I hope I can do this

Buffythedebtslayer

Hello, Am a similar age and your diary has really made me ponder what is possible

I am very very impressed with your plan. I shall be following cheering you on

XXXX

ftbwannabe

Buffythedebtslayer wrote: »

Hello, Am a similar age and your diary has really made me ponder what is possible

I am very very impressed with your plan. I shall be following cheering you on

XXXX

Aww, thank you! That made me smile! We're not the only ones either, seems like there's a gaggle of us 40-somethings who've decided to Sort Things Out

Turningpenniesintopounds

You need to take the !!!8220;I Hope!!!8221; off your title - you!!!8217;re doing this! great diary, looking forward to following your journey.

ChasingSunshine

You are off to a great start and the snowball calculator is really good as a way to stay motivated. It's so rewarding seeing the DFD coming closer.

For all the !! and numbers appearing in your post instead of apostrophe if you are using an iPhone or iPad you can go into keyboards and turn off smart punctuation. It's a bug that has been on the forum for a while and not yet fixed.

ftbwannabe

ChasingSunshine wrote: »

You are off to a great start and the snowball calculator is really good as a way to stay motivated. It's so rewarding seeing the DFD coming closer.

For all the !! and numbers appearing in your post instead of apostrophe if you are using an iPhone or iPad you can go into keyboards and turn off smart punctuation. It's a bug that has been on the forum for a while and not yet fixed.

Thank you! That formatting has been bugging me. (Hmm, I wonder, too, if there's a better way of replying directly to you than quoting your post).
Also, the time I spend playing with numbers in that snowball calculator is time I'm not spending money :rotfl:

ftbwannabe

Stuff I did yesterday:
- set up my asda orders for the month & if I don't do extra shops, that's only £165 for the month (£100 less than usual). I usually do 2 fortnightly shops for the weeks I cook dinner, then random shops in the other weeks. I reckon those randoms are where all my supposed spare cash is going. So I doubled the quantities for some stuff in the main shop (don't know where I'm going to keep it as our kitchen is titchy) so I should have enough for 2 weeks at a time.
Added biscuits & crumpets to the order, which I never ever do (in case I eat them all), but I regularly buy £3 cake & pastries instead. Maybe having jaffacakes in the house will stop me splurging in cafes?

arranged to sell my 2 old broken iphones for £22
listed some stuff on gumtree
sent a ppi complaint with the resolver on this site (much easier than I expected)
paid £52.82 off one card to make it under £100
paid 1 student loan payment
resisted the danish pastries at the saturday market
Started doing some surveys but got too bored. Donated my existing swagbucks balance to charity instead.
got a new book from the library
went for a walk with bf (free!)
no chocolate, booze or fags

I know I'll run out of big things to do soon, and each day will be more like 'didn't spend money', but I want to keep this up anyway as it's something to focus on & keep me accountable.

ftbwannabe

Stuff I did today
Packaged up my phones, ziffit & music magpie orders (& found some extra stuff to send them)
made lunch for week
made 1 tiny cc payment
picked a card to snowball & set up a s/s to manage that as well as amending my direct debits
cancelled spotify + set up google play to stream the music i own for free instead
found a more few bits to sell on ebay
got a response (but not yet a sale) to one of my gumtree ads

Now I've got my budget in place, my snowball plan set up, most of what i can sell up for sale, & my foodshopping done for the month, I guess now'll be the boring bit, sticking to my guns day by day (& tracking my spending day by day!). Here goes...

ftbwannabe

Today I:
paid £25 to one card
Let a mate buy me a coffee instead of insisting I get my own (& probably get hers too)
Printed labels at work for my trade-in parcels
Shopped around for my contact lenses & saved £9 vs what I'd budget for
Ate free food at work & saved my packed lunch for tomorrow instead
Walked to work even though I was running late & train would have got me in on time (hmm, need to be more organised in morning. It's hard in this heat!)
Put all my fun events in my calendar so I know I have fun & treats ahead
Got enough veg from my allotment for at least one meal this week

I have to say, buying 2 weeks worth of jaffacakes & wine in one go feels unlikely to be a good long term plan - I've already eaten half a pack of biscuits & had half a bottle of wine. It's not like I've suddenly grown self-discipline overnight!

efes_shareholder

That is why I don't have wine in the house unless i am planning on consuming it very very soon...............none of my debts include a wine rack as I never had wine in the house long enough to need a storage place for it

Love Jaffa cakes and they are one of the kinder treats for your waistline - Never quite got how they fall in to the catergory of biscuits though

ftbwannabe

I've finished my new budget, taking on advice given here & taken time to think what's practical in the long-term. Changes are things like:
-not pretending I can go months without spending anything at all (so I keep an entertainment/socialising stash, started an emergency fund & will put aside a small amount for clothes)
-not pretending I can't go months without luxuries (cancelled Spotify & cut down my groceries bill). I'm going to keep the charity donation & non-council recycling service because they are important to me.
-I've rearranged my c card payment to snowball my cards, clearing one Halifax this month & the other by November.
I'm not prioritising my S Loans, even though they have interest, because they aren't on my credit report. But I'll switch to clearing those once I'm down to only 2 c cards.

Here's what I'm planning, let's see how the first month goes

wages 1964.89
Rent 625
C tax 134
Water 39.8
Phone 16.99
Charity 12
extra uttility 3.33
cc4 37
cc1 83
cc2 11
cc5 90
S Loan 1 83.28
S Loan 2 25.51
Groceries 165
Toiletries & contact lenses 30
Social 120
Travel 35
internet 5.89
Clothes 10
emergencies 50

total spent 1576.8
Surplus to snowball onto credit card balance 388.09
Total going to clear credit cards 609.09
Total going to clear debts 717.88