Am I in the right place? Had my meltdown moment.

Dharma_Bunny

I definitely impulse buy less when doing online grocery shopping. My Tesco 'Favourites' is very funny, lots of expensive rubbish from when I've been into the shop and sensible value (and healthy) items when I've bought online.

flowerbomb1979

How strange, I've not been able to log in using the original account name and email and was having real problems resetting it. Have had to open a new account.

I think you're right about the travel costs thing. I get paid on Tuesday so I'm going to get a monthly pass on Friday that takes me through the next four weeks and three days. With that and internet shopping that's another saving straight off the bat cutting taxis right out the mix.

I can't give up my iphone just now. Aside from everything else,I've taken my free calls allowance off the house phone and will be using that as my sole means of calling people. If I get to the end of everything I'm looking to do to save money and I need to them I'll consider it but if I can work out how to cut back elsewhere I'd rather do that.

daniellebel

i use an iphone app called iexpensit. every single time i pay for anything - no matter how small, 10p or £100, i record it. it is very very interesting to see just how much money you spend in a day - for me, i thought it was on lunches etc, but was onthe food bill. i found it empowering...

flowerbomb1979

That sounds good. I'll look it up just now thanks

vka1

Hi Flowerbomb,

Looks like you've made a fantastic start! I.m only a month or so into this whole new way of looking at things and it's amazing to truly discover what goes where.....

An earlier poster suggested a spending diary - I can only agree - but another huge motivator for me has been to take the SOA headings and turn them into a spreadsheet column, and then multiply everything out by 12 to give year and month.....seeing the £50+ you'll save in travel added to all the other few £s here and there over a year makes saving even a little on something slightly addictive!! e.g. my cumulative annual saving (compared to orginal SOA) has been more £1100 in under a month of this - but the biggest monthly saving on a single item has only been about £25.

Really does prove the pennies and pounds theory.....and helps to keep them momentum going when you can see in black and white (and red!) the positive changes you're making.

Best of luck with your journey, looks like we could both be about for a while....so i'll keep an eye out for more of your progress and top tips from all the folk above.

V

wigwam

Hi Flowerbomb,
Great name- (my fave perfume!) and thread - you have made such positive changes already.
The travelcard is a great idea, I am exactly the same and seeing a large chunk of money go to something non fun is never good. But I've learned from buying petrol that when I fill up every few days I also buy a few bits I wouldn't have otherwise thus pushing the bill up a bit more. Recently I've been biting the bullet and getting half tank fulls instead.

Its tough paying all the unfun bills at the beggining of the financial month but its liberating knowing the expenses are paid for and the rest of the money is actually mine. I'm gonna join you with a monthly travelcard early next month (after the b/h's) and get out of the car!

Good luck - you have made great progress already

flowerbomb1979

vka1 wrote: »

Hi Flowerbomb,

my cumulative annual saving (compared to orginal SOA) has been more £1100 in under a month of this - but the biggest monthly saving on a single item has only been about £25.

Wowza, that's excellent!

wigwam wrote: »

Hi Flowerbomb,
Great name- (my fave perfume!)

Mine too - just wish it wasn't so darn expensive!

I got a letter from my catalogue company yesterday. Quite a nice letter actually saying they understand that a lot of their customers are struggling and they had an offer. Was about to rip it up cos I thought it would be spread it and get charged an arm and a leg. But basically it was to spread it across 3 years with an APR of 9.9%. I'm a bit torn cos on one hand it would give me real breathing space and is a relatively low interest rate but on the other hand I think I should just concentrate on getting it paid off within the next 6 months and then it's gone forever.

What's the thoughts?

Triggles

If you can manage to pay it off in 6 months, I'd do that. Then it's gone. Do you really want to be still paying that in 3 years? Then the money you're paying them can be redistributed towards another debt or savings.

vka1

Hi Flowerbomb,

Maybe take the breathing space, and use the cash it frees up to pay off your more expensive and urgent debts like Scottish Power (if I remember correctly) and your higher APR credit card.....

Equally, I can understand wanting just to get one thing over and done with quickly so you can see some progress.

Do the snowball thing and let it help you decide!

V

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

If you take the 3 year/9.9% interest (not too bad a rate I agree) does that mean you can't actually pay it off early?