Am I falling off the wagon?

Dinah93

Can someone knock some sense into me please? I've been trying to be so good recently (maybe too good, maybe that's why this happened) and have spent nothing on myself except £1 a week on chocolate and a badminton court at the local leisure centre once a week since the first week of january when I had my LBM. However yesterday and today I seem to have slipped back into my old patterns. Last night I spent £75 on ebay on a filing cabinet, suspension files and clear boxes for my shoes to try and organise some of my clutter. Today for the first time in about two months I forgot to bring a homemade lunch with me so hey presto, I have to go to the shops, and I'm going anyway as I need a new pair of glasses, which will be about £90 (money saving in the long run as it will stop me wearing 70p daily disposable lenses every single day, and I get 60% of the costs back from work). I also got ANOTHER alliance & Leicester overdraft charge of a lovely £75 this morning for going £4 over (which i wouldnt have done if they hadnt charged me £25 when I was only expecting my £10.90 contents insurance to come out) so that's £75 I can't expect to put towards paying off the debts. I'm beginning to question whether my interest 'free' account with them is worth it, as we've had over £260 of OD charges in 6 months for under £40 of unauthorised OD payments). But that's a discussion for another day!

I have about £600 a month spare after food/rent/bills, which I've been trying to entirely throw at my debts to clear them before the end of the year. I've made an extra £274 this month doing the bingo thing, and have signed up for a few MS companies and have been doing the surveys as they arrive in my inbox from 5 companies. I also did my ebay purchases through quidco (so clearly hadn't totally lost my marbles). What I want to know is, should I be beating myself up over this, or will one of you do it for me, or should I accept maybe I've set myself too strict a budget in only living off money made from selling ebay things when I work 42 hours a week, have a house and OH to take care of, and spend about 15 hours a week exploring new schemes such as MS, bingo, mattched betting etc?

I was really chuffed that my OH (who has no debts as no one will ever give him a credit card, go figure) had finally listened to my ranting and drawn up a budget, set up a direct debit to our joint account, and opened a savings account to set aside a little each month, but now I'm the one letting the side down. He's been really skatty with money as long as i've known him, and he earns a lot less than me, so i've always bailed him out when he's run out of money for the bus to work, and i've paid all the bills and CT, but he's told me if he can find a new job he will start paying his way on these as atm he only earns £400 a month and puts in £250 for rent. I guess this got the little demon on my left shoulder thinking i now didnt have to be so harsh with myself since hopefully soon i will have more money free as he will take over half the CT and some of the bills.

I've never posted a debt diary or SOA on here, I just follow others diaries and didn't want to add to the glut, I'm nowhere near in such a dire situation or have interesting circumstances as others on here. I'm now wondering if maybe this would help me to be good as at this rate i'll just plod along paying £100 a month to the credit card and £200 a month to my grandad and nominal ammounts to others, and be only about £4k better off at the end of the year, rather than the £13k i hope to acheive.

Sorry it's long, but please help before I break loose and spend again!

always_amazed

hey dinah,
not a huge amount of sense I can knock in; you sound like you are doing so well!
The thing to remember is that; yestersday you overspent. I bet you used to do spend like that most days! It's okay to have a 'bad day' etc. If this happens a lot though then maybe your budget is too strict.
I too have fallen well off wagon in past few weeks and posting here is my first step to gettting back on. Thanks a million for your post and it's made me realise I'm not alone
xxx

LandyAndy

Dinah93 wrote: »

. I'm beginning to question whether my interest 'free' account with them is worth it, as we've had over £260 of OD charges in 6 months for under £40 of unauthorised OD payments). But that's a discussion for another day!

I have about £600 a month spare after food/rent/bills, which I've been trying to entirely throw at my debts to clear them before the end of the year.

Looks like the first place to put your £600 is in your current account to stop these charges.

I have a spreadsheet (yes sad I know) that gives me complete cash flow projection, week by week for the next year (doubly sad). That way I can identify low points in my bank balance that are coming up and ensure that money I use to pay off debts this month doesn't lead to trouble in two or three months time. It takes a bit of time to set up (a few hours to make sure everything is in) and about an hour a week to maintain and check off against statements but it has been a vital tool for me to understand where our money goes and when. It also makes you recognise everything you spend and think about its impact 'down the line'

Good Luck.
LandyA

kizzykizzywizzy

Hi there,
Yes you are being a bit too strict!! as I am at the moment too:p
It just depends whether you can stick to it or not, I'm really living on peanuts, just to get rid asap, I haven't had a splurge for a while Xmas was probably the last time with the pressy buying.
I will probably be having a bit of a splurge this weekend, as hubby works away & he'll be home & then back to scrimping:rolleyes: as long as you can get back on track & not just think "I've blown it" you will be fine:D

SarahNeedle1872

Dinah.... its sounds like u are being a bit strict on yourself! We all fall of the wagon at some point, I think its part of the learning curve!
As u have £600 spare each month, I agree with LandyAndy, get ome of that cash into ur acc to stop the charges..... and why not allow yourself an allowance for treats, only needs to be £10/£20 a week, and that might stop u from splurging..... if u want something expensive then save up a few weeks 'treats' money.....
Re the glasses, as u said, look at them as an investment, as u'll be saving money in the long run.... Do u have to go to a specific Optician? Or can u go to somewhere like Specsavers where u can get two pairs of glasses for the price of one (if they still have that offer)....
You are doing really well, so try not o beat yourself up too much (now if only I would take some of my own advice!)

HairyHandofDartmoor

I agree with other posters that you are being a bit too strict in your spending. Why not allow yourself a portion of that £600 for a few treats. Hopefully that will quell the spending demon.

I too fell off the wagon over the christmas period (and much more spectacularly than you!) and as a result the debts have gone up a bit. I'm pretty annoyed with myself, however maybe like you I was being too strict.

I am fully back on board now and posting/reading this forum really helps me to stop spending.

I think a daily visit here and a small budget for treats could be the answer for you, to keep you on the straight and narrow.

Dinah93

Thanks guys that makes me feel better. At the end of the day I'm also consoling myself that I didn't fritter it on dvds or (my true weakness) books, but on a filing cabinet and files for actually organising my paperwork so I can better account for where my money is and I don't just stick letters in the coffee table drawers and forget about them. And once I have it all set up, I can actually physically write down a budget as opposed to just saying 'all spending is bad if it isn't to keep a roof over your head, your house warm and lit, or to get fruit and veg'.

Specsavers is where I am going so at least I did something right! :rotfl:Didn't order them today as there is a pair in their magazine I really like but they didn't have them in store to try on, so they're getting some ordered for display purposes that I can see if I like. Did see 3 other pairs I thought looked decent though, decisions decisions!

I keep trying to put extra into the joint account with A & L, but if it goes in there it just seems to vanish. Once my OH finds a full time job we're going to make a concerted effort to pay it off together. We're also having an ebay weekend, finding stuff we can sell to gain a few more pennies. I sense that a lot of the things being 'stored' under the spare bed are completely unnecessary and will be looking for a new home very shortly!

I'm so glad I found all you guys over here on DFW, everyone is so nice and supportive and really keeps me going. Spend a few hours a day on here reading people's diaries and stories, and ways of upping your income. Log on to the housing board every few days too, see if there is anyone who needs planning advice I might be able to help, I don't know much about money, but I do know UK planning regs!

Adrasteia01

The filing cabinet sounds like just what you need to organise all of your papers and documents so you can find them easily.

I tend to have a habit of spending money to organise things for saving money though, if you know what I mean. As in, a set of nice new binders and expanding files for bills, new stapler, misc. stationery, and the other day I almost bought a new porcelain money box for saving money in etc. Before I bought it I decided I'd be better putting the money in my old money box than buying a new one. I've started a 'spending money pig' as I'm going away to Australia in June to visit family so want to save some money before I go.

A filing cabinet is perfectly reasonable, as you're going to have papers no matter what. However, I just found I was spending a lot of money on shelves, shoe racks, folders, cd racks, cosmetic bags, clothes storage bags, etc just to hold loads of stuff I'd accumulated. So when it comes to buying stuff it's not just the stuff that costs you money, but the furniture or means to store it away so it looks tidy.

BTW I mean no offense by comparing the two, but it's SO easy to do, really when people in general have loads of stuff.

Dinah93

No offense taken, I'm just a compulsive organiser. My OH nearly died the week I came home with a label maker!

Adrasteia01

lol. I remember when I got one of those as a kid. Anything that could be labelled was. Including the mouse cage.

Candy0107

OMG

I thought I was the only one who liked organising things. My hubby wonders around Game, my mum mooches around M&S, I am in awe in Staples!!!:rotfl:

Call me odd, but I love spending time in there. Last Saturday, hubby was at the pub watching the football, I took myself to Staples and PC world looking for software to log my mystery shopping expenses/income etc. I have since decided to use a free spreadsheet.