Looking forward - my diary!

marc.faulkner

Good Afternoon All,

First of all, a big thank you to Martin for this fantastic site.

Also, massive thanks to benbenandme for inspiring me to take the plunge and get my life back on track. I read through your diary last night (yes,all 39 pages!) and it's really given me the motivation I need to get things done. You're an inspiration to us all, hun.

Right, where to start...

...Okay, I'm a young (19!) single guy, living on my own in a rented bedsit. I have a reasonable income and very few debts. What money I do owe, is owed within the family and as such is flexible in terms of repayment and does not carry interest or cahrges. I hate to have to admit it, but I have become extremely frivolous as far as money is concerned and fear that I'm stucj in a downward spiral.

I also feel that I have become lazy and unhealthy, rarely exercising properly anymore and never finding the time to eat healthily! (Meaning ready means and takeaways, no good for my wallet or body )

I'm using the start of the new year, only a few weeks to go, as the starting point for my new frugal, healthy life.

I'm just going to go and grab a lemsip (well, a co-op hot lemon powder - see, I'm starting already!) and then I'll come and post some of my money saving plans s far. I'm also going to try and do my SOA, although I really don't know where to start, everythings in such a mess!

Marc

hypno06

Why wait until new Year? You have made the first steps already.....may as well carry on now!!

Welcome aboard!

marc.faulkner

Thanks Hypno.

I'm not really waiting until the new year, I am starting now. Just allowing myself the period between now and Jan 1st as a transitional period - where I wont be too hard on myself if I splurge a little, and also it gives me time to get my budgeting sorted properly and also my accounts in order (opened, closed etc. as necessary).

Got my lemsip now; yuck, how I hate these things. :rolleyes: Oh well, not as much as I'm hating this cold...

Okay, now to start on my plans and aims. A warning, my next post will be a long one.

Savvy_sewing

good luck with re organising your life. Its amazing what some of the people on here manage to do. I am a newbie here myself. Never really had the time before. I have 2 19 year old twins. The mess they have managed to accrue is staggering. I am just trying to sort them out before they go the same way as I did. Bankrupt. Its no fun. Take a look at the money lessons martin has on the board, he did one just for schools. but it works with everyone.
The food side of things, you need to look at some of the menu challenges. I am sorry that I am no good at the technical stuff so I cant post the links. Must learn. But someone will be along soon and tell you where things are and how to find them.
Be positive. By the way, we put a spoon of honey and a squeeze of lemonjuice in hot water and drink that when we have a sore throat or cold.

marc.faulkner

Okay, I'm really struggling to do a proper SOA as it currently stands, as to be honest I really don't know! I'm going to have a go at a budget though (which will be starting Jan 08) and also try to keep a speding diary.

In terms of supplimenting my income, I'm going to have an ebay listing night tonight and also apply to AQA. Going to have a go at getting into MSing too.

Budget

Income
My standard, net pay is £227.97, paid weekly.

Outgoings

Rent - £325 PCM (including gas, electricity, water, council tax)
Mobile telephone - £10 PM *
Food - £80 PM
Petrol - £80 PM ( Currently about £100, I think)
Contents ins - £10 (Just looking through the companies on Quidco)



* Mobile - I was spending at least £30 PM with O2 PAYG, however have just bought a 3 skype phone so only planning on £10 now. I must start using the landline more...

Ok, this is as far as I've got so far. I'm going to keep adding to it whilst watching Star Wars

hypno06

Def a pretty good start. Have a look at the Free Christmas 2008 challenge - even if you don't use it for that purpose, it will give you some ideas. Also, it might help you get to your one year DFW anniversary with money in the "bank" for Christmas without the need to spend any "real" money, if you see what I mean!

Daft question, perhaps, but do you know how much you owe and have a timescale that you would ideally like to pay it off? You don't have to post it here if you don't want, but it is amazing how many don't actually have any idea of the amount outstanding etc!!

marc.faulkner

I owe about £1675 to my family.

£850 to my aunt, which I borrowed to by my car
£200 to my mother, which I borrowed to repair my previous car (have paid back £50)
£325 to my granded, which I borrowed for the bond on my flat (actually borrowed £225, then another £200, then paid off £100)
£150 each to two aunts, towards my flat bond and advance rent.

These figures might not be completely accurate, I can't find my notebook at the moment which I had been using to record what I have borrowd and repaid etc.

I don't have to pay them back within any specific timescale, but I'd like to have it all paid off by 2009 (plus have a bit of money saved).

I'm going to see if I can fund next xmas entirely from vouchers

marc.faulkner

Oh, I forgot to mention;

I bought a new Skype Phone on 3 for £49.99, but have sold my old, tired Samsung to a colleague for £20. I've also bought a SE k800i from another colleague for £30, and have just got £44.72 from Envirofone, to spend in Argos. (Planning on keeping this as a start to my present fund).

Oh, and I also got £10 free credit for moving my number to three. It's a shame I didn't know about Quidco before buying, but never mnd.

marc.faulkner

Just renewed my contents insurance via Quidco (I've gone with Lloyds TSB).

I was paying £148.07 per year with More than, and paying interest on my monthly payments. I'm not paying £96.84, with 0% on monthly payments.

Just waiting for it to track in Quidco.

hypno06

OK, so your challenge is to find an extra £140 a month and you will have paid everyone off by this time next year.

Head over to the "make £10 a day" challenge thread and get some ideas there. You should easily be able to do this.

You seem to have your head screwed on, and have made an excellent start. We just need to keep your mind focussed and make sure you have no need to borrow any additional money.

Do you put money away for car tax etc? You don't want to be hit with an unprepared-for bill when that is due, so if need be, buy stamps for it, or open a new bank account just to put some money away each month to cover this and anything else that crops up.

taxi73

Welcome and well done on what you have done so far..be warned you'll be addicted to this site...it will help you budget if you plan everything either monthly or weekly but stick to one and a spending diary is a real eye-opener...good luck