I want to stop drowning

debtaghh

Morning,

I stuck to my £50 food budget yesterday - £49.50 and did all my jobs. I had a lovely catch up with my friend but did end up spending £25 that I hadn't expected and this is exactly what causes problems. I need to make a point of not doing this.

I managed to dry my washing outside and am hoping to do another load today.

Am hoping for a nsd today as we are going to friend's house and bought bits to bring over yesterday ( this is part of the £25 extra spend) I also bought a summer dress but think I may bring it back. It was £12 and I can't afford it!

enthusiasticsaver

Well done first on bringing back £120 from your holiday and keeping your food spend under £50.

The £25 overspend and the £12 dress sound like they were the sort of thing you used to do and momentarily lapsed from the plan. Each time you are tempted to spend like this think to yourself "this is how we got into this mess". Did you actually need these things or want them? Were there cheaper alternatives if they really were needed? These are the questions you need to ask yourself every time you go off plan so to speak.

debtaghh

I will return the dress but the rest were needed and the cheapest available. It included socks for my dd and nibbles for my friend's house today. But it def makes me realise this is where I go wrong. So I overspent £13

enthusiasticsaver

debtaghh wrote: »

I will return the dress but the rest were needed and the cheapest available. It included socks for my dd and nibbles for my friend's house today. But it def makes me realise this is where I go wrong. So I overspent £13

Or you could look at it that you didn't budget for these things. Ideally the nibbles would come off the entertainment budget and the socks from clothing budget. You have a £30 budget for clothes shoes. Had that already been spent this month?

debtaghh

No l haven't touched either, so I suppose you're right. I can just take them off these. I'm just annoyed how easy it is to spend money. I need to keep the entertainment budget for my son's bday meal so will have to be careful.

I told my husband I have savings allocated for Xmas 2018 as well as this year and he said that seemed silly. I wonder if I should use that towards a cc.

debtaghh

Dress is in a bag and ready to be returned. I had a nsd and made a sale so am pleased.

I'm still trying to stick to my list of reading more etc.

I want to do some free courses to further educate myself. I really need a new laptop as ours is on its way out and I'll need this for my business as well as any learning I do. I spoke to my dh and he recommends we use some of the savings.

debtaghh

Morning,

I've already looked at surveys but none available for me.

Today I need to:

Clean glass, kitchen and dust.
Post item
Return dress
Collect Argos item
Buy dd new shoes
Potentially list eBay items
List walker on gum tree
Return library books
Write notes from phone
Re write lists
Potentially ring Sky again!
Check accounts
Do the snowball calculator

Have a great day everyone.

debtaghh

I returned the dress- £12 refund due back
I bought a Xmas present as it was 60% cheaper than a while back- this came from my Xmas pot.
As predicted dd needed bigger shoes... £30 but used cash left over from the hols.
I also bought toilet paper and some donuts (money for donuts came from entertainment budget).
I have also reduced my daughter's tutor for Sep and oct.
My dh has called up about our house alarm to see what other options there are.
Didn't list the items on gumtree or eBay but to be honest with it still being the holidays I wonder if I'm best of waiting as might make more money.

System

A productive day all round then. Great to see you are trying to save money in places you can.

Get them eBay listings done ( says she who took a month to do hers ! )

enthusiasticsaver

debtaghh wrote: »

No l haven't touched either, so I suppose you're right. I can just take them off these. I'm just annoyed how easy it is to spend money. I need to keep the entertainment budget for my son's bday meal so will have to be careful.

I told my husband I have savings allocated for Xmas 2018 as well as this year and he said that seemed silly. I wonder if I should use that towards a cc.

It sounds like a productive day. I agree with your DH that having savings for xmas 16 months away makes little sense. Same really in having that amount of debt but keeping £3200 in an emergency fund (although I note some of it is allocated to holiday money and Christmas money). You don't have a house though so any major repairs are the landlords responsibility. Can I ask though is this £3200 money left over from balance transfers or genuine savings from income?

Most of your debt is at 0% at the moment but you don't want all the deals finishing at the same time and you are paying interest on the Barclaycard at 6.9%. Not a bad rate but still higher than you will get on savings. I honestly think that getting rid of at least one of those credit cards this year if not two will help with the monthly payments going out and make you feel less like you are drowning in debt.