Years of Breezing: Time to Break the Cycle!

bugslet

I think the female equivalent of man maths is CPW ( Cost Per Wear ), can be used to justify any purchase of any item of clothing, because if you wear if often the CPW will be very low and if you don't wear it that often, that means it will last a long time.....:o I have clothes whose CPW will be low provided I live to 283:D.

I know you said you didn't want a lodger, but if that changes, you could look at doing a Monday - Friday lodger. When my OH worked away he rented a room and was there usually only four nights a week, which meant the house owners had the weekend to themselves. Just a thought!

Good diary kat.:)

AleMrsT

itskat wrote: »

Another challenge I'm starting to encounter is saying "no" to people. I have a few friends whose financial situations seem much better than mine, and while I've already explained that I'm on debt-busting crusade, a few of them are being...well, not unpleasant about it, but...like they don't understand what it's like?

I have this one friend who's talking about going to Spain for a week next year, and she's trying to get me to join her. I'm sure holidays to Spain aren't that expensive, but I'd just rather put the money towards paying off the card!

Then I have this other friend who keeps asking me to go out with her at weekends. She insists it's just a few drinks or just a quick meal at a resteraunt, but it's like...yeah, I'd rather pay off my debts, sorry! Come around for a cuppa / split a bottle of vino instead, maybe?

Anyway, staying strong. I don't want to stop living entirely, but I have to keep my priorities in order.

They'll understand. They'll have to! :rotfl:

Hi Kat, I was reading about this on a diary thread the other day, think it was GMOOD's, and she was saying that debt busting would be easy if 'other people' didnt (sometimes unknowingly) try and sabotage it. I have filled my friends in fully on everything, also my colleagues and family, I kind of need people to know so that I can have control, otherwise I get swept along by 'plans', to do stuff, go places, buy stuff etc. I may regret it, but at least I have it all off my chest and can just get on with it without feeling like I have to find excuses.

itskat

That's exactly it, MrsAle! I know they don't mean it; I think I just have to be a little more direct with them about my situation. Saying "no" and saying "I can't" have two completely different connotations.

Hey, bugslet. I think many of the clothes I've purchased in the past have an infinite CPW value, since I've bought so many things I've never worn!

Speaking of...

I got an e-mail from the only online fashion mailing list I'm still subscribed to this morning. I spent the whole day "umm"-ing and "ahh"-ing about buying a new jacket. I don't need a new jacket. Not even a little bit. I bought a very similar jacket - in fact, just in a different colour - around a year ago, and how often have I worn it? That's right, not once! It's just hung up in my wardrobe along with everything else I never wear. So I closed the browser and unsubscribed from the mailing list.

My birthday is coming up in February - if I still want the jacket closer to the time, I'll ask someone to buy it for me.

WILLPOWER!

The £39 cleared the new card account, so that's good. I'm considering throwing £300 out of my savings to just completely wipe off the old card now, instead of waiting until March, to get it out of the way. But then I'm thinking, what about the £0.50p or whatever interest I could earn on that £300 by leaving it in the savings account until later? I'll make a decision on that when I get paid again in December.

Went to the cinema today. £8 a ticket! I remember when it was £3.50, and that makes me feel kind of old.

Also been chipping away at the Christmas present list, although some people are not giving me many ideas of what to buy them. Don't they know how super-organised I'm being this year? Just pick something, already!

And the gears keep grinding: onwards, onwards, onwards!

bugslet

How much would the interest on the credit card be if you don't throw £300.00 at it? More than the 50 p interest you earn? Other query is how much do you need savings in the short term?

I know people always say have x months of salary put away in case, but that can vary on your circumstances. When I had debt, I also paid for income protection, had overpaid my mortgage and could take a three month holiday and I was sure that my job was safe for x many years, so I had backup though not in the form of savings.

itskat

Card 1 (balance £300) is on 0% interest until March 2015, so no cost to keep paying the minimum (£25) until February and clear it all off then.

The only thing that concerns me about this is having the money in savings acts as a temptation, because I occasionally look at it as though it's money I can use, when I really shouldn't be. I think I'll just pay it off the card. I don't need it in the short term, nothing that's waiting to be done or bought, and my employment is secure.

bugslet

It's a good psychological lift to clear a card, makes you feel like you are making headway;-)

itskat

Well, you were right, bugslet. CC1 is now clear, and it's a great feeling!

Everything's on CC2 now (£2600), direct debit setup and budgeted until next pay day on the 15th.

The last of the Christmas presents were ordered this morning, so that's all of those checked off. Just need to wrap 'em now, which I am atrocious at doing, so I'll probably save it 'til the very last minute.

I'm now a YNAB convert Purchased it with a 10% discount code I found online. Been finding it really useful to plot and plan the whole month's payslip out.

So according to my budget, as long as I don't stray for the next two weeks, I'll have another £113.40 to put against the credit card on the 15th. Not paying it off yet, only because I suspect I could lose a day or two's pay at work--I can feel myself coming down with something, hopefully just a cold, but a few colleagues have had days off with some virus that's been going around. Don't want to pay off what I potentially couldn't afford!

But still, good stuff.

The weekend is upon us--I'll have no outgoing expenses, because it's too cold to go out (they're talking about snow a'coming!), so I think I'll just catch up on my Netflix queue instead

liltdiddylilt

Hello Kat

Have just read your diary and like your writing style. and the reference to tl;dr tickled me! I too am one who finds it hard to condense my writing

YNAB - is my hero.

1. Have you added your purse as an account so you 'transfer' cash to it, and pay bills out just the same for bus fares, etc?
2. Make sure you create individual pots for the different types of savings - I have one savings account with decent interest. It will have just under £1200 at the end of the month, but that is split into £280 or so emergency funds, £800 laptop and the rest on leftover Xmas presents and the Xmas food shop. That is how I look at it differently to 'oh it's my money, I can spend it now' - I am actually loathe to spend any of it, as it looks so pretty altogether in my account!

I love how YNAB lets me see how spending in one area impacts another!! It has more than saved me the cost of the software each month since I had it. And helped me cut my groceries bill dramatically.

Good luck avoiding this horrible cold & winter vomiting bug. Both going around and I have been struck with both so far. My day at work today started with an email explaining to email me if anyone wanted a reply as I literally cannot speak without great effort, massive coughing fits etc.

Hope you have a lovely catch up of your netflix. I've got half a million shows to watch on my youview box - well done btw on your haggling, excellent news!!

Will subscribe! xx

AleMrsT

Well done for paying off CC1:T I can't wait for that feeling! I've just this week been using the YNAB free trial, to be honest the actual budget section confuses me, but i like seeing all of the accounts in one place and keeping track of the transactions. I've used this month's pay for last months budget though and it's all gone wrong. Hope you get on better with it than I do. Fingers crossed you won't need the sick days, although I feel something coming on too, which I could really do without. :mad:

itskat

I've been dragged out to accompany a friend getting a tattoo done today. Sitting in the reception area with my laptop (my love for it hasn't faded ) tethered to my phone's internet (thank you, Three unlimited data!) and updating here to pass the time!

YNAB takes kind of a different approach to what you might be used to, MrsAle, which might be where the budget bit's tripping you up. I know it took me a week or two to actually work out what I was putting where, and to look at the budget balance instead of my (various) bank balances to see what money I actually had going where. If you haven't already, it might be worth checking out the four steps here: http://www.youneedabudget.com/method -- once you've got that down, you've got YNAB down If you have specific queries, Google them: the majority of the support tutorials come with videos (I had to lookup how to manage both the savings account and the credit card balance from before I started using the software, and how the budget affects them--again, it's all about looking at the budget, not at the balances!)

liltdiddylilt, hello, and thank you for the compliments! I always feel like I'm rambling with nearly every post I do here, so I'm glad not everyone finds them terribly annoying

With regards to how I'm using YNAB, I haven't setup a purse account, as such, but rather I have a category just labelled "cash"--I very rarely use cash, I like to pay for things almost exclusively by card (debit only!) or DD. The only thing I currently take out cash for is to pay the window cleaner, so I categorise that withdrawal to house expenses (£8 to the window cleaner, £2 just into the "cash" category, which means I can spend it on what I want, or -- more likely -- just leave it on the bookshelf until next month rolls around, then use that withdrawal and the change from the next time I pay the window cleaner to pay him for another week )!

Savings-wise, I only have the "emergency fund" category, which is the only other saving I have besides funds to put towards the credit card. There's nothing else I can think of that I pay for annually (or anything other than monthly) that I'd need to setup an extra category for.

As for the rest of today, I suspect I'll suggest we go for a KFC afterwards, because it'll be cheaper than a restaurant--yes, I know we could go home and eat something out of the cupboard/freezer instead, but....no. Not today. I'm good but I'm not infallible. I want me some greasy chicken and chips