Curbing my Impulse Spending...

ImpulseSpender

Hi everyone,

I have been stalking these forums for the past few days and thought I'd join and do a diary. I find "reporting in" makes me more accountable which in turn helps me to stay disciplined.

I have the following debt below which I am eager to pay off and not have the niggling feeling in the back of my mind. Plus as I'm 24 I seriously need to think about credit scores for mortgages etc.

Credit Card A £258.78 0% Interest - This will be paid off on 22nd of Oct
Credit Card B £3144.96 0% Interest until 21/03/2021
Credit Card C £3564.05 0% Interest until October 2021

My currently salary situation is a bit of an odd one. Before August my salary was £1900 per month however I am currently seconded to a project and have been in Australia since August which comes with an additional £1000 per month allowance meaning my salary per month is £2900. I am returning to the UK in two weeks where this allowance may potentially continue for another 3 months.

This additional allowance has been an actual god send and has allowed me to also start savings as well as paying off my debts. As my IF periods are for another 2-2 and a half years, I figured saving made sense.

My question is, if I am paying £100 each off card B and C each month and saving £300 a month, should I really be decreasing the amount I'm saving (say to 100 per month) and increasing the amount I pay off my debts (say to £200 off each debt per month)?

I'm really hoping my allowance will continue for the next 3 months and I should know by Friday if this is the case. When I'm on my normal salary of £1900, after bills and debts have been paid there isn't a huge amount left over however I definitely need to re-examine my spending because I know I'm a big spender. I have already started to re-examine my spending and there are a few areas I can cut costs.

I'm planning to update this diary every few days so I can discuss and use it to encourage me to cut my spending! Reading everyone else's diaries and success stories has also inspired me.

I've also started an anonymous blog to keep me super accountable which if you're interested can be found at wordpress and is called The Impulse Spender, it won't let me post the URL

Thanks for reading!

Impulse Spender

beanielou

If I was you I would chuck as much as you can at the debt.

ftbwannabe

Welcome! I'd be inclined to prioritise debts, with a small emergency fund on the side so that if (when) unforseen stuff happens it doesn't mean you have to reduce that month's debt repayments. Eg, to cover car or dentist or broken things (not shoe sales or, in my case, books :-)).
If you do an SOA, you might find that helps you cut spending.

ImpulseSpender

Thanks guys, I'm gonna follow your advice and chuck as much as possible at the debt while still keeping a smaller emergency fund.

In good news, my mum is currently using my car whilst I've been in Australia, I'm going to let her continue to use it when I come home as its not essential for me to have a car. This means she's going to pay the loan repayment of it (which I pay to my dad) of 100 a month. Which frees up another 100 to throw at my debts! :j

ftbwannabe

Yay! It is weirdly fun once you focus on clearing them, you see bits of money like that £100 & have extra reason to celebrate. Have you looked into what snowballing is? You pick a card to prioritise clearing first, usually the one with the smallest balance, & throw everything you can on that one (while keeping up minimum payments on the rest). It's satisfying as you can focus on deadlines to clear one at a time, instead of feeling weary about how long it will take to clear everything in total. There are a few spreadsheet templates around that you can plug your info into & see exactly when you can be free of each debt.
Good luck!

ImpulseSpender

Ah I've heard the term snowballing but never actually looked into what it means. That sounds like a good idea, I'll have a look into doing that, thank you for the suggestion!

FiftyQuid

:THello! I know you've come to this decision already but for what it's worth, another vote here for throwing as much at the debt as possible. It's good to have a little put by but debt repayment certainly the priority.

When I was clearing a lot of debt I also did car boot sales, eBay selling, Amazon Marketplace selling etc. as much as I could and I picked up every penny I saw on the street to put into a pot and found a use for all spare change.

I know you've got this if you commit to it :T As you know I'm also trying to recommit to things too.

Best of luck.

ImpulseSpender

Thank you FiftyQuid, I feel so committed and motivated to clear this debts. I already feel so much more in control than I did a few months ago.

Definitely going to have a clear out when I get back from Australia, throw some things on eBay. I did that years ago and made about £150.

ImpulseSpender

So today wasn't a great day for spending. I did intend to have a NSD but due to unforeseen circumstances this wasn't possible.

I went to a dumpling festival with my friend which we had already paid for months ago meaning we didn't need to pay for food. We both got a green tea each which actually for two pots only set me back £3.28 (current exchange rate). We then left the festival and went for a wander around Sydney. I started to feel ill and realised I needed my inhaler (I'm asthmatic), I checked my bag and due to my stupidity I'd forgotten it this day. I never normally forget it, so annoyed with myself! My friend and I jumped on a train home (already paid for, similar system to oyster card) and I started to feel worse. I realised there was no way I could make it to my destination station and then change trains and then walk. I decided to get off at an earlier station and get a taxi which cost me £12.21. While on the train and in the taxi I started to get a real bad red rash on my neck and chest. Once I got back and had taken my inhaler I realised I needed antihistamines for my rash so had to pop to the local shop to get some. Antihistamines, cookies and a fruit drink set me back £11.04.

So all in all I spent £26.53 which is really annoying because the majority of the spending could have been avoided if I'd just remembered my inhaler!!

Anyway in good news, I started using YNAB and I LOVE IT. The first hour was so frustrating but then I found a really good beginners video for YNAB on Youtube by a guy called Nick True. I can fully see where my money is going and how I can truly budget for different things. I'm a bit addicted I think, I keep wanting to budget when it's all done :rotfl:

Does anyone else use YNAB? Any tips for using it?

ftbwannabe

I love YNAB. The app is probably the most important part of my saving/spending changes so far. There are quite a few posts & threads about it in the forums, I bet you'll find lots useful! My tips are to enter each transaction manually + as soon as you make it, & to use the 'budget flexibly' way, eg swap £ between categories as you need.
I got a year free with my student id, but I will 100% pay for it in future years.

litepay

I'm also a YNAB user, but I'm on the old desktop version, YNAB 4. It has a mobile app so I'm entering everything in it. There are three categories that depress me when I check my balances: groceries, eating out, and fun. I spend WAY too much on it. Oh, and holidaying...

I don't have any tips apart from this: give it 2-3 months to fully understand how to work with it.