From care-free spender to debt-free saver

craididlyaig

Wow, thanks for the big old pile of advice! You seem to have cut your debt by nearly two thirds so I should probably listen to you.

I have thought about doing a SOA, I may look into this when I have a bit more time on my day off.

Both my CCs are pretty much maxed to be honest, so I don't think I could move that debt about. The PDLs will be paid off relatively quickly though compared to the rest, and once the first one is gone I plan to make overpayments until the second is all gone too.

A second job is definitely something I'm considering. I only work 4 days a week (10 hour days) so I have the time for maybe another 10 hour day somewhere else and still get two days off a week. I worked in bars for over ten years, so it would be easy to go back for a while.

Thanks again for all the luck!

craididlyaig

So, today I bought some chicken breasts and made food for the rest of the week at work. These were bought at the coop on the way home from work and cost FOUR POUNDS which now I'm paying attention seems like a lot. I'm going to have to check out Lidle to see if I can get these things any cheaper. I do eat a lot of chicken and brown rice. I also bought some peppers for a pound.

Other than this, I had to pay out £49 to a removal company as I had been doing some renovations before all of this started and I need someone with a van to take a lot of stuff away. This was just a deposit too... the rest depends on size and weight. I also had to pay £5 to enter a wargaming tournament which has been on the cards for a while, but this tournament will provide me with entertainment every tuesday night until the end of the year so it's all good. Prize money for winning as well...

So, until payday on the 15th I'm just totalling up the amount I'm spending on things like food and other essentials so I have a better idea of what budget to start setting myself. I'm not, therefore, counting costs like the removal guys in this. I actually have a pretty expensive month coming up. It's my Mum's birthday soon so she'll be wanting a pressie and also I have to entertain my 15 year old cousin for the day in a couple of weeks and I have promised her a trip to the Doctor Who experience which is EXPENSIVE. Maybe this wasn't the best month to start! Too late now!

Spent so far this week, then : £6.67

Lacherlich

Hi!

Good luck on your journey

Don't get too down at the start when you have unexpected/extra payments to make. Its happened to me too, but I'm finally expecting to make my first dent in my debt this pay-day. From then on it should be easier. Just budget a small amount for things such as birthdays going forward, that way you'll always have a small budget aside for these 'extra' expenses and it may even force you to spend less than you would normally. But this will take a couple of months to settle down.

Will follow your thread, see how you get on!

craididlyaig

Hey there, thanks for the advice! I read through your diary and it seems you had a shaken start in the same way! I'll follow yours too.


Today was not the best of days, I overslept so I couldn't make breakfast at home so I reverted to buying food on the way to work so that was £1.70 I didn't need to spend. I also bought a four pack of chocolate mousses to have with my lunches at work. And then promptly ate all four of them today. So that was £2 down the drain.

A positive from today though, I really really really wanted to go buy loads of terrible snacks on the way home to eat this evening but I walked right on by. So I probably saved myself a fiver right there.

I did have to contribute £2 towards a workmates birthday present but hey ho.

So that means today's total spend is £5.70 bringing this first weeks total so far to £12.37. More than I was hoping for to be honest, but in sure I will get better. I could certainly save more if I go to lidl or somewhere to get some of this food. I will investigate on Friday.

LittleOne83

Hiya! Congrats on your light bulb moment.

Have a look at the old style board, loads of hints and tips on how to cut down a food spend for example buying a whole chicken rather than breasts.
Do a meal plan for the week, only buy what you need including snacks and try not to buy anything else in the week.

Will keep checking in.

craididlyaig

Hi there Littleone, thanks for the advice. I actually plan on taking some of that on board tomorrow...

So today I thought I was going to have my first no spend day. I had some toast at home before work, packed a decent lunch and then merrily skipped off to the office.

My lunch break (which is at a different time every day and is determined by the schedule wizards in the morning) wasn't until half two today and considering I left the house after my breakfast at eight am, I just couldn't make it! So a pound was spend on crisps and chocolate to make it through....

I also bought myself a big bottle of Dr Pepper on the way home. Now this particular drink is a big weakness of mine. Before this week I would drink two small bottles of it a day at work and always have a big bottle around the house. This week it has been all water so far, which is a challenge in itself. I don't begrudge myself buying one after being good all week at all, but I reckon if I'd not spent that pound earlier on, I would have avoided this spend too on principal.

Tomorrow I'm going to write up a proper meal plan for the week, go do a big shop at a cheap store and try not to spend anything else throughout the week as littleone advised. I think that would be a better way to figure out a budget actually. Of course I do already have lots of things at home, the cupboards are not bare, so I will try to plan meals around what I have. I will also work some snacks into this as this seems to be a weakness. The first proper week of figuring out the minimum I can spend in a week starts tomorrow therefore.

On a further note, and something else to think about, I am running out of nicotine gum. I quit smoking about six weeks ago and I've not smoked once in that time and the gum is what has helped me achieve that. It is pretty expensive however and I need to make a decision on when and how quickly to stop using this. I don't want to risk going back to smoking, but I don't want to prolong this either, especially considering the cost. I should be ok for another week maybe, but definitely something to work out...

craididlyaig

I just wanted to make a note here also, whilst I've been talking about all the money I did spend, and beating myself up over the odd £1 here and there I think it would be helpful to talk about money I would have spent if I wasn't on this little mission.

First of all, I would have spent £1.70 every morning on the way to work instead of eating at home. This would have come to an extra £5.10.

Second, I would have had at least one, if not two, takeaways. I am terrible for this. Shall we say £15 for this?

Thirdly, I would have spent £2 a day on Dr Pepper for work. Over four days, this would have been an extra £8.

Lastly, a computer game I want came out this week. Normally I would have bought it straight away but instead I'm going to leave it for a couple of months until the price comes down. Maybe I won't end up buying it at all, who can say. Now this would have cost me £55.

So I have spent £83.10 less than I would have done. Maybe even more than that, on random stuff throughout the week. So it's not all bad.

thegreenone

That's a really positive way of thinking about it. I may try it myself, if you don't mind?


You may have done this already but if you haven't swapped your salary to the new account, don't. Get paid into the account with the overdraft, send your monthly spending money to the new account, minus a small amount to start on the overdraft, and use that, don't touch the old account. If the bank think you've jumped ship leaving a big overdraft they may recall it.


Good luck. Once you've got shot of the PDL's you'll have almost £100 to tackle the overdraft and then the bigger stuff.

pennystretcher

SOA? There may be something that you are spending way too much money on.

And Dr Pepper habit - all in all it's not the worst is it? Buy in bulk and take cans or bottles in with you when you need a treat. Although I think your dentist would highly recommend against this.....

craididlyaig

Do they do that? Yeah, I don't want them doing that. I haven't switched salary yet, no. I was thinking of not doing it anyway simply because my bank charges different amounts of interest depending on how large your overdraft is. If I'm spending at least some of the month out of the overdraft altogether once my salary gets paid in then I'll avoid some of the higher rates I think?