Starting Afresh in 2017

StartingAfresh

HAHA - no, it was Arcade Fire, Reflektor - which is, to be fair, still pretty long but still - speed is of the essence to me!

Speaking of speed - the tuna salad I had in the fridge for lunch went all funny today - I think I left it too long, and it had onion in, which made it a bit soggy and gross. I didn't have anything else quick to grab today, so I spent £3 on lunch at work (boo). Note to self: always have a few cans of soup in the cupboard to grab and go, in case this happens again!

However, I haven't spent anything else today! I was meant to go out for a drink with a friend tonight, but he cancelled - I was secretly relieved as I feel a bit under the weather, and I can't give myself too much credit for this, as I would have gone if he still wanted to, even just for one. But...I CAN give myself credit for the fact that I went to the supermarket after work, loaded myself up with mainly pointless goodies, then told myself off, put them all back and left the shop empty-handed! Yay! So proud! My sister is visiting tomorrow, so I thought "oooh, I'll just pick up some juice, and then I'll bake her a cake, and get all the ingredients from scratch here, and some wine, and I'll get some chicken to eat tonight, so on so on"...and this tiny voice in my head was like "Really?" So I came home and ate eggs and avocado on toast! Feeling proud!

I still do need to pick a few things up for my sister, but I can do it tomorrow when I've looked in the cupboard. I am cooking dinner tomorrow and have almost all the ingredients in, and the rest of the week is going to be pottering around. I am making salmon with veggie couscous tomorrow - so I just need to buy some salmon for that to work, haha! I also need to pick up some juice and bananas to go with my breakfast stuff, and some toothpaste.

Things I've noted this week: if I have a lot of food in, it's so much easier to save money! Stating the obvious, I know, but I'm usually one to buy a little bit of food every day, instead of having a large supply in the house. However, whilst I have stuck to a lot of the meals in my original food plan, they haven't been in the right order. This is fine, except that I am also relying a lot on myself bulk cooking, when occasionally I am pretty lazy (i.e. today - because I hadn't cooked anything in bulk as planned, when my salad went off, I was stuck for time!). So I need to bear that in mind, have back-up meals, and also look at freezing portions more often.

Anyway, I'm off to dose up on medicine and hope this cold lurking in the back of my head will go away! Nearly the weekend, people!

Payday a week on Monday!

Bobarella

Well done for putting back all the naughty treats and sticking to your guns!


I had to talk myself down from dreams of beer and easy food tonight after an extremely long day. In the end DH made a chilli and we made do with cup of tea.

Naomim

Hi,

Just caught up on your diary. Your meal plans sound lovely! For me bulk cooking just isn't an option. If I cook something then freeze it, it never sees the light of day again! lol. We just spent the last 6 months of 2016 living with the in-laws with very regimented meals. ie; fajita's on a Saturday.. when I changed it to a curry they nearly had a heart attack. We've had fajita's once since we've been back home 10 weeks ago.

Well done on walking out of the supermarket after putting everything back! Remember they are specially designed to MAKE US WANT the stuff in there whether we need it or not.

Did anything get resolved regarding the HSBC card?

boxofpaws

Same for me with bulk cooking Naomim, apart from mine doesn't make it to the freezer, it just gets gobbled up.

StartingAfresh, it doesn't always have to be about saying no. You can say yes but to other things. Our closest friends have stopped asking us to go out, they just ask us to come round instead or they come to us. They're not poor or in debt, but they do like saving money, and you might be surprised at how many of your friends will be relieved if you say, I'm skint, let's do something cheap.

StartingAfresh

Hey all!

Boxofpaws - you are right; I actually did mention being skint to a few friends this week, and they did seem relieved and admitted the same! I also found out a friend who is always out and about - and who I thought was loaded - is also in debt!

Sorry for the silence this week! It's been a bit busy, and also I fell a bit off the wagon and spent on my credit card the final week before payday - I bought my sister's birthday present and dinner for her on it, and also went on a night out (that ended up being ridiculously expensive!) after a terrible week at work and felt a bit embarrassed. I have cut up my cards except for one emergency one - I actually paid the night out off immediately today, and have to remind myself that if I keep spending on it, when an emergency comes, what would I do?!

BUT - I am proud of myself! I've added up my debt today and I'm now £13104 in debt. The plan was to be £12900 at this stage, so I miscalculated by about £200 again this month, as I did last. Well, I didn't miscalculate - I know what I spent it on, but there we are. But it's going down - second month in a row it's gone down - the second month in about two years!

My overdraft is now at £1500, so the plan is to get it to £1200 next month, pay off my Natwest credit card (the £400 one) the month after, and then pay the overdraft off by summer. The loan payments are going down on the side - £155 a month - and I'm minimum paying the credit cards until the overdraft is gone. I am also going to shop around for another 0% card!

I have also downloaded a spending app on my phone to use!

I went to the supermarket today and spent about £20 on food - I need to go to the market on Weds to buy fresh vegetables and fruit, but once I've done that, I've got plenty of food to last me the week - and probably beyond. I also treated myself to £1 daffodils for my room!

Other money saving plans for the week:

1. Go through last month's statement with a fine-toothed comb to count up what I spent on food/travel/fun etc.
2. Not go to the pub at all this week.

This journey has been easier and harder than I expected. Easier in the sense that it's not impacted my life as much as I thought - simple things like bulk cooking, bringing in lunch, being consciously aware of buying cheaper products in the supermarket...once they're part of your habit, they just seem normal. Paying for things with cash has been definitely helpful in making me SEE my money too, and making it a real thing instead of this magical online entity. And despite complaining about my social life on here a few times, if I really think about it, my social life hasn't been impacted as much as I thought. I'm still fairly busy, and I'm sure I can keep busy without blowing the budget on an expensive night out every so often.

It's been harder in the sense that I'm starting to fully face this now, and therefore face some issues I'd been ignoring. I am starting to see debt as debt instead of credit, which is good, and also understand myself and my spending habits a little more. I can definitely see the emotional connection (i.e. if I'm sad or lonely or anxious, I'll just say "screw it" and blow a wad of cash, which makes me feel more stressed, and so on). I think it's made me realise I've been more stressed than I thought recently, and I need to prioritise self-care in order to reduce these long-term spending habits.

Most of my debt has actually accumulated in the past two years - it went from £2k at uni to a fairly constant £4.5k or so after graduating, but it felt manageable - and I can summarise why in three points:

1. Moving to this city and spending the first year here in a beautiful house that I couldn't really afford, so paying for expensive rent without sacrificing other parts of my life.
2. Attempting to keep up appearances here and maintain a lifestyle I couldn't really afford in an attempt to make friends, whilst visiting friends or family constantly on expensive trains. Again, this was mainly in the first year; I have a better group of friends now!
3. Being bridesmaid three times - two of which in far-off parts of the country, and one abroad.

I didn't realise how much of my spending was wasteful, and just in response to feeling a bit sad living here, and bored in my job.

It's been hard to realise that some major life changes I want to make - moving house, moving job, and so on - cannot happen so easily, because of all the silly spending I've been doing. I can't just up and leave - I HAVE to have income coming in; I have no back-up money at all! I've effectively got myself stuck in this strange situation.

BUT - by seeing my debt go down, by starting to squirrel a bit of savings away, by keeping positive...I know my life is going to change.

So, I do feel proud of myself. I do think things are going to take their time to improve, but by the end of this year, I am going to be in such a better place.

I'll be updating this week! Have a great week, all Off to read some diaries now!

boxofpaws

What a great post! It sounds like you are really starting to understand why you have debt which will make it all the easier to fix. You should feel really proud of yourself. :T The key needs to be sustaining it, when we fall off the wagon, just getting straight back on, just like you have done this week.

Go girl!

Bobarella

Agree with Paws, well done, great post, lots of positive energy!