money saving amateur, expert wannabe

financially_exposed

@Armorica: I'm locked in until mid 2016 at 2.64% which is a good rate. I was paying £200 more until several months ago, I was at 4.34% or so... My hope is to pay off all CC debt in less than 2 years so that I'm in a good position should the mortgage interest rates go up. I was planning on making overpayments and I did make some, but as you can see from the above, for now I'm stuck paying for stupid mistakes.

giblet1979

Hi,
Just wanted to say good luck on your journey; once you start tracking all expenses, it is easier to cut back, as it's all the 'little bits here and there' which really add up. When you're accountable (to yourself) via some sort of budget / spending tool, then it becomes addictive x

financially_exposed

Thanks. I've never actually done this before. I've always roughly knew how much my regular expenses were and that's pretty much it. Always tried to cut back on spending but never put it on paper like this, never budgeted, never set goals.. I did manage to keep my head above water until now and kept a clean credit history (never missed a payment on anything) but I paid way too much money in interest rates and balance transfer fees and I'm fed up with it. And, as a single mother I'm also a bit scared of what lies ahead, from a financial point of view (and not only ).

theoretica

What are you getting for your £7 bank account fee and is it really worth it?

Work meals - can you increase the number of packed lunches you take? If you buy hot drinks and don't have access to a kettle a thermos would pay for itself very fast.

financially_exposed

The bank acct fee is £6.50 for the Barclays Current Account Plus (they no longer offer it). It includes mobile phone insurance (which I made use of as I lost my phone), photo camera and tablet insurance, and one-yr extra warranty on new appliances. And it also comes with a £300 fee-free 0% interest overdraft. Also, I am/was was reluctant to switch my account as it's my oldest account. I moved to the UK several years ago and in 2012 I needed to get a mortgage... having this acct with an overdraft facility helped, as it provided for a bit of credit history. And I'm happy with the customer service so I think it's worth staying for all the above.

Work meals - yes I'm planning to do packed lunches, that's high on my list. We have a canteen which is partly subsidized but the food is not really good, so it's not worth it. I make my own coffees and teas at work - don't really buy them during the week, but I do at weekends...

CheesyWiggles

financially_exposed wrote: »

Thanks, I've been looking at these paid tools tonight and I'm staying with Excel. Really trying not to spend ANY money right now...

I've actually created an Excel spreadsheet to input every single expense from now on, and I've already added all direct debits to it. I'm using the same format that Spending Tracker uses when you export data from the tool to a CSV format. So I will be essentially using the Spending tracker on my smartphone to track all non-direct debit expenses, then simply export and copy periodically to the Excel spreadsheet.

Also checked accounts, my Barclays overdraft is actually £264, the Santander CC balance is £855 and the Tesco CC balance is £6740, so that brings me to a grand total of £7860 debt as of today :mad:

Next short term plans:
- don't buy anything except bread until Friday (bring lunch to work)
- keep the Tesco online basket for this week under £50
- update spreadsheet on Sunday evening

That might be a little short sighted in my opinion and you do get a good long free trial anyway.

your method does sound like a chore, but I do wish you the best.

financially_exposed

Thanks, I'm not discarding it completely, just not ready to invest now

Does anyone know how can I get this thread moved to the Debt Free Diaries section?

19lottie82

you really need to complete a proper SOA as advised in #2, so people can advise properly. please be realistic when completing it, there's no point in putting £0 for entertainment clothes etc. you need to put what you REALLY spend (even if it's just a realistic guess, if you're not sure).

financially_exposed

Thanks - I've started to do that. However, my plan is to do the first SOA using October actual tracked expenses, then update in Nov, Dec, etc. I could go back and do September but as I've used a lot of cash and didn't track it, it will be totally off. I don't keep receipts...

kazwookie

I suggest you pop over to the old style boards on this site, for menu ideas etc, they have helped me no end, and saved me loads of ££.