2017 Debt Free Wannabe

Lonire

Another good day of minimal spending and cost cutting. I managed to go sim only on my mobile provider for £11 month for 6 months and up to £22 after 6 months. A solid saving, as it turned out my mobile was actually £30 tariff and £20 for the phone. so £50 in all. I finished paying my phone device charge last month so from £50 to £11 is a decent saving.
Def recommend people to check out all mobile providers this week as lots of great Sim only deals out there.

april87

Lonire did you sign up to a contract for that sim only deal? There are others out there including GiffGaff that do some really good deals. I threatened to leave EE and go to GiffGaff got my pac code and everything. A few days later EE called and now I have a really good deal with lots of data for £11 a month.

January2015

Lonire wrote: »

Another good day of minimal spending and cost cutting. I managed to go sim only on my mobile provider for £11 month for 6 months and up to £22 after 6 months. A solid saving, as it turned out my mobile was actually £30 tariff and £20 for the phone. so £50 in all. I finished paying my phone device charge last month so from £50 to £11 is a decent saving.
Def recommend people to check out all mobile providers this week as lots of great Sim only deals out there.

£22 a month for SIM only after 6 months :eek: Sorry but that definitely seems expensive.

I guess it depends how much you talk and your data usage, but as an example I am with Talkmobile and I get 3000 minutes, 5000 texts and 2Gb data each month for £7.50 - I never use anywhere near any of those allowances.

I know Talkmobile offer 5000 minutes, 5000 texts and 12Gb data for £12 p/mth. I'm not saying Talkmobile is the best - far from it, I've just used my SIM only deal as an example. I haven't looked elsewhere recently but I know if you search around you can get some great SIM only deals. £22 p/mth sounds very expensive to me.

Realt

Hi Lonaire,

How are you? Can I John you on my journey. Not including my mortgage, I have debts of £6114.

I'm determined to pay this off by the end of Oct 2017.

I already pay 462 pm to clear this but I want to increase this to 680 pm.

I determined I can do this.

Good luck on our journey. I will read all your tips.

enthusiasticsaver

Can you get any of those credit cards on to 0% deals and do a balance transfer?

Tackle the most expensive debt first. Lots of good advice on cutting back but main thing is spending diary. Normally I would also say an emergency savings account is a priority but as you don't have a car or house this could wait. Is your job secure?

Lonire

Hi all,

Hope you are all well. Thanks for the tips I will look around more for the mobile sim only deal to see if it can be reduced more. Thanks January2015, had a quick look this morning and there certainly does seem to be better offers for lots of data, minutes and texts. The one I was going for was 8gb, unlimited texts and calls. But looking at comparable tariffs elsewhere they are cheaper even still. always forget about the other providers was my problem with this small win, when I could make it an even better cost saving by moving provider completely,:) will take note for other switches.

@April, Im glad you got a good deal with them coming back, The current was is on o2, it's a 30 day rolling contract as such. Are you happy with the new deal you got?

@Realt.. Good luck, we can all do this together. I am actually enjoying my quest so far. Had a friend text me this morning and ask if I was free to head out all day. I know this would have turned into an expensive unplanned activity so I politely declined. I have already set aside today to do some household sorting. I am listing a few unwanted things on eBay and also giving my bike a quick service to get it back on the road. Going to try and commute as much as I can on that and cut back on train fares.

@enthusiasticsaver, `Great minds.. I am looking at some balance transfer deals today and will see if I have any chance of moving them across. fingers crossed The sains one looks good for me. Do you have any tips on how to best keep a spending diary? I've been doing mine the past few days just each item. Will be more telling when my first pay cheque come in. My job does seem secure, been in same place for 5 years but you just never know what can happen in the current environment so I hope to build small emergency fund that could tide me over should anything happen.

My goals for this weekend is to;

Check out more Sim only and Card Balance offers
Do a meal and exercise plan for next week( checking my cupboards first and using up the ingredients)
Order shopping(checking for vouchers etc)
Make a big pot of stew.
Check my bike is in working order.
Listing stuff for sale.

Anyone else got any interesting goals for the weekend?

foxgloves

That's a stonking monthly income, so I can't see why you can't make really great inroads into paying down your debt. My own lightbulb flickered a bit around age 30, but I wasn't prepared to put the effort in for over another decade, so debt reduction didn't start till we were in our 40s. If I'd been on your income, I think I'd have tackled it with a couple of really frugal years. It's really important to understand the difference between a want & a need. This has been key for me! New undies are a need. Another pair of high heeled boots & a big spend at the Clinique counter are not! Plugging silly wastes of money works. You have already identified packed lunches. We worked out that we spent an outrageous £2000 a year buying lunches on work days.....it was packed lunches every day since then!
I thought your contents insurance looked high at £40? Ours is for buildings (3-bed semi) & contents & we pay £16.09 per month so probably worth trying to get that down.
Another good saver for us has been meal planning. We cook everything from scratch & batch cook to get 'free' meals or 'fake-aways' in the freezer for busier days. I also use my slow cooker on really fraught days to stop us being tempted into blowing £35 (plus beer) on takeaway. The freezer is a key money saving tool. Most stuff can be frozen. If I even just end up witj half a bag of carrots that haven't been eaten, they will be sliced, blanched & frozen to accompany another meal. There is a zero food waste policy in our house. The only food that gets thrown away is if an orange or lemon develops blue fur overnight! Even 'on the turn' milk is used for scones or soda bread, as was always done before we became such a wasteful nation.
I think you can do this. Look at it as a challenge. A game in which every single £1 you don't spend on something unnecessary is another £1 you can chuck at your debts.
Good luck!

louby40

Lonire, why not come over to the Debt Free Diary board and start a diary? Loads of people post their achievements (& spends) over there and we spur each other on!

It's a great way of seeing your progress. I had my light bulb moment last June after realising that about a week after payday I was into my overdraft. Since then I've cleared my £500 overdraft paid off a credit card, saved a £500 emergency fund and paid for Christmas without once using my CC.

All because of MSE and the fabulous support network.

Lonire

Hello all
Just finished making some ham salad wraps for work tomorrow

@foxgloves, thanks very much for the words of wisdom, got my renewal docs through for my contents insurance so packed them in my work bag to make sure I have a look to shop around tomorrow. It is very high on first look in comparison to your fuller insurance. I am certainly on the way to running a no waste policy, just hope I can do it to the extreme Ive haven't bought anything at work since I started posting on here, just need to keep it up after payday which will be the real challenge, but also the time where I will see the benefits in real time and do as you say, see it as a game, where Im winning when paying off those extra pounds. Fake aways is a great idea. I think I need to prep a couple of those on a Sunday as I know as work picks up after the January blues I will have some late nights where I could be tempted to reach for the delivery menus. I seen some of the Hairy Dieters takeaways which look great.

@louby, I will pop over to the debt free diary board and start a diary, I think the encouragement and support really is key to this quest. You've done great at paying off your debt so far and also getting through Christmas without the CC. Def a good testament to the support on here.

I have a trip that was preplanned before my LBM this weekend, but it is still in the UK and I have actually kept some of my Christmas money that I receive as gifts to put toward it. Also been looking at vouchers and will try and plan my itinerary of food places in accordance with those. Try and keep some sort of structure. The hotel is paid for so will stock up on the inclusive breakfast

Hope Everyone is having a great week so far.

kirtsypoos

You seem to be going great guns already Lonire. I've subscribed and look forward to your updates