Another newbie! Hi!

pinkkat8910

hi boredofdebt - welcome to the boards hope we're some help! hehe

bored_of_debt

Thanks for the responses people, i'll try and respond to you all through this post...

The amounts set out are my fixed outgoings, I live with the olds still so the housekeep is just a sum I pay them to help with the food bills etc. I haven't got a car or a bike now (the main reasons for my debt - such an idiot :mad: ) anyway, I won't be getting either again until I am debt free and have saved the money to buy outright!

The two mag subscriptions I have are already paid in full as it was slightly cheaper and I don't have any regular subs or the like to pay.

Work refund my travel to/from my place of work, don't really rent/buy dvd's too often, no money on cosmetics lol only gel, razor blades, contacts etc, and I've stopped buying coffee from starbucks etc!

So just to summarise;

Income 1,736.02 (Work)

Less 1,143.38 (Debts, Hosekeep, Phone and I've added in £30 for contact lenses and stuff)

Balance 592.64

I kept a record last month of what I spent my money on but I can't find it, it was mainly beer, meals, cinema, lunch and breakfast at work - stuff that I can really cut down on if I tried, especially the food at work that I could make at home at take with me...

Yeah I think that maybe I can increase my payments, I might increase the amount I am paying on my egg loan as suggested by a few of you guys...

Although I find the odd tenner here and there adds up in no time! Last month I was trying to be careful and keep track on what I spent and I spent £600 at least on beer, food, cinema and taxi's etc. I wanna increase my payments after what you guys have suggested and after being inspired by some peoples diaries and posts but I don't know if i'll be able to do it :rolleyes2

Hope your still awake

pandapaws

Hiya and welcome!

I can totally understand where you're coming from with your extra spending - I'm very similar.

But the way that I see it, so long as you're making a decent payment towards your debt every month so it is coming down steadily at a rate YOU'RE happy with, and so long as you're absolutely 100% committed to not getting into any more debt, then if you spend what you've got left over on stuff that you enjoy (beer...!) then so what?! Life is for living, you're paying your debt off, you've learned the lesson, but while cutting back to pay more to your debt is fantastic (and the feeling you get when you pay extra money that you've saved off a debt is absolutely brilliant), you've got to live AND ENJOY LIVING in the meantime!

Have you tried the snowball calculator to get your debt-free date? It'll show you how much time you save by making extra payments and can be a good motivator. I don't know the link for it, but you'll easily find it somewhere in the DFW pages if you search for 'Snowball'.

Good luck!

bored_of_debt

pandapaws wrote: »

Hiya and welcome!

I can totally understand where you're coming from with your extra spending - I'm very similar.

But the way that I see it, so long as you're making a decent payment towards your debt every month so it is coming down steadily at a rate YOU'RE happy with, and so long as you're absolutely 100% committed to not getting into any more debt, then if you spend what you've got left over on stuff that you enjoy (beer...!) then so what?! Life is for living, you're paying your debt off, you've learned the lesson, but while cutting back to pay more to your debt is fantastic (and the feeling you get when you pay extra money that you've saved off a debt is absolutely brilliant), you've got to live AND ENJOY LIVING in the meantime!

Have you tried the snowball calculator to get your debt-free date? It'll show you how much time you save by making extra payments and can be a good motivator. I don't know the link for it, but you'll easily find it somewhere in the DFW pages if you search for 'Snowball'.

Good luck!

I've got similar views to you pandapaws, i'm bashing the debt fairly hard, i'm gonna try and step it up a bit but making sure i find a happy medium so i can still do stuff I enjoy. I've made a few calcs in excel that give me an indicator. My plan is to pay everything off by next December...

pandapaws

Great! Good luck with it! And just think of this website every time you spend money - the guilt factor at having to mention big naughty spends in your diary is sometimes enough to put you off a purchase that you were wavering on!

betti911

Good luck. Its hard to cut down on socialising etc. I've had to do it this year and it can get depressing after a while. T

hink the trick is to set yourself a small budget for going out and make sure you use it. I suppose its got to be a lifestyle change (well for me anyway) not just a famine and a burst of spending. Keep posting.

bored_of_debt

I think your both right pandapaws and betti911; I'm pleased to hear theres some other people with a similar mindset to me, don't get me wrong I admire those that can really really cut right down but for me to be able to maintain my level of repayment and then act sensibly in the future I need to create a good balance overall.

Since signing up at the weekend i've been thinking much more about the spending, not cuttingback altogether but just being sensible and thinking a bit more before parting with my money, which to me is a good start, but i'd like to mention that it's the advice and writing of people on this forum that has helped me so far so i'd just like to say thanks! :T

cearnott

Hi. New to this.... whats an SOA?

bored_of_debt

cearnott wrote: »

Hi. New to this.... whats an SOA?

Hi, it's Statement Of Affairs or Statement Of Accounts...not quite sure which?

Do a search you should find a link to help you list your if you want to...