Stopping shopping

dionysia

Here’s my new diary! I’ve been lurking around the boards for a few weeks now and see how it seems to help people keep themselves accountable

My debts are £16,818. This comprises £8325 on a personal loan (due to be paid off September 2019) and £7893 on a credit card (0% until November 2019). I also owe £600 to my parents, who are very kindly flexible about when it’s paid back, I will do this in the next six months but would like to build up savings a bit first.

Minimum payments are around £500/month (£321 on the loan and last payment on the cc was £181 but this is reducing very slightly each month). Both are paid by direct debit so I never need to worry about missing a payment. I’m also due to pay off my student loan next month and excited about this! I currently have about £420 in a stocks and shares ISA via the Moneybox app, this has been working well for me as an emergency fund because it takes about two weeks to withdraw. When savings are too easy for me to get to I get complacent about spending because I know I can pay myself back.

My goal is to pay off the loan next summer - the amount saved on interest by settling it a year early will be hardly anything but it would be a relief to get the fixed payment gone. I’ll then continue saving to pay off the credit card, but want to keep money available for upfront costs in case I need to move house when my current two-year fixed-term AST ends in May 2019. Hopefully I’ll stay where I am and just pay off that card at the end of the 0%.

My big goal is to be debt free by my 35th birthday in early 2020 and also have a fancy holiday to celebrate that milestone (all paid for/saved for in advance, of course!)

Apart from a couple of short periods I’ve been in debt almost all of my adult life and really need to get out of the cycle. My problem is simply too much treating myself to things I can’t afford. LBM came when I moved last month. Partly it was trying to streamline my possessions for packing, when I realised that lots of the debt was spent on things I don’t even own anymore, and partly because my expenses have increased significantly. I had been sharing with an old friend who decided to leave London and I just couldn’t face living with strangers so now I’m renting alone which is great but very expensive, so I just can't go on the same way I have been.

I’m lucky to earn a good wage and can afford my basic living costs and debt repayments with nearly £700 surplus to go to savings/overpaying the debt/fun money, so absolutely doable if I’m sensible. I need to be disciplined, learn good new habits, and properly stick to a budget and thought being here would help keep me on track!

Lucylocks

Good luck with it all; sounds like you've got your plan together. Look forward to following your journey

another_casualty

Seems like you have a plan , that's achievable in not too long timespan Best of luck

dionysia

Thanks Lucy! I'm a big emotional spender (like stressy day at work = £20 on a flashy lipstick on the way home and and a £15 pizza delivered for tea) so it's not quite as nice and neat as it looks on paper to break those habits, but just writing it all down and starting to put in place some of the ideas I've seen here has got me feeling more in control!

Lucylocks

I can totally relate to that; it's a quick fix to buy yourself a 'treat' and where significant amount of my debt comes from. I've found that being aware of what I've actually got - setting out my dressing table so I can see that actually I've got nice things already and appreciating them rather than lusting after new stuff - helps massively.

Take a day to rummage through your stuff - hopefully you'll find some hidden gems you've forgotten about which will negate the need to buy new bits

dionysia

I do like a bit of shopping the dressing table! I did a good ruthless clear-out in preparation for moving, it was very humbling to look at the big pile of make-up that had turned out to be the wrong colour or not a nice texture or practically identical to something I already owned, and think about how much it had all cost. My make-up is nicely organised now and I should be able to last frankly years on it (other than replacing things like mascaras which go a bit funny).

The other thing that really helped me (on the makeup at least) has been unsubscribing from almost all of the beauty blogs I used to read. I used to get very excited about Fabulous Product X and even if I didn't buy it I would deliberate and pine for ages. I don't know about the new launches now so it doesn't take up that energy.

Munchin

Good luck Dionysia,

I find that because I have a reasonable salary I am a bit too relaxed with frittering & it's embarrassing when I see the junk I've spent money on:o.

Good luck & will follow your progress & hopefully pick up some tips:).

dionysia

An expensive day today! Nearly £50 spent in an hour of errands This is how it happens that I just go through money. All today's purchases planned, necessary, and in budget though which isn't too bad. I needed a few things from Boots and a leaving card for a member of my team.

Also spent £27 in Sainsbos, this is a 'big shop' for me so should be sorted for a good few days other than milk and veg, also a big thing of laundry tabs which should last 3-4 months. Hopefully NSDs tomorrow and Tuesday with food in. I'm not very bothered about food, happy to eat the same for lunch and dinner all week and not very keen on cooking. In the past that's meant paying a lot more (takeaways, eating out, convenience food) but when I was doing my budget it just seemed silly to plan to spend a lot on something less important to me, so I'll now be making all my own food, planning instead of nipping in the shop on the way home every day and buying whatever I fancy no matter what I've got in, cutting down on meat and eating more healthily. I've already stopped drinking at home which saves a decent bit of cash.

Other splurge today has been on running the washing machine during the day instead of very early morning to get the cheaper rate, as in my new place I'm on Economy 7, there's about a 5p difference between my day and night (1.30-8.30am) rates so it does add up over time. The washing machine has a time delay function and I usually set it to go on just after 6am but it does wake me up. I've just been on holiday so was behind and I consider it an investment in sleeping properly when I go back to work this week after a fortnight off!

dionysia

Munchin wrote: »

I find that because I have a reasonable salary I am a bit too relaxed with frittering & it's embarrassing when I see the junk I've spent money on:o.

It's hard, isn't it? The attitude of 'I've worked hard, I DESERVE that frock/dinner out/holiday' has been such a big part of me getting into debt. Trying to change that is much harder than the simple mechanics of paying back! I've been doing lots of reading and podcasts and things about mindfulness and one of the things I've been trying to do is just acknowledge my disappointment and sadness when I can't have a thing I want, just feel the feeling without giving in to making it go away by just buying the thing.

dionysia

Well, the NSD today didn't quite work out! Woke up feeling absolutely rotten (I adore my nephews but perhaps shouldn't have let them crawl all over me when they're poorly...) but couldn't ring in sick after a fortnight off. So £2.25 spent on tablets. But it will be straight home after work and early to bed, so no other spends!

EssexHebridean

An idea for an easy way of chipping away at that CC a bit more effectively - change the DD so that rather than taking the minimum payment, they take a straight £181 a month, That way it doesn't fall each month, but as a result you pay a little more off the capital balance each month as time goes on. As you're used to the higher amount going out, you don't notice any difference.

On the washing machine, can you set a shorter programme to mean you can take advantage of the E7 electric but get away with setting the timer to start running slightly later?

Have you started a spending diary to help track the "frittering" spends? Might help to see exactly what you do spend and where? You could also add notes to see if you can pin down what sometimes triggers you to spend when you go "off piste" on the budget too?