Too much effort on reducing and not enough on growing?

lynzpower

No offence Zulu dawn, but personally, I could have catered a BBQ for 12 on 40 quid, and then put 35 towards a debt or a saving. Or even invested it in the hope it grows to being more. Most people have been overpsending for years when coming here and theres no point in trying to pay off debt with the bucket with the hole in if you cant identify where your money goes.

IF YOU DONT over pay the debt, it exponentially grows, so as far as I can see any way of stemming that tide which leads to the utter despair people find themselves in is basic advice thats worth taking.

We grow some veg whch is extrememly satisfying, its a hobby, and I aim one day to be much more self sufficient than we currently can be in our rented house with east facing garden.

Sarahsaver

Zulu_Dawn wrote: »

I know for a fact that my family could not live on a supermarket budget of £200 or even £300.
ZD

I know for a fact that you COULD manage that but it depends on whats more important getting rid of the debt or overspending on food. I fed my kids (3 of them) and myself for £20 a week and we were definitely not starving. We had no ready meals, nothing pre-prepared, and plenty of fruit and veg, and we still had meat. If budgeting thus means can pay my bills (and debts), it makes sense to me!

rayday2

I spend about £50 a week on our food, family of 5, 2 cats and a dog and we are not without luxuries. It is possible where there is a will there is a way. Previous to my problems my shopping was between £80 - £100 a week.

Its all priorities, if you don't like people saying you can cut back don't post your SOA because this board is full of honest people who tell it straight and I personally like that made me wake up to myself and restored family life and sleep!

chevalier

Very interesting thread. I am lucky to be studying from home, so have the opportunity to meal plan/cook from scratch. Also one of my sons is extremely allergic to milk, so a lot of take away/ready meals are a no no for him anyway.

I think the point about cutting food costs, is not just about the money saved. It is also about focusing the individual on how much of their shopping they are throwing away as waste, and also asking them to think about the shopping habits.

How many of us pre LBM pretty much shopped on auto pilot? With no real thought about what meals we were going to have this week, or what we had already in the house? Even though my finances are balanced (well they were but I will start a new thread for that!), I feel really proud that I can do a online shop for £50 so that I can get free delivery/extra points etc, and still have enough food for the week. But then as I have a rubbish memory, I always need a list to go shopping, or else I will forget essentials!

chev

silkglade

rayday2 wrote: »

I spend about £50 a week on our food, family of 5, 2 cats and a dog and we are not without luxuries. It is possible where there is a will there is a way. Previous to my problems my shopping was between £80 - £100 a week.

Its all priorities, if you don't like people saying you can cut back don't post your SOA because this board is full of honest people who tell it straight and I personally like that made me wake up to myself and restored family life and sleep!

Hi, can I enquire what meals and food you buy and where - we could not survive on £50 a week and there are 5 of us too + Dog and 4 gerbils :rotfl:

frosty

I sat down and worked out how much money I was paying in interest on various debts and when I saw how much money I was pouring down the drain each month,I realised I had to pay my debts off as soon as possible.With all the help and advice I have received on this board it wont be long before I am debt free.
I have ebayed,increased my hours at work and reduced my shopping to £50 for 5 adults,and cut back on lots of things but I still feel we have a good standard of living but we will have a great one when we are debt free.

Gemmzie

Interesting. Especially from the point of when you are debt free - if everything that was cut out is reinstated then surely you're not any better off?

If all the luxuries/treats have been cut for a long time isn't that going to make people more likely to revert to old spending ways? There are countless threads where someone says they've fallen off the wagon by buying something that they couldn't afford or totally going off budget.

Like the discussion we were having before about budget - it's all about balance.

If you cut out Sky, and it's your only form of entertainment (you don't socialise or drink etc) then that's going to lead to a lot of resentment and a negative outlook so you may be less likely to continue your DFW journey.

angelavdavis

Gemmzie wrote: »

Interesting. Especially from the point of when you are debt free - if everything that was cut out is reinstated then surely you're not any better off?

If all the luxuries/treats have been cut for a long time isn't that going to make people more likely to revert to old spending ways? There are countless threads where someone says they've fallen off the wagon by buying something that they couldn't afford or totally going off budget.

Like the discussion we were having before about budget - it's all about balance.

If you cut out Sky, and it's your only form of entertainment (you don't socialise or drink etc) then that's going to lead to a lot of resentment and a negative outlook so you may be less likely to continue your DFW journey.

It is a balance and all depends on why you got in debt in the first place.

Theres a bit of me that thinks becoming debtfree should involve a bit of suffering so the experience is cathartic (I know, I'm a masochist!), because I think it teaches us that buying stuff does not make us happy, that life is OK without Sky telly, that bliss is not coming out of Tescos with a full trolley.... I would like to think that in future, I won't spend unless I can do it in cash.

Reality is, being DFW has not been a sufferance. We eat fab food, I like the feeling that I am not overpaying for stuff, I like finding I can save £200 per month just by being a bit more savvy about shopping around, or using quidco, etc.

My credit card payments before I became debt free accounted for about £600 per month! That is money that will be in my pocket from next month. However, I have never been a big stuff shopper (my debt developed so I could fund an MBA) so I don't ever plan on being one, although I completely overspent on everything else - holidays, food, bills, everything!

I will put the money in the bank to ensure I can afford my holidays which I love. I also want to now pay off the mortgage so I can free up another £850 from my salary too - can you imagine having £1400 in your pocket every month to do whatever you like with??!

But some people on here are in debt because they simply don't earn enough to live - so coming on here highlights this when people suggest other means of income.

Sea78

I completely agree angelavdavies - I also feel that my DF journey needs to hurt a little! lol. Otherwise I'll just go back to wasting money and not actually being able to afford really nice things (like the hols I mentioned earlier).

Sea xx

climbgirl

opalfruits wrote: »

Reducing is vital in order to tackle the cause of the debt problem for a lot of people. As has been pointed out, entertaining is not an essential outgoing. If you don't want to stop doing it then that's fine. However, it would be a bit negligent not to point out that a lot of money is being spent on non essentials when it could mean you are debt free much quicker if you cut down temporarily.

Opalfruits makes an excellent point. The OP is right in one respect, we have to remember that tackling debt is a two-pronged approach - maximising income and reducing expenses. But often it's just not possible for someone to get a second job or get a higher income. And invariably, these things take time. Reducing expenditure is something you can start doing immediately to tackle the debt. And as opalfruits says, your debt will drop a hell of a lot quicker if the spending on non-essentials is cut to the bone.

Of course, it's all an individual choice, we can offer advice but it's up to the person whether or not they take it. There's so many variants here, size of the debt relative to income for starters.

But frankly, if I was £145,000 in unsecured debt and still spending money on unnecessary things like entertaining, then I'd start asking myself some questions why. It's going to take one hell of a second job to cover that kind of debt and keep luxuries like Sky and entertaining budgets.

(what's wrong with asking people to bring their own food to a bbq, we threw a bbq party for 15 people in the weekend, cost me about £10, everyone brought their own food and drink and we all had a feast! £80 a week is my budget for food, just for me. I don't have any debt so it's certainly not a starvation diet, quite the opposite!)

The information offered on this board is just advice and can be taken up according to personal priorities. At the end of the day, I'll offer advice where I feel I can, but I'm not going to lose sleep at night over somebody else's debt. They have to choose to tackle it themselves. But it would be very negligible to not talk about all the expense reduction options on what is a financial website - especially when it's such an obvious and immediate way of maximising money available to clear the debt.