Frugal, thrifty, make do, mend! Let this debt come to an end!

Cheery_Daff

Will it work if you have virtual pots? So rather than having an amorphous blob of "overdraft" and just leaving excess in there to offset, can you say split it into 'actual overdraft debt' and 'offset money' and try to keep the offset as high as possible?

No idea if that will work, my head's fuzzy today. Am I right in thinking this is a joint account with an ex, or am I confusing that with someone else?!

foxgloves

Overdrafts are an absolute scourge in my opinion. I speak with some experience because I had an overdraft from the age of 19 to well into my 40s. After the LBM struck, it was the first debt I tackled because I found it really demotivating seeing such a significant proportion of my salary disappear every month into a black hole. Once it was gone, I found it so much easier to budget because all of my salary was mine, even though a fair amount of it was still being snowballed at my other debts. Even just the simple factor of not needing to calculate in minus numbers made things easier.
Well worth prioritising getting shot of it - horrible depressing things.
F x

Elisheba

Technically @Cheery_Daff I do have virtual pots, they just don't trick my brain very well because the money is just sitting there. I do also have a joint account but my ex paid off the OD on that and I owe him my half whenever I've paid off everything else. 
@foxgloves yeah, the overdraft is a pain. However, the way I've organised all the payments to come out at the end of the month means I don't get charged much so its my cheapest debt, bar interest free ones, so I can't really prioritise it right now. 

Elisheba

Evening, frugal friends, 
Very little news on my money saving world today. I've made bread (in the breadmaker), spent nothing and eaten food I had in.

Instead of silly ideas about buying a new hoover, inspired my the new Frugal Queen in France video, I watched a You Tube video on how to clean mine. I did what could but don't have the right screwdriver to open up and clean inside the motor, and I think I could probably do with a new filter Hopefully it has improved performance a bit. 

The model of D#son I've got is still retailing for up to £400 so I doubt anything else will be much better. To be fair I love the fact it is cord free, and the suction is fine. It's just the fact that is continually blocking, despite being sold as for an animal household. I've only got a dog and 2 cats, and I hoover a few times a week, but it just keeps blocking with animal hair. The other problem is it keeps telling me the filter needs washed, but hopefully a new filter and cleaning the motor will help that.

I meant to go to the library at lunchtime and forgot so will do that tomorrow. They have a book in I ordered. 

I'm leaving for my holiday a week today, but I should get some fruit in over the weekend and I need oil. Will try to make sure I don't buy much more than that as it will just go to waste. I'll need to buy in cat food and litter as well so the cat sitter can actually feed the monkeys when I'm gone.

I'm off next Monday and have a London trip planned. Don't think I have much else planned for the weekend, so I'll get the fridge cleaned, sort out some clothes for charity, and possibly reorganise my bookshelves a bit.

Hope you all had good days 

Elisheba

Morning all, 

I woke up with the birds this morning, but not in a rush to start my day and my dog is having none of this ridiculous time, so I'm having a coffee in bed and going through things on my phone.

Bit dangerous really! I'm considering getting a few bits and bobs for my holiday. An email had come through from C0tton Tr@ders sale, and then I looked at the website, and it's a good thing my bank card is downstairs as I could easily have spent hundreds of pounds.

Nominally I have a budget of £200 for clothes and shoes for the year. I say nominally as I have been overspending since April on general things, which all comes put of the imaginary pots. The actual situation is I have about £400 which I've earmarked for spending money for my holiday, but if I decide to buy any clothes it's coming out of that. Also I think its quite likely I'll need new hiking boots this winter, and very likely will have to spend a fair whack on them, so that clothes budget won't go far. 

I totally forgot when I posted yesterday that I'm out for dinner tonight. Just a local pub with a few friends, so that should be some nice socialising.

I also need to pop my car to the garage as both headlights have gone. Hopefully it's just the bulbs and nothing more complicated! I might do that at lunch time, and then go to the library tomorrow instead. The battery was changed last month by the RAC so it might be something to do with that. The radio in my car had been demanding a code to work since then, and I don't have the code, so I suppose I'm going to have to phone a R£nault dealership and ask them who I can contact to get a code. Since the car is about 15 years old I'm not massively optimistic. 

Hope every one has fantastic a Friday! 

Cheery_Daff

Shut down that website and back away! You don't need any more clothes!!

What would happen if you were on holiday and couldn't have some exciting experience or meal out or excursion because you'd spent all your spending money on t shirts?? 😱😱😱

Well done for resisting so far! 😊 just trying to give you a bit of a hand if you need one but feel free to ignore me of course 🙈

Elisheba

Thanks @Cheery_Daff I'm not going to buy any of them  . I might pop to T£sco's or M0rrison's before I go and see if they have 2 reasonably priced T shirts, but that is it, and that's more because I am rather short of T shirts than anything else.

missymoo81

Hey Elisheba! Well done on resisting the hoover and clothes. It’s so easy sometimes to just fall into that trap of buying. Especially when there’s a sale!

Elisheba

Evening all, 

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. I ended up with a free last minute trip to the cinema earlier to see Where the Crawdads Sing - a friend couldn't go and I was offered her ticket. I offered her the money but she wouldn't take it. I did some sweets at the garage for it, so total cost for a very nice afternoon of just under £2. Its a great film which I wouldn't have bothered with otherwise, and I cried in quite a few places.

Spent quite a bit on a night out on Friday. Probably more than double what I'd budgeted. I ended up going to see a band across the road from where we had dinner, and the drinks just add up. I live going out and socialising, but it's costing too much money. I might need to think about not drinking. On big nights and after 2 or 3 drinks I'm rubbish at moderation. 

Got my London trip tomorrow so that'll be nice. Have worked out the cheapest times to get the trains, and no booze involved, so it'll stick to budget thankfully as the budget is already pretty high. 

Other than that not a huge amount to report. Had a look in T£sco for Tshirts but didn't like any of them, not that they had many in my size anyway. My hoover seems to be working a bit better since I gave all its bits a clean and the house got hoovered earlier on. 

I'm just looking through my Kindle and Library app to find a book to start. Not sure what I'm in the mood for! Need to make dinner soon. Quorn escalope, peas and chips I think. Dog is walked, animals are fed, so the evening is mine to enjoy. There is a new murder mystery series set in Provence on ITV later so I might watch that as well. 

Elisheba

Trying to focus on work this afternoon, but I literally spent the morning hunched over with a hot water bottle waiting for the Naproxen to start working and now I feel exhausted. I hate cramps!

London trip yesterday was very enjoyable, and I managed to come in just under budget despite one thing costing a bit more than expected.  just about the only budget I have managed to stick to all blooming month so I am very chuffed about that.  Had a big flask of coffee, biscuits and crisps for the train journeys so wasn't tempted to spend anything on the train, and split my tickets such that I was able to avoid some peak time fares.  Saw a friend and had a very nice catch up so that was good.

I've called my food budget for the month as leaving on Thursday and won't need anything else.  A few pence under the budget of £100 so that was also good.

Had to take the car to the garage at lunchtime but I only had to replace 2 headlight bulbs which came to a grand total for about £7.50 altogether. Also asked them if they had any idea how I could get a code for my car radio which stopped working when the battery was changed. The dealership had quoted £30 and I was hoping they could do it cheaper. The receptionist suggested I looked on the internet, and one YouTube video later and I have a working car radio again - which saves me £30!  Will also make the journey up to Scotland on Thursday a lot more interesting than silence or trying to hear my phone over the engine sounds