Flo's Debt Free Diary

tootallulah

Hi Flo didn't want to read and run. I agree with the others the hardest part is working out the reality and you have done that. It is really all about the future and getting there, good luck.

rainbowskies

Florence_J wrote: »

Not a NSD today. Even worse I used my boyfriends money. I got breakfast and a coffee at the station this morning. I'm not sure why I get the coffee, I guess I get it because I'm scared I'll fall asleep otherwise, but I usually do anyway and therefore don't have time to drink the coffee so throw away a half full drink! I won't be doing that again today.

I used to buy a Nero's coffee every single day. Without fail. I was practically throwing money away. I'm a coffee addict so I know it's tough to break the habit. I'm currently doing a treat day. Every Friday, I get to buy myself something small as a treat without feeling any guilt whatsoever. I opted for a nice Costa coffee yesterday. It just means you don't feel deprived and would be less likely to succumb to buying a coffee. Also, have you considered using a Thermos and making your coffee at home before you leave for work?

Kitten868

Don't stress falling off the horse! No one has a light bulb moment then is perfect the rest of their life. These things happen recently I was very clever bought a £30 voucher to get a £7 credit to buy something that was £40 and planning to buy. It was a piece of rubbish so I returned it and just spent all the money! It was a toy for dd2. Now I've overdone it for Xmas lol. Hubby is home now to see it all. (I'm showing him later).
Good luck on the new job!! Very exciting. Really jealous as there's nothing I can do to increase my income right now but you can and get all straight xxx

Kitten868

Florence! Where have gone lovely?

Florence_J

Hi Kitten868,

Sorry for falling off the radar.

What with Christmas and being busy in January (i work in the admissions department of a University and we have had the recent ucas application deadline and also the intake of our january and february courses) i have barely had enough time to sleep and shower let alone come on here! But i have been pining for all you guys and am glad to be back.

I am currently in my home town of Worthing visiting family. I have many things to update you all on.

Bad

Due to having a long term illness i had used all my sick days allowance for the year and had a reduced pay in january, this made me feel very low and desperate as i wasn't able to predict how much money my pay would be cut by.

Due to this and many bills coming out in feb, i had to reluctantly ask my boyfriend if i could take a one month break from paying the rent.

Work has been very stressful and i work with someone who i feel isn't working as hard as some of the rest of us in the team and this has led me to have reduced morale.

Also due to not knowing the way that booking off holiday works at my job (basically i booked off holiday late last year for March this year, but because the holiday is only booked off on a month by month basis they didn't process it till february) i have now gone over my limit and two days i had booked off for hospital appointments will have to be unpaid, leading to financial implications.

The Good News (and luckily there is a lot more of this)

I am no longer on any nicotine products, so now consider myself completely free of smoking and nicotine gum and patches, and i consider myself a non smoker now. This will also equate to big savings as in one bad month i spent over 70 quid on nicotine gum!

I made a deal with my boyfriend that since i was taking a one month break from paying the rent, as i wouldn't need all the money, i would instead make a hefty payment to mr bad credit card (the one that has a balance of over 2.25k) and this means the balance has been bought down to just over 2000.

I have now decided to do the method of paying off debts where i prioritise paying off mr bad credit card first, and only paying the minimum on the other cards, which means if nothing about my financial income changes i will pay off the debt in around 1.5 years instead the 3 years it was going to take me, this has made my day.

The last time my credit card balances have been this healthy was after the balance had been increased!

I finally braved doing a credit rating check through clear score and although it's not brilliant, i have many more positives on my rating then i do negatives and i'm actually do better than the average person in my area!

In a bizarre way i actually feel like i have more money than before. Now that i am honest with myself that i can't buy everything i want, i have come to really prioritise my purchases and am actually budgetting for them. I haven't bought any clothes this year, but considering how i have clothes i have never warn to work, i do have a vast enough wardrobe to draw on. I feel in control for the first time in my life, and am really taking this seriously. I feel i have learnt the lessons i will be taking with me for life.

I have fallen in love with the library again and have thus lost my need to buy a new book (or two, or three!) every month and can instead read dozens upon dozens of books on economics and money management and frugal living.

I am making much more sensible, long term, purchases. I no longer buy cheap frills stuff, and am instead buying things that will really benefit my life.

Because i am shopping around much more and am budgetting effectively, i can now (provided they are on offer) afford 'brand name stuff' like muller light youghurts which i had always denied myself before as i believed i couldn't afford them, partly because i had spent a months wages in one weekend!

I haven't bought any food or drink as breakfast or dinner at the stations on the way to and from work in four weeks.

In other news i am running the best i have ever done in my life, and have entered the newport half marathon with my boyfriend at the beginning of march.

I hope to update you all very very soon with further news.

Thanks for stopping by,

Love Flo xxx

Florence_J

So i thought it would be useful to show my monthly bills. This is from my spreadsheet for March, I know it is mid Feb but i like to be prepared as much as possible.

AQUA CC 15 (This is a rough figure, i'm waiting on the statement)
BARCLAY CC 12.08
CAPITAL CC DIRECT DEBIT 12.56
NATWEST CREDIT CARD 10.98
NATWEST CURRENT ACCOUNT 17.6 (I have a 1k overdraft but only 500 is interest free)
VANQUIS 167.69 (I try to pay as much as i can, this is the minimum payment plus the interest)
GYM 16.99
PHONE 19.2
TALK TALK 21.45 (managed to negotiate 75 quid off my bill for the next year and 30 quid every year after!!)
SWALEC 158 (have been searching for better suppliers and once i've checked i can change providers from my landlord i will do this!)
TRAIN 286.9 (my monthly train fare between home town of cardiff and where i work in bristol)
RENT AND COUNCIL TAX 247.27
SAVINGS 20
FOOD 62.5 (our budget is 125, so my boyf also pays 62.50)
SLIMMING WORLD 20 (5 a week and there are 4 sw sessions between payday to payday)
TRAIN FARE HOME 33.75 (i am going back to worthing again at easter because it's near my birthday)
TOTAL 1121.97

I get paid around 1207 each month, so that leaves 85.03 as disposable income for the month, or just over 21 a week.

That should in theory be plenty given that i get free cinema tickets through my volunteering at an independent arts centre, which my boyf also does, so we have free date nights at the cinema a lot. I also don't need to be buying stuff at the station since i could just bring breakfast on the train and i have a very pretty pink sparkly thermos and i read on the cardiff section of this forum that as a member of a welsh library i can access free magazines online and i have plenty of clothes, but somehow it all disappears.

I have already borrowed 10 quid from my boyfriend on top of the being let off rent and council tax this month due to the unexpected purchases of donating 5 quid to the 'tea fund' at work (where we donate so we can purchase tea and coffee for the staff kitchen) and also i had arranged to meet my boyfriends dad one day for lunch as his treat (we work at the same university) and he got the time wrong so i had to buy my lunch as i didn't have anything on me.

I feel good, as mentioned earlier i feel a lot more in control.

I realise the time has come for me to be honest, as it's no good cancelling on my friends because i haven't got any money and payday is two weeks away without telling them the full situation. They don't understand the extent of the problem because my pride has prevented me from telling them the truth.

I have come clean to my brothers explaining that i will still be getting them birthday presents and christmas presents, but whereas before i would spend 30 quid on them because i love treating people, now the gifts are going to be 10-15 quid and to be honest i think they are very happy with that as it gives them more freedom to spend less.

Today wasn't a no spend day. Because my family in worthing are quite poor and it has always been this way, even when staying with them i self cater as they don't really have the budget to finance food for me, so i did a mini food shop for healthy treats over the next few days as i don't want to put on any more weight. I made the family a slimming world macaroni cheese with reduced cottage cheese. It was well received.

I'm going to peruse the internet for money advice. I might have an early night as i slept in till 12 today! Might have a nice coffee first.

I am waiting for my most recent swalec DD to process as i should be due a refund and i want all the money i can to throw at Vanquis CC or into savings.

Me and my boyfriend have already given each other our valentines gifts as i am away in worthing. We had a budget of 3 quid and they were practical items. I got him a hot pink staff/id card holder and lanyard for work or volunteering (he loves pink) and he got me some more moisturiser as i was running out.

I have given my family my birthday present list. I know now that they will never get me what i want, which is money or a voucher as my dad doesn't consider it a real present, so i have decided to treat myself to useful things and things i really want, so i've given them a list of suggestions like books i want, a portable hard drive, kindle fire, filter coffee machine, things like that. I guess if i have no disposable income really, then this is a chance to indulge in fun things, to get my fix.

I think i have only set foot in peacocks (my favourite shop) once this year, which is good as i used to go in every time i went to the shops and could usually 'justify' buying something. I find i'm an all or nothing' person. I find it easy to deny myself something completely rather than moderate myself. So it is easier for me to not even set foot in a clothes shop then it is to go in with just 20 quid to spend.

I am going for that coffee now. See you soon.

Florence_J

Forgot to add, last year i treated myself to the superscrimpers book and one of the things they say is looking at getting your treatments done at a beauty school. I found one in Cardiff and in January had my hair washed, cut and blow dried for 15 quid, and the hairdresser was by far the nicest i had ever had and i will be going to see her again as soon as i need to/can afford to! They also do manicures from 5 quid. I have never had a manicure before as i always considered it something i could never afford, but at that price i might go for a birthday treat.

Florence_J

Because I'm very sad and boring i like making spread sheets. I have one going for just about everything, each month i have one for the bills, a spending diary spreadsheet, a food budget chart from payday to payday (to make sure i'm not going over budget) and one where i chart my money in against my money out (to make sure i am not going over budget). I also use the data from the spending diary to work out how much i've spent in each category and chart my spending over the months. I started this last april so will soon have a years worth of data and i can compare the last six months where i've gotten serious about tackling my debts and the first 6 months. I have found this all very calming and i love keeping track of everything. It's made me want to dig out an old online course i was doing in excel as now i actually have a passion for it! I know, i'm very sad

My boyf and i started the shopping budgets this year and i have learnt that we went over our 125 monthly budget by 8 pounds, so i am determined to keep it in check and make that money back.

I find i tend to do the bulk of the shopping at the start of the month as it fulfills my shopping buzz, and then i use my part of the budget up very quickly and have to rely on my boyfs half for the rest of the month! That seems to be my standard way of living so i really do need to learn to budget.

My boyf and i share the bills 50/50 but don't have any joint savings account (which i really want) as for some reason my boyfriend is against them. I like being treated but i've always been independent and wanted a joint account we could pay a set amount of money into that we could use for our social expenses and nights out so that we were going 'dutch' and splitting things evenly, as why should my boyf always be the one paying for drinks at the bar? The sad fact is i guess we are still a long way from that, but it is our fifth anniversary on the 9th of April and i am determined to pay for my half of our anniversary treat.

We have a lovely rest of February to look forward to, we are going for a meal out at the end of the month (after payday, so i am going to make sure it is budgeted from the 21 quid odd disposable income i have weekly in march) and we have many free trips to the cinema and also we are seeing 2 bands we love next Friday. Yes, the gig has been financed by my boyf, but as a result i will not be going to see Bristol City play until i can afford to on my own terms.

I've been going through the other debt free diaries and enjoying reading other peoples journeys.

I am going to make a list of goals for March and post them once i've finalised them.

note3

Hey hun just a quickie while I'm up feeding baby. Well done on coming back to your diary...your debt free journey sounds very doable so I wish you every success.

You defo need to look at changing gas and electricity supplier as your current monthly bill is appalling and make sure you switch via cashback site.

So.. in my diary you said you'd got some ideas so I'd propose that to really focus yourself you now list your next immediate steps. Once they're written you'll feel more comitted

Kitten868

Glad to see you're back and sounding much happier and more determined!
What are your creditors totals now? X