Time to get off life's treadmill

Divingmad

Hiya,
The survey sites require that you accumulate a certain level before they pay out, with one it's £5, another, it's £8, with ipsos you have to accumulate 1300 points, which they then send you a £10 voucher and with another its £40. The speed at which you can earn depends on the number of surveys available to you and how much the survey is worth, which is linked to the length of survey, a quick survey of a couple of minutes could be 30p, one requiring 20 minutes could be £1.50. Initially I was declined some surveys as I didn't fit the bill, but they are getting better.
Something else you can consider is using cashback sites, which give you money back on your spending if you shop through them, topcashback and Quidco are frequently used.
As for how to stop spending when you're feeling low...I have no idea, I keep away from the temptation and refocus on what I can achieve if I don't spend that money, i.e. getting a bit further towards being debt free
DM

going_nowhere_fast

Feeling so angry with myself today for getting in to debt in the first place. I wish i could go back and do things differently, i would never have made such bad financial decisions .

Divingmad

We all have days like that. I want to get rid of mine asap, but get frustrated that it doesn't move as quick as I want.
Dinnea worry, it'll pass and you'll soon be debt free and making better decisions with your money
DM

going_nowhere_fast

Ive made a list of some goals, the usual meal plans, putting weekly money in envelopes. I know it will help me save money but i know it will be small change in comparison with my debt. I think knowing its going to be a long process is what makes it so frustrating but at least ive addressed the debt and stopped putting it off.

It sounds like you are really motivated so im sure you will have cracked the debt in no time!

t2rry

Hi! Didn't want to read and dash...

We are all here because we have hit 'rock bottom' in respect of finances, wherever that rock bottom happens to be. Remember that you are one of many on the treadmill of saving; that really helps me because you see on here so many people who have stuck with it have been successful.

Also, time flies really so remember that it's better that you started yesterday than tomorrow...it is definitely disheartening sometimes, we have all experienced that (I started a new diary 3 weeks ago and my debt has only increased since then!)

Just stick with it, however slow it may be (and remember the start is always the slowest!) and you will get there...I'll be interested to see how you do!

gallygirl

going_nowhere_fast wrote: »

Ive made a list of some goals, the usual meal plans, putting weekly money in envelopes. I know it will help me save money but i know it will be small change in comparison with my debt. I think knowing its going to be a long process is what makes it so frustrating but at least ive addressed the debt and stopped putting it off.

It sounds like you are really motivated so im sure you will have cracked the debt in no time!

I saw your name on this thread and 'dropped in' as I'd just read your thread about wanting to move and not being able to. I had nothing really to contribute there but can add something here hopefully. Here goes:
Clothes: I earn a very good salary and am often complimented on my clothing. The last 2 days for example, my dresses got praised. Both from ebay - good makes and both were brand new. I have plenty others which were pre-worn and I honestly don't care - because I'm CHOOSING to do so. Which is very different to having no choice, as when you were growing up. I CHOOSE to buy 2nd hand, good makes (Next is my cheapest brand) rather than a new dress from Primark. They look far better quality and last better. Give it a whirl, also charity shops :T.

Food: Meal plans are WELL worth the effort and will save you ££££'s. Maybe try a simple plan based on:
Monday pasta
Tues veggie
Weds rice
Thurs something with chips etc.
That would give you a basic structure but still lost of choice, e.g Monday could be lasagne, spag bol, macaroni cheese with bacon etc. Batch cook a pot of meat in tom sauce and freeze in portions so you have the basis for a couple of meals. Cook an extra portion and there's your lunch for the next day :T. Plant some salad leaves and toms in pots and get your little one to help

Now the fun bit :

I never go out out if you know what I mean but I do spend on child orientated treats which aren't in my budget and I need to stop that. It's an ice cream at the park, a trip to the cinema, a £2.99 dvd, a new story book when doing the supermarket shop - individually it doesn't look much but cumulatively over four weeks it adds up.

Ive made a list of some goals, the usual meal plans, putting weekly money in envelopes. I know it will help me save money but i know it will be small change in comparison with my debt.

Can you see the contradiction there? How come lots of little spends adds up to a lot of money but little savings don't? Well, they DO :j. My 'home' on here is the mortgage free board and we have something called Tilly Tidies . Basically, you look at your online banking every day and if your balance is say £xxx.83p you 'tidy it up' and pay the 83p off your debt. Tilly started this and her mortgage is well into 6 figures :eek:. If it works for massive debts it can work even better for small ones :T. I paid off over £200 in a year just on that alone.

Divide your total debt by the number of months until you think it will all be pad off. How much is it? That's how much you need to overpay to knock a month off. You owe around 10k and I think you said you thought it would take 7 years? Well, that's over £1400 a year, about £120 a month. A lot of money. But - it's only £3.84 a day :T. Didn't you say you'd spent £3 on lunch? Well, if you hadn't spent that you could have moved 19 hours earlier :eek:. 64p for a Mars Bar? That's 4 hours :eek:. B*ll*cks to that, wouldn't you prefer to move at 3am than have a Mars Bar :rotfl:. Seriously, that's how to view all these little spends and savings. Turn it into a game and compete against yourself. Set up a spreadsheet or a note book to record overpayments and when you knock a month off you can give yourself a gold star *. Keep a note of your original payoff date and revised date and mark progress.

I've just got a £1.94 Asda Price Guarantee voucher and that will go to savings when I use it. That's going to my savings pot so I can retire earlier :T. It ALL helps, trust me. I've been in your position .

Good luck, you have a lovely sunny attitude and I hope it goes well for you :T.

going_nowhere_fast

Thanks for all your lovely comments, you are really helping me start feeling positive rather than defeated.

It had never occured to me that I think little bits of savings dont add up but recognised that lots of little spends do. I'm going to cut out completely all those little 50ps and £1s. It will do my waistline good as well as my purse.

I will look at redescovering Ebay. Haven't been on that site for so long that I can't even remember my password. I sold quite a few things last year but ran out of things to sell!

I am definately going to start transfering all those odd pennies from my bank account in to savings. I think this is the way forward for me, baby steps to get in to a new routine.

I have tried meal planning before but i'm not a very good cook. I'd like to be and I do try but for some reason nothing seems to taste as nice as when other people cook the same thing. I'll keep trying. Practice makes perfect afterall.

Right, how to work out my exact debt free date......let me see if I can work it out.

going_nowhere_fast

Right, my calculator says at the current rate I will be debt free in 112.58 months which is, i think, 9 years 3 months.......... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Good job Ive started to calculate this properly rather than guessing, i was years out with my estimate.

Starting debt free date is: August 2023

I AM DEFINATELY BRINGING THIS DOWN. I'm not having that.

gallygirl

going_nowhere_fast wrote: »

Starting debt free date is: August 2023

I AM DEFINATELY BRINGING THIS DOWN. I'm not having that.

Quite right too. Doesn't have a nice ring about it at all . Something in the teens would be much better .

going_nowhere_fast

I think i'm going to find budgetting really hard to get in to the swing of.

I have just been looking at my expenses for next month and I have three adult birthdays, one child birthday, car tax (will just pay for six months but that's still a lot of money) and school expenses.

I think I need to set up a more realistic saving for birthdays and christmas on a monthly basis.

How do you do this when you are strating from scratch with no buffer? I presume you have to completely scrimp and spend as little as possible for the first couple of months to get going.

I think this ride is going to be filled with lots of ups and downs - was feeling positive yesterday and determined to reduce the debt free date and today feeling deflated again thinking how am I going to achieve that when I have so many things to pay for swallowing up the pennies.