A Spendaholic in need of continuos shopping and a naughty debt!

unsavy_with_£

Well hello there everyone, firstly thank you for looking at my thread. This has all come about from my realisation at the weekend that yes I am a spendaholic! This thread has come about from my over thinking during the weekend of why do i have the need to shop continuosly?

I have always liked nice things, like we all do! When I was growing up my mother and father weren't savers and spent all the time. I remember spending every weekend shopping... shopping and even more shopping!

When i first started working I was very careful with money and seeing the pounds amount up in my money box, yes money box, was a great feeling! I loved it, I use to spend a little and save a lot.

Then I grew up and started earning more and friends were my life.. but friends who were studying and had money on tap. i tried to keep up with them. Then i got in a relationship, a difficult one and my spending really got out of control! Savings what are those?

In the end I shopped to make me feel better, to make me feel great! To help me get through the day with happiness until I saw the partner and abuse.

I eventually and thankfully got out of the relationship but since then have still used shopping when I am feeling emotionally down. I cant help but want the nicer things in life without thinking of the consequences. This has left me in debt. Having cleared £13000 a couple of years ago, the debt has risen again and I have now realised its no good and I need to focus.

Focus isn't my strong point, I have all good intentions of things but I always fail. Quiet pathetic to be honest, I start things but rarely get things finished. Distraction and boredom is the key point here, something I want to work towards sorting out.

I am now in a fantastic relationship with a daughter who i don't want to suffer when she gets older like I did, thanks to my parents overspending. I want her to start of like i did but continue.

This diary is going to be my journey, from looking at my financial situation to dealing with debts to savings and to be SAVY with my £'s not UNSAVY!

Any help will be appreciated and I hope that I will be able to inspire someone like I've been inspired by many on here.

My next post will be my finances, including debt.

Lovely to meet you all! :beer:

unsavy_with_£

Please note that my monthly bills are my half, we do not have joint finances.

Wages - £1343.18 (dropping to £956 this month)

Monthly bills

Rent - £300
Water rates including sewage - £44.46
Council Tax - £50
House insurance - £34.97
Car insurance - £38.89
Gas - £57
Electric - £38
Black Horse Loan - £128.02

Total - £691.34

Now your going to ask me how much I spend on food, car maintenance, car tax, christmas, birthdays........ well as that comes I have been spending out and if i dont have the available money then I credit card it. Yes bad I know :eek:

Debts

Black Horse loan

balance £2332
monthly amount £128.02

Credit card (OH's) APR 15.9%

balance £7342.54
monthly amount is around £190

unsavy_with_£

Well as you can see I do have alot of money to play with after the bills... where does that go... on more clothes, things for the house (even though its nothing constructive just bits and bobs which don't last long as I buy quantity not quality) and many many meals out!

What do I want to do.... clear the debt, have some savings and get the house ship shape! Oh did I forget to mention.... i am far to busy out spending and enjoying myself that I am not the most house proud of people.... its a mess with lots of clutter well of course if all I do is spend!

So my plans... sort my finances out! Get my spending under control and declutter the house!

Ebay here i come, reviewing the finances here I come and control my spending here I come.... its going to be hard but I am determined! :j

lonestarsky

Hi there!

It was interesting reading your story, its similar to mine in a few aspects! I was in a lot of debt when I was younger but after a long hard slog I managed to get it down, so now all I have is one loan and a small cc balance:T . And like you I had a house that was sinking under the amount of clutter and useless you-know-what that I couldn't help myself from buying!

I'm in a bit of a tricky situation again now, thanks to a break up, but I'm getting it under control, and like you I need to review what I spend and start saving! Thankfully I've lost most of the clutter - thanks to ebay, car boot sales and amazon! Its a great way of getting rid of stuff and making some extra cash but its a good spending deterrent aswell, as you quickly realise that you'll never make back as much as you spent, which is quite hard hitting!

Anyway, all the best and I look forward to seeing how you get on!

unsavy_with_£

lonestarsky wrote: »

Hi there!

It was interesting reading your story, its similar to mine in a few aspects! I was in a lot of debt when I was younger but after a long hard slog I managed to get it down, so now all I have is one loan and a small cc balance:T . And like you I had a house that was sinking under the amount of clutter and useless you-know-what that I couldn't help myself from buying!

I'm in a bit of a tricky situation again now, thanks to a break up, but I'm getting it under control, and like you I need to review what I spend and start saving! Thankfully I've lost most of the clutter - thanks to ebay, car boot sales and amazon! Its a great way of getting rid of stuff and making some extra cash but its a good spending deterrent aswell, as you quickly realise that you'll never make back as much as you spent, which is quite hard hitting!

Anyway, all the best and I look forward to seeing how you get on!

Hi ya, thank you for reading my thread!

Well done on cutting your debt down, you did really well, your an inspiration to yet again be dealing with it again. I hope your break up wasnt too difficult. :grouphug:

its great to feel that there is someone else out there who has done well with clearing the clutter and getting rid of debt, it makes me feel like i am able to do it.

thank you again

unsavy_with_£

Well after a few days of not updating, I would just like to say I have been busy! Looking for items to sell on ebay!

I have so far found, ironed, taken photos of 30 items already to list which I am going to do this weekend. I have also got another pile of items which need sorting through, ironed and take photos then list. Thats only 1 cupboard at the moment!

I hear you all say 'how much clutter?' - YES there is that much!!! :eek: but I am dealing with it.

Also income has now dropped so will have to be extra careful! I have been shopping around on cashback sites to find one to offer me cashback for online shopping as I feel this may help me with no over purchasing on a food shop!

Just need to work out a new meal plan before I do my online shop! I am an online shop virgin but if I can make some cashback I am happy! Every little helps!

Well must crack on with the weekend. :j

jtr2803

Good Morning Unsavy!

Hoe you don't mind me dropping in, I read your first post and I can really relate to not having the gumption to stick at plans etc, in fact my very first post on my diary was to that same effect. I have all these great ideas then lose my way half way through, feel embarassed so retreat into a little hole and try and forget about it for a while

It sounds like you are on your way to getting organised, make sure you get those items on Ebay while it's free listing weekend! On the positive side at least you have a surplus after bills, that's the key element here so at least you don't have to worry about that. Few things I can recommend if you don't mind? First thing is a spending diary! You will see them mentioned around here a lot, I did one for my first 3 months of MSE-ing, it's took a while ot get into doing but it's perfect for helping you pinpoint where exactly your money is going. Once you get into the habit of scrutinising EVERY single little spend you wont necessarily need to keep the diary but it's a good habit to get into. Have you thought about doing surveys for extra income/vouchers towards presents? I currently do Valued Opinions and have taken £40 of vouchers this year which really comes in handy, might be something to look in to.

Have you thought about switching energy supplier? If you use Quidco you can normally get a nice lump sum of cashback, have a look at uswitch or similar to see if you can save

I quoted your post below and made a comment in red! You don't have anything in for food either? Does your OH buy that?

Hope some of that helps

unsavy_with_£ wrote: »

Please note that my monthly bills are my half, we do not have joint finances.

Wages - £1343.18 (dropping to £956 this month)

Monthly bills

Rent - £300
Water rates including sewage - £44.46
Council Tax - £50
House insurance - £34.97 is this for 1 month? It's very high! I paid £67 for a year and that was with extra insurance for my OH's record collection!
Car insurance - £38.89
Gas - £57
Electric - £38
Black Horse Loan - £128.02

Total - £691.34

Now your going to ask me how much I spend on food, car maintenance, car tax, christmas, birthdays........ well as that comes I have been spending out and if i dont have the available money then I credit card it. Yes bad I know :eek:

Debts

Black Horse loan

balance £2332
monthly amount £128.02

Credit card (OH's) APR 15.9%

balance £7342.54
monthly amount is around £190

unsavy_with_£

Well I was horrified yesterday, I went to clintons to get some cards.. thought i'll start getting some christmas cards so i did, then walked down the road to card factory... I walked in looking for a little token gift for a friend and to my discovery I saw cards which I liked and a 3rd of the price of which I paid in clintons... I bought them but as i walked out I thought will I be able to take the ones back to clintons for a refund? I couldnt believe it! and I got many more than what I did in clintons! Sorry clintons I do love thee but my bank account is more important now!

AND also I am horrified by actually how much i have been spending on food shopping on a weekly whenever we need something basis.... I have wasted money! doing it online and earning cashback will save pennies! its hard to find a good cashback site for asdas, not sure if any of you know of one?

And also went in the cleaning products cupboard (oh my god how many products I have got which i dont use but thought would be a good idea...) and found a couple of bits I will be able to sell I think so got them out and they are on the pile of TO SELL!

unsavy_with_£

Thanks jyr2803 for your message and recommendations, I have read about a spending diary but my unorganised manner has never got any further than reading about it. Would you recommend starting it from pay day? The majority of my money goes on eating out shopping well petrol carparks (as I am too lazy to park in a non paying area as its more than a 10 minute walk)... you see where this is going!

I didnt know it was free listing this weekend, thank you for that, I didnt get listing done yesterday but I will certainly make it priority today... I do have to go and do some visiting duties but will crack on when I get back.

With regards to food shopping.. I do that! But there is no organisation of it and as my post above states, I have wasted alot of money!

House insurance has just been changed in may so we are fixed in till next year, I didnt know you could get it that cheap? Thats a brilliant amount!

I want to change energy supplier as they are ripping us off, in May I gave them a meter reading as they hadnt been since January, we had a debt of £82 on the gas at that point so I increased the direct debit to the £57 and when they came and took a meter reading in July I received the bill and we are in debt now with the gas of £105.26... the only time we use our gas in the summer is cooking (which I hardly did throughout the summer as we ate out) and hot water to wash up in and the basin upstairs, shower is electric! I am horrified!

Surveys.. thank you for that I will have a look into that, that can be next weeks job.

Thank you for your help

jtr2803

We have all been lazy in some areas, it takes a while to pick up a new habit but even if you do it in retrospect it will still help! I normally run mine from one payday to the next, I think mine has columns for food, petrol, gifts, fish (I have a tank, I don't just buy lots of random fish!), eating out and then my miscellaneous tab which is the one I try and keep an eye on.

Make you sure sign up for Quidco (or a similar cash back site) if you haven't already, you can make some serious money from switching providers through their website. There is also a thread in the grabbit while you can section of the forum which lists all the free things you can do to get cashback. It doesn't take much time at all and at the end of the day, it's FREE MONEY which I think is always the best kind!

I will attempt to shock you even more....our contents insurance which included the cover for rare items/collections was £67 from Legal & General and I got £50 cash back by using Quidco so I actually paid £17 , not bad eh! There are lots of little tips like this that you will pick up. Try and get involved in other diaries if you can, people are always throwing new ideas around.

jody
x

unsavy_with_£

Hi Jody, first of all oh my god I am shocked by your home insurance, and its from a large company too. I have been well and truely done haven't I?? That is so good, I so need to get to change my home insurance when its due for renewal.

Its so reassuring to know I am not alone through this and that actually my feelings and actions are normal. I havent been on here for a couple of days due to being busy but its been productive stuff. thats funny about the random fish, fish tanks are lovely.

Your spending diary sounds brilliant, and a good idea to have columns of each individual areas.

I am definatly going to have a look at signing up to the free cashback sites, I like the sound of free money. I will have a look at the grabbit while you can section. I have started reading lots on this website and having a look at diaries but there is so much, its amazing to think that yes there is ways of making money from the simpliest of things.

Thank you again, do you have a diary?