Newbie and in need of advice please

dollybeads

Gingerjar wrote: »

HI Dolly

You've made a stunning start to your debt free journey - good for you! It's so interesting to hear that someone else's journey parallells your own. I am the same as you in the sense that I've been lucky in life and always had an okay job and okay money stream but ended up in debt due to my own numptiness and nothing else. I also ended up paying out hundreds in debt repayment every month buying a load of old tat that I never even used.

So a big cheer for parking outside town and walking in a bit, I found it saves me a fortune but also curbs what I want to buy as I have to carry it all further.

This year I saved up for my Christmas presents for the 1st time in years, told the family there was a £15 limit on each present (bit of sulking from wider family but hey, that's life!), did the pound shop challenge with my mates which was hilarious and we gave our DD a 2nd hand laptop. She doesn't know and hasn't noticed that's it's not brand new. Best of all I feel relaxed about my spending and that's a great feeling.

Re regifting I agree with the other posters, give a bit to charity shops, ebay a bit and give the other stuff to other people. It's far more wasteful to have more stuff sticking around that you'll never use.

Looking forward to hearing what you do next :j

Ginge X

Hey Ginge

Nice to see you back here again, and thanks once again for the helpful comments. Yes the parking thing, I have always parked in multi storey right next to shops which is £2.50 per hour! and goes up to £4.00 an hour if you go over 3 hours!! I used to do this as always wore uncomfortable shoes or boots whilst shopping in an effort to ahem look good/cool etc (I hate to admit this but sadly its true). Yesterday thought damn it they are not getting my hard earned cash, so wore cheap version of ugg boots (normally kept for in the house instead of slippers, and so that no one sees my non designer buys ((i am sounding even more shallow now, sorry everyone)) and then walked comfortably in and back out of town, about a mile or so each way. Good for me too as need to tone up those thunder thighs and wobbly bits, and as you rightly say not able to buy lots of stuff and then carry it to the car offload and go and buy more stuff I don't need.

Have a good weekend, I am off to do some studying (final course with the Open University), more ebaying and more clearing out of clutter to take to the Charity shops. My real and lasting challenge will be keeping up the enthusiasm when all the big stuff has been sold/cleared out and the big changes made. I hope this will be a real life change for me. Dolly x

dollybeads

:eek:

katsu wrote: »

:eek: Yes, you definitely are too generous.

You can still be generous on a smaller budget - seen the boots 50% off sale currently? What about the current toy sales for some classic kids toys for next year?

I gave gifts to around 24 people this year (big family!) at a cost of £170. I use the sales extensively, pound shops, charity shops, crafting/home made gifts. I very rarely give a gift that cost me full price. If you shop in the run up to christmas it really will cost you a fortune for the same stuff you can buy now, hugely reduced.

Get some boxes, add any remaining bits you are going to regift and make a start.

Thanks for this, I always leave everything to the last minute, dreadful procrastinator (another of my faults i must tackle). And buying in run up to Christmas is a disaster. Will endeavour to make a start on pressies for 2011 in the sales, maybe I could make this a challenge to have all pressies bought (without credit) before say October. mmmmm might just do this. Many thanks Dolly x

dollybeads

Just wanted to record what I have done to date to help with my debts in a hope that this will keep me motivated:

• Transferred 6300 from my M&S card to 0% for 13 months (will save approx £100 in interest per month :j have set up tart alert also
• Bought sealed pot and have approx £11.00 in there so far
• Keeping a spending diary, spent £19.35 day 1 and £5.00 day 2, these both include groceries and one includes petrol so no non essentials
• Half half fessed up to my OH who is helping me and joining me in the sealed pot challenge yey
• Put 27 items on ebay over weekend, so far £6.86 in bids (tons more to put on)
• Set up box of unwanted gift items from Christmas to either regift, give to charity or sell on ebay (will donate a portion to charity on ebay if I do this to assuage the guilt)
• Set budget of £50.00 per week for Groceries and budgets for children and grandchildren of £50.00 each for Christmas and birthdays (need to tell them though)
• Paid no parking charges over the weekend, usually extortionate, saving approx £5.00

It just helps me to get it down in writing as so easy to forget what you have achieved.

Lots to do this week, speak to bank to negotiate better rate on one of my loans. Not looking forward to it, but am going to give it my best shot

Gingerjar

Wow - you are doing brilliantly, what an amazing start to your new debt busting ways :T

Know what you mean about the uncomfy shoes for shopping, have done the same thing myself! I can always hear my Mum's voice in my head saying "Make sure you look nice, you might bump into someone you know!"

Keep up the good work. Interested to see you half fessed up to your OH. When I spilt the beans to mine, he already knew!

Hope you have a good week.

Love Ginge x

dollybeads

Gingerjar wrote: »

Wow - you are doing brilliantly, what an amazing start to your new debt busting ways :T

Know what you mean about the uncomfy shoes for shopping, have done the same thing myself! I can always hear my Mum's voice in my head saying "Make sure you look nice, you might bump into someone you know!"

Keep up the good work. Interested to see you half fessed up to your OH. When I spilt the beans to mine, he already knew!

Hope you have a good week.

Love Ginge x

Thanks for that Ginge Interesting that your OH knew already, we think we are being so discreet. My OH is going to hold onto my CC with 0% interest so that I don't spend anymore on it once its all been transferred. :rotfl:I saw on the OS thread a suggestion re cards, put then in a sealed plastic bag, then in a tupperware box, then in another, cover in water and freeze, that way its a real pain tp get it defrosted before you can use it. made me lol.

Have a good week to. Dolly x

dollybeads

Despite putting into practice all my good habits, I was really worried about how I was going to cope this month on just £50.00 of cash in the bank. After ummming and arrrrhhhhing and pondering on options, one was to ask bank to extend overdraft for one month. I took the bull by the horns and asked if work could pay me early. I would never normally do this but really don't want to incur any more interest on anything. I have quite a large amount of back pay due this month as they agreed a pay rise. Anyway they agreed without any problem and said no need to say why i needed it, "we all spend a little too much from time to time" (little do they know).

This will be the one and only time i ever do this, but is a big help and no more interest yay :heartpuls my job, how lucky am i?

Verbatim

Well done for asking. And good luck with the bank. If you don't ask you can't get....

dollybeads

Verbatim wrote: »

Well done for asking. And good luck with the bank. If you don't ask you can't get....

Thank you, have an appointment at the bank on Thursday, went in to arrange as kept getting cut off on the phone (hope thats nothing personal!!!!). The woman there who is the manager is usually very good indeed. Want to discuss a lower interest rate on a loan I have with them currently at 19.5% and paying extra amounts off it. This will be my target for the year, to pay this off. Ambitious but not impossible!

curlytop12

dollybeads wrote: »

Thank you, have an appointment at the bank on Thursday, went in to arrange as kept getting cut off on the phone (hope thats nothing personal!!!!). The woman there who is the manager is usually very good indeed. Want to discuss a lower interest rate on a loan I have with them currently at 19.5% and paying extra amounts off it. This will be my target for the year, to pay this off. Ambitious but not impossible!

just wanted to wish you luck with the bank,
am loving your thread,you certainly take the bull by the horns don't you?
£50 pp for christmas is perfectly acceptable.
my 10 yr old got a bike,iphone etc from his dad (to keep over at his) £100's worth,which is ok for hom. from me got lego,ds game,PJ's,dvd,books all eqalling £70-he said they were the best presents ever!
he is a sweetie though.

dollybeads

gem68 wrote: »

just wanted to wish you luck with the bank,
am loving your thread,you certainly take the bull by the horns don't you?
£50 pp for christmas is perfectly acceptable.
my 10 yr old got a bike,iphone etc from his dad (to keep over at his) £100's worth,which is ok for hom. from me got lego,ds game,PJ's,dvd,books all eqalling £70-he said they were the best presents ever!
he is a sweetie though.

Bless him, and thanks re the bank, will see how it goes, not the end of the world if they refuse to bring it down, will now start trying some others! Getting braver by the minute.

My two sons are the same, not materialistic at all, so not quite sure why i feel the need to shower them with gifts/money, probably all that maternal guilt stuff about working when they were little!! When I ask them about Bdays and Xmas they say they can't think of anything they want.

its so funny re taking the bull by the horns, i was in a total state of head in sand, inertia, scared witless, worried about what the bank would think if i asked for help etc. From here I have got so much support and encouragement to start tackling things, and looking back I could kick myself in the behind for waiting so long to start. But I guess thats all part of it. Anyway must stop being so verbose on here........another of my many faults. Its all work in progress