Spiralling

roswell

Do you really need a hair cut every month ? and £25 a month on pets what does this cover??

roswell

ALso House keeping £180 what is inculded in this ?

choccy999

As I said before, this is what payplan put together for me.

I wish I could get my hair cut for £8 :0) This is an average, along with the pets - I have 2 cats - food and vets bills when they come up. Also the £180 is supposed to cover things like food, window cleaner, other bits and bobs - cleaning materials - i think that they were covering every eventuality.

Lydia.42

Hi
Are you living on your own? If so £180 is a lot of moeny for food for one person. Check out the old style board for tips on cutting back on food/cleaning/cooking, etc.
Also have you checked your gas/lecci providers to see if you can swap to someone cheaper? We pay £38 for both gas and lecci combined each month on a 3 bed bungalow with someone working from home/at home a lot of the time.

Have you thought about getting rid of home phone for a bit, and just using mobile if you have a good deal on it with free minutes? People can always call you, not you call them, to save for a bit.

Perhaps cut back on haircuts for a bit? Or look at having it done on student nights which are cheaper. Don't buy clothes for now, unless you have to.

Hope this helps

choccy999

Yes I do live alone. To be honest I've just been spending and then I panic when I realise that I've not got enough in the bank to see me through the month.

I've had a lucky escape previously and basically I think I need shaking - hopefully some money will fall out of some hidden pocket...

roswell

Going by your last post your going to have to setup a weekly budghet to stop those surprises, try setting up 2 bank accounts, one for bills to come out of + savings and another for spending. use envolopes to put moeny away if you dont fancy the 2 bank accounts idea, put the money in each envolope the day you get paid.

choccy999

Thanks. I've just applied to change my energy supplier as I seem to be paying too much and I'm in credit at the moment.

I'll try the envelope idea and try my best. I think that I get bored as I don't go out much and I tend to spend to feel better - retail therapy, but then it all blows up in your face again.

I could always sell my cats!! :0)

Seriously, thank you.

Choc

kiwigirl

Hi Choccy

As other's have suggested try and seperate the account so you do a DD straight away so all bills etc are covered.

If you feel bored why don't you clean the windows yourself - rather than going on a spending spree - unless you live on around 10th floor of course!

If you've got plenty of unused clothes the ones with tags on do sell better on ebay and try and do some car boot sales for a few weeks - you'll be too tired to go out night before and will be unable to buy anything whilst you're selling. :rolleyes: Some people seem to be getting around £150 at the moment so if you could do that a few times it would certainly help towards the extra extravaganzes you've been indulging in recently?

Are you by an University? Could you type some disertations up?

KG

choccy999

Dissertations? I didn't know that there was a call for that?? I'm not a bad typist either 50wpm!!

I've just come clean to my mum and she was very disappointed, but I think the thought of getting thrown off my payment plan has really put the wind up me.

Choc

kiwigirl

Hi Choccy,

Yes, people actually pay for others to type up their rough draft's of dissertations! Not for much I think but may tide you over if you're a fast typer, a lot of foreign students ask for disertation typing (or proof reader) or people with dyslexia or unable to type work up themselves.

I'm sure that you will feel a lot better in a few days when the weight of the debt and hiding it from your mum will ease - she just wants what's best for you at the end of the day. Maybe when you feel like a shopping trip next time you may be able to phone her up or go over for a cuppa and not retail therapy if you live close enough?

Any chance that you can do overtime at work maybe this will help too?

KG