The Secret Dreamworld of a (Scottish) Shopaholic

scottishspendaholic

Thanks clippygirl, I will look IMO it, although it is tricky - when I'm not at work I'm responsible for my 2 LOs most of the time, but I will check it out, thank you.

I am wondering if its worth looking into cashing in (if possible) one or two old pensions? I have had a couple of good ones with excellent employer contributions, which I'm not planning to touch, but have also had a couple of shoddy ones. Maybe this is a rubbish idea?

scottishspendaholic

Hello!

Well I've had 3 NSDs in a row! I am learning to say no to that little voice telling me to get a takeaway coffee, sweets, chocolate, SPEND MONEY! I am really missing having sweet stuff in the house, but cannot believe just how often I was in my local shop buying junk!!!

I looked out my pension paperwork yesterday, & it turns out I've only got 2 pensions, and it wouldn't be a good idea to cash either of them in.

I'll be back later with updated money making plans.

scottishspendaholic

I'm sorry, this is going to get boring, but I've been playing around with the figures:-

August income & outgoings

Coming in = £430 (including expenses £20)

Outgoing =
-£170 petrol (this is a long month & I am changing jobs part of the way through the month to complicate things further!)
-£355 snowballing
-£37.50 to close stupid bank account (have already argued with them repeatedly about this, just going to pay it & get shot)
-£65 I owe a friend
-£25 friends' meal out (Groupon deal + drinks)
-£15 friend's birthday evening
-£20 school shoes (revised figure)
-£20 family fun day
-£50 max. summer hol day trips (already bought tickets for things, this is travel into city & ice cream money)
-£20 train for hennie
-£22 haircuts for me & kids
-£20 misc. (stamps, soda&lime in pub at meeting etc)

=£819.50

= deficit of -£390

Ways to make £390 by 31 August 2013

*Sent purse back - £9.99 (awaiting refund)
*Ticket money from friend - £20 (should get given this in cash within the next week) GOT
*Send items to Cex - £22
*Sell some children’s clothes – estimate £50 profit
*List on eBay – estimate £100 profit (profit after fees)
*One poll estimate £40
*Amazon selling - estimate £20 profit
*Mystery shop – estimate £10 profit
*Bag of clothes to weigh in – estimate £5
*Bingo – estimate £20
*Roadkill – estimate £5
*??? – remaining £88?!!!!

Money making things to do:-

* One poll, aim for £1+ pd
* Post items to Cex and await confirmation
* List on eBay (1/20 done)
* List on forum (children's clothes)
* Bingo
* Amazon sales/trade in
* Mystery shop
* Bag of clothes to be weighed
* Cancel LF & Audible by 15/8/13

Tonight I've listed one item on eBay which will hopefully sell for around £7 once fees are taken account of, sold an old camera to Cex for £11 and also downloaded the Confused Motor Mate app for £5 cashback at some point. I have another item to sell to Cex tomorrow that will also sell for £11. My signature total probably won't change for a few days now, however I am still trying to make around £10 per day, but won't count the cash until I actually receive it. I am hoping to add another actual confirmed £50 by this weekend though.

I am feeling down and stressed though, I had to hussle my husband out of the house this morning as he was hanging around and I was panicking that a bill was going to arrive in the post. It did, but thankfully he'd gone by then. Its such a stressful way to live and this just makes me more focussed.

I have realised that I might have to add another £750 on another credit card to my totals. This is complicated, but this is a card that DH DOES know about and we decided not to include in our (in his name) 2011 debt scheme and isn't included below as this 23 month challenge is just about my 'secret' debt. We've (I've) been paying this off at (supposedly) £80 per month, however in reality I've been overspending or juggling minimum payments to everything else (which DH does NOT know about) and paying minimum to this card too. This was the bill that was due to and did arrive this morning. The balance on this is around £750 more than it should be if I had been paying the planned £80 per month. So I hope to chuck money at this when I can and make up the £750, but won't add this to my snowball just now as I am hoping to pay this over and above my snowballing. I will be paying the full £80 each month from now on from our joint account, not transferring it to my account (it is not included in my income above, it is part of our joint outgoings), but also try to pay off this £750 over the next year or so, and hope that DH does not ask too many questions or see a bill in the meantime. I think he's kind of forgotten about it to be honest, its just another outgoing.

I am so saddend by my behaviour and feel so guilty (rightly so I know), but I do feel that this is the only place I can be honest (none of my friends know my situation). Even in July 2015 when I know I will feel on top of the world regarding my clearing of my 'secret' debt, in reality we'll still have...

* Another 6.5 years to run on our joint debt scheme
* Another 2-3 years to pay off aforementioned credit card DH does know about
* My student loan which I'm really only paying interest on from my salary, if that
* AND we live in too small a property for our family and cannot afford to move

...DEPRESSING...

marmiterulesok

Well done on the nsds-it's becomes very addictive!

As for missing sweet foods in the house,have you thought about doing some baking.I bake my own cakes and it gives me a lot of pleasure.I enjoy eating them as well,of course.Depending on the ingredients you make,it's not pricey at all.And it's something that you could with your children.Another thing that I like about making my own cakes,is that I know exactly what's in them!There's so much rubbish put in prepared food these days.

As for the extra credit card bill,at least you're facing up to it,which is the first step.Every day you'll be a step closer to being debt free.

I'm glad that you're not going to touch either of your pensions.A very sound decision.

scattyspice

Hi Scottish. You're doing really well. I'm struggling with the school holidays too (and its only day 2 here!!). My kids are a bit older so it does get easier as they are happy to play out with friends etc so don't need so many days out. Mind you birthdays seems to cost more (still reeling from buying DSs presents this month). I'm struggling with NSDs as everyday seems to cost something - £10 today to go swimming! Last year it was free .

scottishspendaholic

Thanks girls!

Posted purse (finally!), item to Cex and sold something BIN on eBay, so off to update sig to tune of £26, yahoo!

Note of money making to date:-

Money from friend for tickets - £20 (have this in cash)
Cex - £11
eBay after fees & postage - £5
Purse refund - £10
= £46

I've got another 2 things on eBay, will list one & possibly more tonight & do another £11 Cex sale (can only sell one thing to Cex per 24 hours).

Good progress so far! Day 7/46 = £46 made and another £19 in progress (need to make £8.50 pd minimum so above target)...

It wasn't a NSD today unfortunately, as we took kids to soft play. DH paid but we took my car & I bought the drinks & snack (£3.20).

Going to weigh a bag of clothes tomorrow, wonder how much I'll get?

scottishspendaholic

I weighed in my jam packed bag of clothes this lunchtime and got the grand total of £1.55 for 3.1kg. And I'm sorry to say I spent that on some chocolate. I don't think I'll be doing that again, I would have felt better getting £0 (there was nothing worth selling) and giving the clothes to the charity shop.

I've sold and posted another item to Cex today for another £11, but unfortunately didn't manage to put any more on eBay last night as I went to bed at 7pm with a headache, I keep getting really horrible pressure headaches in this heat.

I am feeling quite down about everything today - I know I need to pick myself up and start my eBay selling in earnest or do something really productive, but I need DH to be out to really get cracking on this and (due to the time of year), he's in ALL THE TIME! Things are really tight in our joint budget too, and I've also had a miniLBM there, realising that I am the one who normally fixes this and previously used money I didn't have to paper the cracks, to buy the toiletries & food that we couldn't afford as our joint budget is so tight at certain points in the month. So the children and DH are starting to notice that I am no longer papering and I just feel really useless. I also have had notification of my qualification starting next month. Although this is work related, I am to do it in my own time and I have just been informed that there is an induction day in August, meaning I have to find childcare and pay to get to a city about 50 miles away on this day (costs not covered by work).

Sorry for such a miserable post, I feel like crying at the thought of the £7k mountain I've to climb. I am usually really good at focussing on the small goals and not freaking out, but I am so worried about finding this £390 over the next 39 days (until 31/8) and don't feel that I've made good progress to date. I feel fed up of keeping up appearances and pretending to everyone that everything is fine. My good friends want to come over on Friday night and although I know thats the MSE way to do things (i.e. not spending money going out), I don't want them to come as my house is messy and dirty and needs decorated and I don't want them to see it and I've no motivation to do anything about it. (not to mention the fact I'd have to buy drink and nibbles).

Sorry for such a miserable post - I do feel better for writing it out and being able to be honest on here and not paint on the fake smile that everyone else sees.

scottishspendaholic

Money from friend for tickets - £20 (have this in cash)
Cex - £22
eBay after fees & postage - £5
Purse refund - £10

please-let-me-be-lucky

Why not set an alarm for 5 or 10 mins and focus on clearing/tidying/cleaning just one room for that length of time. Then a while later when you can be bothered, do the same in another room and so on. It's amazing how much you can achieve in a short space of time.

A tidy house will make you feel better, however I doubt your friends give a stuff what your house is like. It's you they want to see not your dust Xx

marmiterulesok

please-let-me-be-lucky wrote: »

Why not set an alarm for 5 or 10 mins and focus on clearing/tidying/cleaning just one room for that length of time. Then a while later when you can be bothered, do the same in another room and so on. It's amazing how much you can achieve in a short space of time.

A tidy house will make you feel better, however I doubt your friends give a stuff what your house is like. It's you they want to see not your dust Xx

That's a good idea.Even 5 minutes in each room will make a difference.

Sorry that you've had a rough day.We all have 'down' days from time to time,and it wouldn't be right if we didn't.Hopefully tomorrow you'll feel better.

I had a technique I used to use to help me on rough days.I would think of 3 things that I was proud to have done that day.It was often along the lines of:
1- had a shower
2-got dressed
3-made the bed.

It could be anything you fancy:had a manicure,read a book,did the ironing,played with the children.

It really helped me realise that little things that we do can also buck us up.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is just get to the end of the day.:)