Actually no, I don't need that new mop...

PawsForThought

Evening all!

I’ve been browsing the website and particularly this forum for a few weeks now since having my… not quite lightbulb, more flickering-dimmer-switch, moment. A common theme among the threads is how helpful all the lovely writers out there have found the accountability of noting down their spends; successes, failures, justifications and rationale. I’m so inspired and awed by all of you so I thought I’d give it a go too

My total debt is currently at £8000, down after a couple of months of slogging away and making a few lifestyle changes. Not a huge figure, certainly by comparison to a few on here. But I have very little to show for it - no mortgage, no nice car, no delightful-if-slightly-spoiled children glowing in the radiance of my money-fuelled splurging. A small amount went towards the cost of studying my Masters (distance learning, part-time study while working full-time, so no excuse of being a student even, d*mn). I’m so cross with myself for just being so ignorant throughout the years of accruing all of this. Enough is enough.

My motivation for finally knuckling down and getting rid of my debt is two-fold really. I am the sort of person who struggles with a 5-year plan and currently have a couple of options that I’m flirting with. In both scenarios, it would be hugely beneficial to be debt-free within a year or two.

• I’d love to do a PhD. Obviously this will hugely limit my income so it simply won’t be feasible to be paying off multiple debts and also stay alive.
• Ori

ginally from Yorkshire, I moved down south after I finished my undergraduate degree for a job I love. But I’m badly missing friends and family back home and would love to be in a position to move closer, with a view to buying a home rather than throwing away over a third of my income on rent. I’m going to start sporadically applying for jobs that really pique my interest and don’t want to turn down a golden opportunity because I can’t afford the cost of moving.

I’m living with my Other Half and our gorgeous furry dog-hter in rented accommodation in one of the most expensive parts of the country (bit of naivety on my part when we originally moved down here). OH is really supportive and happy to move ‘one more time’. He’s self-employed and is reasonably confident he can move his business almost anywhere fairly easily. So moving is definitely a goal, but totally flexible in our timeline.

Debt-crunching is slow going at the moment; because I’ve just applied for a job, I’m currently throwing extra/spare cash into a savings account. If it doesn’t lead anywhere, some of this money will go towards over-paying debts. I’m using the Snowball technique I’ve gleaned about from my lurking on this site (or I will be once I know what to do with this extra income)! I feel that I’ve exhausted my selling stuff I don’t use option and have started doing online surveys but struggle to find the time to sit down and do them, so making additional income is tricky. Obviously, this means crunching the budgets.

I do my own budget sheets and have started noting down every.single.damn.spend, which is tedious but has the benefit of making me question every purchase, knowing I’ll have to open up the journal later. I’ve cut out on loads of unnecessary things; subscriptions like Audible and Spotify, my clothing and hair budget and so on. I’m attempting to cut down our household food budget but with £50 a week for two of us, including toiletries and cleaning products, I’m struggling to find the wriggle room. OH has a physical job and needs to eat a huge amount of protein to avoid dropping weight any more and risking his health. He is off-setting this by contributing a bit more to the communal expenses account each month, bless him.

I’m an avid list-maker so I’m slightly enjoying some aspects of this debt-crunching exercise, like the serial planning around Christmas. Last year I think I spent about £800 hosting some friends for one night. Ludicrous. Doesn’t even account for travel expenses or presents, so I dread to think what the actual cost was *shudder*. This year WILL be different!

Evidently, I’m mildly optimistic about my ability to crack this, almost (not quite) looking forward to the journey. My goals are:

• Have a cheapo Christmas. I’m happy to explain to close family and friends that I’m tightening my belt to achieve my plans of moving/PhD, but I can’t avoid the travel costs that I’ve already committed to. Mostly, I don’t want to avoid them…. ahem.
• Not accrue any more debt in the short term (or long term obviously, I basically mean don’t spend beyond my means in this festive period).
• Be debt-free by March 2020. Currently achievable if I stick to my guns but I suspect there may be attempts at thwarting it and self-sabotage en-route.

In case you were wondering, plucking up the courage to start this thread is partly inspired by my epic MS achievement today of not ordering a new mop when the mop head just needed replacing, as I would have done in the past. Feeling pretty smug: long may this spirit live on!

PawsForThought

Good afternoon (just)!

Not a hugely exciting week, although it was payday on Wednesday, which meant that some of my debts trickled out of my account yesterday. I can't begin to explain how tragically excited I was to mark off a few sorry squares (brightly colour-coded, of course) in my 1% debt square sheet. This is an idea I have to admit I have borrowed from someone else in this forum - from the days before I had an account and I'm afraid I can't remember who, but thank you, kind and creative stranger! Clearly it's having a big impact on me, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it fill up with colour!

Also got £7 of Tesco clubcard vouchers, winning!

Here's a breakdown of my debts. Orange is what I've paid off now, over what the debt was a few days ago (pre-pay day):
£100 /£2500 CC (0% interest for 18 months, recently moved over)
£209/ 600 Car repair loan
£160/ 1600 Bank loan
130.50 / 3300 Student finance overpayment (I really think they shouldn't have given it to me in the first place but it definitely was mostly my fault)

Which means I've already paid off a whopping £606.50 of £8000! I might not be able to achieve this every month - the £100 on the CC is higher than minimum overpayment so when things get tight I won't necessarily be able to manage that. But feeling good! The car loan will be paid off soon so I can throw that towards another payment.

All of the above include interest where applicable, so if I can overpay the bank loan at some point the net total should go down.

I've just received money for some old books from Ziffit and made a few (fairly rubbish) ebay sales so will be sticking those extras into the savings pot until I find out what's happening in the coming months!

Next thing to do is a SOA...

eveningontheground

Just had a look at your diary, you're making huge steps in the right direction - over £600 paid off from one payday, that's amazing! Subscribed, hopefully your diary will keep me motivated

Starmummy

Hi Paws. Welcome to the forum.

That's some fantastic progress so far and some really fantastic goals to look forward to.

My advise would be to update regularly, especially on those days where you feel embarrassed for over spending or didn't budget. The confessional aspect of the forums has really helped me be at peace with the process and helped me stick to it.

Good luck and take care
SM

PawsForThought

Thank you Evening and Starmummy for your posts and encouragement, I'm already feeling more motivated Four days in I already have confessions which I'd avoided in my last post - was feeling particularly grumpy on the drive home from work on Wednesday so nipped into Tesco and bought us some ready meals instead of cooking the lovely meal from scratch that I'd planned and have all the ingredients for - whoops! I did feel a lot better afterwards, until the guilt started to kick in

I really hope I can keep up the momentum on paying things off but Christmas is going to be a tricky one. Will have a browse across the forums for some epic MSE gift ideas!

eveningontheground

I wouldn't sweat the Tesco detour too much - it's better than a takeaway at least, and you'll still be able to cook from scratch another day.

In terms of Christmas I really like Boots for saving money on presents, they do their 3 for 2 beauty gift sets and things. I did the bulk of my shopping there this year, they've got extra advantage points until Monday as well if you have one of their Advantage cards, so that's free money for when you need a toiletries top up or a wee treat for yourself.

I also tend to half in with my little sister for all the family gifts so that saves me a load every year too, in money and in time. Divide and conquer :rotfl:

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

Onebrokelady

Happy new dairy,having read your first couple of entries I'm going to subscribe becasue I like your writing style,well done on resisting the mopj:beer:

PawsForThought

OH is away this weekend so have enjoyed some peace with the pooch, but instead of the lie in I’d intended, I was wide awake at 5:30am… on a Sunday! Not very impressed. I gave in staring at the ceiling and got up just after 6, have pottered about doing some boring domesticy bits and planning for the week ahead.

Thanks Evening for your support! I wouldn’t say I’m sweating the issue but I’m hoping reflecting on it here will make me hyper-aware of my unnecessary emotional spending/eating habits and check myself next time. Maybe it’s something I can control against in the future by making up some fakeaway type foods or snacks to keep in the freezer so I’m not tempted by Tesco’s seductive bright lights on the way home? Thanks also for the top tips about Christmas - I’m always keen to find ways to earn free treats for me!

Thanks also to beanielou and Onebrokelady (I love your username and when I said it in my head it came out with a funny accent). I’ve always enjoyed writing and have been meaning to start blogging or something on and off for years, but life always gets in the way (and I can never think of enough content to keep things interesting and slink away from the computer feeling like an extremely dull 26 year old Grandma - where are all these exotic adventures the media promised I would have in my twenties?!)

So, exciting MSE related plan for the week:

1. Do a SOA this afternoon, after a week of procrastinating
2. Have a ‘use up the stuff in the freezer’ week so that I can defrost it… ice seems to be growing out of control and at risk of taking over the kitchen
3. Do a cheapo foodshop at Aldi this morning without getting tempted by rubbish from the random middle aisles
4. Make some home-made jam with frozen berries and dregs of booze that always get neglected at the back of the cupboard. Will give as Christmas presents, if not a total disaster (this will be my first attempt at making jam, due to having lots of random frozen berries in the freezer - wish me luck!)

ImpulseSpender

Good luck with the jam, sounds delicious. Great idea for Christmas presents too!

Onebrokelady

:rotfl: what was the accent
Good luck with the jam it sounds yummy,I've never had a go at it but have always been meaning to at some point,our last bag of frozen berries which we bought thinking we would use to top our super healthy breakfast were used last week in a crumble:rotfl: and we are still havin toast or cereal for brekky