One frugal year = freedom and choices

lobbyludd

that's what it comes down to really.
I earn a good wage currently and my debt burden is manageable but I want to get rid of this debt so that I can have some better choices and a buffer if circumstances change.

I am a single parent and work full-time, I would dearly love to be able to change career or cut down hours so that I can be with the kids more and have some time to myself. in the last 4 years I have cut my debts from 18K to just over 7K, got divorced (so am entirely in control of household finances which is A GOOD THING) and I could either have 4-10 more so so years cutting down debt slowly, with something always happening to ramp it up again. OR I could attack this and get it all done and dusted this year, and not have to worry about it all any more.

so I'm going to try that, and then I'm going to attack the mortgage and get some savings.

A year of living frugally.

Number 1 challenge was to give up smoking (again, again, again.) I am on day 5, and have saved 30-odd pounds, which is good as I never account for this in my budget ho hum.

Not cutting everything to the bone. The kids will still have movie night on a saturday - but it will be catch up TV on cable (which I shan't cut) and I am going to give myself a £40 per month spending money budget for emergencies/treats. My real challenge will be to see how much of this I can not spend....

I am not going to buy any clothes for me (I have enough - I just need to lose weight to fit into them), and except for shoes, I am going to buy no more for the children sales or not- they have more than enough to last them until christmas, and they are still young enough that I can make them anything they might need.

Having looked at my spreadsheets (daily updated for 3 years now) I can see that I fritter a good £200 a month due to poor planning, and impulse buying of fabric/plants etc to cheer myself up. This again doesn't go into my budget at the start of the month, it just gets whittled off of the money I put towards paying debts off.

well NO MORE. I have enough seeds to set up a garden centre and enough fabric and craft supplies to open my own shop. For one year I am going to buy NO MORE.

Birthday presents will be plants and vouchers that I earn for friends and older family. Only one of my family members actually NEEDS/wants anything for their birthday, the others struggle to even think of ideas and I always end up overspending trying to compensate for the fact that they buy themselves whatever they want.

For younger members it will be doll's clothes and play food that I make (really well, as a hobby). We will not be giving presents to children at parties any more and I will ask for no presents to be given to my children for their birthday parties (who don't need 15 more presents after the general avalanche from their family anyway - I can barely move in their bedrooms now, and I was ruthless before christmas in throwing/giving away unused "stuff").

We will camp on holiday again this year and I WILL NOT BUY ANY MORE CAMPING EQUIPMENT. we don't need any and I can't fit it into the car.

All my shopping for food will be to a PLAN, with a LIST and will either be done online, or when the children are with their dad, so that I don't get bullied into buying things that they want.

I have cleared and yesterday closed my virgin MBNA cc. This will stop me "just" putting something on it because it's the credit card I can find at the time. 34% APR - good riddance. I asked if they could do me a BT deal, but no, they don't want my business, fair enough!

1 more month and I can try another balance transfer to a 0% card for the halifax debt.

I am going to identify the clutter that could be sold from the house. I hate car boot sales, but I will commit to doing ONE in the summer. I have some stuff to list on ebay next free listing weekend. I am going to look at matched betting - think I've got the hang of it but want to run through some trials first.

Kirri

Very inpsiring, subscribing as this is similar to what I want to do, I just lack a bit of willpower in certain areas! Will be following with interest to see how you get on, good luck

twindad07

Hi there,

Ebay have a free listing weekend this weekend!

Good luck with your 1 year plan, We would love to be debt free in a year but think it will be more like 2 years

lilac_lady

Good luck. You seem determined and if you keep popping into this forum you'll get lots of help and tips.

lobbyludd

lost post. b*gg*r.

ebay list off top of head:

LA lamp and shade
Stair gates (was going to car boot these, but may as well try for free listing weekend local pick-up only)
Denby duplicates (china search etc don't want it, nothing to lose trying ebay though)
Curtain rings (I have about 50 spare wooden curtain rings - WHY?).
Box for my mobile phone.
Nomad travel cot.

will hunt around tonight, plus there's much much more in the loft, including alot of Ex-H's stuff that I am storing for him. How I wish I could sell some of that!

I can't imagine that anything sells really well in january, but it will act as a trial run for me to get used to things.

must do tonight - bank cheques (£7 of which is over 6 months old, not sure if they'll honour, but don't lose anything by trying!) change christmas gift in next for gift card (will use spending this as my one month treat for staying non-smoking, my 1 week treat is a free £5 no7 voucher for boots!)

Groceries, paid for on barclaycard (15.9% APR) and equivalent paid off halifax cc from current account (29.4% APR!), groceries for this month now at £76 which should be sufficient, and includes some bulk buys (washing powder and cat food) that should last for 3 ish months.

meal planning (I've just typed this all out once and then lost it all bah!) is in my head - I'll get round to writing it out again later.

Budget spreadsheet updated with all known spends until end of august 2012 - if only I could stick to it!

other than that this weekend I am going to list everything that is in the freezer and larder, I carry far too much "stock" of random items, a hosue full of food and not a single meal.

snozberry

You seem really determined. I'm going to subscribe and see what I can learn from you!

SassySuccess

Hi

I'd love to join you on the ride as your goals are similar to mine. I am a single mum of two - one aged 6 and one aged 3. I can fully appreciate how you feel about cutting your hours - I loved the people I worked with and the role I had but felt I needed to support the children after the year we had had. So I left my job and now have to pull in the purse strings and suss how I can earn a living!!

Well done on your journey of becoming smoke free!!! I would imagine it's very hard to kick a habit but you will feel fabulous when you re-label yourself as a non-smoker!

I am also looking to lose weight and have around 58 lbs to shed - eeek!

Lots of good wishes to help you achieve your goal and bring back more choices into your life

Sassy xxx

lobbyludd

Hi Sassy - ideally I would want to lose 50-55 pounds of weight, but I am not even thinking about that for a week or so. I know I get all motivated initially and then it wanes, so I''m saving frugal weight loss for when giving up smoking has settled in a bit.

Cheques banked, and gift swapped for a gift card - £20 and lasts for 2 years, might hang on to it for a bit in case an emergency birthday or something comes up! as really the "treat" for giving up smoking is disease-free lungs.

couldn't find anything for under a fiver in the no 7 range. there was a deal if you bought a mascara you got a free eye-shadow pallette, and everything in the range was on 3 for 2, before I knew it I had a mascara, two lipglosses and a free eyeshadow set in my hands for (11 + 9 + 0) -5 = £15, a bargain if I'd needed any of it. which I don't. so I put it back HURRAY! I wonder how long this smug fervour will last?

One of my main spending habits to kick, is that I decide I need to cut down my spending so identify an area and then spend money on something that I hope will save me money in the long run. this "surprisingly" never pans out.

In order to save money I need to STOP SPENDING IT. So I should probably bin the no.7 voucher. Or put it on ebay - is that legal? I wonder if anyone will pay 50p and the price of a stamp for it?

other identified ebay possibles are F&B paint samples. I have about 20-30, all opened, but with at least half the smple in - might shift.

some spring flowering bulbs that I don't want from T&M that came in a bundle of of ones I do want.

pack of silver behind the radiator stuff.

I think that's enough for a trial run. easy pikings, nt attached to any of it, and also don't mind if it sells for very little

does anyone know where I can sell old cloth nappies (used but obviously clean)? youngest is now 3 and I shan't be having any more. If I can't sell them I'll free-cycle.

G & E meters read, at last bill they owed me £200, if they still owe me over 150 after this reading (one month later, but winter) I'm going to ask for a refund and a reduction in my dd, If less, I'll just ask for a refund but keep the dd at same level.

lobbyludd

so, first weekend nearly over with mixed results...

good things

listed 6 items on ebay. people are watching them, we'll see if they sell.
friend came over on saturday usually we'd get a take-away and hire a film, but instead made pizzas and played wii dance games - was so much fun!
have joined lottosearch and am slowly building up points for a lotto ticket.
have done half of this months nectar searches.
nearly finished knitting son's hot-water bottle cover. Just daughter's to go and then will knit a couple for christmas presents.


not so good

bought 10 cigarettes yesterday, back on the wagon again today.
tried to line dry 2 loads of washing, first load yesterday took all day to dry, today's load has been out there for 10 hours and are as wet as when I put them out - cold, still day. pointless.
kids made a tent in littlest's bedroom and entertained themselves (good) but also discovered the stash of crisps for lunchboxes next week and have demolished them (bad).

spend for weekend = £4.

lobbyludd

I've got a bid on one of my ebay items WOOHOOO! and a request for a buy it now on another one (I'm not sure about that, I've no idea what to price it at)
and the rest are all being watched (which I know means nothing)
but this is MUCH better than bidding on things myself LOL

kellbobs

Hi i'm new to all this but this thread seems perfect for me, i'm a single mum of one aged 3. I don't have any debt apart from mortgage but would love to reduce the term and interest on this. After reading your first post i took a long hard look at my habits, I have 17 unopened cross stitch kits not to mention fabric, charts thread etc and my bookcase currently has 57 unread books on it. So as of today I will not buy any books or cross stitch stuff until i've gotten through my stash. Hopefully this will give me some extra cash to bank as an overpayment towards mortgage.
You have inspired me thanks x