Win Some - Lose Some

purplefran

Okay, time to take the bull by the horns, or the debts by the pounds. I am Francesca and I am a spendaholic actually it is not just reckless spending but lots and lots of other factors why to I am so much in debt. But I am not going to make excuses or whinge and look backwards, I am going to look forward and be positive. Win - is to gain freedom from debt and monetary control and Lose is to lose the debt.
I would like to retire as soon as I can and I can't do this whilst I am so much in debt, I want to be able to enjoy my retirement. I had to leave my old job recently and have just started a new job which will not start paying properly until the end of October and even then I am not sure how much I am going to get paid, so working out a budget is pretty hard until then. So the trick until then is to try to service my debts without getting in to more debt.
I am approx £50,000 in debt (that is the maximum estimate). I do have enough money to cover minimum payments until October, but that's it, not much more. At the end of the month I can work out my debts exactly. My plan is to use the 1% method eg baby steps and break that down to even further 1%s. For example I have a Next a/c which is £1047 which is approx 2% of my overall debt. I then break this down to 1% of £10.47 for which I have the cheeky monkey hundred squares ready to colour in. I have a similar chart for the overall debt. I have already paid Next today with 1% extra, so with normal capital repayments I have paid 8% and coloured in 8 squares. Simple!
Anyway I have a lot to do today with looking at how I can reduce my outgoings, earn extra money, find extra money etc so I will report back later.

monz

Hi ! Looking forward to your posts!

Remember to do that SOA x

Historybuff

Hi purplefran, I'm in a similar position to you re the debt amount and wanting to aim for a debt free retirement as soon as possible! I'll subscribe! Love the positive attitude... I try to stay positive, but sometimes have to pick myself up and give myself a good shake.
Small steps approach is a good one! Good luck! HB

purplefran

Hi Monz,

Thanks for dropping by. I am not going to do a full SOA, because as daft as it sounds I am okay with my budget, it's the paying off debts that's the problem.

Apart from credit cards, catalogue and loans, my monthly outgoings are very little:

Mobile phone/broadband £30.00 (I do not have a landline or access to another broadband provider)
Car insurance £29
Petrol £120 - I travel quite a lot for work
Food budget £120 (two adults and a dog)
Rates £160
Electric £30
Car Tax £20 per year, no mot.
No water or sewage rates applicable.

I pay this and my husband pays for things that we need to complete the house to a liveable standard, we cannot have all the niceties yet, but plumbing is good!

My husband is also in the same amount of debt, but a lot of all of our debt has come from building our house without a mortgage. However, we do have another house that we are hoping to sell (all bills being covered by tenant at the moment, who is also buying it) and then we will have £25,000 each to pay off a big chunk off each of our debts. But I am not counting my chickens until they are hatched! Once we have paid off ALL our debts we will be okay, living mortgage and debt free with very little outgoings as we pretty much live off grid. We would also like to build up some pension savings although I have a work pension payable in 6 years time.

What I need to do is to work out a reasonable budget for birthdays and Christmas, mainly kids and grandchildren, rather than put it on credit card as I have done in the past.

Wow, that's a long answer, but that's it all out now.

purplefran

Hi Historybuff,

Thanks for your support

purplefran

What have I done/decided today?

I have plenty of food, toiletries, cleaning products etc so I will use all of them up before buying more. I need to keep my spending to the bare minimum this month (and thereafter), but I can do this by using what I've already got first. There may be some strange meals. I am also going to write down every single penny that I spend to discipline my spending.
I downloaded the Snowball App and will gradually over the next few days get all my debts together and put together a snowballing repayment plan.
If my wages are not going to be consistent I do need an emergency pot, just in case. I plan to save £1584. This random amount is because it is two pages of squares in my financial exercise book, it is also just over the amount I need each month to keep my head above water. Am I becoming obsessed with graph paper and squares?!!

Positive Actions today:
Today, I found £3.72 down armchair - now in savings pot - 3 squares crossed off! (plus £10 I added and £10 that was already there - so 23 squares in total)
Dug out paperwork to try to reclaim mortgage exit fee from a few years ago
Advertised for some extra work
Cooked from pantry and garden
Picked blackberries for breakfast - FREE

Spent : 20p on cucumber from stall outside neighbour's gate (love this time of the year)

purplefran

Morning everyone, it's going to be a lovely day! Positive vibes to all. I have just had some delicious blackberry pancakes for breakfast so feel all full and ready for action. Did you know that blackberries can be a substitute for blueberries in most recipes? I always have bags of blackberries (FREE) in my freezer which saves buying expensive blueberries.
Pancake recipe - 1/3 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/3 cup milk (I use unsweetened soy longlife) - makes two big pancakes for one. Mix, drop batter into hot, non stick frying pan, top with blackberries, when bubbles appear - flip and cook for a little longer. I topped with some maple syrup. No egg is necessary. There - quick, cheap and delish! I have just worked out that these cost 10p for two pancakes, you cannot get a cheaper breakfast than that.

Now I have to decide on a plan of action before I head off to work. See you later and stay positive :j

purplefran

Yesterday I dug out some old mortgage paperwork as I believe I was overcharged about £225 on mortgage exit fees. I rang Barclays and was told that as they had no way of identifying me on the phone, I had to take my ID in to the local branch. Today I did this and the lady took copies of my ID, updated my security details and gave me a customer reference number to give when I called back about the exit fees. So I rang Barclays again and apparently the customer number means zilch and therefore they still have no way of identifying me because they cannot access whatever the lady in the branch did. They want me to back in to the branch and get the lady there to ring them! Total incompetence, this is one of the reasons that I switched from Barclays years ago! Hard trying to stay positive when you keep meeting up with sheer red tape lunacy!

monz

purplefran wrote: »

What have I done/decided today?

I have plenty of food, toiletries, cleaning products etc so I will use all of them up before buying more. I need to keep my spending to the bare minimum this month (and thereafter), but I can do this by using what I've already got first. There may be some strange meals. I am also going to write down every single penny that I spend to discipline my spending.
I downloaded the Snowball App and will gradually over the next few days get all my debts together and put together a snowballing repayment plan.
If my wages are not going to be consistent I do need an emergency pot, just in case. I plan to save £1584. This random amount is because it is two pages of squares in my financial exercise book, it is also just over the amount I need each month to keep my head above water. Am I becoming obsessed with graph paper and squares?!!

Positive Actions today:
Today, I found £3.72 down armchair - now in savings pot - 3 squares crossed off! (plus £10 I added and £10 that was already there - so 23 squares in total)
Dug out paperwork to try to reclaim mortgage exit fee from a few years ago
Advertised for some extra work
Cooked from pantry and garden
Picked blackberries for breakfast - FREE

Spent : 20p on cucumber from stall outside neighbour's gate (love this time of the year)

^^ Love the graph obsession thats me with my own excel and graphs on money handling haha

purplefran

Today's Musings.

My job entails fairly regular overnight hotel stays. I hate being away from home, I don't drink, so I don't get involved with socialising at the bar and I need my 'alone' time, so these stays often end up with me wandering round shops, spending aimlessly. I will need to think of a strategy to overcome that one.

I do collect up the mini toiletries, coffee & teas etc. Even the free shower caps come in handy for covering stuff in the fridge (!). I always save the toiletries for 'when I go away' which I don't use of course because they are always provided. Consequently, I have a whole box full of little bottles. I have had a LBM on these, why on earth am I saving them? If I use them all, I can chuck the bottles, therefore doing a bit of decluttering, I will save lots of money as I probably have enough for at least the next two months and I will smell very posh! I will save a couple of bottles that I can refill from my regular sized stuff for my 'just in case' packing the next time I go away. Simple!

As I am on the road quite a lot, I buy a heck of a lot of bottled water, lunch and snacks. I dread to think how much this costs a month, but it is going to stop! I have packed a small insulated bag with a couple of drinks, savoury snacks (multi bags from Home Bargains) and Nak'd bars (bought on special offer in Asda for 25p each, normally 70p each). I have put a small tin of veggie pate and some oatcakes in, along with a couple of sqeeezy soups (yellow stickered 25p each). This will save me 'popping in' the supermarket if I get hungry or miss lunch, so hopefully will save me a packet. I added cutlery and napkins to the bag, just in case, got to keep up standards

Positive Actions Today :

Packed 'emergency' food bag.
Tried to sort out mortgage exit fees, Barclays incompetence not mine, I am the better person Will try again tomorrow.
Ate out of freezer, garden and hedgerows, plus some leftovers from yesterday for lunch.
Sorted out student loan - have to wait until April to get back overpayments.
Found £15 in old accounts; closed accounts and transferred money to emergency savings.

Spent : nuffink, zero, diddly squat!

purplefran

Whoopee, £65 has been added to my bank account which is money that Specsavers have owed me forever. £5 straight to savings, £10.47 to Next and £50 in my purse. I know that doesn't add up, but they didn't give me enough! The £50 is my food budget and I will see how long this lasts me. I am going to try for two weeks, anything extra will be a bonus.

I have emptied my purse of existing money - £7.27 - £5 to savings, £2.20 in silver pot & 7p in copper pot.

That's a great start to the day! Positive vibes everyone x