Stopping the Slippery Slope I'm on

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I am going to attempt to keep some kind of diary here in the hopes that it will keep me on the straight and narrow!

I don't owe as much as some of the people here (not including the student load, as I don't earn enough to pay that back yet) but I can see myself going down that slippery slope. I went from never dipping into my overdraft, to just going into it at the end of the month to living in it, plus the CC I had for 'emergencies'. I used it for vet bills when my ferret got sick and only ever paid minimun payments back onto it, and over the years the debt has steadily grown and I put my head in the sand about it all. (I tend to do that when I feel depressed)

Well, no more. I am going to make a serious attempt at paying my CC cards off.

I used the CC to get out of my overdraft after a head in the sand Christmas, so at least now I'm not getting charged for that, but now I'm being firm with myself. NO frivilous spends. I've done really well since mid Jan!

I do have a holiday coming up in May that I had to start paying for this month, so that's £204, and more payments for the next 2 months. My friend also bought me tickets to see a band for my birthday, so I need to find travel money for that, and my other friend is getting married in a few months, so there's her hen night (hen day as well!) next month and then 2 nights in a hotel for the wedding, and I need to find shoes to go with my bridesmaid dress...

With this in mind because I'm terrified of getting back where I started--or worse, I have been selling on ebay like a demon, I've sold some things on etsy, and I've cut back my spending to the bone.

other ways I'm trying to save/earn money at the moment:

• putting away £2 per week for food whilst on holiday
• putting spare change in a jar for holiday spends
• using slicethepie/topcashback/swagbucks saving for xmas

I did try to up the payment of my Pro Study Loan next month as I only have £159 something to pay on it and my DD is £110, but for some reason my bank wouldn't let me change it, which is annoying. I just want it to be gone and have less to worry about!


I also reduced my overdraft limit on my current bank account from £1250 to £1000. It was scary! Even though I'm determind not to go back that far into it again and when these next few expensive months are over I can properly budget for things and start saving to give myself a buffer, (and a saving account for vet bills!) it still scared me to take away part of that safety net.


My next mission is to see if I can claim back any PPI for my CC as I realised I'm still paying it.


Is it bad that I just want the holiday/wedding to be over so I can really get on the debt repayments mission?:rotfl:


You'd never guess that all through school/uni I was really good with money and saving it!

jwil

Good luck! Better to control it before it gets worse.

Piquant_2

Welcome to your new diary!

You've made a great start, looking forward to seeing you clear your debt.

Piq

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thank you! I am so impatient to be debt free, i'm hoping that spurs me on! nothing to report today other than a NSD and hunting for swagbucks and reviewing on slicethepie!

Kepp

You're off to a great start :T

What sort of things are you selling on Etsy? I'm hoping to start soon so am interested in people's experiences of it

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beccie wrote: »

You're off to a great start :T

What sort of things are you selling on Etsy? I'm hoping to start soon so am interested in people's experiences of it

etsy is awesome! i sell handmade steampunky type jewellery; mainly 'tardis' keys. i am in the process of making more things so my shop is always full, but it's hard to do it in between Real Life:)

My mom also knits dolls clothes so I've started a shop up for those too, she said if she sells any all she wanted back from them was the cost of the wool and i could keep the difference, so i need to get into gear and get that started too.

I definitely sold a lot more when I was active in all their forums and groups though, so if you've got the time join a few of the etsy groups and comment in them. The more you can get your name out there on etsy the more traffic you get. Definitely give it a try, it's so rewarding when you get a sale:)

on another note, i haven't done much on the road to being debt free apart from some NSDs since Saturday, and being frugal with my spagbowl (i added oats to make the mince go further!)

but this will change because I need to go out and buy hen do goodies sometime this week. But I won't go overboard and I will make a lot:)

Kepp

Ooo, I've bought some lovely steampunk jewellery on etsy and folksy before, I love the stuff. I made a steampunk jewellery box for my friend's birthday last year but never again! I admire anyone with the patience for all those fiddly watch parts :A

Thanks for the tips - this will be totally new for me so the advice is appreciated

Well done for all the NSDs :T - I'm awful at them!

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beccie wrote: »

Ooo, I've bought some lovely steampunk jewellery on etsy and folksy before, I love the stuff. I made a steampunk jewellery box for my friend's birthday last year but never again! I admire anyone with the patience for all those fiddly watch parts :A

Thanks for the tips - this will be totally new for me so the advice is appreciated

Well done for all the NSDs :T - I'm awful at them!

sign up for their email tips as well because they're quite helpful too! i find with etsy as apposed to ebay that people will pay for quality handmade items whereas on ebay people want to get something for nothing.

i have withdrawn $10 from slicethepie today, just to make sure they'd accept my reviews, as i didn't want to keep on reviewing and for them to say they weren't good enough, but i had no problems, so i have extra to pay for hen night stuff and next time i'll let my slicethepie $s build up more.

Had more NSDs and my last dd goes out my bank tomorrow so hopefully i will see a difference with all these NSDs!

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Skulduggery Pleasant obviously brings me goodluck (as well as saves the world from evil) I dressed as him at work for World Book Day today; which went very well, and when I checked my email at lunch time saw that I had sold something in my etsy shop! thats another £30 for the pot!

i also had some ebay stuff ending today and before fees made another £30 so today has been a good day! fingers crossed that i won't fall back into my overdraft before my next payday!

Things that didn't sell will be relisted tomorrow (at 99p) and I will have a hunt for more stuff.

I have decided that free listing days have made me greedy--I have had more luck with items when I start them off at 99p.

tomorrow I will also finish off some more things to put on my etsy shop. I had a bit of a resin disaster the last time I made resin jewellery and obviously didn't mix it well enough so I ruined lots of stuff and that's made me wary.

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so the high of yesterday is lower today. as i knew it would be because I was sorting out my paperwork to try and put a ppi claim in. of course i don't seem to have any record of first taking it out (and don't really remember it)

and in all the paperwork i realise i'm still paying something called guardcard, but i missed it on my review of everything because they take payment from my credit card, which sheds light onto why my hsbc cc doesn't seem to go down (shows how much my head was in the sand! i used to force myself to open letters, but then i'd never read them properly!)

not sure if GuardCard is PPI, but as it's some kind of insurance I shall try and put in a claim for that too. it seems I always say yes to these types of thing when I'm feeling vulnerable and easily backed into a corner.

Never again!

I'm disappointed that I'm pretty sure I will have to dip into my overdraft before next payday, even with the extra etsy/ebay funds, but I'm not going to overspend or go silly like I have in the past, so hopefully next month most of my wages will be mine and not sunk into my overdraft (not including bills of course!)

I've had more NSDs than SDs in the past month, so I'm going to keep that up. I had to buy some supplies for the item that was sold on etsy (i make to order) but I only bought what I needed instead of buying what i wanted and spending what I'd made on supplies I probably won't use (I have craft fear)

l decided to use topcashback and go through ebay to buy my friend's hen do veil and i've put in a best offer for one. i only offered 50p less, but i figured that if they didn't want to haggle they'd have just put buy it now, they can only say no, right? i thought this would stop me buying unneeded things. i have stuff from other hen nights i've been to and i make a lot of stuff so i don't need to go mad. this way keeps me out of the shops!

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I need to stop getting into panicky depressive flunks! That is usually the time I disappear and shut down, so I am going to attempt to make this a positive diary and not some depressing whining thing.

Maybe if I list things I'm happy about I won't feel so annoyed with myself over debt

Things I'm thankful for:

• I have amazing wonderful friends who don't judge. One in particular I can talk about debt/saving/whine to and she understands.
• a great family, siblings I'm close to, who I consider friends as well as family
• I have two ferrets who are probably attempting to take over the world as we speak. When that happens I'm sure they'll wipe my debt clean!
• I have a job I adore with people I get on with. OK, it pays poor, but I'd rather do the job I do than something I'd hate every day
• my friend is getting married to a wonderful man who has looked after her when she was sick--I'm lucky enough, not only to be a bridesmaid, but to do a reading in the church.
• The guts it took looking through my paperwork and sending out PPI claims for MBNA and GuardCard (not sure if this is PPI, but I seem to have been paying it since I opened my student account about 10years ago!)

Now; things I'm going to do now i've had my LBM:

• Learn to cook from scratch. I can't cook at all, not even basics, but I've recently gone on a wheat/gluten free diet for health reasons. Wheat/Gluten free food is so darn expensive!
• Learn to bulk out food-bulking out my spagbowl with oats was a success; now I need to make spagbowl from scratch!
• Have as many NSDs as possible, and when I do buy things, it's things I NEED, not want
• Do swagbucks every day--save up for amazon vouchers to use nearer Xmas as pressies
• Review on slicethepie for pocketmoney or as an emergency fund
• make more jewellery to sell
• sell unwanted items on ebay
• Not give up!
• Once holiday and wedding are over inject any extra money into my debts (with a small pot for 'emergencies')
• Go in and talk to my bank...Now I can face them and show them I'm doing something!) Find out why I can't transfer money to my ISA (grrr)

I think that's it for now. I'm feeling positive!:)