I had fallen off the DFW wagon ....

katy_ann

... until today!

The last few weeks hasnt been to great, long story, which I wont go into! Anyways all weekend Ive been really ill, today I managed to go into work but got sent home as Ive had this cold/cough/temp type thing, so this afternoon I was feeling a bit better and though, 'what could i do'. Under my bed is a small travel suitcase, which hasnt been opened since November last year but contained bank statements/till receipts from when my credit card spending was living outside of my means.

I thought I would take the time to shred the papers as they needed to go as my finances are getting back in order now.

And oh my god, I nearly sat there and cried, just reading through receipts and statements, looking at what Id bought and nearly 70% I dont own anymore and 15% was wasted on dinners out/alcohol/nights at the pub.

I literally felt sick and it hit me so hard, I know what Ive got to do and Im going to stick my head down and do it. I get paid on 22nd of this month and from then on Im 100% committed to my spreadsheet/budget. I dont ever want to be that person again with that much debt on stupid things.

Moral of the story is that doing that this afternoon has hit me really hard but has also made me more determined then ever!

xx

cwal

Hi Katy Ann

It sounds like you are definately commited to becoming debt free! I think times like these are useful as it can make you more determined than ever when you look back at what you spent money on - I did a similar thing myself a couple of months back and it really helped me focus on paying off more debt and not going back to old (bad) habits!

Good luck with your DF journey!! x

nyc_451

Getting hit hard is the best thing that can happen when you are doing something wrong, I think.

I am sure you will be much better with money from now on.

foxgloves

Well, it may have upset you to see the evidence of all that money wasted, & more so if you were feeling poorly & low at the time you decided to brave opening the suitcase. BUT the important thing is that any period of denial you may have been in is now well & truly over. You have looked at how you used to spend, acknowledged what a lot of money you used to waste & that's the first step in putting things right & deciding to live differently. It's all about choices in the end. I've been terribly wasteful with money in the past, & never really thought of it as a huge problem because I could always meet the monthly repayments. I used to excuse my overspending behaviour by blaming it largely on unexpected bills....things going wrong, essential stuff needing replacing, big car repair bills, etc, & to be fair, I often did have to pay out for these sort of things. However, the real problem was that I never had any form of emergency fund, even though I earned pretty good money, so the REAL issue was of course, my consistent failure to do ANY kind of budgeting & continuing to overspend my income on stuff I didn't need. As soon as I took absolute & COMPLETE responsibility for the ensuing debt situation, I found I was able to get a plan in place to deal with it. It can be done. One of the most important things for me was recognising the difference between a 'want' & a 'need'. The other was making a budegt every month on pay-day & visiting it frequently throughout the month to check progress. The 3rd thing was writing down everything I spent. My memory re spending was very selective in the past....I expect I was blocking out how silly I really knew I was being....this is a good habit, as it stops frittering on little bits of tat. It really is possible to change even longstanding behaviour. You've had a look at hard evidence of how you used to be by opening the evil suitcase. Now accept the past for what it is & acknowledge that we all do silly things. Instead of having a big guilty downer on yourself, use this as a marker in your life when you realised that debt-free is absolutely the positive way forward. Something I did early on, was write a list of the 5 favourite things I love to do.......given how much moneY I had wasted over 2 decades, I was astonished to see that none of them involved spending any money at all!!

Bobarella

katy_ann wrote: »

... until today!

The last few weeks hasnt been to great, long story, which I wont go into! Anyways all weekend Ive been really ill, today I managed to go into work but got sent home as Ive had this cold/cough/temp type thing, so this afternoon I was feeling a bit better and though, 'what could i do'. Under my bed is a small travel suitcase, which hasnt been opened since November last year but contained bank statements/till receipts from when my credit card spending was living outside of my means.

I thought I would take the time to shred the papers as they needed to go as my finances are getting back in order now.

And oh my god, I nearly sat there and cried, just reading through receipts and statements, looking at what Id bought and nearly 70% I dont own anymore and 15% was wasted on dinners out/alcohol/nights at the pub.

I literally felt sick and it hit me so hard, I know what Ive got to do and Im going to stick my head down and do it. I get paid on 22nd of this month and from then on Im 100% committed to my spreadsheet/budget. I dont ever want to be that person again with that much debt on stupid things.

Moral of the story is that doing that this afternoon has hit me really hard but has also made me more determined then ever!

xx

Well done you, and sorry you havent had a good time lately. Big hug

katy_ann

Thanks guys Means a lot, a new me now!

marisco_2

No doubt a huge wake up call. You are smart enough to recognise what was going wrong and to never want to be that way again. Good on you. It can take some folks years if ever to see it.