Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Lol @Humdinger1 - It will be themes, each one around the issue of a poor festive spending behaviour.
I do like to be organised, though you'd think I was pretty laid back if you met me. But I think that's because there are usually good levels of organisation underpinning the laid back-ness. Chaos costs money in my experience.

And good morning everyone else. Up nice & early as usual (staying in bed once I'm awake gives me a headache). Not too onerous a day today. Will be pickling the leftover red cabbage when it's finished brining, putting dinner in the slow cooker, finishing the present wrapping, knitting more birthday present & rounding up all the paperwork I will need for tomorrow, which is my Big Budget Day.
Chat later, 
F x

marionmgcars

Hi, I'm enjoying reading everyone's posts.  Looking forward to hearing about everyone's previous Christmas shopping nightmares.  I'm trying to educate my partner that we don't need to spend a fortune to have a few luxuries over the holidays.  I also can do without all the extra calories, as do not have much will power when it comes to sweets and puddings.

foxgloves

Hi m'dears, Just a quick check-in to say I've had a useful day & haven't spent any money whatsoever. I've written gift tags for a few remaining presents, strained & bottled my blackberry whisky for gifting to Mr F, finished & bottled the pickled red cabbage which I brined yesterday to make use of leftovers after doing Christmas braised red cabbage (a la Delia) for the freezer & put dinner in the slow cooker - curried mince & peas with jacket potatoes. It makes a lot so I will freeze some for another time,
Have also added about another 4 cm to the birthday present knitting (socks) & written a letter to go in with a friend's Christmas card. Feel a bit headachey today. I think I am not drinking enough water, so I have a pint glass by my side to put that right.
Can hardly believe it's Thursday already.
F x

foxgloves

My 12 Past Spendy Sins of Christmas:
No.1 - Failure to realise that Christmas happens every year.

There are no excuses for this one, really, are there, especially as Christmas is a festival which happens on the SAME DATE each year, so there can't be any confusion......as in 'Oh no, is it really 19th November this time? It was 25th Dec last year, so this has really caught me on the hop. Nope! Same date every year. If having it marked in our diaries & calendars isn't enough, there are numerous other clues for the observant: Santa grottos being constructed in garden centres as soon as August BH is over (or actually DURING Aug BH weekend at an establishment not far from us!), gift sets & assorted tat appearing in shops from September, not to mention banners on eateries exhorting workplaces to book their festive meal when most people are still to take their summer holiday! So even if unhelpful goblins had snuck in & ripped the 25th December page out of our diaries, we have plenty of other reminders. There is NO EXCUSE for anyone to be saying forlornly as they look at their truly horrible January bank/card statements ".......& then there was Christmas" ......
Naturally, that is the exact line I used every year when those deeply nasty bills arrived. And the February ones were worse, because by then I'd been to the sales (to be covered in another Spendy Sin). Back in the Spendy Years, I often started my Christmas shopping early - I was never a Christmas Eve panicky dash kind of person, as I enjoyed shopping (& Christmas) too much. What was missing was any kind of budget, even the vaguest idea of one. In truth, it would have been a fairly meaningless exercise back then because I didn't budget at all. I've said before that a large chunk of my salary sank straight into the black hole of my overdraft (which I had for 23 years) & the second half of the month was then spent desperately hoping that the bank wouldn't stop my cards. So for me to have decided that I would 'only spend £200 or £500 on Christmas presents' for instance, would have been plucking a figure from mid-air, as most years, the ACTUAL amount I could afford, taking into account what I already owed, was probably around 20 quid...... or zero!
Oh the difference these days, having Savings Pots, once of which covers presents & Christmas spending. I have been running this system for a while now, so I have come to know how much I need to be in it for 'business as usual'. If for whatever reason in future, I am not able to save as much into that Pot, then I know that I will need to cut back on what I buy. It is worth it because when the bank statements & credit card bills arrive in January, there is no debt. I have already paid for every present purchased by transferring money from my Savings Pot across & paying it off the card. In fact, that card now pays me, because using it for most of the Christmas present spending means loyalty points building up for vouchers (which can be saved as part of the Presents Pot for next time). The first time I began New Year with no debt hanging over from over-spending at Christmas (on top of debt I already had) felt like an epiphany. I won't go back. If one year, my Christmas present budget is half or less of what it is now, I won't ever return to the January & February bills of doom. They were horribly stressful months during which I blamed the bank & being caught off-guard by Christmas when the only culprit for my penury was myself.
So that is the first Spendy Festive Sin vanquished for ever.
I reckon this will resonate with a few people?
Spendy Sin no.2 tomorrow.
F x 

foxgloves

Evening Campers!
My Big Budget Day today, so a busy morning of number crunching fuelled by caffeine & hope. Pleased to say that after a lot of reconciliation of November's budget, particularly ensuring that expenditure on presents had all come from the Presents Pot, all the numbers tallied & I was able to pay a surplus £100 back into the pot ready for February (a rather heavy month for birthdays) & pay both Mr F & myself a £40 Christmas bonus to add to our Personal Spends. He could hardly believe this when I told him. I am just hoping that he will use it to help buy a camera lens he has been hanging his nose over, rather than yet more gubbins to add to his humungous muso, retro TV & film collection. 
Other stuff? Not a lot.....baked bread, wrote a pantry stock-up list for A*di tomorrow, along with a list of the bits & pieces I need from town. 
Anyway, that's my day. Time for another past festive spendy sin........
F x

foxgloves

My Past Spendy Sins of Christmas
No. 2 - Embracing the Twilight Zone.

This is the period between December pay-day (which is usually early, especially in public sector professions) & the end of the month. The Twilight Zone in itself is neither a good nor a bad thing. It just IS. The problem for people who struggle (this wasn't me) or made no attempt (definitely WAS me) to manage their finances is treating this early pay-day as a Good Thing. Naturally I positively embraced it. As soon as the early December pay-date was circulated at work, I'd write it in my diary & sigh with happy relief. "Brilliant", I'd think, "I'll be paid a week early. No need to worry about already being hideously overdrawn & only halfway through the month". I positively embraced the early arrival of my salary as it swanned its way into my bank account to a virtual soundtrack of "Jingle Bells"......or "Jingle tills" in my case, I'm afraid. I know there will be a few of us now reformed old lags who have fallen foul of this one. It doesn't take a Masters in Further Maths (which I don't possess, incidentally) to work out that the only change here is receiving one's pay a week in advance. The month of January is just as long as it always was, & a guaranteed way to make it feel ten times longer, is to fritter & frolic that early pay because its arrival means you "will be ok". As I was routinely spent up & into overdraft halfway through the other 11 months too, my loving embrace of December's early salary arrival meant that I had some truly squeaky Januarys. Again, a completely predictable & avoidable self-made problem in my case.
Since the LBM, I can honestly say I haven't fallen foul of the Twilight Zone again. This morning's budget setting serves as a good example. Pay-day is 20th Dec this year. Usually it would be 27th, so that is a whole week's difference. However, my December budget, as drawn up this morning, runs to normal pay-day. There will be a new budget (for January) done then, or as soon as possible afterwards if I am knee-deep in batch cooking of festive leftovers on the 27th. Apart from just checking online banking to see that the money has gone in, the fact that pay-day is a week early is of no relevance. 
I know that levels of inequality in the UK mean that there are many people who have no choice but to use their earlier December pay as soon as it arrives in order to feed their families & my heart goes out to them for protracted inequality is the scourge of this country. I know I am very fortunate never to have fallen into this category. My own horrible January/February lack of funds, was due to nothing other than my own silly wasteful behaviour. 
So, the Twilight Zone - approach with caution, especially any new readers who are still in the early stages of the debt-free/learning to budget journey. 
Past Spendy Sin no. 3 tomorrow.
Love F x

Sun_Addict

The public sector department I work for has payday the last day of the month, unless it’s a weekend or bank holiday, which means 30th November is the last payday before Christmas. I think it’s a good thing as there isn’t the temptation to go mad with December’s wages. Not that I would nowadays of course 😇 but I’ve worked in the private sector in the past where they do have early December paydays and have gone mad then been skint in January. 

Baileys_Babe

Sun_Addict said:

The public sector department I work for has payday the last day of the month, unless it’s a weekend or bank holiday, which means 30th November is the last payday before Christmas. I think it’s a good thing as there isn’t the temptation to go mad with December’s wages. Not that I would nowadays of course 😇 but I’ve worked in the private sector in the past where they do have early December paydays and have gone mad then been skint in January. 

All the jobs I have ever had in the public sector payday was always the last working day of the month, 31st, 30th, 29th or 28th depending on the month, weekend and bank holidays. For which I was always grateful for, as it removed the temptation.

Tescodealqueen

We were not paid early in my part of the public sector but my OH private company paid on 22 Dec routinely rather than last working day. And we did take advantage of that, meaning January was never ending. Additionally they paid for calendar days not dividing annual salary by 12 so having reached the glorious day in January it seemed to be the same again in March with only 28 days pay in February. Thank goodness for 10 months council tax and water rates to plug that gap

QueenJess

foxgloves said:

Quite a productive morning so far - just stopped for a coffee. Have sorted clean laundry & done the ironing, made Delia Christmas braised red cabbage - now in oven & starting to smell nicely festive & poached fish ready to make a fish pie later.

Ooh - I got a red cabbage in my veg box and was trying to decide what to use it for. I think I have my answer!