'm so gruding the £5 to get snaps done.
• Contact SLC (yes, I have student debt to, time to face up to that)
• Clean car/take it round a few garages, see if I can get enough to cover the finance.
• Post cards that I should have weeks ago (a task for tomorrow, rather than September)
• Find stamps for above cards (I've got some, I'm usually to damned lazy to go and find them, so I buy another pack, put them 'somewhere safe' and we all know what happens to things that go 'somewhere safe')
• Put all excess toileteries in one place
• Change Utilities supplier
• Change phone/broadband supplier
• Throw all excess money at debts
• Stick to plan above

That seems to-able, right?

I'm sort of in two minds about which debt to tackle first. My O/D is £1,200 on one account, getting charged around, 18.9% EAR.I have a feeling, that the bank will ask for this back , very very soon (well, there's not ever going to enough going in to cover it every month now) I don't actually know what EAR is, so I'll have to google and find out.

Orrrrr, pay off my credit card, which is currently being charged 16.9% APR (again, knowing the difference between EAR/APR might help) The balance on this is £3,990. £10 away from being maxed :eek:

How have I got to this stage in my life and not know (what appears to be) basic financial jargon??

Tomorrow, I have some free time. I'll need to do a few things on my list while I have peace. I have £33 in my purse, which I'll breakdown into the following:

£9 (baby essentials)
£10 (petrol)
£4.95 (Slimming)

Leaving me around £9 for shopping. I'll need eggs (usually on offer in ASDA, only thing I'm a snob about, free range eggs) milk, butter and a loaf. I'll have to be savvy....

MrsNotAPenny

Two posts in one day!

I'm trying to distact myself from buying the new Benefit mascara. I have about £270 left after my bills ect come off and it's burning a hole in my pocket. I NEED to keep every spare penny to throw at my debts.

£18.50 for a mascara, when I have hundereds of them already. It's stupid even thinking about it.

That £270 could bring my overdaft down to under £1000. My whole debt would be down into a 'new £1000' (get me? Lol. It's late!)

I know if I bought it, I would buy something else, and something else and something else, until all the 'spare' money was gone. Then I'd be happy for, oh say, 40 minutes, then the guilty would come.

I don't want the guilt!!

I'm going to make a deal with myself.

If I give 100% effort to debt busting in September and I get my 2 1/2 stone award (7.5lbs to go!) I'll budget and buy it.

i think the urge has passed