More about avoiding debt in the first place

Brightspark87

Hi! instead of drawing out cash use it to pay for shopping etc and then use your cash to pay for things needed in cash.

that way you can afford high fees and perhaps get an interest free period on purchases??

Puzzledbyadream

Brightspark87 wrote: »

Hi! instead of drawing out cash use it to pay for shopping etc and then use your cash to pay for things needed in cash.

that way you can afford high fees and perhaps get an interest free period on purchases??

Hmm, yes, it's a thought. I swore off credit cards after it took me 4 years to pay off some accommodation fees I paid on one when I was at uni (the uni skipped a direct debit and didn't tell me) but I suppose were I savvy and in dire need it could happen.

Bobarella

Hi Puzzled
One idea that may help you is to rework your budget to the last penny. It is an idea I am still getting my head around but one I see value in. Some people call it a zero sum budget. So, you literally budget down to zero, every penny of your money for the month. I noticed where you said you'd only have £283 left after bills or something like that, but really if you adopted the other system you wouldnt have anything left as it would all be working for you.
One way I have gone from being able to save zero a month, to at present just under 10% of our joint take home, has been by every time we get a break on something, I instantly increase our savings amount, which is done by DD on the first day of the month. I am trying to get an emergency fund in place asap because I had to run mine down last year and never could replace it.
Some of the things I have done - We got rid of our car. This saved £40 on insurance straight away. I now cycle which saves me the £40 I was spending on bus fees in the period after the car first went. An overpayment on energy bills ended giving us another £43 a month, all of these have gone straight towards building my £1,000 total.
Some people do it with little things to, so if you would normally buy 3 coffees a week, bank one of them. There will be no difference but you would save £2.50 a week towards your savings. Another idea is brand dropping on your food shop, do you buy generic brands yet or still heinz, hellmans etc? Record each brand drop and put the extra in your savings.

Anyway lecture over! Really hope the tutoring comes online soon. Another idea, dog walking or baby sitting, always people who need both.

Bob

Puzzledbyadream

Bobarella wrote: »

Hi Puzzled
One idea that may help you is to rework your budget to the last penny. It is an idea I am still getting my head around but one I see value in. Some people call it a zero sum budget. So, you literally budget down to zero, every penny of your money for the month. I noticed where you said you'd only have £283 left after bills or something like that, but really if you adopted the other system you wouldnt have anything left as it would all be working for you.
One way I have gone from being able to save zero a month, to at present just under 10% of our joint take home, has been by every time we get a break on something, I instantly increase our savings amount, which is done by DD on the first day of the month. I am trying to get an emergency fund in place asap because I had to run mine down last year and never could replace it.
Some of the things I have done - We got rid of our car. This saved £40 on insurance straight away. I now cycle which saves me the £40 I was spending on bus fees in the period after the car first went. An overpayment on energy bills ended giving us another £43 a month, all of these have gone straight towards building my £1,000 total.
Some people do it with little things to, so if you would normally buy 3 coffees a week, bank one of them. There will be no difference but you would save £2.50 a week towards your savings. Another idea is brand dropping on your food shop, do you buy generic brands yet or still heinz, hellmans etc? Record each brand drop and put the extra in your savings.

Anyway lecture over! Really hope the tutoring comes online soon. Another idea, dog walking or baby sitting, always people who need both.

Bob

Thanks Bobarella, all sounds very sensible and something to work towards. I really do need to get more of a grip on my spending so I am going to be using Money Dashboard as a starting point. I have recently given up the bus home point blank as I live a half hour walk on the flat from town and have no excuse, and also I cycle nearly everywhere anyway. It's a good idea to think about saving what I would have spent!

I am not generally a brands buyer unless things are on offer, but I do have a weakness for Lurpak butter which is obviously really expensive. I need to buy more economy brand items if I'm downbranding, which I am ok at doing. I don't really buy an awful lot of food anyway as I am at work all day and only eat dinner when I get in, which is a VAST improvement on my student snacking days. Thinking of snacks, I should cancel my graze boxes...

Boyfriend is now paying me some money towards bills it seems. He hasn't told me how much, just that there's a weekly standing order so I await this with baited breath. Honestly so grateful that he's doing this without me asking him outright.

I had a fair bit of babysitting before christmas and it's all dried up unfortunately. Might advertise myself around work perhaps.

I'm ashamed that I've already spent £50 this week but I am going to get a grip on myself!

GaleSF63

Unless you think living in your flat is unsustainable in the long term, I would try to sort things out without moving. The money you need for driving lessons and test could be cancelled out by needing a deposit if you move, leaving you in much the same position but living in a place you don't like nearly so much.

Cut out anything non-essential like ballet, coffees out, for a while. They will still be there to pick up again when you can afford to. Also craft items - most people if not all people that I know who are crafters, needleworkers etc. have boxes or drawers full of raw materials that would take ages to get through (years in some cases) but can't resist getting more even so. (Personal experience as well!). Can you work through that for a while - or perhaps you are too young to have built up much? Look on Freecycle/Freegle for craft stuff as well ; there's often stuff on our local one and you can ask as well.

I assume your flat is one bedroom, but if it has two, or if workable in some way, what about a lodger who only needs a few nights during the week, or needs somewhere for a few weeks because they are on a course or something? It would leave you with your privacy at the weekends, at least.

You (and your boyfriend) sound like 2 very sensible people.

Bobarella

Puzzled - that's great about your boyfriend contributing. I'm pleased for you. And good of him to be so responsible too.
Yep I'm a lurpack lover too. That and marmite are the only two brands I buy now. I was happy with shops own marmite but my family weren't.
I think you really do sound sensible and like you are too aware of the possible bad sides to debt to get into that position. Glad you've joined the small things thread too. It's a great inspiration I find.

greensalad

If you're serious about crafting to sell some items, give me a bell. I am wrapping up my craft business to online only and therefore I have a lot of display stuff I am looking to get rid of. Polystyrene heads and hands to display gloves, labelling guns, stickers etc. I'd be happy to send them to you for free maybe in exchange for the postage price (I need to send you those scissors anyway). Let me know. Although in the effort of money saving don't just say yes cos it's free, say yes cos you will use them

Puzzledbyadream

GaleSF63 wrote: »

Unless you think living in your flat is unsustainable in the long term, I would try to sort things out without moving. The money you need for driving lessons and test could be cancelled out by needing a deposit if you move, leaving you in much the same position but living in a place you don't like nearly so much.

Cut out anything non-essential like ballet, coffees out, for a while. They will still be there to pick up again when you can afford to. Also craft items - most people if not all people that I know who are crafters, needleworkers etc. have boxes or drawers full of raw materials that would take ages to get through (years in some cases) but can't resist getting more even so. (Personal experience as well!). Can you work through that for a while - or perhaps you are too young to have built up much? Look on Freecycle/Freegle for craft stuff as well ; there's often stuff on our local one and you can ask as well.

I assume your flat is one bedroom, but if it has two, or if workable in some way, what about a lodger who only needs a few nights during the week, or needs somewhere for a few weeks because they are on a course or something? It would leave you with your privacy at the weekends, at least.

You (and your boyfriend) sound like 2 very sensible people.

Thank you for this post, Gale. The ideal would be to not move but unless I get a payrise I feel as though I won't ever have the money for an emergency or to go on holiday or to do anything without the fear of running out of money. I am going to hold on to the flat for the time being as I just can't decide about moving and am trying the super-cutting down thing first. A big realisation is that I don't need to spend money on most work days (except for Thursdays where I go to social things which require the odd drink or coffee in order to stay in the pub/coffee shop politely). Ballet is almost definitely going but I need to make a decision very quickly on it!

On the craft items, I have more wool than I could ever need so I am going to work from that for my crochet. Sewing is a newer hobby (and I'm not yet very good at it) so I don't have as many raw materials for that. I do shop around for fabric and I'll keep an eye out on the normal freecycle channels.

My flat is, would you believe, a studio flat (with mezzanine bedroom) so sadly there is nowhere to let anybody sleep. It's also against the rules on my contract to sublet.

Bobarella wrote: »

Puzzled - that's great about your boyfriend contributing. I'm pleased for you. And good of him to be so responsible too.
Yep I'm a lurpack lover too. That and marmite are the only two brands I buy now. I was happy with shops own marmite but my family weren't.
I think you really do sound sensible and like you are too aware of the possible bad sides to debt to get into that position. Glad you've joined the small things thread too. It's a great inspiration I find.

I was brought up by an incredibly frugal mother (she'd fit in so well on these forums) so not buying brands is pretty engrained in me. I think this is part of the reason I'm a bit shocked by how little grip I seem to have on what I spend day to day, I always assumed I was good with money because she was. My mum also ended up with debts from losing a house and from divorcing my dad and ended up with an IVA so I think that's why I'm so worried about getting into debt.

greensalad wrote: »

If you're serious about crafting to sell some items, give me a bell. I am wrapping up my craft business to online only and therefore I have a lot of display stuff I am looking to get rid of. Polystyrene heads and hands to display gloves, labelling guns, stickers etc. I'd be happy to send them to you for free maybe in exchange for the postage price (I need to send you those scissors anyway). Let me know. Although in the effort of money saving don't just say yes cos it's free, say yes cos you will use them

Thanks so much for the offer, I honestly don't think I'd ever have time to make enough things for a craft fair though. If I can think of small things I can make quickly then I will probably start selling through etsy again. Because I moved to a place where I don't know many people I have a lot of clubs and groups I go to in the evenings and this seriously cuts into my craft time. Quite nicely though one of these is a crochet group so that's definitely motivated me to crochet more. I'm just on the finishing stretch of a shawl which is quite exciting as it's the biggest thing I've ever made. Oh and thanks so much for the pinking shears!