I’ve only just realised what a financial mess I’m in.....

savingholmes

I understand where you are coming from with the attached thing. If they are family heirlooms I would keep them. Otherwise I would be tempted to follow the DR view and say you can always buy them / something similar back again when you are debt free. #5K right now would make a huge difference to your morale and peace of mind - at least if you are anything like me.

Blackcats

Hello, You asked about similar downshifting brand stories. I was always a willing victim of marketing people's advertising. Branded laundry products in pretty boxes or bottles that promised to smell like pixie dust and moon shadows or other pretty sounding but unlikely scents plus every branded cleaning product it was possible to buy - again lured in by the promise of my floor cleaner smelling of fresh summer ocean spray or some such nonsense. I shop at Lidl's now and their own brand products are usually great - they do the job they are intended for and smell nice too. And they are sooooo much cheaper.
Good luck on your journey. It's a marathon not a sprint so you need to be kind to yourself along the way. I ask for my favourite L'Occittane products as presents now and I really do savour and enjoy using them as a treat so much more than when they were the norm.

Kitten868

Would you rather have the £5ks worth of jewellery and that 41% card or get rid of both in one fell swoop? That's how I would see it.

Regarding the car it does mean you are £63k in debt and it will hold you back for new credit cards for switches. Just something else to weigh up. You don't need to make all the smart moves today but the more moves you make to reduce your debt and outgoings now the easier the debt free journey feels. I loved having money coming in from Ebay every week and being able to make extra payments all the time. I went through every single bill and outgoing to see if I could reduce it - saving money on my electric and gas, getting rid of amazon prime... I even tried to reduce my council tax but that failed lol. You can do this xxx

Mummy_bear

Just popping by to say I've subscribed and will be cheering you on on your journey, more often with likes rather than comments

DebtFreeAliB

Blackcats wrote: »

Hello, You asked about similar downshifting brand stories. I was always a willing victim of marketing people's advertising. Branded laundry products in pretty boxes or bottles that promised to smell like pixie dust and moon shadows or other pretty sounding but unlikely scents plus every branded cleaning product it was possible to buy - again lured in by the promise of my floor cleaner smelling of fresh summer ocean spray or some such nonsense. I shop at Lidl's now and their own brand products are usually great - they do the job they are intended for and smell nice too. And they are sooooo much cheaper.
Good luck on your journey. It's a marathon not a sprint so you need to be kind to yourself along the way. I ask for my favourite L'Occittane products as presents now and I really do savour and enjoy using them as a treat so much more than when they were the norm.

Hi, Thanks for your message. I will do the same and ask for my favourite things as Christmas presents. You are right - they are much better when you don't have them all the time.

DebtFreeAliB

Kitten868 wrote: »

Would you rather have the £5ks worth of jewellery and that 41% card or get rid of both in one fell swoop? That's how I would see it.

Regarding the car it does mean you are £63k in debt and it will hold you back for new credit cards for switches. Just something else to weigh up. You don't need to make all the smart moves today but the more moves you make to reduce your debt and outgoings now the easier the debt free journey feels. I loved having money coming in from Ebay every week and being able to make extra payments all the time. I went through every single bill and outgoing to see if I could reduce it - saving money on my electric and gas, getting rid of amazon prime... I even tried to reduce my council tax but that failed lol. You can do this xxx

Yeah you are right about the switches. I am struggling to get them at the moment.
I have applied for a loan to wipe out both my high interest credit cards but I will be surprised if I get it. We shall see......

DebtFreeAliB

On the theme of reducing my spending I thought I would write about another thing I no longer buy - scented candles. The other day I surprised myself buy adding up all the money I had not long ago been spending on expensive toiletries - all because I couldn't get enough of the gorgeous smells. Same with candles. Not for me the scented candles in the pound shops and general high street stores! No....I had to have the exotic expensive ones. My favourite and repeated purchases included:

Astier de Villatte Delhi Scent - 260g £60.00 - burn time - 60 hours (from Liberty - I know how many of these I bought because I kept the beautiful hand blown glasses they came in and now use them as gin and tonic tumblers haha).
Noble Isle - Willow Song - £40.00 (burn time - 45 hours)
Molton Brown Mesmerising Oudh Accord - £39.00 for small candle, £60.00 for large
Woodwick Fireside - £23.00

I still love scented candles but cannot justify them anymore. I will perhaps treat myself to one at Christmas and birthdays but the practice of having 3 in the house at any one point in time is wasteful and ridiculous. The fact remains though that I need to have nice scents around me at all times. So my solution has been to go back to something that I loved when I was a poor student 25 years ago.....incense sticks. I have found a great brand on Amazon that I love and I can get 120 sticks for between £5-6 depending on the scent and the seller. The smells take me back to my happy student years and I the house smells great (if a little hippyish haha).

twiggy86

Thought I'd comment as in real life I'm AliB as well! Have you added up how much those two changes alone will save you! They've got to make an incredible difference to how much "spare" cash you have. Sounds like you've already made a brilliant start!

Toni'sfriend

I love scented candles too but they are so expensive I've stopped buying them as well.

The other thing I used to buy every week was flowers. I've stopped that as well and now have some plants instead. If you work out how much one simple bunch of flowers from a supermarket costs per week over the period of a year it's a lot. And I never stopped at just one.

craftyali

I have just started a Diary and slowly reading a few more.

You have made some great changes already. I personally have started on the plastic-free journey with my skin and hair care, so buying shampoo/bodywash/facewash bars, which also save a lot of money (and seem to be improving my skin/hair too - I have Psoriasis). If anyone would like some advice/recommendations for that (and I am also using soapnuts for most of our laundry, and learning about making DIY cleaning products), then get in touch.

Re. car. We have an expensive car on our drive (and I have my own small car, which I would like to sell and use the money to pay off my debt quicker, but hubby wants to keep it as it is so cheap to run, and we use it for all the local journeys). It is a fantastic car (both me and hubby are petrol heads!), but I feel embarrassed owning it when I am paying off debt and hubby is having to adjust to reduced income (due to how we are running our farm business). The already-paid for service plan ends next May, so hubby has agreed to sell it then, or perhaps earlier. I would rather have the debt paid off, savings available for emergencies and the peace of mind with private health in place etc (we plan to spend a fair proportion of the year in Spain). I am sure your car is fabulous too, but the day when you are debt-free will be even more amazing.

Best of luck with it all - and I will follow your Diary.