YET another Payday Loans thread...but wait!

alox123

Here is a bit of an update on how I shifting these debts. It looked like I would be free of them by April - much sooner than the 10-12 months previously planned.

I have cut down my outgoings to the absolute minimum - reduced phone tarrifs, TV package etc, and become amazingly disciplined with how much I spend on food. I've focused these savings on paying off as much as I can on the PDLs. Its not enough to pay any one off in one go, but sizable chucks per month. Also, goes without saying I'm getting rid of the high interest ones first/those costing me most to roll over. Its started off quite stressful knowing I would have to go month with no 'spare' cash, but positive it will be worth it.

Its been a month now and I have spend £0 pounds outside my budget, and reduced my budget by about £100.

I have always been someone who loves spending money and up until recently have always splashed out every month, on something. So trying to spend money on nothing other than food or bills was very had at first. However I've slipped into a very comfortable routine. Working my way through DVDs I spend £30 on but only watched once/not watched yet, reading my girlfriends books etc.

I'm sure there many top tips about how to save in supermarkets, but here are my top tips. I have had a strict shopping routine for the past 3-4 months, but would often splash out on takeaways, bonus trips to the supermarket etc.

1.I have a set figure to spend a week and this NEVER changes. As I live with my girlfriend, its £40 in total -£20 each PW. Never spend more. See sticking to your budget as a challenge rather than a restriction.

2.Always have a shopping list, and pre-plan what you are going to eat each day. Always stick to it.

3.Use the same supermarket (I find Sainburys the cheapest, nicest and its 'value' products seem the most worth while. I have nothing to back this up other than I have tried every supermarket) every week. You know where everything is and can take advantage of the various card schemes.

4. I try to go at the same time every week, to make it a routine. Building a disciplined spending routine like this has helped me massively in become generally a more focused saver.

5. Keep a running total as you go.

6. Cook from scratch as much as you can and build up whats in your cupboards than can be used time after time. If your not a confident cook, raid various online recipe sites and start learning. Jamie Oliver's site is rammed full of easy recipes that are very good. Give the fish pie a try if you don't believe me.

7. This is a controversial one - always spend upto the limit. Often, because I have lots of ingredients left from previous weeks - we will only spend a small amount. Our Christmas shopping cost £17 for a full weeks food. Any money 'left over' we make sure to but things we don't need for main meals but we want. This ensures we don't buy extras throughout the week - often costing more in the long run. I'm sure many people would prefer to save this money, but I tried that and found it didn't work for me very well.

Following these rules helped my cut from spending about £80 on food a week, to £20 - and I actually feel I have more food in my fridge each week now.

I'm sure people have their own way of doing this, own tips and heard many of these things before, as many are just common sense - but its been a great way of helping me to change the way I treat money. It was how I treated money that caused me to take out PDLs.

Having a routine and teaching yourself discipline is essential in getting off the PDL roundabout, or not even getting on it if you think thats the way your heading.

27col

Maintaining a spending spreadsheet and religiously keeping it up to date is a good way to know exactly where your money is going. But good luck with your efforts to get your spending under control. As you say, self discipline is the main tool in your toolbox.

[Deleted User]

alox123 wrote: »

Here is a bit of an update on how I shifting these debts. It looked like I would be free of them by April - much sooner than the 10-12 months previously planned.

I have cut down my outgoings to the absolute minimum - reduced phone tarrifs, TV package etc, and become amazingly disciplined with how much I spend on food. I've focused these savings on paying off as much as I can on the PDLs. Its not enough to pay any one off in one go, but sizable chucks per month. Also, goes without saying I'm getting rid of the high interest ones first/those costing me most to roll over. Its started off quite stressful knowing I would have to go month with no 'spare' cash, but positive it will be worth it.

Its been a month now and I have spend £0 pounds outside my budget, and reduced my budget by about £100.

I have always been someone who loves spending money and up until recently have always splashed out every month, on something. So trying to spend money on nothing other than food or bills was very had at first. However I've slipped into a very comfortable routine. Working my way through DVDs I spend £30 on but only watched once/not watched yet, reading my girlfriends books etc.

I'm sure there many top tips about how to save in supermarkets, but here are my top tips. I have had a strict shopping routine for the past 3-4 months, but would often splash out on takeaways, bonus trips to the supermarket etc.

1.I have a set figure to spend a week and this NEVER changes. As I live with my girlfriend, its £40 in total -£20 each PW. Never spend more. See sticking to your budget as a challenge rather than a restriction.

2.Always have a shopping list, and pre-plan what you are going to eat each day. Always stick to it.

3.Use the same supermarket (I find Sainburys the cheapest, nicest and its 'value' products seem the most worth while. I have nothing to back this up other than I have tried every supermarket) every week. You know where everything is and can take advantage of the various card schemes.

4. I try to go at the same time every week, to make it a routine. Building a disciplined spending routine like this has helped me massively in become generally a more focused saver.

5. Keep a running total as you go.

6. Cook from scratch as much as you can and build up whats in your cupboards than can be used time after time. If your not a confident cook, raid various online recipe sites and start learning. Jamie Oliver's site is rammed full of easy recipes that are very good. Give the fish pie a try if you don't believe me.

7. This is a controversial one - always spend upto the limit. Often, because I have lots of ingredients left from previous weeks - we will only spend a small amount. Our Christmas shopping cost £17 for a full weeks food. Any money 'left over' we make sure to but things we don't need for main meals but we want. This ensures we don't buy extras throughout the week - often costing more in the long run. I'm sure many people would prefer to save this money, but I tried that and found it didn't work for me very well.

Following these rules helped my cut from spending about £80 on food a week, to £20 - and I actually feel I have more food in my fridge each week now.

I'm sure people have their own way of doing this, own tips and heard many of these things before, as many are just common sense - but its been a great way of helping me to change the way I treat money. It was how I treated money that caused me to take out PDLs.

Having a routine and teaching yourself discipline is essential in getting off the PDL roundabout, or not even getting on it if you think thats the way your heading.

Great post :T I would take my hat off to you and your absolutely right ! money has a totally different value to me now - basic's all the way and if I ain't got the money I don't get it ! I couldn't do the xmas shopping properly for thinking what I could hive of and imaging how I'd feel never to have to deal with one particular lender!!!
I also done the snowballing with my 6 over the last 5 months now down to paying 1. I defaulted on all at the same time so it is do-able IF caught early enough and really don't let the payday loans companies ignore - I've seen so many posts where people just rely on sending emails and give up when there is no reply or think they are doing the right thing in keep rolling over! for me it was 'you do your worst I'll do my best approach' to get through recorded delivery letters are the only way along with change of bank account
when your coming out of the tunnel it feels unexplainable and is the biggest personal reward there is!!

All the best

Mara69

Once again, it is quite clear that the problem lies with the people that use payday loans - not the companies themselves.

accountingbod

Really great reading

I dont have payday loans myself but i think your determination and attitude to change things is inspiring.
We try to manage money as best as possible but often find we overspend or have multiple trips to the supermarket and this is something i want to change. We are also very guilty of putting things in our trolley on impulse!

alox123

Thanks for the support guys. Its good (kind of) to hear other people have been in similar situations. A big part of this forum is knowing other people face the same problems. Stuck in a PDL cycle can feel terrible, but its a relief to know it wont last forever.

Mara69 wrote: »

Once again, it is quite clear that the problem lies with the people that use payday loans - not the companies themselves.

I'm not really trying to blame them. I take responsibility for the situation. If anything I will come out the other end with a much bigger respect for money and hopefully a much ardent saver. I wont ever use them again, like most people say there are many other much better options than using PDL.


They do however have many shortfallings. I get emails all the time asking me to rollover, extend my loans or increase how much I'm borrowing. I recently discovered they don't show up on credit files and I have not so far found any of them to have customer services relations anything close to appropriate. They always seem to want to sell you the product, at the same time as scaring the life out of you if you can't pay. I understand as a business they have to do this, but there is a sense many of them are used to customers having problems.

The problem with them is blindingly obvious when they advertise the fact they lend to people with 'bad credit that have been turned down for credit elsewhere'. There is a reason people, me included, have bad credit. I have a history of overborrowing, not paying back on time, missing payments and generally not sticking to agreements - so it makes sense lenders should approach me with caution - not try and use that as a marketing tool.

They also make a big deal about the fact you can get the money right away. If someone NEEDS money in 15 minutes, do they really need it? If its for a bill or rent that is overdue, surely another 2-3 days won't hurt. People who need money in 15 minutes are likely to be borrowing on impulse, no necessity. Well, that was the case with me anyway. That for me was how the cycle started. If I had waited another 10-15 days to buy what I took a loan out for, I wouldn't have needed another loan. And another.

So basically what I'm say is they are legally doing nothing wrong, but I feel they are morally questionable.

Another note, I've recently applied for a uniform tax rebate - if this works I will let you know, could help a lot towards getting debt free.

alox123

Hello again.


Does anyone know how I can have this post moved to the DFW section? I would like to keep updating it - partly for me so I can track how I'm doing but also offer bits of info/advice on how to get out of the PDL trap, but don't think it really belongs in the 'loans' section.

Anyway - some more updated on what I have done to get off the PDL roundabout and hopefully some advice for others.

Like most people I imagine I used PDL as a 'lender of last resort'. And this was mainly due to the fact my credit is poor. I would imagine most people using PDL are in the same situation. Last month, when I REALLY started to focus on getting debt free (starting with PDL) I did a credit check. My advice for those people stuck using PDL would be to also do a credit check as one of the first stages. It might sound obvious, and it might also be daunting.

I was speaking to a friend,problems also struggling with debts, who refused outright to check his credit file as he knew he wouldn't like what he saw.

I did not want to check mine, but so glad I did. I found an assortment of problems - some I knew about, some I didn't.

Anyway, to cut a long story short - doing this not only gave me a really clear picture of what was going on (it was a bit of a relief actually to finally look and not try and hide behind PDL) but also found a store card with many late payments. Upon investigation I found I had been paying late, but it wasn't my fault - the mistake were on their part. After digging into this, I have had a huge chunk wiped off, credit file amended and been given £65 - plus my monthly payments are £20 cheaper - all because I finally started taking things seriously and dared to look.

I'm not saying EVERYONE is in a similar situation, but it is worth checking everything is in order - its a great way to start becoming PDL FREE.

Along side not spending, and cutting down where I have to spend (food etc) I have brought getting PDL free forward by another month. Free by April 2012, although my outgoings were £1036 (now £900ish since cutting back) and my basis income is £1260 - and I have £1200 worth of loans to get rid off, I only started getting rid of them end of December. And I will not need to default on any or enter a repayment plan, its all been about saving and making more where I can and being as focused as I can on not having them eat up my income.

Apples2

You could try reporting your own post.
Hit the REPORT button and choose "Technical problem" on the drop down list and write a little explanation.

Alternatively a friendly Board Guide might see it and move it for you.

KingElvis

And if you ever come up with an abridged version let me know, until then I'll wait for the film to come out.

Melissab91

Alox123
I think you are a great inspiration and what you have put and shared with everyone is brilliant. Good luck with your future. I Have enjoyed reading your posts.