Shopsalot - does exactly what it says on the tin..

GettingThingsDone

Please feel free to comment

Hi Shopsalot (if you come back??!)

Little bit about me - I am an accountant, as I said - does exactly what it says on the tin

But surely you are more than your job...

Why DFW? Please tell... Got any plans? Just being nosey thats all

Hang on a minute - you're not my OH are you?!

gtd

joeblack066

HI Shopsalot, I hope that you do stick around. Everything is relative, as you say, and I for one have had days when I have scrabbled down the back of the settee for coppers for milk, and other times when I have felt happy to 'blow' £20 on some new clothes for me. If (hopefully soon?!!!) I start to earn much better soon, I will be treating me and mine to some frivolous things as well as paying off my debts, as we have scrimped all their lives. Will that make me shallow or a bad person? No, just grateful for the chance to earn better! Stick with it Shopsalot, you'll soon be able to reign it in and stick to that DFW date!

shopsalot

I have now picked up my dummy and put all my toys back in the pram - it was a bit childish and i apologise to all those you tried to help. I said I could be a brat.

A big thank you to all those who wrote lovely and helpful things - even after my strop - grumpygrizzly - you seem to know exactly where I am coming from - Joeblack066 - thanks thats a sweet message.

Couple of responses - I will try to keep it short:

i have tried the all or nothing DFW way - but I had too many "I earnt it I deserve it" blow outs that the guilt ate me up, then i gave up completely. My debt at its worst was £30k ish so i am determined, I have made an effort, I just need to find a sustainable approach that works for me. (BTW could be a good discussion thread - All or nothing or something in between - which is the best DFW way?? )

I have the spreadsheet (as i mentioned I can "account" for everything - I just cant control it:rolleyes: ) but the conditional formatting sounds like a great motivator!

I plan to ebay with gusto (my level of gusto:p ) thanks for the suggestion, more later.... (BTW what does HTH mean?)

As for what i plan to do... Not too sure - I have had debts since i left school and got my first car on a credit card (Fiesta XR2 Mrk 2 - loved it! Technically i suppose im still paying it off!!) I cant imagine what it will be like ot not feel guilty for evrything i spend as it is always someone elses money. Hopefully the £200 per week i pay myself will recondition me to live within my means, save, pay for things and wait for things - there is method to my madness! Also i want a couple of houses to rent out as I dont trust pensions and i dont want to work all my life.

Anyhoo.... I havent stopped the money saving (even if I did avoid the board for a while).


Debts - still the same - its only been 2 days:D

Spends:
Grandma's Bday present - £6 I was resourceful and framed a lovely photo and bought flowers and a cream cake!

Mothers Bday - £16 - instead of buying something horribly expensive and impersonal at the last minute (its friday) I planned for two days. I found alovely personal present that didnt cost the earth - cant wait to see if she likes it.
Dentist - £23.50:eek: Forgot about that one. Nothing wrong, 5 minutes in there, 23.50 for the privalege. Ah well grandad will be proud i am looking after my teeth.

Generation:
5 more things on ebay - will find out next week.

Actions to be an angelic DFW:A
Threw out 5 mail order catalogues that were delivered without even opening
Threw away the £10 voucher when you spend £50 i received (normally this would have been a major "bargain")
Gave my normal debit card to my OH - so it really is just the weekly "salary" for me!
Resisted going to supermarket to buy ground coffee - instant will do until shopping day on sunday - that saved me almost £30 in non planned spends.

Again thankyou, and sorry.

I'm off to look at Piggy points and paid surveys to see if they will help....

shopsalot

GettingThingsDone wrote: »

Hi Shopsalot (if you come back??!)



But surely you are more than your job...

Why DFW? Please tell... Got any plans? Just being nosey thats all

Hang on a minute - you're not my OH are you?!

gtd

I am more than my job - I shop too!:rotfl:

Lucy1982_2

I'm glad you stayed. It is tough and especially when there are such differences to peoples incomes (£200 a week is a lot to me!) But if you are comfortable with that, then that's all that matters!

Stopping shopping, does get easier, I rarely go into one of my fave shops any more, I discovered the thrill of buying an outfit for £20 rather than £60 when a friend introduced me to Primark (sad I know!)

Have you had a look at all your bills to make sure you are paying the best price? I managed to cut about £300 off my car insurance, just by shopping around (See shopping!!) Although I do miss buying shoes.... I love shoes....

have fun x

chevalier

Glad you stayed. I think the trick is to make your money work harder for you. So finding cheaper insurance/utilities might be a pain (though the cash back does help with this), means that you have the same cover but at a lesser price.

With regards to food shopping it is a case of really thinking about what you buy, not going round mindlessly putting the same things in the trolly 'because that is what we got last week'. I haven't bought cleaning products for ages, when I realised just HOW MANY half used one I had under my sink!

Same with clothes. One tip someone else has mentioned elsewhere is actually hanging up all of the clothes you have. To make you realise just how many of something you have etc. And how you can change round items to make 'new' outfits without spending on them. I am not very fashion conscious so go for clothes that don't date etc. Saves money in the long run.

In any event the main thing is that you know there is a problem, we can only advice you of ways of addressing it. But just so you know I feed a family of four on £50 a month on what you spend will be for a week! I am not jealous but thought telling you might be a bit of a reality check!
Best of luck
chev

redrabbit29

shopsalot wrote: »

I have now picked up my dummy and put all my toys back in the pram - it was a bit childish and i apologise to all those you tried to help. I said I could be a brat.

YAY!! :j Glad you came back!

shopsalot wrote: »

"I earnt it I deserve it"

You definitely deserve to spend your money and treat yourself, so don't feel guilty about treating yourself once in a while.

shopsalot wrote: »

Hopefully the £200 per week i pay myself will recondition me to live within my means, save, pay for things and wait for things - there is method to my madness!

How are you "paying yourself" the money? I have a HSBC account that all my pay goes into, all my bills are debited from and it's my main account. I set up a nationwide current account, and each month I pay £75 in to it. So at the beginning of the month the balance is £75 and I use that to draw money from. So I can basically see how much money I am spending as I can watch it decrease. Also my cash card does not *swipe* and you can't buy things online, so it's purely for personal spends. Really good for controlling your output, and it's much better seeing a plain figure of what you have left, rather than trying to calculate what you have spent and can withdraw from your main account.

shopsalot wrote: »

Grandma's Bday present - £6 I was resourceful and framed a lovely photo and bought flowers and a cream cake!

Mothers Bday - £16 - instead of buying something horribly expensive and impersonal at the last minute (its friday) I planned for two days. I found alovely personal present that didnt cost the earth - cant wait to see if she likes it.
Dentist - £23.50:eek: Forgot about that one. Nothing wrong, 5 minutes in there, 23.50 for the privalege. Ah well grandad will be proud i am looking after my teeth.

That's fantastic that you managed to not spend too much on presents! Everyone on the board always goes on about home made presents, or personal things, so it's great to see you actually do it! As for the dentist, that is a pretty essential thing, so don't worry about that - but I would add it to your budget, i.e. if you go twice a year to the dentist then make sure you account for the money.

WELL DONE!

shopsalot

I love shoes too! I'm going to miss buying so many of them.

Food shopping will also require some willpower - a list is the way forward - but first i will try to use what i already have in my freezer and only buy milk bread and veg this week - geez i think i just set myself a challenge!

As for bills etc - I actually have a good handle on that - funnily enough i always shop around for the best saving. Only thing is i then think - I have saved £45 - I can afford a new pair of shoes! That kind of thinking will have to stop. Challenge 2 - put savings onto credit card immediately!

As for the "paying myself" - its my new philosophy, and i thought hard about it.

I dont always want to be a DFW - I do want to be a normal functioning consumer with self control and willpower at some point! Therefore I am conditioning myself now to live within my (now reduced) means, with a debit card, cheque book and wage just like all those grown up people do! I figure if i do it this way, when i become DF, I wont get into debt again - or blow it all every month.

Does that make any sense?

winkle1

hiya, i love shoes too, i have about 60 pairs! but i always buy in the sale or ask for them as presents. i saw a lovely pair in ALDO last month which i was going to buy, but now i have broken my foot and i am in crutches, so no point getting them as I dont know when I can wear heels next!!

your last post is totally DFW thinking, I bet you dont even spend your £200 this week!

i was a lot like you and thought i earnt it, so i can spend it, and still comfortably pay off my debt, plus i was saving too. but in the last couple of months I have used my savings to pay of big chunks of my debt and I will clear the last credit card on Friday when i get paid. I will be skint for the whole of October, but its worth it (plus I am stuck in the house so dont need the money this month!). I just got sick of thinking of paying something off for the next year, and in the end just wanted rid of it!! so i brought my debt free date forward by about 2 years!

elantan

can i just say i have followed this thread from the begining and have really enjoyed it i can agree with alot of what you are saying shops alot and i like the attitude you have after all mse was designed for us all to have the same standard of living just doing it more wisely...thanks also to grumpy grizzler and toto for their ideas and support (well everyine really but those two stood out for me) please keep up the good work