Stitching up that hole in my pocket!

menina

Well, here's my shiny new diary I've been lurking on this forum for a while now and can see what an excellent tool it is, along with the MSE website as a whole in solving one's financial conundrums. Of which I have a few! So I thought I'd take the plunge and get involved.

I have done quite well in changing my spendy ways so far, but I have to say, it is a challenge to keep on the straight and narrow. I'll be really good for a few weeks, which will feel like ages, when of course it's not really. And then straight back to square one! So I'm hoping that this diary will keep me focused.

I realise that if I'm to get out of debt I need to start by having a fairly frugal year. That will hopefully shift the credit card debt which is what bothers me the most. The loan is a consolidation of old debts and will be paid in 5 years which I'm not too concerned about really. I guess that the best case scenario is that I'll be successful in sorting out my finances so much this year that I'll be inspired to find a way to shift that one quicker starting 2013. We'll see.

Bye for now, I'm off to subscribe to a few challenges to help me on my way x

menina

Aesop's make £10 a day thread looks good. Don't think I'll go in for £10 to start with though. My travel card is quite a large and annoying out going for me. Maybe if I could use that challenge to make back the cost of the travel card each month.... Also the grocery challenge looks good. I'll sign up to those for March.

menina

So I received a letter from Barclay card saying that my credit limit had been slashed from about £5000 to £280!! Shouldn't have bothered me right? Strangely, it made me feel a bit upset. When thrashing out my frustrations on the cross trainer a bit later, I realized that I was feeling upset because not having the money there made me feel vulnerable. Much as I'm trying to get OUT of debt, it seems that I would like to have the option to get into MORE debt if I want to!! Well I guess that might be one reason why I'm in so much debt at the moment.

So I've had a think about it and still feel it's OK to not be in debt and have 1 credit card for emergencies (OK, savings would be better, but I'm a long way off that!!) So hopefully I'll be able to stick to my goals and achieve that one day- according to my signature by the end of the year.

Have a lovely day folks xx

menina

Pay day yesterday Paid off both my Barclay cards, hubbies savings that I'd borrowed and my £500 overdraft. Feel this is highly ambitious as obviously I have a month to go until pay day again!! Am planning to cane the overtime though, already have 5 extra shifts booked. Will pick up more if I can. I'm sure that I'll end up in the £500 overdraft but not much I can do about that. Just need to wait for 1st March now to sign up to some challenges because that's clearly the only way I'm going to survive this without being completely miserable!