What do you wish you had known when you first started out on your debt free journey?

Historybuff

Great thread. I identify with all posters. I'm five months into my DMP and have settled into the flow of keeping solvent each month. I wish at the start of organising payment plans I had not tried to set the monthly amounts so high. At the first review next month in going to have to try to reduce the payments and that might be hard. Seeing the debts reducing each month after years of overspending is such a good feeling, but in need a bit more cash to myself to stop struggling halfway into the month. £5.50 per day for the next 18 days till payday is going to be hard...

FireWyrm

moohound wrote: »

The modern world, media and advertising seem to programme us into thinking we have to constantly spend to keep up, update and upgrade when the things we already have work just fine.

There is an interesting series running on BBC at the moment (you can get it on catchup ) called The Men Who Made Us Spend and it is an eyeopener. The series so far has covered built in obsolescence of everything from lightbulbs (original light bulbs burned for 2500 hours until the Phoebus cartel made a pact to reduce this to sub-1000 hours) to printer cartridges with counters that cause the printer to report being out of ink when it is nothing of the sort. They have covered the psychology of fear based advertising where 'consumers' are made to feel fearful of an outcome in order to encourage consumption (statins anyone?) and the way that electronic gadget launches are orchestrated to be buying frenzies. The comment from an Apple spokesperson that "it is not the job of consumers to understand why they need a new item, that they need only to be told" is telling in the extreme.

Once you understand the psychology of how a supermarket is laid out, how TV advertising causes a long term low level feeling of dissatisfaction and paranoia, you start to see how we as a society have been, for the last 50 years at least, shamefully exploited by businesses. Once upon a time, a shopkeeper opened a store, sold his wares and if he produced good stuff, was successful. Now, they produce a product no-one previously needed and design marketing to tell the consumer that they need it, regardless of whether they actually do.

The ways to get around this are shockingly simple.
When shopping for consumables like food, make a list and stick to it. You'll be surprised how little you actually do need.

Never buy new gadgets, wait 6 months and if you still feel that you want it, you will have saved up for it in the meantime.

Stop watching commercial TV, nothing on there anyway - get your fix from catchup and watch the programs you actually want to see, not 25 minutes of advertising into the bargain.

Ignore the highstreet, target a shop for a purchase you actually need. Never go food shopping on an empty stomach and look higher or lower for the generic items that are the same but half the price; never at eye-height.

Use cash where possible and save excess coins into a sealed pot.

Get some sort of budgeting mechanism software and use it religiously. Record every expense, no matter how minor; stop turning a blind eye to the morning coffee at Starbucks that you dont need. If you want coffee, buy beans, grinder and cafetiere for the price of 4 cups of Starbucks instead and make your own

Research how to make your own all sorts of things from sausage rolls (£1.30 for ready-roll pastry and £1.50 for sausage meat) to alcohol (wine and beer homebrew).

Buy the original item never the new one, so, soap instead of shower gel for instance. Most 'new' branded items are a total ripoff.

Stop going to one shop for all your goods. You would be surprised what half an hour of extra effort gets in terms of savings. Tesco are good for meat (always on offer, it's their loss leader) but rubbish for fish. Morrisons are better for fish and their deli meats/cheeses are excellent. Aldi are better for almost everything, but nothing beats Costco and the power of bulk buying. 1Kg of fresh coffee beans are £6.99 compared to 300g of instant coffee at Tesco at £2.50 per 100g.

Waste-not-want-not. If it looks ok, smells ok, a little bit tastes ok, it IS ok regardless of sellby date.

Stop being slaves to consumerism. Take a step back and consider who is serving whom here.

Puddylove

Interesting post, Firewyrm.

When I was growing up, my Mum used to drag us to the local city every Saturday where she would shop fanatically until the shops shut.:mad:

I can't thank her enough ; it gave me a persisting hatred of shopping (verging on phobia) which saves me thousands. It helps that I'm 5'10" so no clothes ever fit me.

Sazzie23

Puddylove wrote: »

Interesting post, Firewyrm.

When I was growing up, my Mum used to drag us to the local city every Saturday where she would shop fanatically until the shops shut.:mad:

I can't thank her enough ; it gave me a persisting hatred of shopping (verging on phobia) which saves me thousands. It helps that I'm 5'10" so no clothes ever fit me.

Made me laugh Puddy, I can remember when I called up a shop to complain about something, and I said I wouldn't be going into the city for at least 8 weeks, the girl said 'not even on a Saturday!' Like everyone's life revolved around shopping at the weekend.

Now I'm debt busting it's more like once every 6 months, and then I park for free, walk in and only go to the shops I need.

Kate_fixing_it

Puddylove wrote: »

It helps that I'm 5'10" so no clothes ever fit me.

Oh Lord I can identify with this! I'm just over 5'11. There's absolutely no joy what's over in traipsing around for hours only to find that every pair of trousers makes you look like Jimmy Crickett, every skirt/dress above the knee is verging on obscene and tops look like they're made to stop a couple of inches above the waist - NOBODY wants to see my midriff after 4 babies! :rotfl:

Pretty much all my clothing comes from eBay now where I can ask for exact measurements and even then I'm easily bored. The beauty of asking is that it takes time for sellers to reply so any impulse buying is kerbed

Kate x

Kate_fixing_it

My biggest piece of advice would be "it won't be as bad as you are imagining, don't put it off through fear".

Admittedly I've lost a couple of "friends" now I no longer try to keep up with the Jones but it turns out I don't miss or actually really like the Jones The real friends stick around and find ways to accommodate your needs (if they know).

Kate x

-taff

Never consolidate debts with a loan*. You end up with a bit of cash over which fools you into thinking you can afford to go back and use the credit cards again because 'you can afford to pay it off'.
You can't and you won't.

Keep a budget, especially for things like food and household items. You'd be amazed at how much less you throw out, if any.

Meal plan.

Don't be afraid to change bank accounts, services etc if it's cheaper elsewhere. No one thanks you for paying more money for the same thing, and the deals are always better for new customers.

Don't keep up with the Joneses, they are probably more in debt than you are.

*unless it's a much less percentage and cheaper int he long term than what you're paying and you cut up any cards immediately

skea56

FireWyrm wrote: »

There is an interesting series running on BBC at the moment (you can get it on catchup ) called The Men Who Made Us Spend and it is an eyeopener. The series so far has covered built in obsolescence of everything from lightbulbs (original light bulbs burned for 2500 hours until the Phoebus cartel made a pact to reduce this to sub-1000 hours) to (1)printer cartridges with counters that cause the printer to report being out of ink when it is nothing of the sort.

(2)Never buy new gadgets, wait 6 months and if you still feel that you want it, you will have saved up for it in the meantime.

(3)Use cash where possible and save excess coins into a sealed pot.

(4)Waste-not-want-not. If it looks ok, smells ok, a little bit tastes ok, it IS ok regardless of sellby date.

Great response from FireWyrm, I picked these few points out as they are so true
(1) I will keep using a cartridge until it refuses to print anymore - give it a shake anytime it prints a bit faded. My last cartridge lasted for 5.5 weeks after the message appeared to replace it. This was with a quarterly tax return in the middle so twice as many invoices to print out.

(2) I used to be one of those who would sit out and buy the latest iphone or whatever gadget, as I needed to have it!! Not anymore - I got burned by a blackberry once and since then I sit back and wait to see what every one else thinks first. Throw a few pounds aside from each paycheck and if I still want it a few months later I have the money there waiting. Most times I find I don't want it - that I have managed to survive on this planet without and therefore don't need it, so I buy myself a little treat (new shoes, make up etc) and then put the rest of the saved money into my ISA.

(3) This I have been doing for a while, ever since I was a waitress, I would put all my tips into a jar and every few months, spend some, save the rest in an ISA. Even today, I get home after a night out and throw all my change into a jar - great for holiday saving.

(4) I never look at use by dates. I had the most scrumptious curry the other day, made with coconut milk that had been hiding in our larder for about 4 years - Devine!! Plus I ended up having half the amount of peppers I wanted as they were soft and starting to go bad - just cut around them and use away!

I'll defintely look at the rest of the points in that reply to see if I could start using them also.

sk56

misskl

1. Keep a money diary that you keep with you and use every day when you spend anything (so that you always know exactly how much you have in your bank account)
2. Don't beat yourself up too much- what's done is done, so just make sure you stay focused in paying it off.
3. Tell other people if you are struggling - this was the hardest, and still is the hardest thing for me to do. I have to tell others I can't do things because I'm saving (not because im paying off debts, still too ashamed to say).
4. The media make you feel inadequate - if you haven't got x/y/z. I took out a 9k loan to consolidate 2 overdrafts and buy a 6k car. BIG lesson learned- I didn't need a car that was that expensive. Similarly, you don't need a new outfit for an occasion, you can just mix up what you have.
5.Make a food shopping list - and stick to it. I ate out quite a lot before, and I used to do 'intermittent shopping' as I lived across the road from a supermarket. I now set myself a budget of £25-30 per week (just for me) and plan out my meals in advance.