Stop hoarding and pay off debt 2024

Nervous1234

£14,889.96 is how much debt I have (excluding mortgage for my dream home). Its all in the one loan now and set up to pay off in 12 months. My target is to do it in 9 months. I earn a really good salary and the loan I originally took out in 2021 was £14,000 but I kept moving the loan and asking for a bit on top. That has to stop, this is now it. I expected to have paid off the original loan in 2022 but my husband was then out of work for 2 years so it didn’t go to plan. He is now back working and whilst I still do pay the majority of the bills, that’s fine as my salary is a lot higher than his. My main problems are I’m a chocoholic and the Tesco Whoosh delivery service is just too easy and I like to hoard cleaning supplies, toilet roll and toiletries like shampoo conditioner toothpaste and body wash. I currently have 25 bottles of shampoo and conditioner, 29 bottles of antibacterial spray, 4 big bags of laundry tablets and 103 toilet rolls. I have started this diary so that when I’m tempted to buy even more items or get a whoosh delivery I stop and think. It’s time to hold myself accountable and get this debt paid off. Thank you ☺️ 

CMD79

Hi Nervous. I'm sure a lot of us will relate to this. Left to my own devices, I would 100% have a similar stock of things I am never going to use up! I do have quite a lot of certain things, which I'm working on, and some things I didn't realise I had a lot of too. 

Something I found useful was to try to calculate how long it takes me to use something up. I have thick coarse hair, and wash my hair only twice a week, so the dozen bottles of shampoo I once had and would buy more of whenever I saw it on offer, went up in numbers rather than down and yet I couldn't afford to make my minimum debt repayments, let alone go out for a meal with friends. It takes me about 3 - 4 months to use a bottle of shampoo, so would only ever need 3-4 bottles per year. Having 12 'in-stock' was ridiculous. I now just have the next one in hand. And, really funny thing was, I think in my head, spotting the offers and stocking up, I think I thought made me savvy....

The issues my littles ways, when I reflect back now, caused were massive. Stuff everywhere, husband always an Ar%$^$£ because he hated stuff everywhere, no money for even the essentials because I couldn't stop buying when I was getting a deal I couldn't look past, and I felt completely overwhelmed by the piles of stuff, losing track of stuff and buying more stuff, and being in debt. Oh and the devastation at realising something I'd been stocking piling was no longer useable for whatever reason! That was tragic.

Good luck with it. I hope you manage to sort it.

CMD

Nervous1234

CMD79 said:

Hi Nervous. I'm sure a lot of us will relate to this. Left to my own devices, I would 100% have a similar stock of things I am never going to use up! I do have quite a lot of certain things, which I'm working on, and some things I didn't realise I had a lot of too. 

Something I found useful was to try to calculate how long it takes me to use something up. I have thick coarse hair, and wash my hair only twice a week, so the dozen bottles of shampoo I once had and would buy more of whenever I saw it on offer, went up in numbers rather than down and yet I couldn't afford to make my minimum debt repayments, let alone go out for a meal with friends. It takes me about 3 - 4 months to use a bottle of shampoo, so would only ever need 3-4 bottles per year. Having 12 'in-stock' was ridiculous. I now just have the next one in hand. And, really funny thing was, I think in my head, spotting the offers and stocking up, I think I thought made me savvy....

The issues my littles ways, when I reflect back now, caused were massive. Stuff everywhere, husband always an Ar%$^$£ because he hated stuff everywhere, no money for even the essentials because I couldn't stop buying when I was getting a deal I couldn't look past, and I felt completely overwhelmed by the piles of stuff, losing track of stuff and buying more stuff, and being in debt. Oh and the devastation at realising something I'd been stocking piling was no longer useable for whatever reason! That was tragic.

Good luck with it. I hope you manage to sort it.

CMD

Thank you CMD, I really do appreciate the support and good to know I’m not alone x 

CMD79

You are definitely not alone. I'm sure whatever anyone struggles with, someone else will be here that struggles in a similar way. Just after commenting, my job for the afternoon was to empty a box that had been moved from one storage place to another for the last 16 years...possibly longer. I found 5 x litre bottles of Woollite washing detergent. I don't think I once used any, and yet.... I've put it into the cupboard!  I'll think about that one over the next few weeks.

Thinking more on your main issue, the debt, have you thought about joining perhaps the Grocery Challenge from the Old Style boards? I only joined in December, but it's a very supportive group and it is definitely making me think about each and every shop. There are people there with budgets of £500 a month, and others with budgets of £100 a month, so there's all sorts. I have consistently managed to keep my groceries in the region of £40-£50 a month for quite a while, and the thing that I'm doing differently, is not stocking up, but buying just what I need. I do alternate between the offers of course, so one week I'll get coffee, the next I'll get juice sort of thing. But only ever a month's worth at a time.

Nervous1234

15th January already and glad to report I haven’t spent any money apart from sending off some debt repayments since the 9th January. I still have money in the bank but realistically I don’t have any spare cash if I want to pay annually for the home insurance which is due on the 25th January. However I don’t need to buy anything this week. Working away most of the week and whilst I don’t get lunches paid for I’m planning to take a box of cereal with me to eat for lunch (work pay for milk). Feeling really positive that I can pay off the debt with the last payment on September pay day so 4 months in advance 😊

Nervous1234

CMD79 said:

You are definitely not alone. I'm sure whatever anyone struggles with, someone else will be here that struggles in a similar way. Just after commenting, my job for the afternoon was to empty a box that had been moved from one storage place to another for the last 16 years...possibly longer. I found 5 x litre bottles of Woollite washing detergent. I don't think I once used any, and yet.... I've put it into the cupboard!  I'll think about that one over the next few weeks.

Thinking more on your main issue, the debt, have you thought about joining perhaps the Grocery Challenge from the Old Style boards? I only joined in December, but it's a very supportive group and it is definitely making me think about each and every shop. There are people there with budgets of £500 a month, and others with budgets of £100 a month, so there's all sorts. I have consistently managed to keep my groceries in the region of £40-£50 a month for quite a while, and the thing that I'm doing differently, is not stocking up, but buying just what I need. I do alternate between the offers of course, so one week I'll get coffee, the next I'll get juice sort of thing. But only ever a month's worth at a time.

Thank you ☺️ hadn’t seen the grocery challenges will take a look 👀 x 

liselle

Yes, as others have said, buying too much of one thing can be a BIG mistake.A friend who bought 100 bars of soap(all piled up on the bathroom floor) came heartily unstuck when anti-bacterial liquid soap pump dispensers came in.Her family refused to use bars of soap.

_Dolly_Rocker_

Another cleaning product and toiletry hoarder here!

Honestly it's beyond ridiculous the stuff I've got so we can support each other through this. 

enthusiasticsaver

I have spent the last few weeks since Christmas shopping from home so that may help you. Everytime you  shop online at Tesco check your stores first to make sure you do not have something suitable already.  You really only need one spare item of things you use regularly. 

Nervous1234

It’s been a strange week this week, been working away all week and just on my way home now. Work pay for everything but my lunches so I tend to take cereal and just have that for lunch. I also bought biscuits for the team so in total have spent £8.85. I walked around the shopping centre and did 8,000 steps and didn’t spend anything so go me 😊

_Dolly_Rocker_

Yay to you for that!