Reality has hit

Podzilla

A few years ago I had £10k saved and £2k on interest free credit cards. I was working in a very intense and stressful job so decided to quit and thought that my skills and experience would get a me a job fairly quickly.

It's been almost 3 years and I'm yet to get a permanent job. I now owe £11 and my contract for my job runs out in December. Basically I need to clear as much of that as possible by December in case my contract isn't extended. (Which has happened before which is why I'm in so much debt).

I need some serious help. I'm earning £2300 a month post tax and put £200 in a h2b ISA and an additional £200 in savings. Most of the money owed is on interest free credit card minus £600. I just don't have a big enough balance to shift that money over. I think the APR on the £600 is 19% I'm trying to shift that as quickly as possible.

My real problem is I buy a lot of food. I know I have a food addiction and have gained about a stone in the last 3 months. The majority of my salary goes in takeaway. I just can't stop eating. It makes me feel good but makes me feel bad at the same time.

I've calculated my debt plus how much I pay on bills etc per month and that comes out to £1060 a month. Then I have any extras like an MOT, clothes etc. that I need to pay through the year. The entire rest of my wage goes on food shopping. I've tried to put more money into savings or credit cards and buy less food but that makes me go overdrawn as I struggle to keep down my food spending. I'll be good for a week and then go off the rails again.

I don't know what advice I'm looking for really. How do I save? Where do you get the willpower from each month to save your money instead of blowing it?

Would it be worth shoving more money into a high interest savings account and paying off lump sums of debt at the end of the year?

Bouncybubbles

maybe by filling this is it will help us to have an idea of what your expenditures/income is and then we can advise.http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php there is many great people on here who can help you have come to the right place!

Podzilla

Rough calculations:

Income: £2300
Bills inclusive rent: £360
Travel: £300
Old British Gas bill to be paid off:£70
Car Insurance: £53
H2B ISA: £200
Other savings account £200

Barclays in the only card that I'm paying interest on. Halifax is interest free until Feb 2017 and Virgin Money in 2018
Debt:
Halifax £3400
Virgin Money: £6700
Barclays: £600

I've got an MOT due next month which always costs me around £500-£600. I upgraded my car last year to a 3 year old car rather than a 10 year old so hopefully MOT won't be as much this time.

Serious problem area:
Food shop £100 a week
Takeaway £80 a week

I know the obvious answer is cut back on the takeaways but I try and then a week later I'm struggling to stick to it. I wake up early and get home late and can't be bothered to make food. I need motivation and willpower.

National_Debtline

Hi OP


The problem with trying to work out a Statement of Affairs (like the one linked to above) here is that as you've acknowledged you have something of a food addiction, which is going to make it hard to gauge a precise figure for your grocery shopping, and takeaways for that matter. I would first of all be addressing whatever issues are causing the overeating - that would hopefully in turn enable you to deal with your money affairs more effectively. Have you consulted your GP about this?


Dennis
@natdebtline

jde-tv

I dont think anyone can really help you with motivation except yourself.

What do you class as a takeaway? A KFC meal at £5 or Indian at £10? Either way unless you have one every night, how on earth do you get to £80 a week? And if you do have a takeaway every night then surely your other food spending should only be about £30 a week at most! Rather than takeaways, could you not buy ready meals from the supermarket? They are actually faster than a takeaway and although still expensive, not compared to a delivery.

Also stop saving and putting money in an ISA! There is no point in having savings if you have debt... and you will likely not be able to get a mortgage with debt so there really is little point paying into the help to buy.

Westie983

I would suggest using the £200 a month you are putting into your savings/ISA into paying off your barclaycard, the interest you are making in the savings account is far less then the interest that is being added to the barclaycard debt each month.

The other two are interest free so worth keeping the money in savings and paying it back when the interest free period ends.

Use your savings to pay of debt, then start saving. You could put the MOT on the CC if you have no other option.

MoneyMission2015

I find I eat more when I'm bored. I don't go for the takeaways etc, just crisps and other junk, so I try to just keep busy now. I set myself little goals, if I feel like grabbing a bag of crisps I get up and go do something for a bit like clean the bathroom or go out for a walk. I also have set a strict rule with myself that I wont eat past 9pm. I go to bed at 10pm anyway so this isn't as hard as it seems.


I also have a few easy go to meals that I can cook when I get home from work tired, to stop me ordering takeaway but we also treat ourselves to a takeaway on a Friday night. That way, if I start to cave in on a Tuesday I just tell myself it's not long until Friday so that usually stops me ordering takeaway.


My easy go to meals are just things like frozen pizza, pasta with a store bought sauce, that sort of thing. Most of the time I find it's less effort chucking a pizza in myself than it is to find a menu, decide what I want, find out what everybody else wants, have a debate on why my daughters can or cannot have a box of cookies, call the pizza place, find the money etc etc:rotfl:


Work out why you are eating. If it's because you're tired when you get home from work, cook a few meals on the weekend and freeze them, then just take one out in the morning before you leave for work so it has time to defrost then you can just warm it up when you get home. If you're bored, find something else to do.


Don't tell yourself you can't have takeaway again, just cut down how often you have them. There's no point cutting them out completely because as you've already found, you just cave in after a week and start spending again. But if on a Monday you tell yourself you can have one on Friday this might make you more determined to stick to the plan.

enjoyyourshoes

Spending is psychological and so often is eating.

Work out your triggers for both.

Create a strategy to avoid the spending urge or the eating.

Spending urge ideas= have list in kitchen for items then do a meal plan and add items then check cupboards and delate items already stocked. ONLY buy whats on list. Can do same for other items too. Do internet shop and stick to list as marketeers often get you to impulse buy.

Food- do exercise instead, walk or cycle 9relatively free), scratch cook and freeze items for week (lunches as well as evening meals)

Join some weigh club, they may help with motivation to avoid humiliation if put on extra.

Read instead of TV as its mentally more taxing and stops 'thinking about food and lured by adverts or 'master chef style programmes'.

calculate the true cost monthly of your debt this ay motivate and plan strategically in detail how you can remove debt. Do pictorial summary as motivator and keep in obvious place, colour in sections when small goals reached (e.g. to Blue Peter fundraising charts )

Keep focused and have a savings strategy post debt removal.

Have clear objective for life (SMART) and write it down and tell folk, aids commitment.