30 in 30 days...time to grow up!!!

Eyebright

Hi Diaryland,


I seem to have come to a realisation! :eek: I will be 30 in 30 days time :eek: and I find as I reflect back, that I am still repeating patterns of behaviour from back when I was a silly teenager. I still try my hardest to spend more than I earn, borrowing from here and there and "owing myself" money that I never seem to repay fully. All this to buy, what is quite frankly tat that I don't actually need. Somehow, I've been sucked into the hype and believe that I need all this stuff. Quite frankly it's just sucking the life out of me


I have made a few steps towards progress. Last year my debt was pushing at £13k, and is now standing at £9930.95 once this month's DD's have gone out. I'm quietly optimistic that if I can stick to the plans I have set myself, that I can get rid of 3 out of the 4 debts THIS YEAR! This would still leave me with the biggest one to finish off, but to only have 1 debt hanging around my neck would feel fabulous I'm sure


I will post my debts in a separate post however, to keep things easy for me to see! I will also have a play around with a snowball calculator thingy-ma-bob, to see when my DFD could be as things stand. Perhaps it will motivate me to try and beat that target!


I also have a few savings pots, with modest sums in. These however, are where my itchy, greedy little fingers seem to end up though, when I want to spend all my money.


One of my most stupid and recent escapades is, I'm now locked into paying £39.95 a month for a year :eek: for what are basically vitamin capsules (hangs head in shame) . I will counting down those payments closely, so I can cancel in time.


The aims of my diary are to:

• Track my debts as I work to clear them
• Track my savings, as I hopefully build them up
• Keep track of my spending (or should I say lack of it)
• Create budgets for different areas of my finances
• Keep me on track when I start to falter and keep me motivated when times are hard
• Long term goal is to clear debts, build up savings to a level I'm happy with, then start to tackle the mortgage!

I should also add that OH's job is not 100% safe atm, which naturally is stressing me out I need to work out where we stand if we only have 1 wage coming in. This makes it even more important to clear my debts and have a buffer in the bank.


What do you say Diarylander's; will you have me?

Archer0710

Hey nice to see you back.

Think positive the debt is less than it was last year and you have some fab plans in place to sort it.

Staying motivated is the hardest part, I think it's remembering the stress that makes me feel more motivated that seeing the amounts go down.

Wow to the vitamins though, surely there has to be a way to cancel that?

Eyebright

Debts

Credit Card: was [strike]£1441.99[/strike] now [strike]£700.99[/strike]-£380.99
DFS HP: was [strike]£2029.92[/strike] now [strike]£507.48[/strike]-£296.02
What I owe the joint account: was [strike]£294.38[/strike] now [strike]£122.48[/strike]- now cleared!!!
Family Loan: was [strike]£15,000[/strike] now [strike]£8600[/strike]-£8200


updated 30/05/15


All the debts are thankfully at 0%, the CC runs out next year in September, but will have it cleared by then thankfully. Paying £80 a month for that currently.


The DFS HP was for our sofas when we bought our house together. That ends next February if I don't make any OP's to it, but will start to.


"What I owe the joint account", is me spending our savings for the house, any repairs it needs etc, selfishly on rubbish I want in that brief moment in time This is my first target, as I'm so ashamed of it, and OH doesn't even know I've been doing it I'm aiming to have that gone by the end of February.


Family loan is what we owe to FIL, who kindly stumped up the money for the deposit on our house 3 years ago. Sadly as this is the biggest debt, I'm tackling it last, though will continue to make our usual payments in the meantime, so it will tick slowly down. It will probably be my goal for next year if I'm honest. I'm using Dave Ramsey's principals, in that tackle the smallest debts first, as you need a win to keep you motivated.


Overall my aim regarding my debts is:


I will clear 3 our of my 4 debts by the end of 2015, so I'm going into 2016 with only 1 debt to clear; the Family Loan.

Eyebright

Archer0710 wrote: »

Hey nice to see you back.

Think positive the debt is less than it was last year and you have some fab plans in place to sort it.

Staying motivated is the hardest part, I think it's remembering the stress that makes me feel more motivated that seeing the amounts go down.

Wow to the vitamins though, surely there has to be a way to cancel that?

Hi Archer
Great to "see", you! Thanks for dropping in, I know I'm going to need all the help I can get to finally sort myself out.


The vitamins thing is a fiasco! They are called JuicePlus, and my SIL and her friend (who is rep or whatever for them) suckered me I'm starting to think
I went to an evening where they talked about the AMAZING, FANTASTIC properties of these capsules and how I would feel fanastic all the time...blah, blah, blah...
To cut a long story short, I signed up, but also signed up for what's called the Child Study, where your child (or in this case my niece) gets a supply for free. But what I hadn't twigged was that the Study runs for at least a year, so I can only opt out at yearly intervals whereas if I was just paying for myself, you can stop receiving them after 4 months. SIL has 2 nieces, so I'm sponsoring one, her the other....so yeah. I'm stuck. Only 9 more payments to go! :rotfl: Oh, and the child she sponsors is 17 and is refusing to take them, sensible girl...but SO annoying!
They deliver them to you every 4 months, and I've not even finished 1 month's supply (got them at the beginning of November). I didn't notice any difference in how I looked or felt!
I'm probably going to bung a load of it on ebay, see how much of my money I can recoup. SIL owes me big time for this! I'm not made of money like she seems to be grrr :mad:


Anyways, how are you doing? Have you still got a diary? I must find it if you have

Archer0710

Oh no not JP! I gave had a few people I know trying to sell it and it be ones all consuming. I know a lot of the shakes are now coming up on the local selling sites so I kind of get the impression it's popularity is on the wane. Tbh I don't know if it's a scam or not but that's definitely expensive. People do seem to swear by it though.

Yep still have a very lose diary I tend to read more than I post but only cos things are ticking away nicely (or where til DH decided he needed a new bed)

I did sell a duplicate Christmas present today though adding £3 to my pot of dreams. I'd normally have given it to charity but trying to be a but more savvy.

Eyebright

OH's are awfully good at putting spanners into our Best Laid Plans! Or at least mine is...if I give him so much as a hint that we have any spare money, he will find a way to spend it :eek:


Yes, I fell for the dreaded JP malarkey. Pah! I know lots of people who swear by it too, but even so, I can't justify the £40 a month price tag. I should just eat better. I have some of the shakes too...they taste like cardboard :rotfl: I have no willpower to stick to these things...I should have known from the start. I'm my own worst enemy at times


My next plan is to write what DFW things I already to, and what more I can do. That should keep me out of mischief, and more importantly out of the shops! Especially virtual/online ones

MrCrimeFiction

Hello and welcome to the world of diaries

It's a great way of tracking what your doing and spending. I bought 1 treat this month and all that went through my head is what fellow MSE'ers would say on my diary :rotfl:

I hope you stick around. I've subscribed and will follow closely.

Have you joined upto any challenges yet?

MrCF

Eyebright

MrCrimeFiction wrote: »

Hello and welcome to the world of diaries

It's a great way of tracking what your doing and spending. I bought 1 treat this month and all that went through my head is what fellow MSE'ers would say on my diary :rotfl:

I hope you stick around. I've subscribed and will follow closely.

Have you joined upto any challenges yet?

MrCF

Thank you for the warm welcome MrCF


I'm part of the Save £1000 for your Emergency Fund group, and I follow the Save £1 a day/£365 a year for Christmas challenge. I haven't posted in the group though, as I just bung the money over when I get paid, so there isn't much for me to talk about :rotfl: but I do follow it's principles! Oh, and I'm doing the Ultimate Weightloss Challenge, but that's about losing lbs off my tummy not £'s off my debt :rotfl:


Will check out what other challenges there are, see if anything else tickles my fancy though. Being accountable to a group might make me think twice before I spend! Any you would recommend?


Thanks for taking the time to post, it's great to know people are reading and that I'm not talking to myself like a loony :rotfl:


Do you have a diary? Point the way if you do, so I can follow you and hopefully pick up some tips!

Eyebright

Ooh Mr CF, just realised you are running the Save for Christmas 2015 thread I was just waffling on about!

MrCrimeFiction

Hello

That's very strange. That's the same challenges I'm doing. There is a 'save 12k in 2015' thread which might help. I'm only doing 1k this year as moving house but it's a great thread for motivation.

You should join for my Xmas savings challenge. We are all a friendly bunch. There are 3 empty spaces on the spreadsheet so you could fit right in

I must check out that weight loss thread. I could do with trimming down :rotfl:

My own diary gets a bit long winded but it's here if your interested.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5053314

If you have any questions just shoot, someone will answer.

All the best

MrCF

Eyebright

Thanks Mr CF, I will try to pop over and officially enrol on your challenge thread this evening! It's my MIL's birthday so going for a meal for the family at SIL's, so it might be quite late this evening!
Will check out your diary too at some point this evening too if time permits
Not going to join anymore savings challenges though, as I need my focus to be more on debt-freedom first, with some savings going on to buffer too. Will look to see what challenges there are to help with that.


So today, I am taking my lunch to work with me. DFW friendly, and more diet friendly than the mayo-laden sandwiches at the shop.


To Do List

• [strike]Write MIL's birthday card[/strike]
• Online shop at Tesco's- £40 max
• Meter readings for E.ON- we are never home where the man tries to read them!
• [strike]Pay into birthday club at work 2x£5[/strike]
• [strike]Remember to feed next door's cat whilst he is away[/strike]

Not going to attempt much else as I don't think I will get more done given that we will be out for most of the evening.


From now, going to try and be more aware of the energy we are using, especially how much OH tries to sneak the heating on for, and crank up the radiators to sub-tropical temperatures :eek:, and how much water. I know I'm terrible for taking too long in the shower. Might start setting an alarm! (not joking...)


At some point this week I need to do my list of DFW things I do, and what else I could do.


Oh, I almost forgot! Yesterday I cashed in some of my E.ON reward points 500 E.ON points for 500 Tesco points. Well, every little does help you know!


Lot's more I would like to say, but unfortunately I have no time today to do it.


Thanks again for listening!