SoA/Confession time!

baxgttdi · 16 July 2007 at 11:47PM

Hi all *wave* I've been lurking (and paying attention

) for a good few months now and although I've had a few posts I've never confessed my sins so to speak. I'm Dave and 24 and I'm an alco...sorry wrong thing

My problem is probably a little different to most but the underlying factor is still lack of cash :mad:at the end of the month, even though I know I shouldn't have.

Basically what happened was in 2004 I bought an MGF for about 11k which I had on hire purchase for about 220 a month which I could handle easily. But...the (insert expletive here) thing constantly went wrong and in 14 months had *takes deep breath* 4 head gaskets, tapits twice, broken central locking systems, 6 tyres and a new roof catch. Fortunately all was done under warranty but when the last head gasket went a month before my warranty ran out I knew that I needed rid of the car. So...I had to trade it in and buy something else. Because of the fact I still owed about 6k on the MGF I needed something that was going to last me about 5 years as I had to take it over that term to ensure that payments weren't hitting 500 a month. I ended up with a golf, which is great and has never *touch wood* gone wrong yet but the combined car loan with interest ended up at 20k!!, which sets me back £313 a month. Obviously that eats a huge lump out of my income. Anyways thought I'd explain why that figure is so high. The upside is the golf is going strong :j

Income - Wage - 1350
Other - 120
Clicking and Surveys -20

Outgoing - Car - 313
Insurance - 100
Fuel - 160 (I do 40 mile round trip to work each day and 20 to
gf's )
Internet - 25
Gym - 25+
Dad - 100
Mobile - 40 (work contract and that's without paing line rental!!
changing end of the month)
Pension 110
Student Loan 35
Invest/Save - 50
Pay off current debt (i.e current account) 100
Sports - 40
Lunch - 60
Car tax - 10
Christmas/Birthdays etc - 33

Income total = 1490
Outgoing total = 1152

Current Account Debt - 1000

I know everyone is going to jump on me as I'm realizing looking at this myself that I must be the biggest money waster ever!! Reading this back to myself I actually feel guilty about the money I'm wasting when others on here have it so hard but hey MSE's for all walks of life right? The first thing I've done which you might notice from my sig is to pay off my Barclaycard :Twhich has been accumulating interest for the past 6 years! Next on the list is the student loan as that would be a weight off my shoulders

The part of this that I'm been debating on including in this is..*deep breath* I've gone through a short (about 4 month) yet quite troublesome period of gambling. I'm fully aware of how stupid it was and was so while doing it, but I have one of those obsessive personalities (not an excuse) and once I started losing I couldn’t 't stop chasing my losses. During this time I gambled away something like £1900, which left me a little on edge to say the least and in a spot of bother, financially and mentally drained.

The other side of my obsessive personality is that I'm ridiculously determined and stubborn (don't I sound like a lovely guy lol) when I set my mind to something, and I managed to call time on it before it got any further out of hand and signed myself up to ban myself from the bulk of gambling sites which has been such a relief, and I'm now putting that money more wisely I hope into a savings account. I can't explain the obsession that I had with online gambling, as although I say I lost about £1900 I must have in all honesty gambled something in the region of £9000 and only kept down to £1900 by virtue of wins. The only way I can explain it is that I get the urge to spend money, which is an absolute nightmare. It doesn't have to be wasted i.e. gambling it can be on anything from clothes, to food and even stuff for work. It's a lot worse than it sounds however I found that I can cap the urge by putting money into my savings account lol how sad am I?

Well I think that's the bulk of it over. Because of everything above, I feel like I'm starting a complete fresh so any tips/advice people want to give would be gratefully accepted, even criticism of my stupidity and foolishness with the gambling.

Just writing all this down is actually a great weight off my mind as I didn't want to share this all with the people around me not even those closest to me like my father and my girlfriend. I apologize profusely for rambling and I’m sure I've bored you all to tears but I felt like I needed to vent somewhat and since I've been commenting on other peoples problems I felt obligated to share my own with you. I've written this statement out in a bit of a rush so I apologize if it's full of typing errors but I hope it's legible enough for you to get the picture

To end the worlds longest opening statement I'd like to thank all the people on here who although I haven't spoken to personally have already helped me with their advice that I’ve reads on these forums

Applecider_2 · 16 July 2007 at 11:59PM

hey bax the first thing is u realising ur mistakes is the first step to success, you sound like a pretty determined guy and if u set this as a challenge u may battle it better!

is u debt £12000? Its not too bad everyone here is in the same boat and are all here to help each other, check out some of the challenege thread like the olympic etc as they have fantantic money making ideas!. my debts are waaaaaaay ova my wage so I kno how u feel and worse

good luck!!! PS u didnt bore us wit ur explanation I was amazed how little u lost and how much u gambled OMG!!!

baxgttdi · 17 July 2007 at 12:06AM

Hey, thanks for the reply. I was quite shocked too that I didn't lose more but I'm sure as hell not complaining! Current debt is about 13 all in I think *gulp* I'll definately check out some of the challenges sounds liek the sorta thing I could get into. Good luck with the comp in your sig you seem to be way ahead at the moment

Applecider_2 · 17 July 2007 at 12:14AM

Ive just done a challenge on here with a few others and I cant believe how much money we raised its mental. bouncing ideas off each other. I dont seem to do things well unless its a challnege or I can really see a light at the end of the tunnel!! £13000 isnt too bad on ur wages its something that could be done in good time. Can u repay things early? interest is a killer....could yah maybe get a part time job? my masive budwiser jar has helped me I empty my change in ther everyday and put it in the bank every three months or so, once I have £500!!

ps.Thanks mate cant see me winning with that photo to be honest we were pretty drunk!! and the comp only started today ther are some pretty big scammers on there!!!

baxgttdi · 17 July 2007 at 1:04AM

Good to know it can be done then. I'm exactly the same! I need a challenge to motivate me to do things and I'm horribly competative :doh: which is sometimes good sometimes bad. It doesn't look so bad when you just write it down it sometimes gets a bit overwhelming though. The good thing is yes I can repay the car loan early the bad side is I don't save on the interest unless i pay it off in one big some which sucks cos that's just insane.

I'm thinking of trying to do something comp related as a part time thing as I have alot of free time at work :shhh: and not so much on a night but it's worth a go. I don't mean time I should be doing something else I just literally get hours of free time at work.

The change saving is definately something I should get into more regularly, I just joined the change jar challenge and went to see what coppers I could find and I'm embarrassed to say I found over £30 from when I started saving last tiem and put the jar in the cupboard out of the way. :embarasse I think that shows how bad I can be with money! Still my jar's almost full with that, I can't imagine a jar that could hold £500 but I'm really glad I've never paid for your drinks on a night out heh. :rotfl:

Don't sell yourself short it looks pretty good to me and the other voters seem to agree. Heh if people start cheating I'll get some people at work to have a vote, I work accross 37 schools

, there's gotta be enough to get you close.

Applecider_2 · 19 July 2007 at 12:08AM

have u seen the scores now??? he he damn photo comp wish i'd neva started my mates in a call centre so ill get her to use all thecomps!! I work in one school with 8 pcs so ill go on them b4 end of term!!

are u going to join the olymic challenge? im going to try although im quidco'd out!! Ive made 200 on ther!!

so have u written ur self a plan of action then?? im ging to try this matched betting buisness soon to make some wuick cash, if ur joinin make sure u dont get carried away

lol.

Applecider_2 · 19 July 2007 at 12:09AM

ps the buwiser jar is nearly the same size as me i nearly lost half the money when we tipped it over!!!!

baxgttdi · 19 July 2007 at 4:10PM

duplicate post

baxgttdi · 19 July 2007 at 4:11PM

No! you've been overtaken :mad:. Still time though right?

I thought about it but I was kinda put off by the huge figure! £1000, that so much in in 5 months. 200 on quidco? you must shop alot!

Yeah, I headed over to the saving and investing section as they better at it than me (obviously that's why I'm in debt and they aern't heh) Started putting money from surveys and things into a little account and trying to make a budget plan, Also started a change jar which was going well cos I found I already had a collection in the back of a cupboard from last year with £48 in it!

I thought about this matched betting thing a while back but i didn't understand it, even after reading the guide thread :embarasse which made me feel kinda stupid lol. I think I need one of those dummies guide.

Hehe, the last bit's got me wondering if it's really big or your really small

baxgttdi · 25 August 2007 at 3:50PM

SOA Update

Income - Wage - 1350
Other - 120
Clicking and Surveys -20

Outgoing - Car - 313
Insurance - 86 - Managed to get it a bit cheaper and in November it's due for renewal and I'll hit that magical 25!
Fuel - 130 - managed to be a bit more stringent
Internet - 25 - coming down shortly when we move house
Gym - 24
Dad - 100 - board
Mobile - 35 - just changing to this now but that's all inclusive
Pension 110
Student Loan 35
Sports - 25
Lunch - 30 - managed to halve this by being a bit tigher and sometimes taking packed lunch
Car tax - 10
Christmas/Birthdays etc - 33
Put in bank towards my "1 month wage emergency cover" - 20
Put in other account for savings - 30
Social - 40

Income total = 1490
Outgoing total = 1046

The problem is that...at the end of every month my current account is £1000 overdrawn. So even though I appear to have lots more coming in then out I never see it as it's just taken off what I own my current account and goes back at the end of the month.

Now I just have to get a spending diary sorted which I'm starting on the 1st and I should find out which pockets this extra cash is falling out of?!?. I can't believe that much just disappears every month I'm still scratching my head as to where it goes.