Grumble...

Luisa1981

Oh dear, I'm sorry, I'm here for a moan...

Someway, somehow, I've just had to take £450 out of my precious savings to cover overspends from the last couple of months and now I feel really miserable.:( It's bills quarter and I didn't plan for the paying of them.

I realised that I play 'plastic fantastic' on my credit cards so don't really keep an eye on what I'm spending because I presume I'm going to be ok. This clearly isn't working.:( I cut up one card last night and hid the other one as I clearly can't handle two.

I've had to borrow £200 off a friend just to cover my dds, which leaves me with £30 per week to spend. Which I guess is ok, but my OH is unemployed right now so that has to feed both of us. I've sent off for a tesco voucher from valued opinions, so I'm crossing my fingers this will arrive sooner rather than later!

I'm annoyed because it will take me MONTHS to recoup the savings I've lost and I will start next month owing someone money. Which I hate.

Sorry, I'm not sure if this is the best place, as my debts are small, it's just I'm worried I'll fall into bad habits.

This is just a post with me venting, I don't think I deserve sympathy!

Sorry.

Thanks. Going to read this forum THOROUGHLY to look for tips.

xxx:o

NorthernLas

If you are looking for food ideas on a low budget try the Old Style board.

Otherwise have a look at the 'first time posters' sticky at the top of this board. If you want peoples suggestions on where you might cut down post an SOA

Hannah_10

I know that feeling. The one where you've mucked it up, you know you've mucked it up, you're cross with yourself for mucking it up, and come hell or high water you will find a way to make sure you don't muck it up again...

It's not much fun, but a lot of good comes of that particular feeling I find. So you stay irritable with yourself if it helps, and keep reading.

saltnvinegar

Hi Luisa

If you want to be positive I would look on it with a slightly different slant which is you made sure you put enough money away to cover your bills when they arrived which is DFW heavan :j

Theres loads of good tips on here on how to be frugal with your good budget.

To give you an idea (we have 2 adults and 5 children yes 5!) our groceries budget which includes toiletries, nappies etc as well as food is £65 per week. It definately can be done!

Well done on cutting up that one credit card. I nice bit of advice I have seen on this board is to put your card in a cup of water and put it in the freezer. This way you have to wait for the thing to defrost and give you plenty of time to think about if you really need to use it.

The important thing is you've recognised in good time that you are on the top of a slippery slope. Have a good look around the boards, theres loads of great ideas on saving etc and hopefully in a few months you won't be using those savings on bills but something nice for you and your OH!

SNV

Luisa1981

Hi guys,

Thanks for the kind words, I've started to get VERY cunning with points and vouchers (don't mind draining my nectar card this month!)

I really like the frozen credit card idea! I'll try that next time I think about cutting a card up, it's a good deterrent and would definitely work for me.

Thanks all.

xxx

happytails

saltnvinegar wrote: »

Well done on cutting up that one credit card. I nice bit of advice I have seen on this board is to put your card in a cup of water and put it in the freezer. This way you have to wait for the thing to defrost and give you plenty of time to think about if you really need to use it.

:T Great idea, i think i will do that with 2 of my Debit cards :beer:

Ames

You might find it easier to budget if you pay your bills monthly by direct debit, there's usually a discount for doing it that way too. I really got in trouble with my water bill because of paying it yearly, when it 'suddenly' turned up needing a few hundred I couldn't pay it.

ETA: also, read all your meters to make sure that this quarter's bills are correct, they might be estimated so could be too high (best case) or too low (worst case).

debtdesperado

I did this last year... went a bit mad before Christmas and somehow managed to blast through a £2k tax refund just on going out etc:eek:...am kicking myself now as STILL haven't managed to re-save the same amount.... So don't feel too bad, you're not the only one.:)

I try and look at it positively... I learnt that having my savings account with the same bank so that I can do instant transfers, and the juicy credit balance blinking back at me right next to my woeful permanently overdrawn current account is too much for me.

I need an account that at least takes a few days to transfer the money, and one where my savings are out of sight, out of mind...

Other things I have learnt:

1. I try and pay cash for everything...it certainly focuses the mind on what you buying, whereas for some reason with me slapping down my debit card instantly makes my mind go blank. Carefully counting out a pile of crisp tenners for whatever it is I am buying definitely gets my entire attention.

2. I track all my spending and now I know what is 'average' for me eg for a weekly food spend, for a weekly entertainment spend etc (it takes a couple of months of doing so you get some meaningful figures). Once you have this information, you can actually do a proper, reality-based budget (rather than just guessing how much you spend a month and then being stumped when you realise you blasted through it in a week... don't ask me how I know this ).

3. Now I know my budget inside out, and my spending, it's easier to rejig the budget, or know when there is nothing in the budget to rejig and therefore when I have to decline invitations or delay purchases. That in particular has been amazing and has really changed how I spend money...before I would always assume I could 'just cut down' for the rest of the month, but now I know sometimes there is nothing else to cut.

Hope this is useful!