My step in the right direction

littleredfairy

I have finally accepted I live outside my means and completed this planner.

I work very hard in a demanding job, and feel I deserve nice things at the end of a long week, and living in London that has been my downfall.

I know looking at the budget you could say stay in and don't eat out, but eating out is something everyone seems to do, and I do cut back, then get upset and feel I have been so good with the saving that I do deserve that bottle of wine, or that Groupon meal, yadda yadda yah.

This has not been fun to do, I do want to have a social life, and has in fact been upsetting, but any helpful comments would be appreciated. I have no savings, and a house full of Primark clothes!!



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b]
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,703.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.50
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.30
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.75
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.33
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.30
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.71
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.25
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.67
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.95
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.25
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.33

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,703.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,773.01

[/font]

Verbatim

Well done for facing up to the need to sort it out, always the hardest bit. As you're only £70 short a month it doesn't look too bad if there are no debts to take into account other than the £100 for a cc. Is that the case? Is the £100 for just one card and is this the minimum payment/s?
The exact £17.33 on coffees etc makes me curious! Is this a monthly visit to Starbucks or ???

You have nothing down for birthdays, but I'd guess you have to buy presents and cards occasionally.

NeverAgain_2

Being just £70 the wrong side of the line each month should be redeemable.

How much debt do you have?

You mention £100 credit card repayments, but what are the balances?

Do you have a mortgage, if so, how much is outstanding?

Tixy

Well done for posting.
I see it says an overspend of around £70 a month, so to start lets see if we can find areas you can cut back by £70 without affecting the eating out - if you can great, if not then well you might need to rethink.

littleredfairy wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b]
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,703.00 any chance of increasing this? overtime, second job?
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.50
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.30
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.75
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.33
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.30
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.71
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.25
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560.00 is this rent or mortgage?
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 *
Motoring & Public Transport
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 How much do you owe? is £100 the minimum payment? what is the APR on this? or APRs?
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Family
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 this seems quite high a month, is it for something specific? I thought you could get basic annual policies for much less than this?
Entertainment
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 what are you actually buying or spending this on?
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 is this essential? any chance you could cut back how often you go?
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.67
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 could you do home treatments or cut back on the frequency?
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.95
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 could you cut back here for a bit, say halve it and wear some of what you already have? or set yourself a challenge to sell some old clothes and only use that money to buy new ones?
Education & Courses
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67 what is this? how long do you have to pay it for?
Big One Offs
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 could you cut to just 1 holiday this year?
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.25
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.33

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,703.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,773.01

[/font]

Okay looking at these costs
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00

These are all arguably entertainment related. If you had to cut back somewhere out of all these which area would you find it easy to do. At the moment these come to £270. If you can get them to £200 then your surplus is sorted and you should at least be not getting further into debt each month, or needing to reuse your cards or an overdraft.

Eg what about
Drinks for Home . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 £30
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 £20
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 £50
Eating Out. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00 £100

Do you feel that would be doable?

littleredfairy

No mortgage, and about £2,000 currently on a credit card, but the apr is cheaper than my overdraft - I did try for a 0% option and they shot me down so about the get my credit reports sent through.

I have no savings, bar my work pension which a lot of cash (£150) goes into but it is taken off at source and most would be eaten by the taxman otherwise, and then my stduent loan also comes off at source.

I have tried to be honest with the figures, but I have a terrible 'oh sod it' attitude which needs to change. It's the fact if I lost my job tomorrow (I do fixed term contracts) I would be goosed, so I need to learn to save as well as sort my debt.

[Deleted User]

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,703.00 (any way to increase - overtime?)

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.50 (Do you use all the minutes and texts you get as part of your bundle - if not, drop a tariff, or consder SIM only deals, or PAYG)
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.30
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.75
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.33
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.30
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.71 (How much are you in your overdraft?)
Home Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.25
Mortgage/Rent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560.00 (If this is rent, is it good for the area that you live in?)
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 (this is good, but if need/want to cut back a bit try dropping brands, meal planning and/or batch cooking)
Drinks for Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 (Quite high, consider reducing, and make sure you check out for offers at local shops/supermarkets)
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 (Is there any way to reduce? weekly, monthly, season ticket?)

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 (How much do you owe? What's the APR? and is this only the minumim payment, or are you paying extra?)

Savings & Investments
Pension Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

Family
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Entertainment
Cinema/Theatre Trips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 (check out deals - orange wednesdays etc, try swopping a trip for a DVD night instead)
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 (what do you spend this on? Are the things you buy essntial, good value for money? Perhapse cut down a bit)
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 (Again, quite high, try shaving a little off this, or skipping the odd night out)
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00 (If you can't/won't cut out, cut back, as is very high, and make sure when you go out you do it more cheaply look for vouchers and deals)
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 (what's this for, and can you do it yourself, or get it cheaper elsewhere?)
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.67
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 (what does this civer and can you do it yourself or shop around to see if you can get it for cheaper)
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.95
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 (Cut back until your debt's gone - buy essentials only)

Education & Courses
Your Courses. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.67 (What's this for and how many more payments? How long's the course?)
Big One Offs
Birthdays . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 (probably need to budget something here)
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00 (can you really afford it?)
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 (again can you really afford it?)
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.25 (Read the news online/use other online websites for free)
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.33 (start bringing your own snacks)

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,703.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,773.01

Hi, you're doing well addressing this issue now. You have not listed anywhere how much debt you are curently in - Overdraft and CC? Also, need to find out what the APR is/are on debts.

You are in the fortunate position of having a very small shortfall which you could make up with small changes and cutbacks. (And once you are debt free, the amount you are currently paying towards debt will cover the excess being spent in your SOA), but to be able to spend this money on things like drinking in and out, eating out, clothers etc you need to become debt free first.

Even though your shortfall is not that much each month, this will put you £70 further in debt if you don't address it by making cutbacks.

I have made some suggestions above - hopefully you'll be able to make some of them work for you.

HTH

Domino9

littleredfairy

Just seen the third post from Tixy. My family live in Scotland, so I go back about three times a year, so that's my holidays there! Not sure that travel insurance is accurate, as I got a policy for £45 this year. This year I am going skiing, and have had some lessons and also done a foreign language course which shold help with my work (both an indulgence I know). I am terrible for shopping, cannot ignore a bargain, even if happens to be the case that I cannot even afford said bargain. My job is costumer facing so I tell myself I must look nice.

The APR on my credit card is 15.3, the apr on my overdraft 19.3, neither of which are good. Trying to switch accounts at the moment.

My main issue is that I cut back on everything and then get frustrated and spend!

[Deleted User]

littleredfairy wrote: »

My main issue is that I cut back on everything and then get frustrated and spend!

You don't need to cut back on everything, and you don't need to do it all at once, do it in stages if it helps to keep you motivated and on board.

Tyr cutting down enough this month so as your income=expenditure (only a £70 saving)

And then next month cut back a little more so that you can pay extra towards you debts.

If cutting out anything is too hard, try cutting a little from each and you may not notice the change so much.

Check out the snowball calculator at the end of the webpage where you made your SOA - this will show you how long it will take you to be debt free.

Also, if you do need to buy new clothes regularly for work, try selling some of the ones you no longer wear on e-bay etc

pennypusher

Hi, the problem you have is that you are trying to have everything and haven't quite got enough money. You could either try to reduce your spending by 10% for everything which would just about mean you break even or cut out things like sandwiches which you could take from home. Can you cut your mobile phone down to payg?

Do you have a spare room you could rent out to a friend and make some money that way?

Luckily you have lots of choices, if you get it sorted now you won't have so much pain if you do lose your job. Try also to save some money as a cushion 'just in case!' Good luck.

barbiedoll

Things like complimentary therapies, beauty treatments and gym membership really should be the first thing to go, sad though it may seem! If you live/work near a college that trains hairdressers or beauty therapists, you can often get freebie treatments and haircuts by offering yourself up to a trainee. I've had loads of free haircuts like this!

Save yourself the price of gym membership by doing some walking every day. If you use the tube or buses to travel, get off a stop earlier. I know it's an old cliche but I have to walk every day in my job and I just can't keep the weight on, it's healthy and free and you soon get used to it, despite the horrid weather at the moment.

I know that you need clothes for work but you should just keep an essential "work wardrobe" and get decent tops, skirts or trousers and shoes that will last. No-one cares if you have a new outfit every week so save your spend-ups for "going-out" clothes. And stop grabbing the so-called bargains. I bet you have quite a few items that you've bought on the spur of the moment and never worn because they don't fit/don't go with anything else you own/look horrible on you, etc etc.
If you do, sell them on ebay and at least get a couple of quid back.

A good chunk of your cash is probably going on tat such as magazines, newspapers, coffees/doughnuts/mufffins, and things like the tea-break Twix or Mars bar. If you are spending on stuff like this then buy sweets or cakes in bulk at the supermarket and take them into work with you. You know that you can get free papers and mags at the station, get these and borrow your colleagues magazines if you need something to read.

There's loads of ways to cut back without feeling the pinch too much. Keep a spending diary and write down EVERYTHING that you spend, every day for a month. You'll soon see where the money is going and once you make up your mind to cut down, it's easier than you think.
You'll soon find yourself questioning "Do I want it or need it" every time you get your purse out! :rotfl:

Good luck!

La_escocesa

Hi :wave:

Just a couple of things I noticed - you said your pension comes off at source but then you've allocated £50 to it further down... Has your salary figure already taken account of this though?

What do you include in 'shopping for fun' because further down you've got the same amount for clothes shopping too. Is this in addition?

You could probably save about £5 a day if you took lunch to work.

And have you got any club card vouchers lying around by any chance? I got a mag subscription with mine so saved money there.

Also, could you suggest to your mates a few different activities for a couple of months - house parties instead of going out, Come Dine With Me style dinner party/Supper club instead of meals out etc? Might help you save some pennies without feeling like you're missing out.

Good luck!