Curbing my Impulse Spending...

ImpulseSpender

Had a bit of a toss and turn last night lying in bed thinking about have I really made an effort with saving this year so far and paying these debts off? If I’m honest with myself then no I’ve not been as disciplined as I should have been. I’m still buying coffee and food at lunch when I have perfectly good food at home. So this morning I’ve made a proper commitment to myself to kick this debt up the bum.

Inspired by others on here I’ve also decided to do a £12 a day challenge starting from today. That will have to exclude my train fare to work and DD but will cover all other spends.

I CAN DO THIS! :money:

enthusiasticsaver

Only just caught up with your diary and what a journey. Working abroad, new job and getting to grips with budgeting. God comprehensive soa too so have subscribed.

My comments would be first do you have an emergency savings account as there is nothing in your soa to indicate you do? Your debt is at 0% and it looks like you will clear it before the deals expire so I think I would build a mini one before throwing the whole £673 to the debt which would clear it in under a year.

I think getting in the habit of taking lunch to work and not buying coffees out regularly will be a good money saver. It always shocks me people are willing to throw £50 to £100 a month away on buying food out often from sheer laziness or bad time organisation because they can't be bothered to make a sandwich or salad or even take leftovers into work for lunch.

Another thing you might find useful is to add up all your annual bills which are cheaper if you pay upfront like car insurance, train season tickets etc and make a point of saving for them for the following year so you don't have to put them on the credit card.

Good luck in getting rid of the debt.

ImpulseSpender

Thanks EnthusiasticSaver it has been a crazy 6 months or so. I finally feel like I’m finally going to be settling into some normality in the next year with this new role.

I do have an emergency savings pot which is currently at £350 which I didn’t include on the SOA for some reason. But you’re right, I really do need to build that up. At the moment I’m putting £50 a month into when I get paid but any cashback or survey money earned I’ll throw that at it too to build it up.

ImpulseSpender

NSD today so first one for the month! Transferred £12 for tomorrow, and hoping for a NSD so should be on £24 by end of tomorrow. Not sure what I’m going to do with any money left over if there is on Sunday evening. Maybe I’ll carry it over into the following week so I don’t have to transfer as much? Any suggestions welcome

ImpulseSpender

Trains were a nightmare this morning and were delayed massively or cancelled. I didn't end up getting into work until after 9.30 so I bought some breakfast and a coffee as I didn't have a chance to make mine so that dipped into my spends for today by £3.35. The silver lining was because I was delayed over an hour I can claim back the ticket compensation :j every cloud...

I also bought some loo roll after work which was £2.43. So after today I still have £18.22 from the past two days.

I have lunch for tomorrow and I'm travelling back to my parents tomorrow night and so normally I buy something on the way but I've premade some tuna pasta which can be eaten cold to take with me to save money!

ImpulseSpender

Had a lovely weekend with my family and partner. Its always nice to go back to my parents. Spends were quite low and my lovely kind Nan gave me £60. I used this to fill my car with petrol to get back and so luckily petrol didn't come out of my £12 a day challenge.

Because of this I've managed to keep £52.58 out of a possible £72 so I've been good this week on the spends. I'm going to roll it over to next week although I have no intention of spending it. I'm enjoying the challenge of the daily limit so far.

I rounded by bank account down tonight so that's £1.67 into the virtual sealed pot bringing that total to £8.38.

Now I have my car back I'm going to start driving into work as I've done some calculations and I actually think it will be cheaper to do that slightly than getting the train fingers crossed.

ImpulseSpender

Spent £10.29 today on some grocery bits from Mr T and a birthday card for someone in my team. So have £1.31 left over from today.

Need to get some petrol tomorrow so will have to dip into tomorrow’s £12 and what was left over from last week. Going to try and only fill up with £30 as that should last me until the weekend and I don’t want to go too much into the money I saved from last week.

ImpulseSpender

Spent £16.12 on getting some doughnuts and fruit for my team meeting today and then spent £40.57 on petrol. So definitely gone way over my £12 a day challenge. Luckily because I hadn't spent much last week this covered the petrol and that should last me for just over a week.

Tomorrow I'm away for the day so need travel spends for the train which will use all of my £12 allowance for tomorrow but at least that gets expensed back.

ImpulseSpender

Was at an exhibition event for work today so spent £10.74 on lunch which was massively overpriced and I’m annoyed at myself for not taking something with me.

I bought my train ticket with my money away from the daily £12 challenge as it was £20 and I’ll be getting it expensed back.

Hoping for a NSD tomorrow and Friday as I have lunch prepared for tomorrow and Friday I’m working from home.

ImpulseSpender

Not updated in a few days and been a bit up and very down.

Thursday - Spent £4 on coffees and then because I wasn’t seeing my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day I spent £15.35 on an Indian takeaway.

Friday - NSD so was much better.

Saturday - I met a friend in London so spent £16.20 on train fares. Then spent £12.45 on lunch. Bought us two coffee and some soft drinks so another £8.70 and then £3.79 in the train station on the way home on a couple of snacks.

Sunday - This was a disaster. I planned to do my weekly shop and so expected to spend £25-£30. Instead I spent £68.92 in Mr T :eek: Now all of this wasn’t on food. I had to get someone in my team whose leaving a bottle of rum and a card so that added £16 on. I also had to get some shampoo and conditioner and wax strips as I’d run out so that all together was £18. Plus some other cleaning bits I don’t usually buy so there were a few things away from my weekly shop.

I get paid on Thursday so trying to have NSDs until after then. I’ve done one today and really can’t see tomorrow or Wednesday being one so I am hopeful. Feeling motivated after the weekend to get back on it now and stick to the £12 a day challenge again which I’m planning on starting a week today again.