I just don't know where to begin with this

clairebeth

Yes, I absolutely agree with the above. Allocate all your money into your spending pots and pay off all your debt payments on payday. Then it's done and you know exactly what you have to live on.

salXYZ

Hello guys,

So another weekend done and it's actually been ok. THis weekend had the potential to be tricky as we had some prearranged plans with friends as one of our good friends turned 40 last week. Normally this would be a very spendy event - food out, drinks etc. We toyed with not going but then we decided against that. We have to have a life, however we didn't to blow the budget. I decided to drive which immediately meant that our drinks bill was more than halved! I like to drink gin when I am out and the place we went was quite expensive at £10ish per double with tonic!! I have 2 diet cokes and a sparking water. Husband had a few lagers. Total spend - £23. To compensate we have spent today meal planning and looking at what we have in our freezer. We reckon that we can get away with a £40 food shop this week and still eat well.

I have to say, I am quite enjoying the challenge at the moment. I am under no illusions that things will get boring as we progress, but at the moment it feels good.

It's my mums 70th next weekend. I paid for her present months ago before I had my wake up call, so at least I don't have to think about that now! We are going for a meal next weekend. My dad is paying, however I have agreed to get the decorations etc. I reckon I can do it for a tenner if I go to card factory. Normally I would have ordered loads online and just banged it on my credit card. I also want to get her some flowers for our son to give her. We have a friend who is a florist so I have asked her to prepare me a £15 bunch.

At some point this week we are going to sit down and talk about Christmas! We both know that it will be a very different affair this year. The only think that matters to us is that our son has a good time. We are not buying presents for each other. Thankfully we already stopped buying presents for other adults a couple of years ago, however we do have 4 nieces and a nephew so this needs to be planned. We normally eat at home on Christmas day, however we have agreed to go to my parents this year so this will also help the budget! We both like Christmas so we have decided to save £50 from the next two paydays as a 'Christmas treat' fund for the pair of us. We will use this for wine, snacks etc but when it's gone, it's gone!

So far this month we have paid just over £2000 towards our debts. We have just under 2 weeks until payday but we actually have a decent amount of money left in our account which is very unusual for us. It just shows how much we were wasting.

I think I need to start a diary

fatbelly

salXYZ wrote: »

I think I need to start a diary

I think you already have!

lessonlearned

Wow!!!

Well done, you have made a cracking start. You have received some great advice so I won't rehash.

I have a thread called "Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget" over on the Old Style Board. Basically, it's what it says on the tin.....how to live well and have fun when you've got nowt. :rotfl:

Lots of ideas on there. So why not take a look.

You can still live it large when you're skint - you just need to be a bit canny, using imagination and creativity. I firmly believe even if we are debt busting or saving for a big purchase we all still need to have fun in our lives, especially when you have children, so I would advocate you start thinking about ways to incorporate some fun times into your budget.

Off the top of my head.......next time you need to renew insurance or switch providers go through Compare the Market and get the Meerkat 241 deal. Great for cinema and meals out.

Holidays.....yes you did right cancelling your expensive one but I'm sure you can do something. Holidays and fun times are what build memories.

I realise I may sound frivolous but my attitude is I might be skint but I see no reason why I cant have a few luxuries, live in style and have some fun. So whilst debt busting dont deprive yourself of everything........set something aside for fun, entertainment, holidays.

Take a look at the Sun newspaper holiday deals. They cost peanuts and are great for mini breaks in the U.K. ok they are usually self catering but it's still a nice break.

I'm guessing you will be restricted to school holiday dates but if you plan ahead and shop around there might be some deals.

If you like the great outdoors - maybe camping.. (I have to confess not my thing:rotfl:). But maybe self catering in a cottage or caravan, or even a gite in France. Or Air B&B. I once rented a fabulous three bedroomed 2 bathroom luxury apartment in Barcelona for 100E a night. The flights cost peanuts and it was over the May Bank holiday weekend, so not even off season. The deals are there you just need to winkle them out. As mad as it sounds take a look at cruises, some great bargains to be had, and they are some really good family friendly ones. Our kids loved them.

Days Out.....can be free, museums, galleries etc. Look out for deals such as Groupon. Sign up to your local councils what's on guide.

If you like big posh country houses join something like the National Trust or English Heritage. You can then visit as often as you like, many have lovely grounds or gardens, take a picnic. If you have a favourite zoo consider a years membership, again you can visit as often as you like. Maybe you could ask for membership for Christmas presents?

Re Christmas.....maybe less "stuff" and concentrate more on the entertainment side.....maybe the panto or the big Christmas movies at the cinema, spending time with friends.

I agree with the idea of being really strict initially to tackle the most expensive debts first but don't try to sustain too tight a budget for the longer term. No point in making yourselves miserable. "All work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy". (And Jill a very dull girl). Lol.

Maybe have a three month moratorium on all non essential spending. That means no clothes shopping other than needs not wants for your son (They have a nasty habit of growing :rotfl: so you are bound to have to shop for him at some point) but you and your husband should be ok for 3 months. So shop from your wardrobe. If that's too hard, maybe try charity shops. I love chazzers and have an amazing wardrobe of really fab clothes......nearly all of them preloved and most of them much better quality and more interesting than stuff you find on the high street.

I wish you well. One thing I will say, try to see this as a fun challenge. Treat it as a game and not as a penance or punishment. You have a great income and with a bit of luck and a fair wind you should soon start smashing those debts.

Good luck and remember "why wear a hair shirt when you can wear silk". :rotfl: Just use your imagination and creativity and you can still have fun, live well, eat well, travel and live with style and panache even if you have the tiniest of budgets.

salXYZ

So a good thing happened today. I received a 0% offer for a creation credir card that I have but that had no balance - 0% for 12 months. I have transferred 4K from my horrendous MBNA card, I did have to pay a 3% (£120) transfer fee, however this will save me around £80 per month in interest. Even if keep payments as they are it will clear almost an additional 1K of debt over the next 12 moths due to there not being any interest. Happy about this.

I also found a bar of Cadburys fruit and nut in the fridge salad draw. It's been a good day today

enthusiasticsaver

A good day today then. Saving yourself £80 a month interest is great.

Do you want me to move this thread to the Diaries section?

foxgloves

Hi,
I read your post about a typical 'pre-LBM' shopping trip to town & I really recognised that behaviour. We didn't tackle our debts & silly overspending behaviour until we were in our 40s, & I've been using my DFW diary to explore the difference between my old attitude to money & how I am now. Our income wasn't as high as yours, so we weren't spending quite such large sums, but oh my goodness, the whole massive money-fritter of buying breakfast out, followed by coffee, then lunch..... that's without taking into account actual non-food purchases, as my partner likes gadgets too, & I just liked shopping full stop!
Anyway, it's all very different now & we both agree we are much happier being in control of our money. I just wanted to pop along to say that when we were first working on getting ourselves debt free, the thing that helped me most was finally accepting that the amount of money coming into our bank account each month is OUR money. There isn't any more. So if we are using credit cards, loans or overdrafts to buy whatever it is, we can't afford it because that is Somebody Else's Money, not ours, so we definitely can't afford it.
Basically, something my Mum & Grandma told me for years, but once I truly recognised & accepted this for the simple truth that it is, getting rid of our debts seemed quite a lot easier.
Good luck. You have a good income & I'm living proof that bad money habits can definitely be changed!
F
I

EssexHebridean

Scrimps wrote: »

Hey, I'm glad you're feeling better. If I may suggest; rather than being super frugal and seeing what you have left, write a budget and stick to it. Before pay day, sit down and work out exactly how much you will be getting and exactly what you need to spend for the month ahead then whatever is left over, use to pay off the debts as soon as the money hits your account. You will make much faster progress if you do this.

If you do it the other way, you will most likely dip into the balance unnecessarily and spend money that could be going to your debts instead. If you have already paid it off the balance then the money is gone and it can't be spent again.

I also second what another poster said about doing weekly shops. Doing that has reduced our top ups required which resulted in reduced spending. Also, taking money out every Friday for the food and buying everything I need for the week frees up my mind so I'm not counting down to the next payday. When we did a big shop to last a couple of weeks and 'top ups', i found I was always waiting till pay day even if I hadn't run out of money, kind of waiting until the next big shop I think.

This approach works well if someone already has an emergency fund in place but should be approached with caution if not.

EssexHebridean

Sal you're doing so well - and hurrah indeed for magically appearing chocolate!

When putting together a meal plan, the first thing I do is to check the fridge, freezer, larder and cupboards for what I already have - then I try to build my meals around those, prioritising anything in the fridge that needs using. So this week I had some lamb, a couple of cooked sausages and some chicken in the freezer. The lamb & the sausages are being factored in to meals this week. I also try to remember to check Aldi's Super 6 and Lidl's Pick of the week for fruit and veg too - currently Aldi have butternut squash for a good price so I bought a good sized one which did a risotto last night, and will do a curry next week. Once I have my core ingredients in place I then work out what I will need to buy for those meals. Finally I add the "regular" stuff like milk, fruit for our lunches, yogurts for after tea, and that sort of thing. I also keep a running list on my phone which gets things added to it as I approach using them up - and that means I usually have a few weeks grace to watch for special offers to buy those on.

Start to learn your "threshold prices" for certain things as well - and also make sure you maximise value. I only use Fairy washing up liquid but only EVER buy it on offer and always make sure I grab the largest bottle I can within that offer range - so currently Tesco have a 2 for £3 offer on - but on bottled that vary from 625ml to 820ml - so I always make sure I buy the 820ml size. Little things like that can make a huge difference, and over time they just become second nature, too.

Andyjflet

Heres ,my take, and sorry to sound very Dave Ramsey but he works for me...

Save and put away £1000 emergency fund
Then start snowballing the debt, look at the option of the smallest balance first, however I do agree with everyone on the VERY balance, thats outrageous.

Like others, I do a lot of my shopping at Savers and the like, looking for offers on Fairy liquid, shampoo, washing powder, toilet rolls etc.

I'm also running the EMMA budget app and just starting to categorise everything, I can see I spend too much on eating out, plan is to cut that by half this month at least from £100 to £50 for the month.