Staying out of debt diary

Puzzledbyadream

I hope it's ok to have a diary when I will only be about £200 in debt but I can't see anywhere to have a sort of savings diary, which is what I would like to do. Essentially if I don't start saving and budgeting I am going to end up in debt. So I wanted to make a diary where I recorded my efforts to avoid this as much as possible.

I have a few goals that I am setting myself, as follows:

-Spend no more than £50 per week on everything that isn't rent and bills. This may only be lifted when my overdraft debt for driving lessons is paid off.

-Have 2 NSDs and one minimal spend day per week. This doesn't mean that I get to spend heaps on the other 4 days, but if I can have days where I don't even buy a packet of maltesers at work that will be good.

-Have packed lunches 4 days a week. And if still struggling for money cut out the hot lunch on fridays. The annoying thing with this one is we don't have a microwave at work due to having a canteen and sometimes it is nice to have a hot lunch.

-No eating out except for special occasions. One of my biggest spends is lunch when I'm out and about at weekends. I expect to fail on this one.

-No buying clothes for the next 2 months.

-Give up ballet until the debt is paid off, and then re-evaluate whether it can be afforded.

The aim is to save up enough to move out of my flat/to be ok in an emergency. So I guess once the £200 debt is paid I will be wanting to save up at least £500, although I suspect I will need more. I don't expect this to be easy or immediate. The irony I find (and you'll see this when I get around to a SoA) is that I am not a big spender. I buy everything cheaply, only buy clothes in the sale and shop at Morrisons. But as they say on this website things do add up. I am still going to allow myself a swim a week (£4.10) and the purchase of craft materials but nothing very expensive on that front. I figure I can't give up everything...

So yes, I hope this diary is alright as it isn't quite in the remit but I think it would be really useful to get a grip of my spending until I no longer have to pay £900 a month for rent and bills.

Puzzledbyadream

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Added up what I've spent since Friday (when I got paid) and it's already reached my £50 budget. I am feeling quite ashamed by this, so I am on no/low spend days until Friday now. I'm nearly out of bread so I will need to get more of that at least.

On the plus side, I spent nothing today! My boyfriend has also agreed to send me an undisclosed amount towards bills for when he stays so I am waiting with baited breath to see what he sends me (feel like it would be rude to ask). I also put £75 into my savings account for the month, which is down on my £100 target as I have a trip to Manchester this weekend and have budgeted £25 for that.

I also did some more work on a patchwork cushion cover I'm making and used an old duvet cover for the backing material rather than buying a new fat quarter.

I am about to set up a money dashboard, but I hadn't realised just how poorly I'd been managing my money. Just scraping by every month definitely isn't cutting it any more.

Puzzledbyadream

Afternoon all.

I set up money dashboard today. I'm hoping this will help me fill out a statement of affairs as I am struggling a little bit with knowing exactly what I spend money on. Interesting to see I'm spending £90 a month in supermarkets! For one and a half (boyfriend only stays a couple of days a week) people that seems excessive.

Having a nearly no spend day today, going to get a roll for lunch tomorrow and use the money on my work smartcard to buy soup (95p) so I can have a hot meal. Going to Manchester on Friday and wondering how to do this frugally. Think I will just have to explain the situation to my friend.

Just realised I need to book train tickets for my holiday in April 3 months before. I think this means they can be booked from February, I'm presuming I've counted my months wrong by thinking advance tickets would be on sale for the end of April now....

twiggy86

Hi Puzzled!

I personally think my diary has helped me loads, so if it can help you avoid getting into further debt then great! Really helps me focus on all those little bits of money that sneak out of your purse when you're not looking!

I've started meal planning and this has drastically cut my shopping bill!

Have you signed up for Top Cash Back? You should use it to buy train tickets - I quite often book train tickets for work and all the little bits of money you get add up! Also use it for most online shopping (although since my LBM I haven't really shopped online!)


Good luck!

Puzzledbyadream

twiggy86 wrote: »

Hi Puzzled!

I personally think my diary has helped me loads, so if it can help you avoid getting into further debt then great! Really helps me focus on all those little bits of money that sneak out of your purse when you're not looking!

I've started meal planning and this has drastically cut my shopping bill!

Have you signed up for Top Cash Back? You should use it to buy train tickets - I quite often book train tickets for work and all the little bits of money you get add up! Also use it for most online shopping (although since my LBM I haven't really shopped online!)


Good luck!

Thanks for the Top Cashback tip! Will have a gander.


Oh dear. I've been really silly today and forgotten to bring any food with me. So today is a spend day. However I have £6 in my purse leftover from the weekend which means I actually didn't spend my whole budget by Monday! So I will buy soup and a roll for lunch and buy something for the freezer on the way home.

I'm struggling with eating healthily and cheaply; I clearly can't just eat pasta but I find that if I buy fruit and veg it tends to go off before I properly get a chance to eat all of it. I only have an icebox for a freezer in an under-cabinet fridge so that really doesn't help.

Off to Manchester tomorrow. This will be a struggle but I think as long as I am careful with my spending I should be ok. I have budgeted for it after all!

Brightspark87

Hi puzzled welcome to your diary I am sure you can sort this out.

Now, as for cheap meals yes you cannot live off just pasta but since you are a vegetarian anyhow this will be great! Peppers stuffed with rice? veggie curry or chillies?

I like to buy cheap pitta breads and freeze them, then to cook add a little tomato pur!e and cheese with a salad great easy cheap quick tea. Also, beans and pulses are your friends embrace!

Plus, have you got a local market? At ours in central London I get all our fruit and veg for the week ( 2 people but MASSIVE amount of fruit and veg) for less than a fiver. that includes potatoes, carrots, onions, green veg and when on special offer even avocados, a couple of weeks ago I got 10 for £1. Plus I often get 8 peppers (yellow or orange are best) for £1 too. at the market they are also great at mixing things up - so if they have 4 courgettes for £1 and 8 peppers they will let you get 2 courgettes and 4 peppers! perfect when cooking for one. Go on, try it! x

Puzzledbyadream

Afternoon all!

Predictably I overspent quite a bit when I went to Manchester, but only by about £20 on food and drinks. I spent £15 on a wake up light alarm clock which was reduced from £40. I ummed and ahhed over this but decided it was definitely an investment purchase more than anything else and I'd probably never see one so cheap again. I think it will really help with getting up in the morning.

Having checked my finances this morning all my bills barring internet have gone out and I am under budget! Even having saved £75 in my savings account, so this is good news. I will do some no spend days and continue as I am and I think I should be alright. Next weekend I am seeing roller derby (which cost £7 for the ticket) so that should be a reasonably cheap one. Only big expense is train tickets for my holiday which will be about £25 so I need to budget for those.

Boyfriend is giving me £20 a week towards bills. In future I will be saving this religiously but I have decided to spend 2 weeks of it (with his blessing) on ballet classes as I do really enjoy them and get a lot out of them.

Booked my driving test with the last of my driving lesson fund for 19th March so I have about 6 weeks to prepare. Hopefully 10 hours of lessons over this time will suffice, but I will be trying to save more in the likely event that I fail.

Going to pull together a SOA this week as I've been a bit busy.

Brightspark87 wrote: »

Hi puzzled welcome to your diary I am sure you can sort this out.

Now, as for cheap meals yes you cannot live off just pasta but since you are a vegetarian anyhow this will be great! Peppers stuffed with rice? veggie curry or chillies?

I like to buy cheap pitta breads and freeze them, then to cook add a little tomato pur!e and cheese with a salad great easy cheap quick tea. Also, beans and pulses are your friends embrace!

Plus, have you got a local market? At ours in central London I get all our fruit and veg for the week ( 2 people but MASSIVE amount of fruit and veg) for less than a fiver. that includes potatoes, carrots, onions, green veg and when on special offer even avocados, a couple of weeks ago I got 10 for £1. Plus I often get 8 peppers (yellow or orange are best) for £1 too. at the market they are also great at mixing things up - so if they have 4 courgettes for £1 and 8 peppers they will let you get 2 courgettes and 4 peppers! perfect when cooking for one. Go on, try it! x

Thanks so much for the food ideas! I think I am going to try to cook more vegetable based dishes (you're right about me not eating meat!). My friend made me a dish which was quorn fillets chopped and fried in harissa, lemon juice and mint which was tasty and not that expensive! So I need to think about that sort of thing.

There is a market stall in town 3 days a week that I could visit during my lunch break so I may do that more often. It's annoying because I work quite far out of town but we can get a shuttle bus in. The tip on mixing things up is great!