Cutting out the Costa

lanny275

Having experienced my LBM this weekend I finally sat myself down and completed a full budget. Shocked doesn't nearly cover it, maybe terrified would be closer to the mark. Anyway no point in dwelling on where all that money went, I need to make sure no more follows down the same drain!
I have successfully completed my first official NSD and an amazed how proud of myself I feel. Now just another 364 to go and I might see the light at the end of the tunnel
After reading through several of the diaries on here I am hoping I can sign a few of you up for help, support, the odd loan etc :rotfl:
No seriously any help to stay on the budgeting wagon would be very much appreciated, I've seen how constructive the advice on here can be and the positive results on this forum speak for themselves.

Pippilongstocking

Goodluck from me.

Been there - so familiar.

I started with a spending diary.

http://www.spendingdiary.com/

Free and easy to use.

I also kept my receipts for everything for a month because as much as I thought I knew what I was spending, in reality I had no clue.

I just shoved them in a jar and sat down after a week/month and went through them all - every single one - what an eyeopener.

Goodluck - there's a really good bunch on here.

Have you thought of posting a SOA?

Lots of folks can help by having a peek at what you put up.

Brightspark87

Good luck! its actually very satisfying knowing that you are tackling something even if it does seem like a very long way away....

Good luck and keep in touch with how your journey is going!

lanny275

Thanks for the welcome Pippi & BrightSpark

Spending diary sounds like a plan! I'll have a look at that one. I have a rough idea where any spare pennies usually slip away to but when it's in black and white there's no getting away from it!

I used the debt remedy tool on the Stepchange website. Strangely it seems to be calculating the wrong amounts for my minimum payments on cc, this is leaving me in the red and they are therefore advising me to enter a DMP. (Would this be the same as a SOA?)

In reality we just about scrape through each month, there is usually a large payment to make for something or other such as car Mot, tax, birthdays etc. there always seems to be something soaking up any left over pennies.

Using the debt remedy amounts suggested for budgeting we should actually have a little left over each month to chuck at the debts so I don't think I am ready to go down the DMP route just yet.

I need to ring Sky to reduce my package, change gas/electric suppliers (npower have increased our payments from £103 to £182 and we are now in credit to the tune of £962 :eek:)

I probably should mention that we are not behind with any of our payments so I am hoping to rescue the situation before it spirals completely out of control.

Aiming for NSD #2 today (no morning costa with the mummies after the school run is proving difficult but will most definitely save a small fortune )

I'll try to figure out how to change my signature to include all the relevant information later on.

I'm off to shake the milk carton to see if I can make my own frothy milk for my coffee - sad I know

parsniphead

Hi lanny

Thought I would pop over and say hello and good luck.

Well done with the NSD. Every-time I plan them something crops up.

Spending diaries are fantastic. They really show up where the money is being wasted. It's shocking sometimes.

Tixy

Hi Lanny

If you can just about manage your outgoings and are not respending on credit cards etc then you shouldn't need a DMP (I've seen others say the stepchange calculated minimum payments are not always accurate).

A SoA is similar to what you filled in on the website but does in to a bit more detail which helps ensure you are budgeting for the various normal household expenses that we often forget about (like those costs that don't occur each month such as the car MOT etc) - on this forum we recommend this calculator http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

To change your signature - go to your user control panel (you can find this on the Forum jump on the right hand side of the page - under the picture of the 3 MSE staff). Then choose edit signature from the left hand side menu.

Good luck with the budgeting and debt busting.

mfmaybe

Hi Lanny

Good luck on your journey, it's always scary at first.

I can't froth your milk for you. But if you really love coffee, have you heard of aero-press? It's a brilliant hand operated coffee filter and not too expensive. How about signing up for swagbucks, or putting the money saved from not buying Costas, and getting one from Amazon? Microwave milk isn't quite frothy but does the job (or you often see the hand held milk frothers on freecycle) and then you've got a brilliant tasting latte for the cost of the ingredients.

I know buying things doesn't seem the best advice for someone starting out on their DF journey, but one thing I've learned from all the diaries, is that going completely without just results in a boom and bust cycle. I've realised that I can't just stop buying anything, it's not realistic. So I'm trying to figure out how to pay for things, one item at a time. Either I sell some unused possessions, or divert cashback earnings etc. It's really helping me re-evaluate what I want, and how much I want it!