dfw the fly-lady way - 31 days

Tondella

Day 21 – hey big spender!
So far we are:
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Filing our bills

Fly babies give your 3-week old self a big pat on the back, we’re working through our challenges and about to set off on the final ten days home straight. Today is the day for adding up those daily spends and putting the safe and sound into your spending diary or spreadsheet. Did your efforts in making the most of your storecupboard and freezer pay off? Have you got any pennies left from your weekly budget? Once you’ve written everything down put your feet up and relax, it’s been a big ole week.

Tondella

Day 22 – find your latte factor
So far we are:
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Filing our bills

Today we are finding our latte factor. Fly babies we have amassed three weeks of spending habit knowledge and as we know, knowledge is power. Today we are going to review our spending to find our latte factor. Your latte factor is the one small thing that you buy without thinking. It could be a newspaper, a magazine, a bar of chocolate, fresh flowers, or even a latte coffee. You buy it without thinking because it isn’t a big spend. But cumulatively, over the year these little spends add up. While we’re all wondering to ourselves, where does my money go? It’s not as if I have three holidays a year, a flash car and designer clothes? Our latte factor is slowly chipping away at our funds. For example, a £1.70 latte, bought every week day on the way to work costs £442 for the year – that’s equivalent to a flash gym membership. Fly babies I want you to find your latte factor and work on cutting it out. My latte factor is my latte, so I now buy a nice packet of ground coffee from the supermarket, which costs the price of one latte and lasts me all month.

Tondella

Day 23 – get it on(line)
So far we are:
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Filing our bills
Fighting our latte factor

One of our favourite fly baby mantras is “knowledge is power”. Today we are going to get online and join up for online banking. Most banks now offer online banking, in fact some of the best accounts are only online. The advantages of online banking are infinite.

Firstly, rather than wait for our monthly statement in the post, or keep visiting the ATM for mini statements, having online access means being able to check our bank balances daily or even hourly if you want. Knowing the exact state of your account means that you are much less likely to go accidentally overdrawn because a payment went out earlier than you expected, or a cheque took longer to clear than you thought. Plus, we can tally our daily spending list with the online statement, and capture any forgotten purchases.

NB: you should only attempt to access your bank account on a private computer (that is one that is only used by yourself).

Setting up online access to your bank account takes a few days, as the bank asks you to go through some security processes and will usually send you a password in the post. But once you are up and running you will never look back.

Tondella

Day 24 – what’s for dinner?!
So far we are:
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Filing our bills
Fighting our latte factor

OK fly babies, time to tackle another part of our spending. We’re already in the habit of keeping a shopping list, and we’ve been rediscovering our cupboards and freezer drawers. Today we are going to take it one step further and try and plan out our meals for the next week. Now, I’m a fly by the seat of my pants gal, and the thought of knowing what I was going to eat for the next week was pretty mortifying at first. But I knuckled down and gave it a go and soon enough I found that planning my meals had liberated me from getting to the end of work and finding myself wondering around supermarkets looking for something to eat, or worse still, coming home and finding that I had run out of that one crucial ingredient!

As ever, the old stylers have menu planning down to a tea (bag), and are always welcoming to newcomers if you want to post and ask for some advice. Don’t be daunted, set yourself a small goal for the first week of planning evening meals for four nights of the week. Remember, we’re not planning dinner parties here, beans on toast or a tin of soup can constitute a meal! Post your menu plan for comments if you feel up for it!

Tondella

Day 25 - don't b*tch, switch!
So far we are:
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Foraging in our freezers & cupboards
Filing our bills
Fighting our latte factor
Menu planning

Ok fly babies, last week we sat down with our neatly filed bills and wrote out the regular outgoings part of our SOA. Today I want you to tackle on of your regular outgoings and see if you can make it cheaper by switching (or doing without it altogether). Finding the best price for the things we need (or want) and not paying for the things we don’t is at the heart of money-saving expert consumer revenge. Some really significant pain free savings can be made for a small amount of concentrated effort. What does Martin mean by pain-free savings? That’s simply paying less but still getting the same. Things that fall into this category include:

Gas/electricity rates
Mobile phone
Landline phone
Broadband
Sky or digital TV packages
Roadside recovery membership
Gym membership
DVD rental packages
Insurance policies (home, car, personal, travel, pet)
Mortgage rates
Loan rates
Credit card rates
Credit card cashback rates

And these are just the ones I have thought of off the top of my head! There’s even a chance that you could make savings on things like council tax, or income tax. Martin has step-by-step guides on how to check that you and your home are being taxed in the correct band.

Consumer revenge and getting the most for your money are ongoing battles, and it can seem overwhelming at the start of it, especially as you are dealing with the more immediate problem of paying your debts. However, these things can be tackled one by one, and over time. Look through your SOA and pick one thing that feels like it is costing too much. Without doubt there’ll be an article from Martin about it, which will teach you how the system works, and how to get a saving. Then make the switch, and revel in the extra cash!

Tondella

Day 26 – freebie day
So far we are:
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Foraging in our freezers & cupboards
Filing our bills
Fighting our latte factor
Menu planning

Fly babies today is another day to kick back, relax and roam the boards. You’ve been working hard this week, cutting back spending, and each day has had a fresh new challenge. Look back on all you have achieved. There’s only five more days to go before you are a fully fledged debt free wannabe and it’s going to be one more whirlwind of a working week. So enjoy the downtime while you can!

Tondella

Day 27 – drop the debt
So far we are:
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Foraging in our freezers & cupboards
Filing our bills
Fighting our latte factor
Menu planning

Well, fly babies you should by now be well rested so I’m going to send you straight back to those neatly filed bills and statements and get you to prepare the second part of your SOA (statement of affairs). Today we are concentrating on finding out exactly how much we owe, who we owe it to, and how long we owe it for.

This is going to be the most detailed part of your SOA, so for each credit card bill, loan or arrears you need to state

The total amount owed
The interest rate charged (APR)
The minimum payment per month (for credit cards, usually expressed as a percentage of the outstanding balance)
And for loans the duration of payments remaining

If you are feeling very brave you can total it all up and work out exactly how much you owe (eek!). don’t worry, it will never be this high again. Remember, you’re a fly baby now.

Tondella

Day 28 – can you benefit?
So far we are
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Foraging in our freezers & cupboards
Filing our bills
Fighting our latte factor
Menu planning

Fly babies, we have been scrimping and saving, spending less where we can, and doing without our little luxuries for 28 days. Today we are going to tackle the other side of the equation and look at what is coming in, rather than what is going out. Martin has put together a fab step-by-step guide on how to check your benefit entitlement. You can find it here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1047513100,1583,#eligible

If you’re not entitled to any additional benefits then how about making the money that you already have benefit you more? Do you have one of the highest paying current accounts?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1109610116,88950,

Or, if you credit record can support it and you have the discipline to spend only what you can afford, why not consider taking out a credit card that pays you money for spending on it.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1087717218,37843,

Tondella

Day 29 – got debt? Budge it!
So far we are
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Foraging in our freezers & cupboards
Filing our bills
Fighting our latte factor
Menu planning

OK fly babies, with four weeks of spending diary power behind us, knowledge of our regular outgoings and debt repayments at our fingertips, and a good idea of how much we earn and what benefits we are/should be getting we are ready to budget!

The joys of a well planned budget are manifold. You know exactly where your money is going, and where you can direct your efforts to make improvements to your spending, and if something crops up (like a particular nice pair of shoes in the sale, for example) you immediately know whether you can or cannot afford to buy them. Having a budget means that, any time in the month, when you log on and check your bank statement you know whether you are on target to make it to the end of the month without going overdrawn, or whether you are going to have to cut back a little to make it through. And believe me, better to realise this sooner, rather than when you are down to your last £10 with two weeks left till payday.

Before you starting looking around for the abacus let me direct you to this nifty spreadsheet that helps you with the calculations

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1089226742,17582,#planner

The genius of Martin’s budget planner is that you can put weekly, monthly and yearly spends into the same calculations. Enter in all of your regular outgoings (utilities, childcare, insurance etc) and then take a look at your spending diary and come up with some realistic targets for your non—fixed spending (things like petrol, food, clothing, ents, smokes, etc). Don’t enter in any of your debt repayments yet – we’re going to deal with that separately. Then enter your income and benefits. Then click on view results. It should be in the green (considering you haven’t accounted for your debt repayments at the moment). If it isn’t then go back and set more stringent targets for your non-fixed spending, and see if there are any fixed outgoings that you can reduce or cancel (Day 25).

Once you have got yourself into the green then write down that magic amount. That is the money with which you are going to tackle your debt. Hopefully there is enough to cover all your minimum payments, with luck there is a little leftover, which I will show you what to do with tomorrow. If you can’t get your spending into the green, or if the money left over each month isn’t enough to cover the minimum repayments on your debts then look here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1103204730,72152,#counselling

You’re going to need some extra help from professionals in negotiating with your creditors so that you can arrange a realistic way of paying off your debts. Don’t worry, the guys here are brilliant and (unlike those who advertise) offer their services entirely for free. Hundreds of members of the debt-free wannabe board are embarked on repayment plans with the help of debt management charities and many have lived through to see the other side. So don’t worry, just read Martin’s advice and get in touch asap.

Tondella

Day 30 – snowball!

So far we are
Writing our spends
‘fessing them up
Minimising mobiles
Keeping to our shopping lists
Packing a lunch
Banishing brands
Taking care of our pennies
Foraging in our freezers & cupboards
Filing our bills
Fighting our latte factor
Menu planning
Budging our debts with budgets

Fly babies, today’s challenge is for those with money left over after they had budgeted for the month and accounted for the minimum repayments on their debts. That the magical amount of green money is going to be put on your debts is a no-brainer. However, the way in which we are going to use it to pay off debts is magical. Ladies and gentleman we are going to snowball.

Snowballing may take a little getting used to at first as it relies on paying off the minimum repayment each month. What! I hear you cry? We may be little fly babies but even we know that paying off the minimum amount is a surefire path to credit card purgatory! A-ha but there is a catch. Snowballing makes you pay off the minimum amount on all your debts apart from the one that is charging you the most interest. What this means is that the most expensive debt gets paid off quickest. Then when that debt is gone you transfer all your extra money plus the amount you used to pay to debt 1 over to debt 2. What starts as your debt amount trickling down soon becomes a torrent of repayment.

There’s a fabulous calculator created by occasional member of the DWF thread that allows you to see the benefit of snowballing using your own debts. You’ll need to know the number of debts you have, the total owed, the minimum repayment due and details of any introductory offers, but hey, you got all that together way back in Day 27 so there’ll be no problems there!

Here’s the calculator
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

As a bonus you even get told your debt free date, which you can add into your signature to let other folks know how you’re getting along.

WARNING: playing with the snowball calculator is addictive and you may find whole days pass by as you tinker with the repayment strategy. Particular when you start experimenting with how fewer months it takes to repay if you can find an extra £X per month towards repayments.