Mof's Muddle

Mofette

I'm in a never-ending cycle of bad decisions and "I've earned it" purchases, compounded by a compulsive shopping habit and best friend in a foreign country.

My dad was an accountant, which makes this even harder to admit, because he was always so careful to never leave us wanting and I don't think I ever understood how to make money work.

Long story short, I have some debt. My husband and I aren't great at saying no to each other. He can have a nice beer, I can have a Nail Polish (We don't need to drink more and I have ~1700 bottles, though I only collect one brand and vintage ones now, so it's few and far between)

I'm also currently going to Slimming World. I REALLY hate paying someone to tell me I'm still fat, but it's working and I've lost 70lb (5 stone / 32 kg) so I'm loathed to stop. This also means that I need occasional new clothes, and my shopping bill for food has gone up from around £30/week to £60/week due to all the low-fat meat and fresh veggies. That has been tough to get used to, doubling our food bill.

Our debts are as follows:
£6,720.00 on my Mastercard - 0% on purchases until Feb 2019, 0% on BT until Dec 2020.
£ 957.21 on fella's Mastercard. Interest at 12.9%
No overdrafts

Our Monthly Commitments are a little on the high-side at £1674.51, due to paying for our only car, but as we share commute and it's our only vehicle, I would rather have this than a banger that could need money spending at any point. We just wouldn't have the money and the cycle of 'buy cheap, buy twice' would go on!

Our cash money is as follows:
£200 Emergency fund for if I have to pay dentists (last week), wasp removal (today) and stuff like that. We intend to get it to 9 months of bills, but really, debt is so important.

£100 a month each for spending money. Fella puts his on his credit card to cover his pc I built, I put £60 on the ccard to pay off a large purchase I made, the other £40 is to keep my shopping habit manageable. I don't think that Cold Turkey would work?

£300 a month auto-payment onto my card - this would make us certain to be below both the limits on the days that the interest starts charging. Without further spending it should be clear by Feb 2020. Lots of wiggle room in case of more failure.

£400 a month to 'savings' for holiday usually, thought that will now go to the other card as that charges interest. Once that is gone it's paying my parents back for the holiday we've all got booked to my best mate's wedding next May.

All-in-all we're in a great place. 2 reasonable wages, our own place, it could be a lot worse. I just need this diary to try stop me from spending. I think posting every time we end up spending a fortune on craft beer, or spending on the credit card that's naughty, it'll shock me. Honestly we just need some accountability, as apparently we're weak and incapable of doing it for ourselves.

Sorry this one won't be as interesting and satisfying as some of the others out there, but I gotta keep my eyes on the prize.

Mofette

So today went badly as fella discovered a wasps nest in the roof. Dad told me to look into council extermination, £57 paid out.

Tomorrow I visit Sunderland to see a friend. That will also go badly as we're going to the Airshow and a pub or two. Why are we like this? At least it co-incided with my parents ALSO going north, so we're splitting the travel costs.

Fella's birthday today and he's about to work 17 days in a row. That's 2 weekends but we can do with the extra money, it's the best chance we have. I already had some presents saved up to give him, so at least there was no outgoing there.

Next weekend is an event we've already bought tickets for, and I think we can BYOB, so that cuts costs down. Share a taxi with a mate, cheap evening!

Mofette

Sunderland went cheaply, least because my poor friend wasn't well for most of it, but also because BUPA repaid me for some dental work that I'd already counted out.

Payday is on Wednesday - there will be no spending before then!

Mofette

Still having minor breakthrough moments. They may seem 'pathetic' but every little one counts

We're going away to france in 3 weeks time, and to avoid blinding everyone with my whiteness I've been using a sunbed.

Instead of carrying on and buying another 30 minutes before holiday, I'm just going to use up my remaining 14 and be done with it. People can cope with my white belly instead. £18.50 saved.

efes_shareholder

the minutes you have already spent will be enough for a good base to tan from

just a couple of sessions climatises the skin

Mofette

Thanks ES, I know that myself but I've really been feeling the pressure to be tanned this year. Everyone keeps commenting on how nice I look, when I'm used to being practically see-through.

I really hate that my Credit Card doesn't come out on or around the 1st of the month. I have to wait 7/8 WHOLE DAYS until the payment goes. If I made it early it would cancel the direct debit... maybe that's the way to go until I'm more comfortable? Just pay it myself... I think I'd be happier seeing that money gone and totals updated on the first of the month.

We've been paid, I've played with our budget spreadsheet which is on Google Sheets. I created it myself back around 8 years ago, but it's obviously done me no good. Simply looking it at it hasn't curbed my spending habits.

Monday/Tuesday were NSD which was nice. Today is only planned bills, next spend will be Friday for Groceries and to take out cash for the shared taxi on Saturday. Drinks are already purchased (I have a stash of Gin) so BYOB is my favourite kind of night out

I started using that "Cleo" thing on facebook, which analyses my spend. Frankly it's not telling me anything I don't know, and it's muddled up because of the holiday we took last month, but it's free so I'll try it.

I've been trying to earn on Prolific, but my account was frozen before and I never seem to see any surveys. I'm also too honest for my own good on populus live. I keep getting screened out

Mofette

I paid it manually. I feel better. My spreadsheets all add up and the other bills are only cat insurance etc. CLEAN.

In other news, I'm off to Slimming World tonight. I put on 8lb in Belgium (thanks, beer!) but it was worth it. Hopefully a couple have gone tonight.

I'm quite struggling with exactly how to occupy my time and 'reward' my good deeds when I'm not allowed to drink tons or eat rubbish or buy pretty things. Seeing friends always involves drinking, travelling or waiting for their timezone to catch up.

I've tried getting really into the computer games I have on steam, but they aren't doing the same thing for me that spending money was. I've already planned my holiday in Canada next bloomin May to within an inch of its life. I do have the Tripadvisor reviews to write from Belgium, that should keep me sorta busy.

I live in a terrible area and my fella won't come with me or I'd go out running.

I moan a lot. I guess I'm just having a bad time right now. I feel so useless that I've not spent a single adult day without being in debt. I'd buy myself a wall chart and stickers for good days of no spending, but that would cost money

Toni'sfriend

I feel so useless

You're not useless. You just need to change your spending habits and you'll get lots of help and support on here.

ftbwannabe

Now I want beer & computer games too :rotfl:
Would reading work as a way of spending time & getting kicks? I get e-books & audiobooks from my library, so I don't even have to leave the house, just download them from my sofa. If you choose the right book you can have an exciting few hours, whatever genre floats your boat. Or, walking to the library could be a way to spend time. Still browsing, but not shopping.

beanielou

You are not useless
You are off to a good start.
You could target the smaller card first.
Having NSD's will help.
Chuck everything to the smaller card.
It becomes really addictive

Mofette

Epic Failure. With the best of intentions and all the good will in the world, we overspent by DOUBLE our weekly budget.

We bulk-buy chicken from Crawshaw's Butcher - and they had the usual boxes of chicken but you had to buy 2 to get the usual price. So that was £40 on chicken. It's all frozen and prepared and bagged up in nice little 480g bags, but I still feel that because I want to get the savings, I have to overspend when I can't.

Fella needed new jeans as his wore through, I needed new jeans as I've lost too much weight for the last pair (nice problem to have) so that was £19 on three pairs. Same deal with a bikini for France, £9, couple of other items we didn't need but Matalan was cheap as chips... you can see where this is going

£7.49 on some stuff to clean cat pee, because boy cat hates it when we're away, no-one quite does the litter to his liking. I really need to buy a new feliway plugin but that's not possible this month. On the list for our overspend the first week of September then?

We went to the pub and spent £21 on beers with a friend. For craft beer that's not bad but still, not really needed. Also something had gone wrong with the pub's payment system, and we got charged bloomin £19 for some beers on the 7th of July!! Admittedly that was the last time we went out and got beers, so once a month for around £20 isn't bad, but still. It's not 'NOT SPENDING'.

BUT I'm going to stick some positives in here:
1. we walked and didn't take the bus
2. I returned something that didn't fit!
3. none of these spends went on the credit card - I would've ignored the 'damage' if they had
4. we can just eat chicken for every meal next week, so groceries goes down to 'only vegetables and milk' which won't be exciting but it'll have to do, won't it.

NSD until Friday, I'm determined.