Third Time Determined!

karmachilovething

So as the title suggests, this is my third time here.

First time I was a lurker, and (if I'm honest!) I wanted to reduce my costs to have more money free to spend on stuff I didn't need! (Hadn't really got the idea of DFW!)

Second time I started a DFD (losts in the mists of the forum no doubt!), and was doing pretty well. I was actually getting clear of debt. But I had a number of personal setbacks, and so it was spending to make myself feel better (I definitely have links between emotional state/emotional worth and my spending!) and then the debt started rising. And so I felt it was all hopeless and so I gave up trying.

So this is my third time here. And this time I'm serious. I don't know if it's turning 30. I think that every time my mother asks about my pension we both know the answer is the same (I don't have one) is a factor. The three letters that I had last week from the bank/CCs about missed payments/charges is puishing me to face the reality. Hate that sinking feeling when you know you've been silly and it's your own fault.

Anyway for whatever reason I am back, and I am going to do this!!

I confess I have been reluctant about coming back, mostly because I've been so ashamed that I slipped so badly (my debt is twice what it was the last time I was here), but after a bit of lurking I remembered that the people here are really supportive. Tough, but supportive. And that's what I need.

SOA to follow!

lurvlyloz

good luck. at leats you are back and ready to tackle it

Fae

Hello,

great that you have come back, and you sound really determined, so goo luck on your jounery, I'll be subscribing to keep you company

karmachilovething

OK here it is, my SOA. I've edited out lines that I don't need to help make it easier to read and added in some notes to explain a few things

This isn't telling me a whole lot I didn't already know, but it has been useful none the less. I'm going to follow this with a bit more on my plans to become DF. Please feel free to comment/slap me over the wrists!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Shared house but only my income/outgoings shown here
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1640
Total monthly income.................... 1640

Monthly Expense Details
Rent.................................... 537.5
I know terrible, right? Unfortunately I live in Oxford, and it is expensive. It could be better and my circumstances may be changing for the in the spring, but currently in contract so a limited amount I can do about this one in the short term
Council tax............................. 79
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 18
Water rates............................. 6.5
Mobile phone............................ 10.5
TV Licence.............................. 14.55
Telephone, Cable TV, Internet........... 16.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 90
Probably something to be done here
Clothing................................ 150
Yes, definitely slapped wrists here
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 17.5
Car Insurance........................... 35
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Other travel............................ 45
BF is in London so this is bus card and oyster card costs
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Contents insurance...................... 6.17
Other insurance......................... 19.5
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Space to make cuts here too
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 250
:eek::eek::eek: Yeah eat out a lot with the BF. Totally deserve slapped wrists for this. Discussed this with him over the weekend, and the DFW plan and he's on board so hoping to make some HUGE changes here
Holiday................................. 25
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Expenses (work)......................... 25
Toiletries/beauty....................... 50
Again space here to make some savings
Craft supplies.......................... 50
OK, this can also take some cuts, but I don't want to cut it completely because making thing makes me happy. Having said that I have plenty of supplies, so am going to try and not buy anything more for a few months
Gym Membership.......................... 82
Another biggy, but I am stuck in a contract for a while yet. However, I'm planning to use this to my advantage some.
Contact Lenses.......................... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 1802.72

Assets
Car(s).................................. 600
Total Assets............................ 600

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................4540.34...100.......24.9
Halifax........................2713.95...25........0
Overdraft......................2300......20........19.9
Total unsecured debts..........9554.29...145.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,640
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,802.72
Available for debt repayments........... -162.72
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 145
Amount short for making debt repayments. -257.72
And there the story right there!
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 600
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,554.29
Net Assets.............................. -8,954.29
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

karmachilovething

lurvlyloz wrote: »

good luck. at leats you are back and ready to tackle it

Fae wrote: »

Hello,

great that you have come back, and you sound really determined, so goo luck on your jounery, I'll be subscribing to keep you company

Hi Lurvlyloz and Fae!

So nice to have you here, and good to know somebody will be keeping an eye on me good for "accountability" if that's not too American an expression!

karmachilovething

OK, so the plan to turn the boat around on my debts is to completely stop spending on things I don't need, sometimes called a spending fast.

The rules of the Spending Fast is only to spend on things that you absolutely need, and nothing that comes under the heading of wants

December is going to be used as a Spending Fast trial run, with the full set of rules coming in for January. Then I'm going to be working with the MSE way to get the costs down as far as possible and start doing some additional earning through eBay and maybe etsy.

So the rules of the Spending Fast:

Needs

1. Rent
2. Utilities and Taxes
3. Insurance (Contents, House, Income)
4. Food, and necessary toiletries (ie. not new makeup cos I want some etc!)
5. Car Maintenance, tax and petrol (This may be omitted in a couple of weeks if the car fails the MOT!)
6. London coach pass and oyster card to visit the BF
7. Bike maintenance (annual service, plus puncture repair etc.), going to try and use the bike more than the car where possible
8. Clothing maintenance (dry cleaning what has to be dry cleaned, repairs, cobblers etc.)
9. Gym membership. I'm locked into the contract at the moment, so I'm going to try to make the most of that by making sport and exercise my hobby rather than spending! Also I've found if I go to the gym after work, when I leave is perfect timing for final mark downs at the Tesco's next door so hoping this will help control my grocery bill.

Wants

1. Clothes
2. Shoes
3. Eating out
4. Make up, although will buy basics so that I can look professional at my job! But only things I use daily and only when the old one is used up, and then using Direct Cosmetics etc to get the best possible deal.
5. Home decor stuff
6. New music, including subscriptions (not that I have one of these) and charity shop vinyl (a weakness of mine!)
7. Cinema
8. Holidays (although see below)
9. Coffee out

Those lists are all fine and were quite simple to write. Some things I'm struggling with though are:

1. Craft supplies: I do overspend on these, but also I don't want to give it up completely. I think the key word there is overspend, so will not be cutting it out completely but only buying for a specific project that is going to happen as soon as the materials are acquired.
2. Gifts. I like to be generous (see the first post above where I talked about emotional value and money), but I think it will have to be free/low value/homemade gifts this year. I have a bit of a supply of possible gifts stored up, so with those and with some handmade goodness I should be OK
3. Holidays- two of my close friends are getting married next summer in France (the bride is French and has the larger family, so it's not some overblown wedding thing) and I can't miss that. I would be hugely disappointed if I didn't see them get wed, because I was there when they first got together. But I'm saving for it, and planning the cost in from the earliest possible time, and trying to do it as cheaply as possible. Unfortunately because there are a few of us going from the UK, booking early is proving difficult! The phrase "herding cats" springs to mind :rotfl:
4. Glastonbury. I have an option on a Glastonbury ticket for next year. I know I should give it up and lose the £10 admin fee, but save the £400 odd the weekend would cost me. But I don't want to! OK, that's a battle to have with myself further down the line . . .

On top of not spending on the things on the "wants" list, I'm also goign to try and make some money selling excess wardrobe on ebay, and maybe putting my crafting skills to use on Etsy. But one thing at a time.

Phew that's all the intro stuff done, time to get down to the day to day of saving!

karmachilovething

OK, so today I am planning to have a NSD today. Trip to the gym afterwork and then printing some more Christmas cards this evening.

I did the first lot of prints last night, and I'm really pleased with them. And they haven't cost me any money! The lino cutting set was a birthday present, and I'm printing them on parcel paper and mounting them on white backing cards both of which I already had. So it will only cost me the postage this year! :j

lurvlyloz

crikey your eating out budget is more than my monthly food bill for 3 people!

at least you have identified the need Vs want & are being honest with your self. great idea to sell your stuff on ebay & try and make some money on etsy

Fae

Hi,

Well it seem you already know most of the things you need to cut on you SOA which is a great start. The 16.50 for telephone/Cable, do you need to have this, could you use your mobile for your phone, and switch to freeview ?

Eating out - are there any type of meals that you particually like ? could you make these at home? lots of free recipes on the internet, that could help.

Food bill - super market markdowns are a great idea, also take a look at approved foods, (just do an internet search) they have some good bargins.

Clothing - look out for good secondhand stores, esp as you are a crafty person, I bet you could pick up some bargins and customise and come up with something orginal that no-one else would have. (but make sure you stick to clothes you need rather than want ) I have picked up some great smart work clothes from a local shop, skirt for £4 and £5 that would have been £30 new.

Craft supplies - Now I'm a craft addict myself, and I know how happy crafting can make you, so understand why you want something here. Some thoughts, how much crafting stuff do you already have and do you use all of it ? I went through mine and found things I had never used and never would so sold them on ebay, which helped out with the debts. You can also try selling craft supplies on etsy.
Selling handmade items - have a look on facebook for local craft groups, I belong to one, and people sell on there, they also sell spare supplies, and I find out about craft markets that I can sell handmade items at.
I also have lined up my next few projects with supplies I already have, it helps to stop me buying yet more craft stuff, although my poor OH is still conviced he needs to build me another room just to keep all my supplies in :rotfl:

Hope this is of some use and good luck on you spending fast.

Fae

sistafromanothermista

*subscribed*
:wave:
Well done on your LBM, i'll post a bit more in depth later when DH is at footie

karmachilovething

lurvlyloz wrote: »

crikey your eating out budget is more than my monthly food bill for 3 people!

I know it's terrible. Shameful even.

This isn't intended as an excuse, but the BF lives on his own, and so doesn't really cook. He probably could, but he just lacks the necessary confidence. I love to cook, and would happily cook for both of us, but then he feels bad that I do all the work. But then when we go out, I want to split the bill (feminist mother!) and then I clearly can't afford that! My plan is that maybe we can cook together, which would be a nice thing to do together and be a lot more MSE.

Fae, thanks so much for the advice, really appreciated.

The £16.50 is a Virgin bundle, and so I'd happily loose the phone and switch to freeview, but my software developer housemate would be horrified to move to a non-optic fiber broadband service! It's also unlimited download, and knowing his data consumption I don't think there's much saving to be made!

I will check out approved foods. I'm planning to eat down some of the cupboards first but when it comes to restocking I will definitely consider them. Thanks for the tip!

Going the second hand route will be the way forward for any necessary clothing. Although I've got a fair stockpile there too :rotfl: Plus one of my crafting activities is dressmaking, so there's also the option to make what I need.

It's a good idea to sell off some craft supplies, I hadn't thought of that, and other local selling venues. I have plenty of materials for a few future projects. Maybe some thread here, some lining fabric there but I should be grand. What kind of crafting do you do?

And hello sista :wave: welcome and I hope you enjoy reading