My journey to a debt free life

Onebrokelady

Today got off to a good start because I went to meet my friend for coffee, she is still a bit shell shocked at the idea that she no longer has to go to work but I'm sure she will get used to it 😊 we had a good catch up and put the work to rights.
 I also needed to buy some nuts for tonight's tea and happened to be in M&S and wow their nuts are expensive,the bag I looked at was £10🙀🙀🙀and the size bag I needed was £5, there is a Poundland in the same place so I went in there and got two bags for £2, I also bought some snack size toffee crisps for my lunch box which are lower calorie than the bars I normally buy and 65p a packet cheaper, they are slightly smaller but there are 7 instead of 6 and will be good for a sweet treat.

I have been really worrying lately about my finances and rising prices so this week I have decided I need to be more focused on budgeting. I am starting to be a bit relaxed about the whole thing and that will lead to trouble. I've gone over my budget to make  sure it's as realistic as possible and checked to make sure I'm not paying over the odds for anything. I am following a few frugal vlogs on YouTube to get ideas and the Old Style board on here as well. I'm also determined to plan my meals and shop accordingly as I have not been doing that for months and my food bill has gone out the window. I get home from work and if there's nothing to eat prepared I succumb to the dreaded takeaway and it's got to stop. I checked my bank account a couple of days ago and I spent £75 on things I wouldn't have needed to buy if I had planned better. I really cant afford to do this every month so I have given myself a stern talking to 🤨

badmemory

Onebrokelady said:

So I have a stupid question that I've never thought of before. I have a £50 overdraft on my current account and I refuse to use it. I tried to get rid of it but the bank wouldn't let me 🤷‍♀️Any way is that £50 part of my available balance or not .....ie I have £100 left in the bank so is £50 of that my overdraft, I have presumed it is and always subtract £50 from my bank balance when I check it but this morning I'm second guessing myself 😂😂I am also slowly loosing my marbles so forgive me for having to ask this in the first place 😂😂

I think this depends on your bank.  The Halifax used to include your overdraft in your available balance but stopped doing that over a year ago.

enthusiasticsaver

Onebrokelady said:

So I have a stupid question that I've never thought of before. I have a £50 overdraft on my current account and I refuse to use it. I tried to get rid of it but the bank wouldn't let me 🤷‍♀️Any way is that £50 part of my available balance or not .....ie I have £100 left in the bank so is £50 of that my overdraft, I have presumed it is and always subtract £50 from my bank balance when I check it but this morning I'm second guessing myself 😂😂I am also slowly loosing my marbles so forgive me for having to ask this in the first place 😂😂

I think an overdraft is included in available balance with most banks so subtracting the £50 from the available balance sounds sensible. 

enthusiasticsaver

I think all of us are having to be more careful with unnecessary spends.  From a weight point of view and finance I have told my DH that only one takeaway a month is allowed under our budget.  Usually on the Friday or Saturday following pension day. Your Poundland bargain sounds good.  I rarely buy from M and S as they are so expensive. £10 for nuts is 

Onebrokelady

badmemory said:

Onebrokelady said:

So I have a stupid question that I've never thought of before. I have a £50 overdraft on my current account and I refuse to use it. I tried to get rid of it but the bank wouldn't let me 🤷‍♀️Any way is that £50 part of my available balance or not .....ie I have £100 left in the bank so is £50 of that my overdraft, I have presumed it is and always subtract £50 from my bank balance when I check it but this morning I'm second guessing myself 😂😂I am also slowly loosing my marbles so forgive me for having to ask this in the first place 😂😂

I think this depends on your bank.  The Halifax used to include your overdraft in your available balance but stopped doing that over a year ago.

Thanks I will have to ask them 😊

Onebrokelady

enthusiasticsaver said:

Onebrokelady said:

So I have a stupid question that I've never thought of before. I have a £50 overdraft on my current account and I refuse to use it. I tried to get rid of it but the bank wouldn't let me 🤷‍♀️Any way is that £50 part of my available balance or not .....ie I have £100 left in the bank so is £50 of that my overdraft, I have presumed it is and always subtract £50 from my bank balance when I check it but this morning I'm second guessing myself 😂😂I am also slowly loosing my marbles so forgive me for having to ask this in the first place 😂😂

I think an overdraft is included in available balance with most banks so subtracting the £50 from the available balance sounds sensible. 

That's what I was thinking but then started to doubt myself 😀

Onebrokelady

enthusiasticsaver said:

I think all of us are having to be more careful with unnecessary spends.  From a weight point of view and finance I have told my DH that only one takeaway a month is allowed under our budget.  Usually on the Friday or Saturday following pension day. Your Poundland bargain sounds good.  I rarely buy from M and S as they are so expensive. £10 for nuts is 

Yes I think we are 😟 I tend to end up in M&S when I haven't planned properly and want to get something quick like a pizza. I was in there today because my friend shops there. I don't normally go to Poundland either to be honest but I will definitely be going back there now. I normally shop at Mr S because that is my most convenient store to get to that stocks everything I like to eat vegetarian wise but I am going to try not to eat vege convenience foods so much and make more actual veg based meals so I can get those elsewhere, sadly our local veg shop closed years ago but there is a really good  store in town called The Mesopotamia Food Bazar and their fruit and veg looks amazing, I just need to check out the prices 😊I tried Aldi veg a few times but it wasn't very good quality so I gave up 

foxgloves

Interesting question about whether your overdraft is included in your balance, @OBL, & not stupid at all. We're with the C**p bank & our bank statements always used to show 'Available balance' amount as including our £200 overdraft (which we never use.....I lived in my overdraft for well over 20 years & don't intend to go that route again) - It used to throw me at first glance, seeing a bigger sum of money than I knew us to have. Underneath, it then showed the balance without the overdraft. A few years ago, I'm pleased to say that this changed & the balance we actually have is now what is shown as our balance figure. So I agree that you need to check this with your bank. It may be that there was a tweak to general financial regs which meant the actual amount of balance needed showing in a clearer way, I don't know. I do think it could encourage people into spending if they don't look too closely & just go by the 'available to spend figure', not initially twigging that spending a proportion of it will take them into overdraft. It's defo worth finding out, because a really key plank to successful budgeting, as you know, is having the correct figures to start with. 
F x

enthusiasticsaver

I have just googled your question about available balances and apparently under new FCA rules brought in December 2019 banks are not allowed to include overdrafts in available balances.  So  it looks like it has changed and what shows as available is actually money in your bank. 

foxgloves

Thanks for clarifying that, @enthusiasticsaver, as that clearly explains why the bank's method of presenting our account balance changed. I much prefer it now that the figure only includes our actual money, rather than what we can borrow via overdraft.
F