Scrimping behind the scenes - with debt of £31,000!

in_need_of_direction

Me neither but the earning opportunities have dried up a bit. I reckon it's one to do on the off chance there's a decent offer at some point. At least the earns are quick.

Dobbibill

Glad you are feeling better now


Wow!!! wow!!! wow!!! 12.21% that is such a massive achievement in such a short space of time. When you had that LBM, you certainly grabbed that bulb like an Olympic torch and ran through your diary and I must say you are doing very well in the race against debt.


Congrats on your 'stalwart' status and the deserved additional gold star.


DB

crunch_time

Well done! How amazing to have made so much progress!!


Keep up the good work!!
Crunchy xx

turfy6

Just to echo the other posts, glad all is ok with you and youre feeling better, well done on debt too youre making great strides.:j

Seasidegal58

Hi there all – thanks to everyone for posting. :wave:

So Week 1 of Scrimp Month 5 ends tomorrow. So far 31p is left underbudget on Food/Household and £34.93 underbudget on ad hoc spends. The ad hoc budget has been spent on a combination of office collections, magazine I bought for the free techie book inside, ticket for a Christmas shopping show in November that I go to every year, and toiletries! I went back to my Clinique toner as I didn’t like the downgraded version I bought, but saved £4.00 on two large Elnett hairsprays on offer in Boots so that was a bit of a saving to make up for the toner!:D

I’ve paid another £303 off the NatWest card – :j I was able to do this as I pay for my annual train season ticket through an interest free loan that I get through work. However, they deduct it over ten months which means I get two months where I don’t have to pay – so this month I was able to add what I would normally pay back work to the card and I can do this for next month as well before I have to get the new loan.

I also took a chance and applied for a Lloyds 0% balance transfer. They have asked me to go into a branch with some ID, but if I'm accepted after this they’ve offered £1,351 at 0% for 28 months with a 1.5% transfer fee . So I’ll pop in there on Monday and start the ball rolling. The tide seems to have turned a bit re being accepted for new cards – the only thing is I’m running out of cards to apply for as I’ve had some many!

One question that keeps popping up lately is that I'm being asked if I’m actually going away on holiday! I’ve managed to fend this question off at work by saying that I got things to pay out for on the homefront. However, re. family/friends I’ve partially told the truth by telling them that am paying off a balance transfer, but not the actual amount!

Anyway it’s been a NSD in Seasideville so that’s the scrimpy positive for today!:)

Sun_Addict

Hello Seasidegal - like you I am a 50 something trying to get straight, having spent too much on "living". A lot of the posters on these threads seem to be in their 20s or 30s and it's great that they are learning young but makes me feel rather embarrassed that I still haven't sorted myself out yet and time is passing by. You've done really well in such a short time and I'm subscribing to follow your progress. Looking forward to the journey and hoping you'll inspire me!

Dobbibill

Can't believe it's Scrimp month 5 already

well done throwing the spare cash at Natwest card, you are making so much progress and keeping your budget on track too :T

finger's crossed for the BT card with Lloyds although it's not a massive amount you can move, it all helps

yay for the NSD :j

DB

Seasidegal58

Hi Dobbi :wave:-No I can’t believe it’s Scrimp Month 5 either! It’s gone so quick since I started in April. I think as long as I keep to the monthly amount I have allocated for the credit cards it keeps me on the straight and narrow and the debt keeps going down – anything else I throw at it has been a really good bonus!

Welcome Sun Addict-:hello: I know exactly what you mean about feeling embarrassed about our debt when we are in our 50’s – that’s partially why I’m “scrimping behind the scenes.” It’s happened too many times before! Still at least I seem to be making better decisions now – the threat of retirement in a few years’ time and the accompanying reduced income has finally made me see some sense!

Week 1 has ended today and I ended up spending a bit more on the ad hoc spends. My friend rang this morning to see if she could pop in this afternoon so I had to make a hurried trip to Costcutters for some rose wine and pringles! All I had in was some champagne I am keeping for special and red wine which she’s not that fond of! The rose wine was only on offer for £3.99 and was actually quite delicious. So what with my Sunday paper today, this week I’m overbudget on ad hoc spends by £24.89! So a result! Food stayed overbudget by 31p!:j

I’m going to make a special effort next week to be careful with my food as I’ve been slipping lately weight wise and going up and down. At the beginning of my debt journey I stated that I wasn’t going to buy any more clothes (apart from underwear for which I had M&S vouchers) because I wanted to lose weight and get into the smaller sized clothes I already had. Anyway I’m still at the same size so something has to be done! :eek: I don’t want to have to start buying more clothes in my present size – if I can get my debt down surely I can get some weight off! So back on the 5:2 diet on Tuesday and Thursday and being careful the other days! I also would like some room back from under the bed where the smaller clothes live!:D

in_need_of_direction

My smaller clothes live in two boxes on top of the wardrobe where they glare down on me every day. Hasn't worked though.

Chrysalis1976

Great payment to Natwest card, that will be gone in no time at all! All sounding good in your life, good that you have you treats and still manage to make fab inroads into the debt.

I hope the 0% card comes through OK, I can't get anything at the minute as have too much debt maybe once I start paying off a few things it will happen.

Good luck with the weight loss, often the smallest things make the biggest difference such as takings the stairs and not the lift or parking a little bit further away from your destination.

Hope you have a good Month 5, week 2.

C x