Debt busting ideas. Track your "didn't spend", not just your spends.

Sea_Shell

I mentioned this on another thread earlier, and a couple of people seemed to like the idea, so I thought I'd post a general thread on my idea, and hope that it can help people bust their debt.

As well as keeping a spending diary, to track every penny...also keep a "didn't spend" diary.

So, every time you stop and think and decide NOT to buy something, you also make a note.

Then every couple of weeks, you try and identify, say, 10 things that you DIDN'T buy or spend on, and then reflect on how you feel about having saved that money and not bought the thing.

Hopefully it will make spending more of a conscious decision rather than an "auto-pilot" sub-conscious one, and you can see the benefit in having not bought something, that you might of otherwise done.


Feel free to post about your "no spend" successes.

EssexHebridean

This works for all sorts of things too - not just traditional debt busting. And it can be converted to actual hard cash rather than just a diary too. Trying to overpay your mortgage? Or save for a much wanted item? Start a savings account and each time you haggle a bill down, pay the difference in the monthly amount to the savings. Then set up a monthly standing order for the saved amount in to that savings account. Haggle another bill? Add that monthly saving to the standing order too.  Decide against that cheeky takeaway you’ve been planning? Yep, you’ve got it - there’s another £15 or whatever to head across to that account for the “money you never knew you had in the first place”. If you pay the council tax or your water rates over 10 months, definitely don’t miss out on those TWO months worth of “free money” to add in, either. Better in savings than unnoticed in your current account at risk of being frittered. 

We made a big impact on paying off our first mortgage with this technique - and carried on with the “money we didn’t know we had” account once the mortgage was gone too - for the last few years it has funded some extra holidays we would not have had otherwise. Now, with a new mortgage, and a completely rejigged household budget, we’re starting again from the ground up building our “money we didn’t know we had” - the energy DD has been dropped by £5 a month from this month, so that’s being added on to the Standing Order! 

Great work Shell starting a thread for this idea. It would be really good to hear if anyone else uses this idea or similar already! 

Crazycatlady2

Well I'm trying to talk hubby into a new kitchen this year so maybe I should keep a list of what I don't buy so I can show him what I saved towards kitchen 😅 yesterday I was looking at handheld hoover and multi cooker 

VioletNewStart

@EssexHebridean this is SUCH a great idea. I’m at the start of my debt pay off journey. I’ve tried a couple of times before but drifted back into overspending. But I’m now determined to sort the situation and clear my debt. I’ve been reading through threads on this forum for motivation. I love your idea of keeping a track of
‘things nearly but not bought.’ I’m going to start this today! 

EssexHebridean

VioletNewStart said:

@EssexHebridean this is SUCH a great idea. I’m at the start of my debt pay off journey. I’ve tried a couple of times before but drifted back into overspending. But I’m now determined to sort the situation and clear my debt. I’ve been reading through threads on this forum for motivation. I love your idea of keeping a track of
‘things nearly but not bought.’ I’m going to start this today! 

It was @Sea_Shell with the tracking of things not bought! We’ve sort of taken it a step further and gone to actually moving the money for the things we’ve not bought into savings and then the mortgage, but we never did the actively tracking bit in the first place - and now I am wishing we had! 😂

redlaces

When I was debt busting I did this, but rather than write it down I would pay half the amount saved off a debt. In my head it was a win-win, yes I"d still spent some money, but not all, and I was still left with more in my spending budget than if I'd caved to the urge.

Sumof999

thanks @Sea_Shell and @EssexHebridean I've been doing this for the last few days and with the money I have 'saved' I have made an extra debt payment.  I nearly brought 2 x plants @£8.99 each, a clothes steamer @ £12.99 (lidl bargain but I don't need it) and some new leggings £9.99 that I sort of need but didn't have the money in my clothes budget this month - thanks both this is really great advice I love it. I won't able to always use the money towards debt but just having that awareness is keeping me more focused.

EssexHebridean

It definitely works doesn't it @redlaces !

@Mickeymacca - that's great savings there. It's good for focusing the mind isn't it! And no - you don't need to always be able to pay it towards a debt I don't think - just that increase in awareness and it helping you to stop and think is enough benefit isn't it. And when you can transfer some to debt, well, even better! 

laura_lau

I think this is a great idea! I like the 2 levels too - level 1: note it down, and note how much you haven't spent or have saved from haggling bills - level 2: use the money saved to repay debt, or add it to your savings.

I'll try with level 1, and wherever possible I'll move to level 2.

SuzeQStan

i like this idea - getting closer to retirement so have been thinking (panicking) about savings/pensions and what retirement will look like and whether we can afford it.

so I’m not completely sure this strictly applies to this thread but we paid off our mortgage this month so every penny of that monthly mortgage payment will now go to pensions as of Feb 2024.

We won’t miss it as we’ve always made the mort payment for decades and the best bit is that the pension overpayment comes out pre tax so this money paid to pensions will be a greater
amount as it is untaxed. 

So am really pleased the money won’t be frittered away as it is so easy to do that

EssexHebridean

Oh Suze well done - isn’t that a great feeling! Having paid our first one off in 2016, I’m now working away at getting the new one gone ASAP too - we took it out for a 16 year term but I’m having none of that! 

Good for you for paying it straight to your pensions, too!