Help please - slipping back into bad habits

stokegal

Help... beginning to slip into old habits... I spent £70 on clothes the other day and i's £70 that I dont have... my problem is that I have paid off 3 debts now by shoving as much money as possible in the past 4 months but my remaining debts are all fixed loan repayments, I am able to overpay these??? I don't want to do it each month because me and OH are halfway through buying our first house and have budgeted for current loan repayments so I don't want to commit to paying more each month but until the house goes through I have an extra £200/£300 each month and I don't want to waste it...

Thanks
Stokegal (oops - nearly wrote real name again!!! :eek: )

reformedEffortMaker_2

Stokegal-stay focused!....think of the end goal. Can you take any of the clothes you bought back?....its nice to treat yourself to new clothes every now and again, but can you honestly say you have achieved enough to do that?

Perhaps you can keep one item and take the others back?

postingalwaysposting

stoke gal... is there anyway you can see if you can overpay your remaining debt? either phone them or write to them? once you know if you can or not you can decide what to do. But seeing as you are buying your house maybe it will be best to just pay these off as you are doing each month and plough all your spare cash into an isa or savings account then if you need instant cash you can use that instead of relaying on more credit. You never know you may not need it but its good to have something to fall back on Dont worry about the clothes buying we all fall off the wagon now and again it doesnt matter if it was £70 or £700... if you can return them all the better but dont feel you need too, one month wont mind surely?

onedayiwill

Stokegal - when my CC is paid off, I will be left with a fixed payment loan. I don't want to inadvertently waste the money that was I previously paying to my CC ... so the plan is to open an ISA and put the money in there so that eventually I will have enough to settle the loan early.

I feel this is less hassle, and more flexible, than contacting the loan companies.

belfastgirl23

If you're buying a house and you can't make any more payments towards your loans, you should use the money to set up a contingency fund. Having bought a house twice now, believe me when I say that you ALWAYS find there are bills you haven't budgeted for - the boiler doesn't work, there's a little leak in the roof somewhere, the gutters need cleared. You'll be really glad you have this money!!

hypno06

How about joining in one of the current challenges to keep your mind focussed. Moozies "what have you spent" thread is still running so you could post there to keep you on track too.

Seeing your savings increase, for something as fab as a new house, will be very motivating, so open a special account (going through quidco of course) and bung the spare money in there.

Sailorgirl

Hiya stokegal,
You could always set up a standing order into a savings account so that the money is out of your account before you have a chance to spend it. Make sure it's an account that's difficult to get the money out of e.g. have to go into a branch to make it easier to resist temptation.
Hang in there!