Paranoid's Debt Free-Wannabe Diary!

Paranoid124

Hi, well I've decided I need something to make me realise how rubbish I am with my finances, and having admired from afar the many diaries on these forums, I thought it high time to start my own!

I'm 24, living in London and embarrassingly I am very well paid for my age (in my own opionion). In reality I really shouldn't be in the position that I am...but it just proves how bad I am with money management!

Up until recently I had two loans which I decided to move onto my Credit Card as it offered a 6% APR for the first 6 months and therefore worked out better compared to the monthly payments I was previously making.

I also bought a flat last year with my brother. I don't live there but we have rented out one of the rooms and therefore I see the mortgage payments as more of an investment than a hindrance and it is within my budget - eventually I'd like to be in the position to make significant overpayments and reduce the term of the mortgage.

The biggest expense is probably my London rent! For personal and professional reasons I decided to rent my own 1-bed place, and therefore have decided the cost is worth it, however it is a serious amount. My contract is due to run out this summer and I am definitely going to move to another flat lower on the rent ladder!

I'm expecting/hoping/wishing for both a promotion with payrise in the very near future, and also a transfer up north - both of which will help reduce costs and increase earnings - I hope to have this confirmed within the next month.

Finally my interest free overdrafts I intend to make full use of until my CC is paid off (ETC August 2008), then I will quickly pay them off as well.

My SOA:

Income:
My wages: £1974.00
Rent: £150

Total = £2124.00


Outgoings:
Mortgage £303.00
Council Tax £78.00
Rent £785
Building Ins £8.24
Life Ins £11.70
Income Protection £8.17
TV License £22.58
Telephone & Internet £16.00
Mobile £42
CC Repayment £250
Food £100.00
Pocket Budget £200

Total = £1824.69


Debts:
Lloyds CC £4927.70 (6.2%APR for next 6 months)
BoS OD £600 (0%)
Alliance OD £307.40 (0%)
Lloyds OD £1485.94 (0%)

Total = £7321.04

I call on everyone's kind help to critique the above, suggest methods of saving even more money and getting that CC paid off...in return I promise to post new entries as regularly as possible detailing every single transaction I make (get ready for alot of working lunch costs!).
Thanks everyone, looking forward to the months ahead!!

millionaire_in_training

Good luck Paranoid. As you have said OMG @ rent. Mobile is quite expensive too. Looks to me like you have about £200 left per month for overpayments so main advice is to make sure thats what it gets spent on.

Paranoid124

Yeah thanks Millionaire!

I've got a T-Mobile contract on £35 a month and then mobile internet on top of that at £7.50 a month. Need to sit down and properly work out how much of the contract I use up, but I am quite a texter if I'm honest!

As for the mobile internet, since getting it I've found it priceless when lost in London!!

Action #1 - Check out actual need for £35 mobile contract!

Thanks :T

Paranoid124

Right, its midday on my first day towards a debt-free haven...

So far I've managed to get myself a free cup of coffee thanks to a recycling effort in the office, and I've spent £3.15 on lunch (need to start looking into packed lunches I think!)

Paranoid124

First shopping bill of the week, but most importantly I've bought up a load of lunch ingredients to save on the work canteen! I've worked out alongside using the freebee coffees at work I will save £3.00 a day...:D


Just got to get into the habit of making my lunches each night...despite getting home typically around 9pm :eek:

millionaire_in_training

It all takes time. Small steps and you will get there

Paranoid124

Well its past midnight...yet to make my sandwiches, but on the plus side I made £15 in the bingo out of the free money they gave me...will be going straight into my CC!

...now about that lunch!

Paranoid124

Todays Total Spending - £7.00
Lunch - £2.50
Magazine + Salad - £4.50

Actions Taken:
Researched net for substitute magazines to use in future

Stopped buying coffee at work, and making better use of the free stuff!

...defrosting ham for lunches (somehow found it in the freezer when I went to make my packed lunch for tomorrow!!?!)


Tried to register for a few more bingo sites, but not much success...used up all my free credit on foxy without a single win, and then when registering for another got no free credit whatsoever - think they're onto me!

Paranoid124

Ah well...another week down.

Don't think I've done too badly this week. Still some excess spending that I need to eliminate, but at least I've moved off of the canteen coffees and onto the free stuff!

The ham is now defrosted so roll on Monday! lol!

Also sold a book on GreenMetropolis, so thats another £3 (even 'borrowed' the envelope from work!).

Next task I think is to put up a heap of my junk onto ebay and see what I can get for it, does anyone know when the next cheap listings day will be?

Paranoid124

So I've been thinking of ways to cut down on my daily spending.

My biggest problem is I always end up going to the shops "for something to do". As I've already mentioned, my job keeps me out of mischief 18 hours of the day so its when I get to the weekends that keeping myself busy becomes a problem!

I've already instigated a few schemes at work to cut down on daily spend - I don't buy coffees at the canteen, and the ham is suitably defrosted now that I can start making sandwiches for lunches.

Having read a few other threads here though, I think my next move is to start recording on here my daily spends as well as designate some no-spend days!

So, I hereby commit to not spending a penny on the following days of the week:
Monday
Wednesday
Thursday


As for spending made today:
Food Shop for the week - £15.82


Wish me luck this week as I find out about promotions and my performance-related pay rise on Tuesday, fingers crossed I'll be getting a few more pennies a month!!!

Buzzbox

Paranoid, as a fellow Londoner, I can suggest a few things. Your rent is quite expensive, are you living alone? If so, then move into a studio flat. Managed to push my rent down to £550 a month or you could do the whole houseshare thing for a few months, that will drastically bring down your expenses.

I normally grab the three newspapers they hand out daily instead of magazines, save s a bundle. Good luck with the debts... it sucks, I know!