Fighting to be Frugal

Fishingtime

Piquant wrote: »

Take it one step at a time, you didn't build the debt in a week, you won't clear it in a week!

I enjoy making a rounding down payment most days. I look at my bank balance and round it down to the nearest £5. Some days I may pay off £4.99 to my chosen debt, some days is might be 55p. The small amounts soon mount up and the totals get ever nearer zero. It has the added benefit of me going online everyday to check my balance, I always know exactly what money I have available.

That is a nice idea.
I will start doing that myself thanks

Silly_Spender

@Bedsit Bob: Will try that Snowball Calculator thing thanks I know 900 seems like a low amount to cover the shared bills but the ones that are shared are:

Rent - £340
Council Tax - £108
Electricity - £50
Water - £25
Internet - £25
Groceries - £240

Am sure there's another one but can't think now :S
The £6 in the tv services is for a monthly Netflix subscription by the way

@Horace: I'll certainly start doing that more! The amount of salad stuff I've seen available from Aldi for a fraction of the price is amazing! And it'd be enough for a good 3 days or so I'm sure before needing to replenish!

Silly_Spender

Well, after sorting out my available cash for the next two weeks, I find I can easily put aside £30 towards the Argos Card!

Tomorrow, I will be aiming for my first NSD, maybe I'll manage a few in a row, plenty of salad stuff in the fridge to be going on with!

In_Debt_Bet

Hi

Just wanted to say well done on deciding to tackle your debt at such a young age, like you I've pretty much been in debt since I was around 19, I only wish I'd addressed it when I was 23, instead of waiting until I was 46!

I don't know if you're already doing a spending diary - if not I'd highly recommend it, I've downloaded an app onto my iPod and make sure I put down everything I spend no matter what the cost, it's a real eye opener and certainly helps me to see where all my money is going.

Good luck

Bet x

Silly_Spender

Thanks a lot Bet and welcome to my diary

If I could be cheeky could I ask what app it is you use? I'll stick it on my iPhone and can use that everywhere then. I've tried to do a spending diary in the past but I'd wait until the night time then try to remember everything I'd bought that day and type it up. For obvious reasons, that didn't really work out as I'd forget little things here and there!

Dan x

Silly_Spender

Well, crap.

On breakfast at work, and joined some of the others in going to Greggs. One chocolate caramel doughnut, steak bake and bottle of pop later, and £3 poorer, it's a breakfast I regret.

Why oh why didn't I stick with my bran flakes!

Guess I won't be getting my first NSD today!

wegle

Hey SS, just dropping by to say Hello!!

Also I think it's great that you're deciding to deal with this all now. I happily met all the minimum payments on my debts and just wasted all my extra cash on... well I don't know really! Result is I'm now 30, desperately want to start a family but as we have no savings and I still have outstanding debt this is having to be put on hold until I can pay it off.

By addressing this now you will be debt free and have savings by the time you are my age and won't need to put your life on hold for any reason.

Anyway, I'm gonna subscribe so I can follow along with you! xx

In_Debt_Bet

Hi Dan,

The app I use is called Spending Tracker - it's free and I've found it very easy to use.

Take care and don't feel too bad about your Gregg's lapse, I'm pretty sure that if I was faced with a chocolate caramel doughnut right now I'd find it very hard to say no :-)

Bet x

Silly_Spender

@wegle: Thanks for the hello and encouragement! Great to have another friend to go through with, and I really admire that you're waiting until your debts are cleared before starting a family!

My OH and I decided we weren't going to have children, either adopting or fostering, and want lots of animals instead. We currently have two degus and two little hamsters and I treat them all like my babies (not really giving out the butch persona of a produce worker here :P)

We really want cats and dogs so one of the bigger motivations for getting out of debt is so I can save towards a deposit for a house so we can build our menagerie family up more

I also desperately want a Pygmy hedgehog too, but every time I bring it up (which is fairly frequently) it's met with rolled eyes! One day...

@Bet: I've downloaded that app now and shamefully added my breakfast onto it. Maybe the app will deter me from further needless indulgences quite so much hehe. About to prepare a nice healthy salad to make up for it though no Subway today!

Also, rounded my bank balance down to the nearest £5 and have put £1.90 into the overdraft pot!

wegle

I know what you mean about treating your animals like your babies. We have a dog and I call him my little fur baby!! A friend of mine has a Pygmy hedgehog and she is adorable!

I use the same spending app, it's great for keeping track and a great incentive for not spending!

I reckon if you can keep your positive attitude up you'll be shot of these debts in next to no time!!