From broke to better ..a journey

Flossymuldoo

Great steps so far @lillypoo. I have subscribed and will be cheering you on!

bigbeff

Good start! I'm following your journey 😊

IndiJonesi

@lillypoo I've subscribed too and am also cheering you on...well done on the extra shift, Indi x

foxgloves

Good luck with your debt-busting plans, @Lilypoo. You will definitely start to feel better with a plan in place. I think you are maybe slightly older than me (going on your years till state pension) but definitely we are the same age cohort in terms of attitude to money. I never saw any debt or irresponsible spending at home while I was growing up, but our parents & grandparents' attitude to money would very much have been influenced by the war years, the rationing into the 1950s & generally 'being sensible'. Of course becoming an adult in the 1980s just loosened those attitudes & with a new no-stigma approach to credit, I was in debt by 19 & didn't begin tackling it until my early 40s! Borrowing & 'having stuff' just became the norm & I don't doubt that there will be many of our cohort going into retirement still with significant amounts of debt.
We became debt free when I was 46. I wanted to say that as you get into paying your debt down, you will probably find that getting the total under the next £10 or £100 will begin to provide the little mental uplift you used to get from buying stuff. That's definitely what happened to me. I took the attitude that every £ made or saved was an extra £ gone off the debt. All those small things add up. I was saving 20p pieces in a tube & paying them off a debt when I'd got £10's worth, doing surveys, selling the occasional handknitted item, selling unwanted stuff on ebay......no big money makers there, but every small extra payment off the debt reinforces its downward trajectory. 
Our debts were definitely a result of persistent overspending, failing to live within our means & no budgeting of any kind. It is definitely possible to have a major change of attitude - as I often say now, there is simply no bag of tat I could come home with now which would make me feel as happy as being debt-free does.
Best of luck with it all.
F

lillypoo

Thanks to those who have read and commented. I will do a diary entry later today.

Feeling a bit torn this morning. The last time I went out for a meal was over 4 years ago. Now here I am, fully committed to getting rid of debt and to budgeting, and this month I've got three Sunday lunches booked. I can't get out of today's which is the most expensive of the 3 ... might try and get out of at least one of the other two . Paying £18 for a plate of food will pain me. I'm going to try and rake that money back through ebay selling and surveys etc this coming week.

Back later. Thanks again.

enthusiasticsaver

Welcome to  the diary forum and you have lots in your favour, being mortgage free is one and having a pension another in addition to state pension. 

Spending money on meals  out is a tricky one especially if you live alone and crave some company and a bit of a social life.  

I would address the lack of emergency savings first so as you presumably default on the CCs save as much as possible.  What is happening with the PCP deal for the car?  Are you continuing to pay it for now and getting out of it as soon as you have saved enough for the runaround or are you handing it back? 

Onebrokelady

Yay found your dairy and have subscribed. I would say if you are likely to spend to cheer yourself up the you need to set aside an amount to enable you to treat yourself otherwise it will become a slog and unsustainable in the long run. Also as you live on your own I don't think it's unreasonable to go out for a meal to socialise. We all need that social interaction and yes there are cheap ways of getting it but try to incorporate a social fund into your budget if you can. 
If you carry on reading my diary you will see I'm still not always making wise decisions even now 🙄 I am in no way as bad as I was but I am still a very big work in progress. I also used to beat myself up about some of the stupid things I've done that have got me into my situation but I try really hard not to do that now because it won't change anything and just makes me feel bad. 

From reading your story so far I think you will do really well with getting out of debt so good luck x

lillypoo

@foxgloves

Thanks for your post.

I was born in 62.

My mum and dad had next to nothing and certainly never had anything on  credit! I wish i had learnt their budgeting skills ... but when I got a job the banks made loans and credit cards stupidly easy.  But hey ho that's a long way in the past now and I do believe I've learnt a lesson even if it has taken me 40 years haha

I've been trying in earnest to get my debt down abd pay my CCs off the traditional way for years ...when I think of yhe interest I've paid its realky disturbing.

I think I've changed a lot though. I used to spend hundreds on skin creams, clothes, going out.  Now I'm happier at home in my p**mark jimjams watching tele with the dogs.

Thanks for your words if encouragement 

lillypoo

enthusiasticsaver said:

Welcome to  the diary forum and you have lots in your favour, being mortgage free is one and having a pension another in addition to state pension. 

Spending money on meals  out is a tricky one especially if you live alone and crave some company and a bit of a social life.  

I would address the lack of emergency savings first so as you presumably default on the CCs save as much as possible.  What is happening with the PCP deal for the car?  Are you continuing to pay it for now and getting out of it as soon as you have saved enough for the runaround or are you handing it back? 

Hi

To be honest ...the meal out I've just had was not as good as one I could have cooked myself. I went because it was a colleague I liked a lots leaving do. It was enough to last me a few years ...enjoyed the social aspect but could have as good a laugh at the chip shop lol .

Haven't  decided about the car yet. I'm working tomorrow as I was offered the extra shift on bank holiday pay. On Tuesday I'll put my SOA ( revised and corrected) on the main dfwb page and see what feedback I get. Then plan from there.
I'm paying my credit cards this month. Cancelling direct debits as they're paid. Then my next income will go into my new account and off I go ....

Thanks for your welcome x

lillypoo

Onebrokelady said:

Yay found your dairy and have subscribed. I would say if you are likely to spend to cheer yourself up the you need to set aside an amount to enable you to treat yourself otherwise it will become a slog and unsustainable in the long run. Also as you live on your own I don't think it's unreasonable to go out for a meal to socialise. We all need that social interaction and yes there are cheap ways of getting it but try to incorporate a social fund into your budget if you can. 
If you carry on reading my diary you will see I'm still not always making wise decisions even now 🙄 I am in no way as bad as I was but I am still a very big work in progress. I also used to beat myself up about some of the stupid things I've done that have got me into my situation but I try really hard not to do that now because it won't change anything and just makes me feel bad. 

From reading your story so far I think you will do really well with getting out of debt so good luck x

Hi

My soa as advised and adjusted by step change (online only,) has quite a lot of leeway in it I feel. It's certainly more generous than I have been with myself of late. So I think there's enough fir the odd social treat included but I'll get feedback hopefully later in the week.

I'm making a cuppa now them settling down to read some more of your diary. How do I subscribe?