Getting my act together & putting my big-girl pants on

Determined2Save

Ok, so I had a birthday last weekend. Not a major one, by any means, but I glamourously spent it working out my current financial position (whilst having a slight prosecco hangover).

It's not the prettiest, but it's not the worst in the world, either. As of today, my debts currently stand at

B*card: £660
M*NA: £614

Overdraft: £715

Car loan: £1400

My main financial aims are to a) get out of debt and b) save around £12,000 in 5 years, in order to be able to go part time for a year whilst I do an MA without losing out pay-wise.

About me: I'm a generic late-20s, single millenial. I earn a good wage (above the national average) , in a job I love, and am currently studying towards a degree at the Open University (hence the 5 year plan to an MA. As a historian, however, I probably should avoid that phrase because, you know, Stalin).

I *should* have about £400 left over every month, but that never happens. Contactless payments are both a godsend, and a devilsend. During my Grown Up Moment last weekend, I worked out that I spent over £100 in various supermarkets & coffee shops near my work in July. Purely on fruit salads, diet cokes and the like. I'm disgusted with myself.

Since this realisation, I have taken my debit card away from myself, and given myself just £20 a week spending money, and have taken my lunch into work every day apart from Friday (we had a team lunch, doesn't happen very often, so it's nice to go when it does). This strategy seemed to work pretty well, as I was limited about what I could spend, but still had some money on me in case of an emergency.

Going forward, my plan of attack is:

• Pay £50 plus interest of each cc per month
• Sell my car (it never get used anyway) and pay off car loan asap
• Take lunch and snacks into work everyday, to prevent me drifting into a S*bury's local
• Curb my Am*zon Prime addiction

I've already been relatively sensible, and have been putting £50 a month in a savings account for gifts & Christmas, and £100 a month towards a holiday (just until I have enough to pay for the annual holiday outright), but need to be putting around £200/ month into savings to make my £12,000 target. This should be easy when all debts are sorted, so that is my first battle!

JLS1901

Good luck Determined2save, I too am atrocious at spending silly amounts on bits and bobs! You seem to be on the right track.. all the best

Determined2Save

wellylass89 wrote: »

Good luck Determined2save, I too am atrocious at spending silly amounts on bits and bobs! You seem to be on the right track.. all the best

Thanks wellylass! It's terrible how hard-earned money can just evaporate through tiny purchases, isn't it?! Though your name has reminded me that I need to buy some wellies for a (free!) festival in a couple of weeks. No point in optimism when it comes to camping weather!

So, I got my old car sold yesterday - only got £600 for it, but I wasn't expecting much for a 12 year old Ford KA! That will get paid against the loan when it clears later on in the week, taking the total owed there down to £850. I was paying £150/month against this, and £50 insurance, so I'll lump those together and pay £200/ month for 4 months to get that knocked out.

Only spends yesterday was £4 for ice creams for me and the bf. Expensive, but it's bloody good ice cream!

It's a fundamental belief of mine that you should avoid even going out of the house on Sunday if you can help it, so I don't foresee any spends today

Kitten868

A job you love related to history that pays well? Please please recruit me!
I am a massive snowballing fan. I really like closing credit cards. I'm down to one and I'm actually peeved I'm not closing it.
Good luck xxx

Determined2Save

Kitten868 wrote: »

A job you love related to history that pays well? Please please recruit me!
I am a massive snowballing fan. I really like closing credit cards. I'm down to one and I'm actually peeved I'm not closing it.
Good luck xxx

Oh I wish it were related to history, that would be a dream! No, I do research for the public sector, so history study skills come in handy sometimes, but that's it. if I could get Penda and Rædwald into a report, I would!

Determined2Save

Bit of a spendy day today, but all planned!

£3.35 on fruit for work (if I have a load of fruit on my desk, I'll take the lazy option and eat that instead of seeking out biscuits)
£4.85 on 2 x body lotions. Quite pleased with this as they were half price anyway, and I got an extra 10% off with my NUS card :money:
£4.50 on a ball of yarn. This is at least twice the price I'd usually pay for yarn, but it's soo pretty (magenta to light pink ombr!) and I'm going to knit an infinity scarf with it. I figure if I buy it a skein at a time as I need it, I won't overbuy, and don't have to pay postage if I buy it from the local yarn shop.

I also ended up buying a kindle book for £4.99 yesterday, so I'll deposit £5 cash into my bank tomorrow. I've nearly finished the bloody thing already, too! Will read something from my bookshelf afterwards, and request the next book I want to read from the library.

That *should* be all the spends that I need to do for the week, hopefully. The only thing that might scupper this is if my foundation runs out before then...

monz

Good luck you can do it x

[Deleted User]

Good luck lady!

You can do this.

Dxxx

Determined2Save

Thank you Monz & Dolly Rocker! Successfully made it through the day without spending anything, even though I forgot to put a can of diet coke in my work bag this morning, so the temptation got real at about 3pm!

I did, however, acquire a new (and much needed) notebook from P@perchase, but didn't have to part with any cash as it was £5 and I had a £5 voucher from my b'day It nearly killed me (figuratively) to buy something sensible with it though - I nearly compromised and bought either a stegosaurus or a unicorn piggy bank, but then the old jam jar does just as good a job of holding coins...

[Deleted User]

Well done you, that is brilliant!

I am a sucker for anything you can buy in p@perchase so would have been so tempted to buy something else.

Dxxx

Determined2Save

Well, yesterday was manic, to put it lightly - left the house at 05:50 and got back at 22:30 :eek: didn't spend a single penny though (I'm exempting picking up my prescription from actual spends because, y'know, I don't want to die in the name of frugality).

Slight spend today of £1.89 on a ball of yarn. Really annoyed about this, as I'm TWO granny squares away from finishing this project. TWO, and the darn yarn runs out on me. The craft gods have spoken, however, and thus so it is.

My cancellation fee from the car insurance came through today - £50 for them to stop having responsibility for paying for something, not sure I quite get that... Oh well, it's a one-off charge, the benefit of which I'll see in the coming months