I refuse to be skint forever!!

menina

Thankyou Dr Squeeze, mum2one and amyloofoo for your posts. Money saving can get to feel a bit tiresome, especially when you are used to not economizing at all!! It's really great to have your comments to spur me on and to know that others are in/have been in the same situation. Happy Friday all!

LAM2011

hi menina, When I found this forum I too had £10k worth of credit card debt and a hefty loan - I now only have the loan. The advice and encouragement on here is fantastic and I every time I just log on I start to think what I can / should be doing to save money and pay off the loan.

It can get a bit 'all consuming' and it can get you down. But as soon as you start to see the credit card interest going down and the balances going down it really motivates to carry on. My spreadsheets / spend diary are a big help to me too.

I sympathise with the cold - I am still recovering from a sinus infection - not good! Hope you are feeling better now.

Good luck with your journey

mummychicken

Hi, I am subscribing as i too have £9,000 of debt on CC :eek:

Have to admit, i have fallen off the wagon twice though, cleared my debts to my aunt who bailed me out of debt but have all this new debt so not sure i can help you much. Except, now i want more than ever to be debt free, so lets support each other.

menina

Mummychicken, I'll subscribe to yours too, debt busting can seem a big mountain to climb, but support on this forum definitely helps massively. I think falling off the debt busting waggon is really common. In the past I've paid off one credit card, felt all chuffed with myself and a few months later found I've spent it all again!! Well done for clearing your debts before though, it show's it can be done

LAM2011, well done for clearing your credit card debt. It is so inspiring to hear of people who've achieved this. You have literally done what I hope to do, so I'll have a snoop at your diary if that's OK.. I love the support and tips on this forum. My circle of friends have been far more financially wise than I, so it's great to communicate with people in the same boat and hear their stories. I hope your sinuses recover soon...

menina

Good debt busting activity of the past week:
Initially made a payment of £220 to my credit card.
Cycled to work and took my lunch to work on three days out of five.

Not so good debt busting activity:
Ended up spending about £70+ pounds (the spends at the weekend, plus a few pounds here and there.)

So total amount managed to pay off the c/c was £150. My goal is £300. So good, but not so good if you seen what I mean!!

Anyway, I paid a further £230 off yesterday. (For money saving purposes, I consider Friday as the start of the week as this is when OH gets paid and I can make payments. I get paid monthly. ) So my goal is to spend as little of this as possible.

Money saving activities for the weekend:
Sew button on and clean old winter coat
Sell it on ebay
Check wardrobe for any clothes that could be put on ebay and put them on ebay.
See about paying my landline up front for the whole year- I've heard it is cheaper overall.
Send off proof of identity etc to santander for their 123 account
Do a statement of affairs??? Don't know, might be a bit scary!!
Have a rummage through the kitchen and see about meals for the week ahead.
Don't spend any money on anything apart from food essentials. (OH working all weekend, still getting over cold so could use a quiet weekend).

Bye for now, have a lovely weekend all xx

menina

Hello fellow money savers! I hope you are having a lovely weekend...

Good money saving activity of the weekend:
Mended coat and put that, plus three other items on ebay.
Sorted out the food for the coming week- mainly stuff already bought.
Posted off the stuff for the 123 account.

Spends so far this weekend:
£10 travel card top up
£22 essentials in Mr T- probably won't do that again though, been snooping around and I think other stores are actually cheaper these days.
£12 deposit on accommodation for a weekend away next month
Sunday papers £2.90
T= £47

Better than last week so far. However... am meeting OH for dinner after he finishes work. Am aiming to spend no more than £40 on this. (Hopefully more like £30). It'll set us up for the week ahead when we're both going to have our noses to the grindstone at work. And be fun too! Of course, a big part of me doesn't want to spend the money, but seeing as it's the first 'going out' type thing I've done in two weekends I think that's OK.

So how could I spend less next weekend? The room deposit was a one off and going to a different supermarket would save me money I think so hopefully will be £20 better off next time. We'll see! Hopefully ebay will come up with something for me too....

Moneysaving goals for the week:
Cycle every day
Take food to work every day
Don't spend any money at all until pay day on Friday (will need to buy food by then!)
See about getting some uniform for somewhere else I could do some extra shifts if I wanted to. (Really don't want to but if I'm frequently not hitting my £300 per week paying of bills target then I will force myself.)
See about getting on the system for doing extra work at my current workplace. (And I sooo don't wanna do that!!)
Have a look at MSE to see how others are making extra £ (surveys etc).

Right, need to make soup and sandwich filler, take dog out and go to the gym before meeting OH so I'd better get a wriggle on!

Bye for now x

menina

Ok, bit of a disasterous money saving week so far...

Spends:

2.49- Tesco essentials
15- travel (hubby and I)
Dinner- blew the budget 56
Beers- blew the budget 16
Lunch at work x2 7
15- deposit on room

Total = 250-the above numbers = 128.53 saved this week.

I'm not hitting my targets which is sooo frustrating!!

Tomorrow- need to see about getting uniforms for the extra jobs. I really can't bear to have another year pass and still be in the same situation.

Bye for now x

menina

NSD!! And pay day tomorrow

Hope everyone is having a good week...

menina

Got paid early So just paid £310 of c/c. So the challenge for the week is how not to have to spend much of it.....

OH is working all weekend again So we'll be doing our usual Sunday night meal out. Last weekend 's one did blow the budget somewhat, so my idea is to try a similar restaurant on the same street, that you can bring your own booze to. Should save a few pounds.

As for the rest of the weekend, need to get the bike fixed- only a new inner tube so shouldn't be much. Need to get some food in for the rest of the week- going to meal plan and check out prices online before going to the shops. Apart from that, going to hit the gym and do some studying so no cash required for either of those. Am hoping my ebaying will pay off too...

Phew, all this money saving is getting addictive

menina

It's a very snowy day in London today so the perfect opportunity to update my diary from the sofa...

Spends of the weekend:
Grocery shopping- £13
Travel- £15 top up, £5 spent

And that's it!! Also, I made £30 on ebay. Meaning I'm a couple of quid in profit, well I'm going to try and buy the Sunday papers in a bit so that'll go. But overall I'm pleased.

All other money spending options have gone out of the window as I'm basically grounded by the snow. Well, there's always online shopping, but I'm so concerned about my level of debt that I know I won't go there.

Planned money saving activity for the day:
Prepare food for the week ahead
Maybe do a MSE signature of my debts, could be motivating to see them go down, could be depressing to see them in the first place!!
Go through mine and OH files and organise our paper work
Have a look on MSE and see if there's anything I should be doing to make extra money. What survey sites are worth doing etc. I'd be really grateful of any suggestion if anyone reading has any...
Pack up my ebay items

Money saving activities for the week ahead:
Join the overtime scheme at work
Get uniform for that and also the one in my old job
Get to work under my own steam everyday
Take lunch in every day
Don't spend any money until Friday (will need to get food!)

Bye for now xx